By Mark Delaney
The conference room in the New Center Building, where our NAMI offices are located, recently provided the venue for two days of meetings which were unprecedented. Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) at the University of Michigan Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry is embarking on a study designed to evaluate and determine how that department can better serve those who are living with mental illness and living in support of those people, the very ones that we serve.
Management staff from PES appreciate the NAMI mission and what we do on behalf of this population and approached our leadership with an unusual proposal. As part of this ongoing study, they wanted to hear directly from individuals who were evaluated at PES and then from family members who accompanied them to these evaluations. Our participation in this process began when John Kettley, PES director, contacted our Executive Director, Judy Gardner, and requested our collaboration and support in organizing these meetings. Judy agreed and preparations for this joint effort were soon initiated.
It was agreed that the people in question would be identified and then invited to attend these meetings which were held on January 18th and 19th of this year. On the first day, individuals who fell into the first category (patients) were in attendance. The meeting was conducted by Mr. Kettley and senior staff from PES. