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Building hope. Building lives. Building futures. 2002-2003 ANNUAL REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Message from the Board Chair and the President/CEO 4 Advocacy is a vital thread . Like the leaves on a tree, 7 Programs and Services alone they cast a shadow ... 8 How you can help . together they make shade. 9 Contributors 14 Financial Report 15 Board of Directors/Executive Staff/Senior Management Staff 2 MHASP Annual Report 2002/2003 Message from the Board Chair and the President/CEO Take a young man with untreated schizophrenia, a substance abuse disorder, and no visible means of support. He’s living — if you can call it that — on the streets, sometimes in a shelter. Rejected by his family because they can’t deal with his symptoms, he has no prospects and no hope. Now take that same young man, who last May moved into Homeward Bound’s brand-new residence at 1305 East Oak Lane Avenue, a converted mansion with picture windows and antique-tiled fireplaces on an acre of landscaped property. With help from Homeward Bound staff, he successfully applied for public assistance and began attending a 12-step group, keeping appointments with a psychiatrist, and taking his medication. With his symptoms in remission, he holds down a part-time job, participates in outside activities, and makes time to help other residents. He eagerly anticipates the day when he can move into an apartment of his own. The new Homeward Bound residence for chronically homeless adults with both mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders is a dazzling improvement over its previous location. Developing the new property was one of the ways the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP) strove in FY 2002-2003 to help people challenged by mental illness and other obstacles to improve their lives in the community. Another was MHASP’s continuing advocacy on behalf of residents of personal care homes; this included helping to draft a new protocol to make sure that, when a home closes, the residents have a choice of housing and the relocation process is well handled. And then there are the unending efforts of MHASP’s approximately 200 direct-services staff on behalf of the clients of these services: adults with mental illnesses and children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders. “A life in the community for everyone” — a goal that has been adopted by the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health — is something MHASP is working hard for, along with helping people achieve recovery from mental illness. A commitment to advocating for recovery and community integration informs all MHASP programs. In this Annual Report, you will read a few examples of how such advocacy is paying off. One such example involves a man we’ll call Michael, who spent many years in institutions, including Pennhurst and Philadelphia State Hospital. Over more than a decade, an MHASP advocate worked with him, helping him learn to read, pay his bills and balance his checkbook. Along the way, Michael acquired a job and a life. As his living skills got better, so did his circumstances. Last spring, he took the giant step of making settlement on his own home, in a middle-class community in Delaware County. MHASP is proud of its role in helping the people it serves move from the streets, shelters, and institutions on society’s periphery toward their rightful place in the community. Joanne M. Walker, Esq. Joseph A. Rogers Board Chair President and CEO MHASP Annual Report 2002/2003 3 ADVOCACY IS A VITAL THREAD THAT RUNS THROUGH EVERY SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA (MHASP). HERE ARE EXAMPLES FROM FOUR MHASP PROGRAMS: Connect and Connect by Night therapy and following through on a Mobile Nurse job, there is a greater chance of Imagine surviving 10 gunshots at success,” says Sandra. “We help For mobile nurses working out of age 21, living with a colostomy bag them navigate support systems that MHASP’s consumer-run drop-in and trying to regain some contact can provide a stabilized environ- centers around Philadelphia, han- with your 1-year-old child, but ment to build on the good things dling an immediate physical need without the benefit of permanent they’re doing for themselves.” often provides the ability to estab- housing. The staff at Connect For the 21-year-old gunshot sur- lish a relationship and build the (MHASP’s case management cen- vivor, a full-time job in Internet trust needed for successful advoca- ter in Delaware County) and sales and a friend who can occa- cy. Addressing a cold or a small cut Connect by Night (its affiliated sionally put him up for the night can lead to engaging consumers in mobile shelter program) work with provide some continuity in his life. treatment for the bigger issues that consumers who overcome just these Connect and Connect by Night are keeping them from succeeding sorts of remarkable hurdles day and staff offer support through case in critical areas of their lives. night. management and shelter services – “Drop-in centers are where peo- Sandra Romeo, MHASP Division by giving him tokens to travel to ple often land when they drop Director for Residential and work, a decent place to sleep when through the cracks of society,” says Treatment Services, and Bernadine needed, and advocating on his Eileen “Niki” Niksa, Nurse Callahan, Connect Outreach Case behalf with Delaware County Specialist, Adult Psychiatry. Manager, explain that some con- Children and Youth Services. “Having nurses at the centers takes sumers develop mental health issues “We work with people who are at advantage of a great opportunity to because of the particular situations their very lowest emotional, physi- reach consumers who might not be they’re in – such as drug addiction, cal and mental states – even when seen regularly by any other people homelessness or rejection by their other agencies cannot,” says or organizations. We have no limi- families. Bernadine. “If a person is trying to tations on the amount of time we “When consumers have nowhere pull himself up, we want to be a spend with each consumer – we else to turn, we can serve as advo- part of that.” can dress their wounds or go with cates for them. If they demonstrate them to the emergency room and a willingness to help themselves by follow up with family members, if getting into treatment, sticking with need be. 4 MHASP Annual Report 2002/2003 “For consumers who live on the from getting a decent place to live; health is, to collaborating with the street and sleep in buses or shelters, being homeless can be completely School District of Philadelphia on regularly seeing a familiar face in a demoralizing. I’ve had cases where critical programs, Eric’s goal is to safe setting is critical to their ability I call physicians to let them know if help people of all ages become to open up about physical and I see side effects from various treat- more comfortable with discussing a mental issues they’re dealing with.” ments. The goal is to get them sta- subject that is often treated as Advocacy can even start with a bilized so they have a better chance taboo, especially in marginalized person who sleeps through a group of finding and keeping a home.” communities. session at a drop-in center. “It’s gratifying to help parents “I may be leading a psychoeduca- and caregivers of children and ado- tional group for homeless people to Child and Adolescent Advocacy lescents think about the whole can- teach ways to engage in healthier vas of mental health, from the vul- lifestyles. A consumer might not be One initiative MHASP launched nerability of having a bad day to paying attention, but over time trust in Spring 2003 involves the work of understanding what bipolar disor- grows because my face becomes Eric Ashton, MHASP’s Child and der really looks like,” says Eric. familiar,” Niki says. “In one Adolescent Public Policy “We are experimenting with the instance, a consumer saw me lead- Coordinator, who advocates viewing of a short video produced ing groups, but didn’t participate. empowerment among people and by the Johns Hopkins School of When he became very sick with within organizations that provide Public Health called ‘Black and breathing problems, he came to me services to children and youth. Blue: Depression in the African after being told that the earliest From talking to members of vari- American Community,’ where min- appointment with his primary care ous communities around isters, community health workers, physician was a week away. I knew Philadelphia about what mental elderly church members, and recov- he was susceptible to certain kinds of pneumonia and was able to call the doctor’s staff on his behalf and get him seen immediately.” A nurse who worked in hospitals for more than three decades, Niki ‘If a person is trying says she believes the ability to advocate for her patients is one of the reasons that community nurs- to pull himself up, ing is where the truest type of heal- ing happens. “I can teach them how to write we want to be down their symptoms and coach them on the best time to get urgent a part of that.’ care at the city’s health clinics. Many consumers have low frustra- tion tolerances, so paving their way and teaching them how to use what’s available are important,” she says. “It’s very gratifying to help tackle issues that keep consumers MHASP Annual Report 2002/2003 5 ering drug addicts speak about the with the best possible tools to make In one instance, a client who had effects of depression on individuals that transition,” Eric says.

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