‘Mad Pride’ Fights a Stigma

A great article on Mad Pride…

Advice from CNN

CNN has a good informative page on mental health—below is an example of some of their stuff:

Stigma has four components:

• Labeling someone with a condition
• Stereotyping people with that condition
• Creating a division — a superior "us" group and a devalued "them" group, resulting in loss of status in the community
• Discriminating against someone on the basis of their label

Some ways you can cope with and help end stigma:

• Get appropriate treatment. Don't let the fear or anticipation of being stigmatized prevent you from seeking treatment for your illness. For some people, a specific diagnosis provides relief because it lifts the burden of keeping silent and also underscores that you aren't alone — that many others share your same illness and issues.
• Surround yourself with supportive people. Because stigma can lead to social isolation, it's important to stay in touch with family and friends who are understanding. Isolation can make you feel even worse.
• Make your expectations known. People may not know how to support you, even if they want to help. Offer specific suggestions and remind people of appropriate language.
• Don't equate yourself with your illness. You are not an illness. So instead of saying "I'm bipolar," say "I have bipolar disorder." Instead of calling yourself "a schizophrenic," call yourself "a person with schizophrenia." Don't say you "are depressed." Say you "have depression."
• Share your own experiences. Speaking at events can help instill courage in others facing similar challenges and also educate the public about mental illness. Until you gain confidence, you may want to start at small events, such as talks at a support group or a local chapter of a national advocacy group.
• Monitor the media. If you spot stigmatizing stories, comic strips, movies, television shows or even greeting cards, write letters of protest that identify the problem and offer solutions.
• Join an advocacy group. Some local and national groups have programs to watch for and correct archaic stereotypes, misinformation and disrespectful portrayals of people with mental illnesses.

The End of an Era

Elaine and husband Steve

Elaine Cummings (The National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter’s 2006 Social Worker of the Year) is retiring from her position as Admissions Director of Caramore, leaving a legacy that will be hard to match. In over 7 years as our direct liaison to the mental health community, Elaine has been responsible for introducing Caramore to hundreds of clients and their families, paving the way for the realization of countless hopes and aspirations.

As the song once said "Nobody does it better"; and in truth nobody has --- we will all miss Elaine's professionalism, clinical knowledge, and guiding concern for our clients. Perhaps Elaine's most memorable contribution to Caramore was her tireless pursuit for what was best for every single individual who came to Caramore. No client ever received anything less that Elaine's total dedication for what would be best for them. She shared people's dreams and often fought through the mental health regulatory maze for all of her admissions.

Elaine showed everyone at Caramore a heart that was boundless in its capacity for providing opportunity and hope to adults with mental illness. Sadly, we will miss her, but we're happy for her personal opportunity to spend more time with family and friends, and maybe just kick back a little and relax.

Cheers to you Elaine ... and thank you for the impact you have made on so many lives.

B Shanley

A Caramore Wedding

Our own Josh and Shannon got married today in a beautiful ceremony at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill.

It was particularly touching knowing both so well, having worked with both of them separately, back when they were struggling in the most difficult years of their illness—and to see them now, clearly very much in love, and neither able to imagine living their lives without the other.

Many couldn’t help but to comment on the fact that their own lives have been touched by Josh and Shannon, including Caramore—and that increased the pleasure all take in their happiness.

Congratulations Josh and Shannon!

Become a fan of Caramore on Facebook

Madness: A Bipolar Life, by Marya Hornbacher

This book comes heavily recommended from our NAMI folks; here's the Publishers Weekly papragraph:
Hornbacher, who detailed her struggle with bulimia and anorexia in Wasted, now shares the story of her lifelong battle with mental illness, finally diagnosed as rapid cycling type 1 bipolar disorder. Even as a toddler, Hornbacher couldn't sleep at night and jabbered endlessly, trying to talk her parents into going outside to play in the dark. Other schoolchildren called her crazy. When she was just 10, she discovered alcohol was a good mood stabilizer; by age 14, she was trading sex for pills. In her late teens, her eating disorder landed her in the hospital, followed by another body obsession, cutting. An alcoholic by this point, she was alternating between mania and depression, with frequent hospitalizations. Her doctor explained that not only did the alcohol block her medications, it was up to her to control her mental illness, which would always be with her. This truth didn't sink in for a long, long time, but when it did, she had a chance for a life outside her local hospital's psychiatric unit. Hornbacher ends on a cautiously optimistic note—she knows she'll never lead a normal life, but maybe she could live with the life she does have. Although painfully self-absorbed, Hornbacher will touch a nerve with readers struggling to cope with mental illness. (Apr.)

Or, listen to the excellent Diane Rehm’s interview of the author here…

Really Outsider Art

Here’s nice little piece from Lee Smith in today's Sunday NY Times that mentions Caramore and our resident celeb, Kwami Jackson.

Challenge Accomplished

David Chapaman, CEO of Caramore and Hank Humphrey from RTI

Thanks to all of you—on the web, through the mail, and at our banquet—who contributed to us meeting our latest fundraising intention. We met our goal to raise $5,000 to upgrade and refurbish both group homes—and even surpassed it, with donations coming in at over $6,000.

