Mental health, this week's rant...

Grandson Theo. 4-5 months.

Granddaughter Edith just over a year.

They need more care...
We have a man who walks about town. They call him "Speedy" because he walks quite fast, especially when he was younger. He has mental health problems. He is under some sort of supervised accommodation, but I do not think there is much supervision. He came to our drop-in centre on Friday night. He was not well clothed for the mid-winter cold outside. I was pleased to see him come in from the cold and we made sure he had food - a cup of soup, half a pie and some sandwiches. He grabbed this food like a hungry dog grabs its food, while fiercely looking about. (He hates being crowded in)  He shoved this food into his mouth like he feared it was going to be stolen, struggling to eat it as fast as he put it in. He sat down to sip his soup and have a hot drink. We put more sandwiches within easy reach because he looked so hungry. Next minute he vomited into his jumper lying beside him on the seat. He had eaten too quickly. I gave him a spare jumper and took him home to his place and as I drove I thought of the many people we know through our drop-in who, like him, struggle to cope on our city streets because they have mental health issues. As chairman of the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust, I often get an early morning phone call from the shelter's manager. He feels he has to report to me when there has been an unfortunate incident at the Shelter overnight. Most often it happens when he is trying to deal with some person struggling to cope with a mental health issue. We used to have "asylums" - or more correctly, hospitals where these folk had often life time residential care. They were often placed outside the city limits. In their wisdom the authorities have closed most of these down, declaring that these folk would be better off in the community, with proper community based care. The hospitals were not ideal, but the current situation is, in my view worse. There are too many like "Speedy", not coping with their freedom! Caring agencies and public mental health systems are under funded and we as a community are not caring for the vulnerable in our midst! 
"I've had enough!"
The Old Testament reading today was from the book of 1st Kings. It was the story of the prophet Elijah fleeing from the wrath of Jezebel. He went to the desert where despondent and fearful he cried, "It is enough! ... take away my life!" He moved on to a cave at Horeb and there complained "I have been zealous for the Lord... I alone am left..." and spoke of the way the people had deserted the Lord.  I kind of identify with his feelings often. Maybe I am "different" or a bit eccentric, but in Church and community groups I have been and are involved in, I often feel frustrated and feel like shouting; "I've had enough!" or "Doesn't any body else care?"  Elijah's desperate cries encourage me. He too had tough times. This week its been a bit like that. I had been a good boy and delegated stuff, but somehow it landed back on my lap. People have not done what they had promised to do and others interrupted my day with agendas of their own. I have felt like screaming, "I've had enough!"  In exploring this passage I found a commentator who shared this information;
Mother Teresa's book Come Be My Light (2007) shocked people with its description of profound spiritual darkness that haunted her for fifty years. She writes that she didn't practice what she preached, and laments the stark contrast between her exterior demeanor and her interior desolation: "The smile is a big cloak which covers a multitude of pains... my cheerfulness is a cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery ... I deceive people with this weapon." She describes the absence of God's presence in many ways - as emptiness, loneliness, pain, spiritual dryness, or lack of consolation. "My heart is so empty... so full of darkness..." 
I know of several famous writers, christian leaders and other people of achievement who all faced heavy hearted moments far worse than I do.  There are names like Florence Nightingale, J B Phillips, C S Lewis, Robert Lois Stephenson and others I have read of. I am encouraged. Perhaps it goes with the territory. M Scott-Peck suggests in one of his books that depression often happens when people have the courage to face reality. These people are brave enough to look at life honestly, see its failings, are disturbed by it, and long for it to be different.  
The thing that gets me is that these "real" people who achieved so much, had the courage to keep going, doing what they believed to be right in the face of disappointment, depression and frustration. That is courage - seeing and feeling the reality, experiencing the loneliness, but still doing that which is good, still committed to making a difference.  I am not famous, nor do I achieve a lot, but I hope I have a measure of such courage.
"Rain, rain go away.."
This last week New Zealand has suffered a mid-winter blast of bad weather. There have been big dumpings of snow in places. Flooding, slips, power outages and road closures have happened in different places throughout NZ. We have had a week of sleety rain and hail in Dunedin. There is a slip near by which caused the evacuation of a few houses for a while. Everything is damp and cold. It was the shortest day on Friday - the shortest daylight hours. Traditionally July is our coldest month, but it is heartening to know we are theoretically now moving toward spring. Tomorrow is my day off. I think I'll be chopping firewood, weather permitting.

