Been reading a book called “If Your Adolescent Has Schizophrenia” by Dr. Raquel E. Gur and Dr. Ann Braden Johnson… very good reading… it mentions a program that used to exist:
“Located in Boston, Massachusetts, Jump Start was a career de- velopment and mentoring program developed in 2002 for young adults aged 16 to 26 with psychiatric disabilities, including schizo- phrenia, whose needs had long been overlooked by traditional mental health providers, with their emphasis on symptom con- trol. Many of them had also “aged out” of the children’s mental health system, losing that system’s support in the process. Jump Start was designed to help these young people gain the skills, self-confidence, and education needed to transition effectively from school to independence through high-quality employment or college or both.”
One of the features of this program was mentoring. The program was on college campuses. It focused on recovery and not just alleviating symptoms. Despite its success, the program was no longer funded after its first year on the grounds that it only addressed one disability being mental illness. Such a shame… we need more program like this! What a benefit it would be for many young MI patients, including my daughter.
The idea for the program sounds great, Windyhill, especially because quite often symptoms appear while the afflicted is in college or college age.
What can we do to grow programs such as these across the country? If anyone has a good idea, I am all for volunteering to help with the cause. Where I live now, there is not much in the way of help or support and all forms of MI are stigmatized, even though there are many afflicted living here.
What is so unique about programs like this is that it works toward making them independent rather than making them dependent on the system. My MI friend in Iowa was saying that in the last election mental health care was a big issue, one candidate for the governor supported better care for MI. The other candidate won, but he realized that people wanted this and is determined to do something. I would say support advocacy efforts in our states and counties for starters. Volunteering like you said is also good.
I so agree. I also read of places in your area called Fountai house I belueve its sponsored by the Hilton foundation. I have only read about it in books. Nothing like this here
Institute for Recovery and Community Integration 1211 Chestnut Street
12th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 751-1800 (ext. 265) www.mhasp.org/mhrecovery/index.html
Michigan Supported Education Program
SECAG
University of Michigan School of Social Work 1080 S. University Ave. B660
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
(734) 615-2119
e-mail: secag@umich.edu www.ssw.umich.edu/sed/
Windhorse Associates, Inc.
211 North Street, Suite #1
Northampton, MA 01060
(413) 586-0207 (ext. 113) (877) 844-8181 (ext. 113). www.windhorseassociates.org