Cutbacks in Mental Health

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				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Cutbacks in Mental Health				November 9, 2002

I used to see the young man frequently, when he and his therapy group would make their bi-weekly visits to the library. He would sit and stare out the window, though what he saw no one knew. Nor did we know what he was thinking, if there were thoughts at all.

He was, and is, a handsome man, possibly in his mid-twenties, who might, in better times, be a boxer, a wrestler or an Olympic athlete. But now he sat mute, and, if he did look at anyone, it was though he were looking through them, focusing on some object that required little visual acuity. In fact, he reminded me of a blind Oedipus, inwardly searching for a non-existent identity.

Then one day, as the group came into the reading room, the young man looked at me and, for the first time, smiled, as though some sense of recognition had occurred. And in succeeding weeks he began to talk, and he told me of the sorry events that brought him to this point.

As it turns out, this marvelous human being was abused when he was younger, and the events so traumatized him that he completely withdrew into himself and, at the same time, fended off the penetration of a hostile world. But now, thanks to the professional psychiatric treatment he received, he’s emerging from all that, and indeed is on the verge of returning to his community and, he hopes, finding himself a job.

Not so, however, with the angry youth behind bars. While his stare is not unlike that of the traumatized young man, his sense of recognition is keen and his anger apparent. He is, in fact, addicted to drugs, and he’ll probably serve his sentence and return to society no better off than he was when he arrived at the regional jail. Chances are that his jailors will see him again shortly.

The world of these two young men is carved out of the recesses of night, a world which most of us never see – or care to see, for that matter. They both are denizens of the dismal realm of mental illness, and, if we have any humanity about us at all, we should care what happens to them.

Thankfully, there are those who do, and who do so on a daily basis. But funds for facilities which deal with mental health are being cut, and cut drastically. For instance, according to a report in the Oct. 25 Gazette, the Colonial Services Board, which provides services for the mentally ill in our area, suffered a $346,000 loss as a result of state cutbacks. Other local institutions and services will be hit with at least a 15% slash in the present round of cuts, and possibly even more in the future.

The result of this may well be that the local jail will be the only institution that many of those with mental problems ever see. In fact, at the present time, 85% of the inmates at our regional jail are there because of problems related to drug and alcohol abuse. But even more shocking is the fact that the recidivism rate for these people is a whopping 65%.

Fortunately, there are at the jail excellent rehabilitative programs for those who wish to end the morose cycle of recidivism. The Therapeutic Community program, which deals with anger management, is one such effort, as is the Relapse Prevention program or the Courage to Change program. Yet all these are fully booked, and the waiting lists are long.

Similarly, at Eastern State Hospital there are programs - though not necessarily related to drug and alcohol abuse - which are specifically designed to return patients to society with the tools necessary for making a meaningful comeback.

One such operation, the New Beginnings Clubhouse, offers patients the possibility of leaving the campus and becoming involved in activities in public arenas, such as libraries, recreational facilities, shopping malls and the like. In addition, as part of the community re-entry process, they can enroll in classes in car maintenance and clerical work, as well as seminars in health, fitness and nutrition. According to Linwood Morris, a psychiatric counselor in the program, they even teach patients how to cook.

From the Clubhouse at Eastern State patients are then sent to local clubhouses, where they can continue to develop their coping skills and eventually return to their own communities.

According to John Favret, the Director at Eastern State, none of his service programs will be affected by the 15% cutback that his institution must sustain. And that is indeed good news. Yet who’s to say what may fall to the axe, as the state continues to hack away at programs that provide essential services to those with special needs?

The plain fact is that we simply cannot afford to lose any of our citizens to the scourge of curable mental illness. As a community which cares about its fellow human beings we must make it clear to the governor and the state legislature that we, their constituents, demand whatever psychiatric expertise it takes to return those less fortunate than we to meaningful and productive lives.