Publication Date: Wednesday Nov 3, 1999

Board of Contributors: Helping the mentally ill among us

What do you think of when you hear that someone is suffering from mental illness? Do you think of the homeless person muttering on a street corner or someone in a padded room? Perhaps you think of a person in a prison cell.

More likely, you think of someone you know. Statistically, one of every five people has a direct experience with mental illness, either themselves or a close family member. Mental illness is closer than you may think.

Mental illness is perhaps one of the most misunderstood medical ailments today. Myths and misconceptions about these illnesses and the people who have them have resulted in a stigma that keeps people from seeking help and leaves them feeling separated from the rest of the community.

What are we talking about when we speak of mental illness? Generally, one of what are known as the brain-chemistry illnesses. They include schizophrenia, depression and bipolar and the related thought and mood disorders. We don't know why many of these illnesses occur. They hit regardless of race or socioeconomic status.

Alliance for Community Care is probably the most prominent provider in Palo Alto for those with brain chemistry illnesses. This nonprofit organization resulted from a 1997 merger of three groups, including Miramonte Mental Health Services. Alliance is now a fixture at the former Miramonte site on California Avenue. In addition to the in-house services it offers, Alliance sends multidisciplinary teams into homes or to meet clients in the office. The teams help clients connect with resources and obtain medicine and to assist with other needs. Their efforts are aided by the fact that recent medical advances have made treatment much more effective.

Still, myths abound. For example, many believe that someone with a mental illness is more prone to violence than the general population. But research shows this is not true, unless there is also the presence of substance abuse. Similarly, some think that being poor or unhoused leads inevitably to mental illness. But homelessness and economic problems are a secondary effect of mental illness, not the cause. Still others believe that mentally ill people aren't intelligent or capable of having productive lives and need to be in a hospital.

Mary Hiland, president and CEO of Alliance for Community Care, knows differently. She tells the story of a Stanford graduate who completed school a number of years ago but soon after was hospitalized for schizophrenia. Once the woman sought help, it took five to six years to find the right combination of medications to control her condition. During that time, she educated herself on how to manage her symptoms. She received other support as well and soon started volunteering at Alliance. She eventually joined the paid staff and now is implementing self-help training programs across California for people with mental illness.

So why aren't we more aware of stories like these? Hiland thinks we rarely discuss these illnesses because of the shame long associated with them. "We've made more progress in dealing with the stigma associated with AIDS," she says, comparing the massive education around AIDS to the relatively meager effort on the mental illness front.

It could also be that more than twice as many women as men are diagnosed with these illnesses. Our society seems to regard illnesses that affect women less seriously than those that affect men. There also seems to be a misplaced hopelessness to this problem. With new medications, however, there is an 80 percent recovery rate for depression.

What can we do? For one, we can support legislation and increased services. New laws require insurance companies to offer mental health care at a level equal to that of other benefits. California recently became the 22nd state to pass a law requiring this provision. And while we have some outstanding local organizations, there are still gaps in services for the mentally ill on the Peninsula. For example, there are no licensed board-and-care homes for the mentally ill in all of north Santa Clara County.

We also can hire people to help the mentally ill become productive members of our community. This may mean making some accommodation for schedules and the need for medication. But in return, we can get intelligent, high-functioning employees whom we may have missed before. Time and education have led to better integration and acceptance of people with physical disabilities. Why not mental disabilities as well?

We can also talk about mental illnesses. Bringing these things out in the open can help dispel the myths and lead to more acceptance for those suffering from brain-chemistry illnesses. You never know who the one in five might be. For example, my grandmother suffered from severe depression and likely a number of other related illnesses from the time she was a young adult until her recent death. Yet we've only really begun talking about this openly in our family in the past couple of years. Hearing her story and discussing her problems openly have helped make mental illness less scary and more normal. They have also made me more sensitive to the need to support those in our community who aren't lucky enough to have the support system my grandmother did.

People with brain-chemistry illnesses aren't strangers or people "out there." They are our co-workers, our neighbors and our friends. By learning the truth about their situation, we can support them in becoming full and active members of our community. Do they deserve any less? Wynn Hausser, chairman of the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission, is a member of the Weekly's Board of Contributors.



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