Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Christmas At The Mental Hospital



Have you ever had an idea to volunteer for a small charitable cause and have it snowball into a huge endeavor such that halfway through you wanted to give up the whole thing?


Actually, while I felt those feelings several times during this adventure, I really wanted to figure out how to post about this without tooting my own horn*.

Warning: this is going to be a pretty long post so if you’re just drifting through, go read "Gigglewood Indeed" or "Red Hat Society = Women Gone Wild"

After attending a 40hr Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) academy in September, which trained me to more efficiently, effectively, and compassionately provide services for mental health consumers, I was all fired up to use my new techniques.

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.


I’d be talking on the phone to runaway juveniles and find out they were on a certain mental health drug and ask them how it was working for them, etc. It gave me a whole new bag of tricks and it’s amazing how a little actual knowledge, a little genuine sympathy, and some newfound compassion enabled me to connect with callers in a whole new positive way.

One in four people will either suffer themselves with a mental illness or will have a family member suffer from a mental illness. People don’t like to talk about it. Most people will not “out” themselves. It’s a situation full of fear and shame. (I will point out that bloggers are not normal people and that many of my favorite bloggers and visitors to my own little section of the bloggosphere know a lot about mental illness from many different vantage points, so this is probably not new information to anyone).

But it shocks and amazes consumers and families of consumers who call the police for help when I can pronounce "schizoaffective disorder," let alone know what it is. It opens so many doors. For this reason I have found that my CIT training and membership in the Crisis Intervention Team has greatly increased my ability to serve the public.

So then I had this idea in October: Dispatch usually “adopts” a Salvation Army family or two for the holidays. Why couldn’t the CIT Dispatchers sponsor a mental health consumer and their family?

In this effort I contacted the president of the local chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, who paid for a lot of our CIT training and is basically the AA of mental health – raising awareness, hosting support group meetings for consumers and parents of consumers, etc. She told me that she didn’t know of any specific families that needed Christmas gifts and that those families might very well fall under the Salvation Army’s program too.

She countered with another idea: Why don’t we together (NAMI and CIT) adopt the long-term unit of the local state mental hospital? Most of these folks have few or no family members who visit them and therefore get no gifts. The trick was that it meant providing gifts for 22 people.

Great! Fantastic! Super (thanks for asking)!

And then the work started. I began by shaking down my coworkers for donations. Unfortunately several competing charities were also doing shakedowns: One coworker was working hard to Adopt A Soldier; another was collecting donations for a police officer and his family in Metlakatla, Alaska, who had a woodstove blow up, injuring the officer and burning down their house. These were all very worthy causes. Shakedown number one drummed up $80.

This was not the response I wanted but was about as much as I should have expected. I was on the verge of just giving up and handing back the money to the donors. Then my contact at NAMI threw me a curve and came up with corporate sponsorship: a local mall had $250 worth of gift certificates waiting for us. Oh crap. Now I'm committed.

(Adopting a mental hospital. Committed. Get it? Oh I crack myself up sometimes.)

Then a very dear coworker completely reinvigorated me. It could be done, it should be done, and we could do it. Yay Team!

Then another dear coworker went shopping with me at Wal-Mart. She was a killer Wal-Mart shopper. It was amazing to find out how much really inexpensive but fairly good quality stuff there is out there for sale. Say what you will about how Wal-Mart has destroyed mom and pop businesses and how really inexpensive but fairly good quality stuff is probably made by near-slave labor overseas, but I can only handle on charitable cause at a time here folks.

Then I sent one more shakedown letter to my dispatch coworkers explaining what we had purchased and how much I had spent of my own money (about $180 at that point). I stated clearly that my family would not go hungry but if anyone had been sitting on the fence about donating, the time was at hand to make a decision.

My coworkers came through with an additional $225. Yay Team again!

So on December 23rd (Seinfeldian Festivus Observed) the reinvigorating coworker and I representing CIT** and two NAMI representatives delivered 23 gift bags (without the string handles) and got to present them personally to everyone in the long-term unit. We even had enough left over to give everyone in the "forensic unit" a gift bag. "Forensic Patient" means "criminally insane." These wouldn’t be my first choice of patients to support but, hey, they probably get even less gifts and visitors and it's Christmas darn it!

