The women in my family have hysterectomies like they’re going out of style. Half of the women on my mom’s side of the family have lived with endometriosis. Epilepsy is pretty often co-morbid with depression, so I feel comfortable saying I am my depression. The greatest gift I’ve given myself is the acceptance that this is who I am. I don’t even really mind if someone tells me their friend tried this or that and it worked for them or, “You’d be surprised how much being positive, or reading ‘The Secret,’ or eating Keto, or Whatever can heal you.” Even if I have to receive that familiar awkward, overly-deep eye contact with a large side of pity whilst being talked at about things I’ve come to terms with and, after all these years, are really no longer a big deal to me, I can kinda hang. Compassion and empathy drive these efforts to make a connection and understand. I don’t think I can listen to one more person say some iteration of the phrase: “Just remember you are not your disease/illness/disorder.”Īsking questions is cool and to be expected. It is because of a single response I get far more often than you’d think. I won’t even casually mention them in passing anymore. These differences that make up a large part of who I am, I’ve recently decided to stop talking about them. Clubhouses are local organizations that allow people living with mental illness to stay in community, rather than be exiled against their will to institutions or worse, jails - and must be expanded to meet the growing demand for services and support.Here’s the thing - and it’s a very huge thing. This ‘clubhouse’ model, first pioneered by Fountain House and now found in more than 200 clubhouses across the country, is the complete opposite approach to how we’ve traditionally addressed mental illness.
Members of Fountain House, both here in the Bronx and in Hell’s Kitchen, have greater access to stable housing, employment and education - as well as lower health-care costs and recidivism rates - than most people struggling with serious mental illness. Community-based mental health care providers, like Fountain House Bronx, have long shown that there exists a cost-effective and culturally competent approach to serving people with serious mental health challenges - a model of mental health care that has delivered life-changing results for decades.
Reimagining mental health care need not be an insurmountable challenge.
0 kommentar(er)
