by Deborah Parkhill Mullis
Staff Writer
Perhaps their plight is not as pronounced here as in other places, but Union County does have its own population of homeless people plagued by chronic mental illness.
Gene Walter, Director of Union County Mental Health Services, said he knows of at least 30 individuals in Union County who suffer from chronic mental illness and have no permanent address.
And undoubtedly there are more as the Piedmont area made up of Union, Stanly and Cabarrus counties has an estimated 3,121 adults with severe and persistent mental illness.
"These people are like modern day lepers - they're untouchable. People say 'get away from me' and run them out of places," lamented Walter.
"As a group, they are not as violent as the general population, but they do act in bizarre ways and people don't like them."
A mentally ill person just wandering the streets may be contending with so many thought processes that he simply can not function. Life for them becomes so confusing, that's one reason why they need care, he explained.
Currently, Union County does not have a group home for those with mental illness but it soon may.
"We have the land, we have HUD approval, and state approval. The federal people have it now and we don't have much doubt that it's going to be approved," Walter said.
He hopes to see the group home operating within the next 12 to 18 months. Even so, it will house only six people.
Presently, Union County has a residential program consisting of three rent-controlled residential sites, which provide housing for eight individuals. Funded by a national grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program, named Union Residential and Vocational Enterprises, provides a guaranteed rent and prevocational training for a small number of the county's chronically mentally ill.
Stressing the 'pre' in prevocational, Walter said, "(The program) is very basic. We try to help them to learn to think and to coordinate their thinking and their hand movements. It provides good experiences and allows them to have some success and to earn a little money."
Still, this program only accommodates between 8 and 16 individuals.
The Partial Hospitalization Program in the community care unit of the Piedmont Mental Health Center probably reaches the largest number of Union Countians troubled by chronic mental illness.
Some 40 individuals participate in this program, which emphasizes social skills, some two to three times a week. Unfortunately, participants must rotate days because there is not enough space for all of them at the same time.
Transportation is another big problem with the program, as there is only one van, with over 90,000 miles on it, to service the entire county.
"It would be awfully nice if we could have them all here every day. We don't have the space, we don't have the staff, we don't have a whole lot of things we need," Walter said.
Trying to help remedy that, Walter has been advocating for equity in funding. The state of North Carolina does not provide equal dollar amounts per capita to all its counties when considering their mentally ill. Union County would receive several million more dollars just by being equally funded, Walter explained.
As director he would like to see the county's mental health center open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"When these people need a place to go, they could come here and it would be a safe place. They could get a Coke, a pack of crackers, or just sit in a chair. They could see a nurse, a counselor and talk about what is troubling them ... these people have troubles just like you and I do.
"They are perhaps among the most needy people in the world. Because they may look O.K., society is not very sympathetic with them. Society doesn't understand the nature of their disease," Walter said.
Despite funding problems, he remains optimistic saying, "My view is to try to look at what you can do instead of concentrating on what you can't do."
(Deborah's article was originally published by The Enquirer-Journal on January 7, 1990)
Staff Writer
Perhaps their plight is not as pronounced here as in other places, but Union County does have its own population of homeless people plagued by chronic mental illness.
Gene Walter, Director of Union County Mental Health Services, said he knows of at least 30 individuals in Union County who suffer from chronic mental illness and have no permanent address.
And undoubtedly there are more as the Piedmont area made up of Union, Stanly and Cabarrus counties has an estimated 3,121 adults with severe and persistent mental illness.
"These people are like modern day lepers - they're untouchable. People say 'get away from me' and run them out of places," lamented Walter.
"As a group, they are not as violent as the general population, but they do act in bizarre ways and people don't like them."
A mentally ill person just wandering the streets may be contending with so many thought processes that he simply can not function. Life for them becomes so confusing, that's one reason why they need care, he explained.
Currently, Union County does not have a group home for those with mental illness but it soon may.
"We have the land, we have HUD approval, and state approval. The federal people have it now and we don't have much doubt that it's going to be approved," Walter said.
He hopes to see the group home operating within the next 12 to 18 months. Even so, it will house only six people.
Presently, Union County has a residential program consisting of three rent-controlled residential sites, which provide housing for eight individuals. Funded by a national grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program, named Union Residential and Vocational Enterprises, provides a guaranteed rent and prevocational training for a small number of the county's chronically mentally ill.
Stressing the 'pre' in prevocational, Walter said, "(The program) is very basic. We try to help them to learn to think and to coordinate their thinking and their hand movements. It provides good experiences and allows them to have some success and to earn a little money."
Still, this program only accommodates between 8 and 16 individuals.
The Partial Hospitalization Program in the community care unit of the Piedmont Mental Health Center probably reaches the largest number of Union Countians troubled by chronic mental illness.
Some 40 individuals participate in this program, which emphasizes social skills, some two to three times a week. Unfortunately, participants must rotate days because there is not enough space for all of them at the same time.
Transportation is another big problem with the program, as there is only one van, with over 90,000 miles on it, to service the entire county.
"It would be awfully nice if we could have them all here every day. We don't have the space, we don't have the staff, we don't have a whole lot of things we need," Walter said.
Trying to help remedy that, Walter has been advocating for equity in funding. The state of North Carolina does not provide equal dollar amounts per capita to all its counties when considering their mentally ill. Union County would receive several million more dollars just by being equally funded, Walter explained.
As director he would like to see the county's mental health center open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"When these people need a place to go, they could come here and it would be a safe place. They could get a Coke, a pack of crackers, or just sit in a chair. They could see a nurse, a counselor and talk about what is troubling them ... these people have troubles just like you and I do.
"They are perhaps among the most needy people in the world. Because they may look O.K., society is not very sympathetic with them. Society doesn't understand the nature of their disease," Walter said.
Despite funding problems, he remains optimistic saying, "My view is to try to look at what you can do instead of concentrating on what you can't do."
(Deborah's article was originally published by The Enquirer-Journal on January 7, 1990)
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