A piece about Caramore that originally aired on PBS

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2006 Slideshow

The Price of Independence

This past week we had a young man visiting our program who made it to mid week (our visits last a week) and then decided he wanted to go back home—and so he left us to return to his extremely frustrated parents.

We often struggle with how to make ourselves appealing to young people who have just recently become ill. We strive to make our environment as normal as possible, to be as “least restrictive” as we can make it—and to honor each client’s worth, dignity, privacy and autonomy. We try and show them the “other end” of our program—after the initial shock of change, where our veteran clients are living independently and enjoying themselves without us in their hair.

But mental illness differs from other illnesses in one crucial way: it impairs the section of the brain governing insight. How will these young people, on their own, begin to regain insight and a whole host of other behaviors necessary to function in the “normal” world?

Our program begins with structure and support and mandates serious effort from our clients. Often we get strict—in a very parental way and appropriate to the need of the client. But it’s all in the name of tough love. We’re looking for people who want to go somewhere and do something and are willing to work hard at it. We’re not as easy as Mom and Dad’s house.

Medical treatment may only be a part of what helps recovery for someone with a mental illness. Caramore addresses behavior and all sorts of mundane skills that must be re-learned—like getting up in the A.M., hygiene, interacting with a supervisor, taking redirection, curbing compulsions, and countless more taken-for-granted abilities.

It’s hard for us to dress that sort of stuff up other than trying different ways to communicate that tackling these things now means eventually being free of “control” later. Effort and patience
will bring independence, but the work must be started.

D. Cooley