October: Mental Illness Awareness Month

October is “Mental Illness Awareness Month,” during which time Caramore holds its annual Client Celebration to recognize the achievements of our clients.

In the upcoming months Caramore will be joining NAMI and others to promote the “Nothing to Hide Mental Health Coalition” to educate and fight stigma.

But what we’re committed to practicing daily is relieving suffering for our clients and the burden that their families feel. Caramore’s number one aim is to get the message out to families that we can help.

E. Fuller Torrey, the author of Surviving Schizophrenia says in that classic: "Family members, especially mothers, are often expected to simultaneously be the person's case manager, psychotherapist, nurse, landlord, banker, janitor, cook, disciplinarian and best friend."

Families typically cannot be all those things to someone suffering from mental illness. And if the hospitals are releasing patients faster than ever, then the need for a particular type of service in communities is necessary.

When you hear chronic lamenting over “mental health reform” and “deinstitutionalization” and the lack of services our society provides, remember that Caramore is providing the exact model that everyone wishes exists. More people need not only to be more informed about mental illness, but they need to know what Caramore is doing. We’ve been a secret for far too long.

We already have in place the services that the rest of society has been slow to enact. We are the “case manager, psychotherapist, nurse, landlord, banker, janitor, cook, disciplinarian and best friend” to our clients. We’re running 24 hours a day providing the structure that those suffering from severe psychiatric disorders require.

Help us spread the word!

D. Cooley

Caramore’s 2006 Client Celebration

Read the Chapel Hill News article on the event!

Caramore held its annual client celebration event last night. Noted author Lee Smith was the highlighted guest speaker and delivered a moving recitation concerning her deceased son who participated in the Caramore program several years ago.

The activities were attended by many past and present clients of Caramore, as well as some of their family members, local employers, friends, and health care professionals who work in tandem with Caramore staff.

The theme of the evening centered around the many profound benefits that people with mental illness have achieved through the simple act of being able to work.

Many of the Caramore clients told moving stories of how Caramore had changed their lives and enabled them to reach goals they had previously given up on.

The stories evoked a vast array of emotions from everyone, from tears to laughter, as all the clients shared their personal pains and accomplishments for all to celebrate.

Cake and punch were served as the guests mingled, exchanged stories, hugged, and felt better about the brighter possibilities in their lives ahead.

B. Shanley