advocacy efforts

In regards to my post about the mental health care cuts in the area where I live, and the letters I sent out about that, I have some news. Bob Barrios, who works for Governor Charlie Crist, in the Department of Health and Human Services, I believe, responded with a personalized letter that exhibited evidence someone had actually read what I wrote to the governor. He basically said, yes, we care about mental health, but the budget had to be cut and our hands are tied. I did, however, get discouraged by this response. As you may know, most emails sent to politicians and government officials are responded to only with form letters that go out automatically to say, "yes, we got your letter", and show no proof that your letter was ever read by anyone.

Also, I got an individualized response from the Chairman of the Pinellas County Commission. He, and all the other commissioners, had received a lengthy letter from me. Last night, I went to a NAMI meeting (National Alliance on Mental Illness), as I am a member of NAMI and on occasion I go to meetings. I mentioned to everyone there that this man, Bob Barrios, might like to hear from them, and encouraged them to write letters themselves. Elliot Steele, who founded Vincent House - a well-known clubhouse for people with mental illnesses, along with his wife, after their daughter developed Schizophrenia, was at the meeting. I spoke with him and learned that Bob Barrios has been of assistance in getting State money to fund clubhouses like Vincent House, or at least, in attempting to do so. This encouraged me a great deal. A former professor of mine who I talk to frequently suggested that I call the governor's office and speak to Bob about the closing of the long-term rehabilitation facility in Pinellas County (which was known as "short-term rehab treatment" although, in comparison to other facilities it was long-term). So I plan on doing that next week. I will keep you posted about the results.

I am a firm believer in using one's voice, and I think, perhaps, if more people with psychiatric conditions spoke up as loudly and as frequently as people with medical illnesses that are not psychiatric in nature, we would not have as much stigma and discrimination in this world as we do right now. Last spring I took a peer-to-peer advocacy training course at NAMI, and I plan on getting more involved with the NAMI Consumer Council and the training of police officers in crisis intervention in the future, so I spoke with people at the meeting about those efforts last night. It feels empowering to say, "hello, we have a problem here..." sometimes, when you know that there is such obvious evidence of a problem, you have experienced the problem, and you have seen the effects of the problem on dozens of people, but you haven't heard anyone talking about it. An article in the NAMI newsletter this month, by Donald Turnbaugh, described the absence of public outcry when the SRT program closed as ludicrous; he compared it to what would be likely to happen if a unit for cancer patients to receive treatment was closed, and there was no other place in the area for them to go, and the likely outcry that would result in that situation. I think this is an excellent analogy. Of course, people are not ashamed to admit they have cancer, or demand that there be treatment for cancer. People with mental illnesses, including myself, are often ashamed or rightly afraid to let others know about their condition or to speak out about it in any kind of public way. This shame results in silence, and as Audre Lorde said, "your silence will not protect you".

Even though I can say all this, when I wrote the letter to the St. Pete Times about the closing of SRT, that I wrote a few weeks ago, I was afraid to put my last name on it, in case it was published. The reason for that is I have already lived through the results of people at a workplace learning that I had Schizophrenia, and that was not a pleasant experience or one which I wish to relive at my current place of employment. Someday, perhaps people will be able to speak out without fear about any experiences they live through, whether it be the shamed life of being gay in a homophobic world, the hated life of an obese person, or the stigma surrounding mental illness. We have come quite a long way from the days when Dorothea Dix demanded the building of state mental hospitals to protect people with mental illnesses from being sent to prisons and alms houses, but we still have quite a way to go.

I have more to write about, and will post again on another topic soon. Thanks for stopping by.