For a number of years I have heard the term "jail diversion" bandied about. One of those things that would be awesome if it could work out but all too often doesn't work out. All too often people fall through the cracks, can't get where and what they need quickly and then end up in the jail system anyway. 

After a conversation with Jeff Brown (the Director of Oakland County Community Mental Health) yesterday, so today, I was cruising the Oakland County Community Mental Health Site. I clicked on a link that said Jail Diversion then nosed around some more and saw an interesting looking tab that said "Decision Tree."

What I saw helped to see just what kinds of thoughts and options need to happen for an effective Jail Diversion Program. It is a beautiful example of an easy to read flow-chart that means fewer people will be incarcerated and can possibly get treatment to help them. Also one of the most important sections is on the last page. During regular business hours, the police get to take people to the option that is the most convenient for them. 

So often we don't think about making things easy for the police. We just hate them. We want them to undergo more training about how to deal with us. We want them to use tasers. We don't want them to use tasers. Thank you for their being at least one county in America where it is made more easy for them. 

If you think the what to do with us after they get us in their custody doesn't affect what they think, you are kidding yourself. Thanks for setting a standard that is both easy to read, easy to follow, and sensitive to both the needs of the police in your county and sensitive to us. At some point it is my personal belief that it will save a life or two. Or more.

A few years ago, people told me that all the people who went to jail wanted to go there or they wouldn't have done what they did. This was told to me by other people who happen to have a mental illness. It kinda saddened me. It is really easy to just plain dismiss a million and one problems with what is happening in out community mental health systems that way. There should be good enough recovery oriented treatment treatment options that people fell well enough that they don't have to go to jail.

Now, I am not someone who has spent a lot of time in jail. I got treatment because when I stole that car (oops) someone was willing to say; "Marty, you probably were not thinking clearly, would you like to have me find someone who might be able to help?" She was right, I wasn't thinking clearly. Were all the options I was offered good ones? No, but I was offered options that meant I didn't end up with felony charges on my record. That has helped me many times in my life. 

Do I believe in mental health courts? Not really. What I believe in is appropriate options to get people into recovery. I like this Jail Diversion Plan because of it. Thanks for someone really taking the time to look at and decide on the many alternatives and options cause frankly I am getting really tired of people dying by the use of tasers. 

I went to a celebration on and about Recovery from having a mental illness/psychiatric diagnosis yesterday. It was such an awesome experience. People celebrating some of the people who were a reason that others were comfortable talking about and getting into recovery. There were awards in many different areas, but some I found incredibly unique and interesting. 

How about a "First Friendly Face Award"? Remembering back to my first therapist, you had to walk along a wall, around a corner of the building, and after opening the door there was some plexiglass that looked a little like bullet resistant glass. Sometimes the person behind it smiled, sometimes they told me to bring in paperwork, but I never really remember that there was a first friendly face. Unless it was my therapist. Wow, my first paid friend. ;) 

Northern Lakes Community Mental Health didn't look at things that way. I didn't get the feeling that there was a bullet proof glass mentality among the people in the room. 

Or how about the "We Do It Together (Recovery Award)"? I got that with my first and my last therapists, but never really realized just how much that togetherness would have meant if there had been a peer support specialist in my life. That is so true, Michigan Certified Peer Support Specialists, peer support specialists and others do help others find recovery, especially in a "we do it" or a "we can do it" way, but so often that is so overlooked, certainly seldom celebrated. 

Or how about a "Lighting the Way", Recognitions Award? Who lit up your path? For me, especially at first, it was people like Jeff Patton, Bill Allen, Rich Visingardi, Pat Barrie and some other people that I did meetings with. I didn't find a lot of hope for recovery in my community mental health system. They talked a lot about this thing called beans. And they did a lot of counting them. 

They do Pathways to Recovery Classes at this Community Mental Health. Did they do them before I did the presentation at the Recovery Council Meeting? It makes one think when one watches people get a "You Made A Difference" Award or a "Stigma Buster" Award. Sometimes I wonder what have I done that has truly made a lasting direct difference in on person's life.

What can one do in an hour or an hour and a half that truly makes a difference in someone's life? Especially when one may never get to see them again? 

People who went through a Michigan Peer Supports Specialist Leadership Classes, gave and received awards. Thanks so much to all of you for helping change people's lives. I have no idea if some of what was learned and talked about in the leadership classes helped, but to a couple of you who were afraid to come back to the report back day, what you have done would definitely qualify. Call me, we should talk. ;)

Is it a problem or a predicament? 

