Mental Illness Awareness Week / Minds on the Edge

By Congressional decree in 1990, the week of October 4 was established as Mental Illness Awareness Week in the United States. It's also celebrated in Canada.

When I was 14 and living in suburban Cleveland, I remember watching a locally-produced TV documentary on the terrible condition of our state mental hospitals. All that remains in my mind is a shot of a filthy leaky ceiling in a corner of one ward and a female patient with a drawn worried face gazing hopelessly out at the camera, gazing directly out at Little Ruthie.

Little did I know that in 24 more years, I too would find myself in a locked ward here in the suburban Philadelphia area for the worst experience of my life. The mental hospital, funded by public money, was a dreadful excuse for proper treatment.

If I'd had a so-called physical illness (and we still can't figure out why mental illnesses aren't considered brain diseases by the general public) I would've been hospitalized in a pleasant setting with my own phone in my room instead of having to call my children on a payphone.

I am not optimistic about things getting better. My breakdown was in 1984. Twenty-five years ago. Very little forward movement since then in the 'politics' of mental illness. Treatment has certainly made some progress.

Every so often, TV takes a crack at educating the public about mental illness. Last nite, the Fred Friendly Seminars presented Minds on the Edge, shown only on digital PBS channels here in the Philadelphia area, not on prime-time television where it belongs.

The program consisted of a panel discussion of eminent articulate men and women including Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize Laureate; Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court justice; Estelle Richman, welfare sec'y of PA; Pete Earley, journalist and father of a bipolar man; Fred Frese, PhD, who takes meds for schizophrenia; Elyn Saks, law professor w/schizophrenia; and others.

Every possible scenario was discussed in the hour-long program, including the revolving door of the ill person going for help, going off their meds, getting in trouble, ending up in jail, ending up homeless, ending up dead. One woman from the National Self-Help Clearinghouse stated the average mental health consumer dies 25 years sooner than their normal counterpart. I think that figure is too high, it's more like 10 years sooner.

I was planning on living a long life until I was diagnosed w/chronic kidney disease due to lithium ingestion for 16 years and total mismanagement of my case by doctors at Abington Hospital. Now I'm trying hard not to become one of those statistics.

What the program failed to mention is all the individuals w/mental illness who do well. Bipolar disorder, which is what I had, is known as one of the 'terrible illnesses' along w/schizophrenia. To me, if it's caught early and if the patient is highly motivated, as I was, to manage her illness, a wonderful outcome awaits us. About 80 percent of us respond well to medication.

Fred Frese made perhaps the single most important point of the program. Put the mentally ill person to work. Pay them something - minimum wage if you must - but give them a job to do that they can handle. This is how people feel accepted in our society. Stay in the workforce, people. Maintain your circadian rhythms through work, maintain your identity through work, maintain your dignity by good hard work that's within your ability and stress level to accomplish. Amen!

I'm proud and honored to run the premiere support group in the Philadelphia area for folks w/bipolar, depression and their loved ones. I did try to get out of this business. I applied for many other jobs - including teaching at Penn State University Abington - but it never was to be. I do love to teach. I invited my group over my house to learn how to bake homemade whole-wheat bread. It's rising now in the oven. People are shocked that I don't use a bread machine. We are only two generations away from our original breadmakers but, lo, people have already forgotten.

While Minds on Edge deserves an A for effort, it should've devoted at least 2 minutes to the many good outcomes for people w/bipolar disorder in particular. The panelists discussed several hypothetical patients but never did they mention they were not real people. I was instantly shocked that the Supreme Court justice was speaking so candidly about "Olivia" and later a mother was speaking about "James." This should've been made crystal-clear at the start of the program.

While certainly illuminating the excoriatingly horrible treatment of the mentally ill, the program offered absolutely no hope for its viewers. One of the panelists even mentioned the depressing state of affairs in the confusing world of mental health. Yes, the mental health system does not work properly, but what can we do to help fix it?

I do my small part. Just called my local paper and got the okay to write a Guest column celebrating Mental Illness Awareness Week.

C'mon over and have a piece of whole wheat bread with me. My house is nice and bright with beautiful autumn light, Scott is on vacation mowing our twin lawns, and the butter is softening on the kitchen table.