Mid-winter moon tonight.

Another TED talk that brought tears to my eyes.

I was not intending to blog today. I have had a day of renovating and was painting till quite late in the evening. I then blobbed out in front of my computer to watch TED talks. One brought tears to my eyes. In our drop in centre we have lots of people with mental health issues. I will sometimes have lengthy conversations with people who have lost touch with reality. I once had a man ask to play table tennis with me. "Playing table tennis," he said, "helps me ignore these voices in my head." I often feel frustrated because I do not know how to help them and I know they need more care than they are receiving. Tonight I watched a talk by Vikram Patel speak about "Mental health for all by involving all." I loved his thinking, his compassion and agreed with his concerns about the state of care for those suffering with mental health issues. I would love to know more about his methods of training lay people.  I then went on to listen to this great talk by a lady, Elyn Saks, (A tale of mental illness) who talks about mental health from the inside. I found it inspiring, challenging and very moving.  I recommend it. In some ways it is not very comfortable listening but it gives you a deeper understanding of these people. It will expand your circle of compassion and understanding. She emphasizes that they are NOT "schizophrenics", "We are people with schizophrenia".  It is a very different perspective.

"No hopers..."

First...I'm OK!
It is funny when people know that you have "bionic plumbing" (Catheter and bag) they sometimes begin to treat you like an invalid. I have people who will not let me lift a table or seat around the Church, where as before they couldn't care how much I lifted. "Don't you go lifting anything!" they say. I had promised to help a lady move her furniture from one flat to another. Today the local Salvation Army man rang up and said we were moving her piano tonight. I went along. The Salvation Army man was at least 10-15 years younger than I and he had two strapping teenage sons to help. There was a horribly steep path with various flights of steps to get this very heavy piano up. I participated fully. I reckon I was as good as anyone lifting my end of the piano. I may be a little dysfunctional but I am certainly not an invalid. Actually while doing the job I thought of the stereotypical view people have of Church ministers as being wimps, not real "men" and of not much use.  Here we were, a Church of Christ minister and a Salvation Army Officer, both men of the cloth, picking up this heavy piano and walking it up the path! We were willing and able!  Many "worldly" men our age would neither be willing nor able!

Why introduce "No hopers..."
I want to introduce you to some "no hopers". Please understand I am not using this term in a derogatory fashion for the people I am going to talk about. It is a sad description of them.  Awhile back I visited a church group and talked about the Night Shelter. As I talked I realised that these people had no idea of the sort of people who would use a night shelter. I took it for granted that everybody at some stage experienced these people. But they don't, many live relatively sheltered lives. I spend every Friday night with some of them. Secondly I was searched out by a newspaper reporter the other day. He was asking about mental health patients, especially those who end up in prison, and I struggled to communicate their plight.
I am prompted to introduce them because of three factors...

• Our Government minister Paula Bennett says there are plenty of jobs and the unemployed just have to get off their backsides and look for them. ... Sorry Paula can I suggest you visit our drop-in centre? We average 40+ through and only one or two have any vestige of hope of getting a job. 
• We had a young man die in our botanical gardens because he was huffing gas. I had met this man and our night shelter had hosted him.  I was talking in a group about this situation and a man said judgmentally, "Well that's one loser less being a drain on society!" I have had people in the same tone of voice say, "Why do these poor people smoke? - losers." "How come they claim poverty and drink?" "Why take drugs? - no hopers - losers - scum." "Why buy expensive cell-phones - why try to run bombs of cars, or drive an unregistered unwarranted car?" Now I am as frustrated as any at the behaviour of these people, I have more contact than most. I do not want to paint them as saintly victims. But before you judge stop and think if you would be different if you were in their shoes. Some, given their circumstances are coping well.
• I and others from the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust want to raise money to purchase the buildings we currently rent. We are providing emergency shelter in the front building, and transitional accommodation for people in the back building. I think the biggest hurdle we will have is that most of the people we want to donate have not met the people likely to use our facilities. Secondly, if they have heard of them, they do not understand their predicament. 