The late philosopher, Abraham Kaplan felt that there was a difference between problems and predicaments.

To philosopher Kaplan a problem as something that has a cause, a reason. There is something that went wrong. A problem can be identified, analyzed, and then fixed or solved. 

In the peer support specialist leadership class we talk about problems and problem solving. You are sent home with a list of problem solving questions that can help you define what the problem is, look at a way to solve it, think about what can be done to change things so they might work better. 

We also try to help you see and understand that some problems are things that someone might not want to solve for some reason (finances-it might cost too much, pride-someone might not want to admit they were wrong, people are comfortable with the way things are, etc).  

Philosopher Kaplan felt that there is such a thing as a predicament. He felt the predicament is something that is permanent; something that there is no solution for and therefore no solution is available when something is a predicament. He felt that the best thing you could do was to cope with a predicament. 

Philosopher Kaplan felt that permanent, inescapable, complicated paradoxical dilemmas exist that can’t be solved but only tolerated. The dilemmas can only be coped with. 

If we as peer specialists believe that some of the pie in the sky problems that we try to solve are predicaments, then we may end up not trying to solve it and buying into the systems thoughts on the way things are. Things like:

People on Social Security just try to scam the system. 

The Mentally Ill don’t know what is good for them. 

Medications are the solution to everything.

Therapy doesn’t help people who have schizophrenia.

The Mentally Ill want to be homeless or they would get a house.

When our top leaders believe that these things are not problems, but predicaments that just have to be dealt with they engage in decision making not problem solving. It is all too often felt that it is something that will be with us always and little headway will be made so why throw money at it. 

When I was a member of a community mental health board, the head psychiatrist led the charge to have the board vote on whether or not we should spend community mental health funds on any kind of bricks and mortar. It was a couple of bad meetings for me. I knew that there was nothing that I could change, but I also knew how important housing was. At that point as a community mental health board member it became a predicament for me. 

It was something that was complicated, a horrendous decision that hurt many, many people needlessly. There was a way to change things, but it was not something I could do. This was a predicament caused by system leaders. 

Where I agree with Philosopher Kaplan that there are both problems and predicaments, I think that when as a society, we decide to think that something is a predicament, we find it much easier to not look at. 

It is after all, a predicament, so it can’t be solved. We can therefore not work on it. 

Sometimes all leadership is about is offering chances for people to grow where people can learn or not learn new things. A chance to try new opportunities on for size, just to see if they fit or not. 

Too many times in programs, people are locked into expectations; our own expectations, the expectations from people of the past and the expectations of others.

Some peer support specialists get to go to trainings at Higgins Lake or other places like the St. Francis Retreat Center or the Capuchin Retreat Center. 

There are or can be campfires, non-alcoholic karaoke, games, shared cabins, or if you work at it a bit, there can be some time to be alone and just be. The Peer Retreat at Fort Hill is just that a time to retreat.

Many times, we miss that time to just be in our programs. Whenever change happens the next natural step is to sit still, look around and adjust to the change. Some time to rest. Some time to be. 

We study that part of stress as part of the stress cycle in the Peer Supports Specialist Leadership Training. In many of the programs (and in many lives) there is little time to be. 

We face the trauma of a diagnosis, then are thrown into programs full of groups, learning and activities. We work on this and we work on that. We try to fix this and we try to fix that. Each time we are concerned about the fix and not the person, more problems with self-esteem with less of a chance to see a strengths based perspective of ourselves. 

The paperwork of trying to get any kind of assistance is another trauma. I still remember the lady who got into my face about the collage. She comes into Barnes and Noble and picks another section to sit in. Wonder why? grin.

I often wonder if the expectation is that the people we serve have time to be, even after the day is done and people head home. If home is a group home with a lot of residents and shared bedrooms; or a nursing home with others coming in and out constantly, is it a wonder that so many people we serve end up being and feeling stuck. Few have enough of a chance to just be.

Some people go home to being alone and that is their biggest nightmare. 

This summer having a chance to just be has been on my mind a lot. I have missed having a place to be while the roof on my room has been ripped off and replaced. Time for healing has been at a minimum. A fix for me seems to be non-existent. I feel cranky, on edge and irritable. Kinda like the attitudes we see in many of the people in our programs. 

Wait maybe I need to put on the JIMHO t-shirt again. Regained control over my life and discovered my hope. 

In both life and leadership, it becomes very important to go back to or stay with the basics. Hope, Connections, Control.

On Friday when I went over to the peer supports specialists graduation, the Justice In Mental Health Organization gave me a t-shirt that says (essentially) the same thing as the plaque that was presented at the 30 year celebration of JIMHO said. At the time I thought it was really cool since I had been asking for quote of what the plaque said. I remember hearing and going, “Wow, that is both true and good.” 

Now I am at Barnes and Noble and ready to write a post about what the words on the plaque. The only problem is that the words are on the back of the shirt. Now I can pull my arms inside the sleeves and turn the shirt around so I can read the shirt or I can go into the bathroom and take the shirt off and read it. Wait that is too much trouble, let’s just turn the shirt around while I sit in the dining room.... 

OK, here’s what the shirt says. (You probably don’t believe that I would do that, but hey, once a biker, always a biker ;)

I have reclaimed my sense of self,

Developed connections to others

Regained control over my life

And discovered a sense of hope.

Celebrating 30 years

August 18, 2010    

By the way, does anyone have any still pics of Jean dressed up and of Brian speaking? Hey, thanks ;)

But I digress, what an awesome message and tribute for an organization to have accomplish or ever to have tried to accomplish for 30 years. A shirt that doesn't say the word recovery, but is in itself all about recovery.

I will wear the shirt often and with great pride. Thank You. I am thrilled to have the t-shirt. 

T-shirts with meaningful sayings that are both socially acceptable and in your face are few and far between.  There are some that cause pain and some that are just true and help people to learn without helping them feel frustrated and insecure about what they already know or don’t know. When I teach people about public speaking, one of the things we talk about is that your desire is to cause enough discomfort that your audience wants to grow but not so much pain that they are unable to learn 

Last year or the year before at the Walk-A-Mile Rally in Lansing, I saw another shirt with a meaningful saying on it. On the back it said that “Persons with disabilities have the rigt to pursue their dreams (or something like that, it’s at home right now) On the front of the shirt it said that the person wearing the shirt was a participant. I thought that was an interesting distinction, that the person was an Oakland County Participant,  but wasn’t being owned by the organization that gave them the shirt. 

A lot of people and organizations don’t know the difference. When you give someone a shirt and they receive services from an organization and all the shirt says is the name of the organization (XXXX Community Mental Health), that is a branding of the people wearing that shirt. What worries me is that the people who receive services from that organization really don’t have a chance to say no. 

The services really may not meet their needs, but a staff person walks up to you and says; “here, you are going to the Walk-A Mile Rally; we’ll give you some shirts so  you can all look alike. That will be really cool, won’t it?” So then we have a group of people who are uncomfortable wearing the shirts and also feeling stigmatized cause they are from an organization that doesn’t even understand that the shirts they were given means they are owned. People might not fully realize why that shirt was icky, but they almost always know that it is icky. 

Anyway, back to the shirt I saw at the Walk-A-Mile Rally. I immediately accosted the Oakland County Community Mental Health Director (who was at the Walk-A-Mile Rally) that had given the participants from that county the t-shirt.. “Hey, how can I get one of those shirts?” He pulled one out of a bag and asked me if I would wear it with pride. Hell Yes Jeff, I wear it with pride every day that I can. I still wear it with pride every day that I can. (Actually, Jeff it’s getting faded, can I get another one?).  All people with disabilities should be able to pursue a life of their dreams. Wow.

T-shirts that give hope are special shirts to wear. Funny shirts are OK, but t-shirts’s that give hope and make people smile? I just love to wear them.

 Since the Justice In Mental Health Organization (JIMHO) just celebrated its 30th birthday, great party, by the way; I wanted to dedicate a blog post to the one thing that JIMHO does better than than any other peer organization that I have ever seen and that is to create leaders. 

There are a couple of ways that I see they do this better than any other organization and JIMHO didn’t set out to grow leaders. They set out to show that people who have a serious psychiatric diagnosis or any psychiatric diagnosis deserve to receive not only dignity and respect, but the opportunity to grow. After one gets some dignity and respect if the opportunity to grow in recovery at one’s own desired pace isn’t an option then interestingly enough, not matter how nicely even with the best of intentions, dignity and respect doesn’t exist. 

That little peccadillo is actually why so many programs and even evidence based practices when implemented don’t work well. 

Dignity and Respect are two tough things to accomplish. JIMHO does it better than any other peer organization around. 

But how do they do it? JIMHO does three things that I can see, that help everyone grow into great (not just good) leaders. 

