Mental health group

examines state problems
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Attendees were served up a bowl of “alphabet soup” at Monday night’s meeting of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The alphabetical reference was due to the many acronyms floating around the world of mental health treatment, a field that is often confusing, contradictory or complicated, but is offering new hope for positive changes.

Gail Hawkinson read a newspaper editorial that described the field as “not broken, but extremely bent.”

Hawkinson, director of New River Behavioral Healthcare, said Broughton Hospital in Morganton lost its ability to get federal funds because of overcrowding. She said Broughton was built long ago and the state psychiatric hospital had not expanded to meet increased population and increased cases of mental illness, though the level of staff training was among the best in the country. “Therefore, we need more beds, not less,” she said, adding the theory was that community hospitals would pick up the slack.

“If indeed we could open up community hospitals again, that would allow our crisis services to go there and help instead of spending so much energy trying to find beds (for patients),” she said.

She described the complications of patients, family members, a legal system “doing its job” and a state hospital whose beds were under threat of elimination. She spoke of the role of family support, especially for patients experiencing psychoses who might not be aware of their actions or behaviors.

Hawkinson said because there are no beds, the documentation is not always clear-cut for the admissions process. She said potential patients might be angry because they feel jerked around by the system. “You have to pass a very strict bar before you get into a state hospital,” she said, with the limited beds often reserved for people who are the most dangerous to themselves or others.

“We know people do better when they’re in the community,” she said. “It will remove some of the stigma. Your friends and family and support systems can be around you and it doesn’t have to be so traumatic.”

Hawkinson then began dishing out letters: the person-centered plan (PCP), psychiatric advance directives (PAD), Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) and Recovering Education Center (REC).

Person-centered plans “pretty much put everything on its head” when they came in a couple of years ago during mental health reform. She said Medicaid provided the simplest coverage, but said there wasn’t enough state money to provide care for all patients, and the merging of New River Behavioral Healthcare with Smoky Mountain Center created a larger pot of money for services.

Recovery education centers are an emerging model based on more patient responsibility and peer support, with the patient being considered a “student” who attends classes and learns group support and family support.

The goal is to get patients more involved in their treatment and form a partnership with care providers. “The idea that the student can learn the skills needed to reconnect with themselves and the community they live will be upheld when designing the classes the students will attend,” Hawkinson said, noting the proposal is just becoming public.

Hawkinson touched on the idea of cures and “the best you can be,” saying there’s a notion that those with mental illness will always have it. She said giving students a “toolbox for recovery” would be the cornerstone of the program, with each patient helping develop an action plan for recovery. “You will have a role in your treatment and a relationship with your care providers that you haven’t had before,” she said.

Person-centered plans are compiled by clinicians and staff to make sure the patient’s individual needs are met. That gives more personal control to the patient and family members. Psychiatric advance directives are developed by patients who outline their wishes and goals, though Hawkinson noted not all of those would be realistic.

While not all doctors will consider it and make their own decisions, Hawkinson said, “This is the way we start.”

About NAMI
What is NAMI?
NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families. Founded in 1979, NAMI has become the nation’s voice on mental illness, a national organization including NAMI organizations in every state and in over 1100 local communities across the country who join together to meet the NAMI mission through advocacy, research, support, and education.

What is the NAMI mission?
NAMI is dedicated to the eradication of mental illnesses and to the improvement of the quality of life of all whose lives are affected by these diseases.

What does NAMI do?
NAMI members, leaders, and friends work across all levels to meet a shared NAMI mission of support, education, advocacy, and research for people living with mental illness through various activities, including:
Public Education and
Information Activities
• www.nami.org ~ NAMI’s website receives over 5.4 million visitors a year who turn to NAMI for information, referral, and education;
• 800.950.6264 ~ NAMI’s toll-free HelpLine serves over 4,000 callers a month and is staffed by a dedicated team of volunteer associates, as well as state and affiliate HelpLines in communities across the country;
• Public awareness activities such as Mental Illness Awareness Week, held during the first week of each October, helps dispel the stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage early intervention and treatment.
• In Our Own Voice – Available in selected communities across the country, this educational speakers bureau is presented by trained consumers living with mental illness to groups from all aspects of the community and both educates the public and supports consumer recovery and empowerment while dispelling the stigma of mental illness.
Source: www.nami.org