Each gift bag contained:

A winter hat
A pair of comfy socks with the gripper bumps on the bottom
A happy little calendar
A tube of chapstick
A deck of playing cards
A pack of washable felt tip markers
A pad of paper (glue bound, not spiral bound)
A small chocolate marshmallow santa
A larger hollow chocolate santa

Ladies also got: a cute sock coin purse
a Christmas beanie baby bear
a pair of stretchy knitted gloves

Men also got: a small LCD game
a puzzle
a pair of Old Navy winter gloves

Things I learned:

Santa does not drive a Hyundai. Cramming all that stuff in the PanicMobile proved that point.

Hats are a big thing in the mental hospital. Everyone immediately put their hat on.

While there was a wide range of levels of communication, everyone there was so pleased. There were hugs and tears and thumbs up signs all around. The staff was excited too.

This state mental hospital is prohibited by law from soliciting donations, yet they always need things like clothes for the patients (especially patients due to be discharged, often right onto the street). That's what makes NAMI so cool – they can, and do, solicit funds as a non-profit organization. Woo-hoo.

The fourth thing I learned was actually just a reminder: if we all do a little, we can accomplish a lot.

And that's worth remembering.

~~

* and especially not tooting my own horn in a creepy way

** the expert Wal-Mart shopper wanted to be there but had to wait for a shipment of dog semen to arrive by UPS (United Pile of Shit with regard to delivering on time) and had to bail.

~~

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

UPS, ugh.

What can Brown do for you? Goes with your "pile" comment....

I'm so proud, you beat my thanksgiving humanitarianism, I humbly submit to you and all of your Santa Clausian splendor.

Let me know next year if you need help, I can try to steer some grant money your way from uncle fred, if I can be effectively persuasive with the Anchorage staff.

Yours was the true spirit of the season, showing that good can come from good people, and that everyone deserves something, regardless of who they are and where they live.

Charity may start at home, but with your heart and soul you have pushed it into the 'homes' of those who may otherwise have been forgotten, and have hopefully made a positive impact.

(Red)Hats off to you!

John Cowart said...

The 23 people who recieved those treasure bags may forget this Christmas, but I'll bet that you never will.

Great job, Eric.

He that tooteth not his own horn, the same getteth not tooted.

Anonymous said...

Toots to you!! It was a good thing, I wish I could have been there instead of waiting for United Pile of Shit, who was trying to kill my semen delivery. What a drama that was!! I really would have enjoyed delivering the gifts and seeing the joy it brought them. It is invigorating bringing a bit of joy to others.
It was a very good thing. Atta Boy!

Anonymous said...

I'm so proud of you! I love you!

K

smussyolay said...

eric. from someone who has (and *sometimes* suffers) from a "grave emotional and mental disorder" (see 'how it works,' page 58, AA), this story is great. thanks for thinking of people like me, who for whatever reason, aren't as highly functioning, and who maybe don't have the love and support that i do.

god/dess bless.

Deb said...

That is so awesome, Eric! Makes me and my measly donations feel like a real heel. Kudos to you on a job well done, and one that will be remembered by the recipients for a long time, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

In your line of work you piss off people, get yelled at, and do your share of yelling.........that's why it feels good when you can do things that make people happy. I remember the time when some of the same coworkers bought an elderly lady Thanksgiving dinner (from Carrs) because her turkey was stolen. A group of 50 or so strong individuals can do so much good when they set their mind to it. You're awesome.

Chandira said...

Long post or not, I read the whole thing.. Great post! Good for you..

One question, (I ask the good ones! I'm not scared..) what exactly was your friend waiting for the dog semen for? ;-)

Still Searching... said...

How absolutely wonderful! :-)

Lindsey said...

Very cool indeed...I definatly would have donated if I was still there :)

mrshellonheels said...

Bless your heart. This post really touched me. Best post I have read in a while.

Eric said...

Thanks for all of your support, ladies and gents.

And to Chandira: dog semen to artificially inseminate her "in heat" bitch In Alaska there is not the variety of healthy responsible studs as in the lower 48. While the odds are good, the goods are odd.

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