JIMHO sees the strength that everyone has. And they then choose to nurture that strength. JIMHO supports the person in whatever they need to live and grow but they see and work with people’s strengths. They observe people and encourage them to use their strengths and this isn’t in ways that mean the person does things they aren’t really excited about or to the betterment of just JIMHO. Somehow JIMHO sees the way to make it a betterment of the person. That is special. 

JIMHO understands that people need a place to be. In todays world, there are few places that a person with a psychiatric diagnosis can just be. In a group home where one shares a room, it can often be a struggle to just be. In a clubhouse where a work-ordered day is the pervading reason for existence, it can be a struggle to just be. 

JIMHO has an understanding of people’s rights far beyond what is typical in today’s world and chooses to advocate for those rights instead of desiring to protect and keep staff as a primary desire. 

JIMHO actively offers opportunities to grow. I think you can do this. I think you would be wonderful at doing that. Have you thought about trying? What do you feel would be good for you? Where would you feel comfortable working? Would you like to go to school? These are all questions that happen in other places, but all too often they happen once a year, during the person-centered planning meeting. And in too many other places, if the answer is given outside of a planning meeting, the option is, well, maybe next time we should get it on the person-centered plan. 

So congratulations JIMHO on the 30 years and the growth that you have had as an organization and the impact you have had on other people’s lives. 

If there is one thing that I wish I could say to Michigan Peer Support Specialists (700+ now, right?) , it is that you are not alone. You really aren’t. And with over 700 of you, you are really not alone. grin

Especially when we are new or trying to grow, in an uncomfortable situation or facing a task that seems too tall, too large or too complicated, we feel alone. 

And when we think that we are all alone, we often get discouraged. The task seems insurmountable, impossible. The mountain seems to  get higher and higher and the point we are trying to reach looks farther and farther away. 

When I traveled on the Natchez Trace Parkway in 2007, I found the parts of the “Old Trace, The Sunken Trace” fascinating. The idea that the path between two points hadn’t been lower to start with, but had instead been worn by the feet of people who came before me, really made me think. The Natchez Trace had paved part of the Old Trace, The Sunken Trace, to make it so the path was not cut any deeper by the feet of newer feet walking in the same place as the older feet had trod. 

Today in Lansing, JIMHO will be celebrating its 30th birthday. First, congratulations to JIMHO. There aren’t many places that have had a consumer organization in existence for that long. It takes a special group of people to stay around year after year through financial uncertainty, in some places a lack of support from the community mental health directors, advocacy groups that don’t want the same things that JIMHO wants, etc. 

People have walked up to me at times (national leaders) and yelled in my face that Michigan didn’t have a consumer organization. Yet, in many ways Michigan has had a consumer organization in JIMHO.  And the drop-in centers in Michigan have provided places in many communities where you could go, year after year; in good times and in bad. That is way better than most places have. An organization that year after year set the standard that an organization wasn't enough. It should provide housing, a place to go, a place where people could be. 

Click here to download:

Michigan_Drop_In_Centers.pdf (81 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Michigan_Drop_In_Centers.pdf (81 KB)

Has JIMHO changed through the years? Of course or they wouldn’t be in existence, but so has the world changed as well. 

Read Brian Wellwood's Speech as a pdf.

(I would have put Brian's Speech in here, but with the list of drop in centers already here, it takes too long to load.)

Consumers in Michigan have more opportunities to grasp and victories to achieve. We have dedicated state consumer leaders who passionately care; who will stand up and lead, whether they are official leaders or not. 

Many of the current consumer leaders in Michigan have been willing to help, drag, insist, beg, push, irritate, prod, and coax other consumer leaders to the table. The Michigan Recovery Council is special, very, very special.

That doesn’t happen in many other places. In too many places I have seen consumer leaders locked out by the people who got there and are enjoying their ride of importance. I see lots of consumer organizations where there are a lot of little people still listening to the big people. There should be many more leaders on the national level who are consumers. 

Congratulations to JIMHO and to the Michigan Peer Specialists United (MPSU) we look forwards to watching you change and grow. 

Double or Nothing Right? ;) 

Please forgive me while I experiment with the possibilities of posterous. I would lock the post to only be seen by me, but I am trying to get some input. If you have any, please leave a comment, here or on facebook. Thanks, Marty

There are real posts up on the Health and Wellness Blog Live Longer Laugh More.

Wow, I like that one a lot better. 

This one might be great at the end of a post.