Work will begin in April to:

Contemporize, modernize, upgrade, and compliment rooms and living areas with new lighting, furniture, rugs, wall colors, art work, and layouts.

Our clients begin their recovery in our two homes. Often these homes are the first environments that our clients are exposed to after exiting a hospital—meaning that it is a critically important first step.

Your donations—including a generous donation from RTI—will directly go towards these improvements to revamp lives in our homes. Thank you to all who donated.

David Cooley

Program Description

Caramore is a non profit that has been operating in Carrboro and Chapel Hill for 30 years. We are 24 hour a day structured support program restoring rich and satisfying lives to adults with mental illness.

We exist for the purposes of promoting wellness, managing illness, and facilitating the skills needed to live and work in the community.

We’re a program that treats psychiatric brain disorders and diseases through providing comforting, pleasant, stimulating, and normalized real-world settings where individuals can begin to recover.

Caramore coordinates mental health treatment and offers a highly structured daily living regimen where individuals attain successful employment, suitable housing, financial stability, and achieve independent living.

Mental illness can entail cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal impairments that can severely limit insight. Our rehabilitative setting—involving socialization and employment—works to restore those impairments and behaviors through concentration on daily living skills, medication management, food and nutrition, health and hygiene, and social interaction. The path of rehabilitation is gradual and predicated on time and the individual’s particular needs.

For individuals with severe psychiatric diseases and disorders—where impairments are

disabling—the combined approach of medical treatment and 24 hour a day vocational, residential, and social rehabilitative support, is the road to recovery.

Practical concerns that exhaust families—such as navigating doctor’s visits, dealing with pharmacies, consistently and correctly taking prescribed medication, handling SSA benefits or health insurance, teaching budgeting skills and managing money, encouraging good hygiene, paying rent, paying attention to nutrition, encouraging movement and exercise, landing and keeping a job—are all supervised by Caramore counselors.

Many of us define ourselves by our work. Work is a critical source of our identity, and so it is with Caramore clients. Caramore clients begin a real job for real money from day one of entering the program. Gradual progression through the program hones disciplined and hard working employees who feel good about themselves, are defined less by their illness, and freed with confidence to pursue their own dreams.

Some successful Caramore clients can participate in “Tier 3,” a long term living situation that entails Caramore’s as-needed support. Tier 3 clients benefit from freedom and independence while knowing that if they need help, they’ll get it. Tier 3 is an excellent solution for the recidivism and episodic nature of mental illness—when things go wrong, Caramore is there to ensure jobs are kept, bank accounts preserved, and apartment leases are maintained.

Caramore exists for the sole purpose of our clients, and the ultimate worth of our services derives from the value and special abilities of our clients—their strengths and talents are needed and utilized. We need help and frequently “peers” are employed to fulfill the Caramore mission. Many past clients actively work for us—helping form meaningful relationships with individuals who are in the same seemingly hopeless spot they were once in.

Environment matters, and Caramore hopes that society’s gradual reducing of the stigma of the illness will reduce the stigma of the recovery process. Nobody wants to be sick, but people can get better and do get better at Caramore. It can mean allowing oneself to be helped by a considerable number of people. It can take a lot of time, and can be punctuated with many failures. But inside the supportive, encouraging, and safe environment of Caramore, risks can be taken; mistakes and miscues absorbed, and a new life can start. Caramore is hope, movement, action, and being involved—it’s a life re-start.

D. Cooley

North Carolina Mental Health Disaster and Caramore

Concerned and confused as we are over the failure of North Carolina’s mental health reform? It’s worth mentioning, with all the terrible news, that Caramore has been operating for 30 years. We’re a not-for-profit organization tied to Vocational Rehabilitation and receive a large amount of our funding for the employment, housing, and stability we help our clients attain.

We offer our program as a valid and successful response to severe mental illness. We battle stigma in the hopes of not only demystifying the illness, but also to demystify the path of treatment. For many people stricken with psychiatric diseases, our 24 hour-a-day structure and support—combined with medication, doctors, and therapy—is an essential element towards managing the illness for life.

Although we provide “community support” in that we are a “structured support” program, we are not a private community support provider presently seeing disgrace in the N&O this week.

We do not bill Medicaid for any services. The money we do get for helping individuals suffering from mental illness restore their lives is well spent tax money. Indeed, the current uproar in the press is over the very fact that private companies have profiteered from the sick and poor. Some of our tax dollars should be appropriately funneled as a safety net for the vulnerable, and that’s what happens at Caramore. Unfortunately, that truth might escape notice in the current storm of criticism over mental health in North Carolina. Even though we serve a statistically small number of people, and we’re not always applicable for everyone, Caramore’s model should be better known (we’re trying!), and held up as an example of what does and has worked in this state.

We’re unique, we’re here for the long haul, and no one does what we do as well as we do. Please email me with any questions, and Caramore is always open for tours and information.

Thank you,

David Cooley
Vice President
dcooley@caramore.org