TIME OUT!!!

If I described today as busy this wouldn't even touch the surface. In current lingo today was off the hook! We had to shut our doors before noon because too many people were already looking for services! It felt like a bus of mentally ill had dumped its load and a sea of people, all demanding services - NOW - had filled the room. I am reminded of a chicken nursery with all the baby chicks screaming for the mushed up worm. Like a good mother hen I tried my best to feed them.

What happened? Why are so many people coming in for treatment? A few were there because of lazyness - as is always the case. They failed to follow up with our referrals and rushed back to their familiar pill pusher. So we wave our finger at them, and tell them this will be the last time we treat you, and fifteen visits later we hope they follow up. Well not really but often it feels that we see the same person that many times.

Our job is to of course assess somebody for the proper medication. My job is to help stablize those people who are in a crisis and feel there is no more hope for them. When we have the proper number of clients in a day - usually fifteen to sixteen, our system flows nicely. When one more person shows up, it is as if our system flops and people can be at our facility upwards of six hours! You think this is a lot, at Harbor UCLA people can be there for more than ten hours and might still be turned away.

Mental health to the multitudes is new to us. Eight years and 15,000 plus people has taught us a few good lessons, especially to try to get the clients out in the shortest amount of time. Before the average stay was maybe one hour and fifteen minutes. Today we bogged down to a snails 6 hour pace. When you are working with the mentally ill, fifteen seconds can seem like a lifetime.

Friday it was just like this and a staff member got attacked. Having no security for budgetary reasons the whole staff is more at risk than ever. Today we tried to keep the patrons educated. "The doctor is going on a break." "You are third on the list and will be seen in about a half hour." "Do you need a piece of paper and crayons?" "Johnny stop talking to that lady." I felt more like an elementary school teacher than a crisis therapist.

Why are people showing up to a mental health emergency room in droves right now? Is it the economy? More people have come in due to losing their jobs and home. Is it because they had tried to resist getting the proper help for so long that they are forced to do so because their symptoms are too great? Yes and yes. And more and more. We all live in a mentally ill world and have not made it a priority to treat. There are simple coping methods that can be taught in school. In our families we can teach our children the methods we use to get through the uncomfortable things in life. We can ask our children what is bothering them. We ourselves can open our mouths and speak our truth.

Why is counseling so taboo? Many clients tell me they just don't want to talk about the unmentionable things that had been done to them so many years ago. So they try to box it up and toss away the key, all the while they dream about it, drink because of it and damage their body and mind because of the detrimental tools that are using.

I am not proposing some big governmental program. This is an individual, a family, and sometimes a group problem. With problems, solutions can be found if we all put in the effort. I am doing mine, one person at a time. Though I have a few others daily meaning myself, and my family. Still we can solve the mental health problem if we learn the proper tools of the trade.

Stay tuned.