People of no hope...

• Imagine... You were born into a dysfunctional family where mum and dad were not relating well, or mum had several partners and stormy relationships. Imagine that you were not born with an average level of intelligence, and you knew that from your hard experience of life. When others understood lessons, and could do things easily, you struggled and felt somehow "less".  You also knew it because your parents told you that again, and again and again. They maybe told you that you were "Dumb" "Stupid" or a "Dipstick." Your teachers told you that, possibly not in the same derogatory terms, but with their impatience, their ignoring you while they enjoyed the bright responsive kids, or their marking system reinforced your inadequacy. Your confidence is non-existent, even though you try to hide it by being bombastic and sometimes loud. You look at training opportunities and know they wont get you a job. You look at job adverts and sense you have no hope up against so many other job applicants. You hate applying because you know you will only experience the "system" saying you are dumb again! You struggle to read or read and write very slowly. Filling out forms simply scares you.
• Imagine... You are born into a normal family experiencing the normal ups and downs. You do OK at school, somethings you may even excel at.  But you begin to know you are not normal. Imagine hearing voices that you cant explain! Or ... imagine feeling your normally reasonable logical brain slipping into illogical ranting, paranoid ways of thinking or deep dark episodes of depression. Your family has supported you, but you have continued to struggle, you have embarrassed them time and again. You have cost them money time and again. Because of your irregular behaviour you cannot keep a job. You lose it with the boss or a fellow worker or have too many days off. 

These are just a couple of scenarios. We could have a mixture of them. We could think of other sad and difficult situations that people face simply because of the accident of birth. You grow up in a house where there is nobody with a job and no sense of work ethic. etc etc. Now as you struggle with these issues our community becomes this super efficient community where people need to perform. There are fewer and fewer places for purely manual jobs. And if there are, you have to perform or you are out... there is a waiting line of able people needing work. As well as this even the most basic jobs often require some level of computer literacy... "Where is the 'on' switch? What on earth does that instruction mean?" There is really no hope of getting a job! You are stuck on the dole forever! There is little hope of forming a stable relationship, who would want you? You know you can never own a home. You can never take up an expensive hobby. You can never get a decent car. You will always struggle from week to week, year to year as a beneficiary... sometimes blamed for society's woes. What do you do? How do you react? What do you see in life? Just a long black hole till you die.  ... "I enjoy a smoke... It may kill me, but at least its some pleasure!" "These drugs or drink make me forget the drudgery and hopelessness of my existence. May as well imbibe!" "Those rich bastards have good stuff, if I just take some maybe I can enjoy some good things!" .... What I am trying to communicate is that by accident of birth people end up living lives with no real hope in them. This lack of hope, meaning or significance leads them to doing stupid, life damaging things. Maybe even violent things ... just to get some measure of pleasure or difference. I wonder if I was in their shoes would I act any differently? 

We have built a community where there is no place of dignity for these people. I believe it is the community's responsibility to have a safety net for them. ... so I am involved in the Night Shelter Trust. If our society spits them out the back we have a responsibility to provide for them. I also think we need to be trying to think of ways in which these people can meaningfully engage in the community. They end up on a downward spiral, which costs and hurts them, and costs and hurts society. It is not enough just to provide for them, they need somehow to also find "significance" and purpose. ... Perhaps, for the sake of people, we may need to be less efficient?  Anyway these are our "No hopers!" ... with no hope! What a terrible place to be? That is why I do stuff to try to make their existence better. I try to love them in practical ways..... though at times they drive me bananas!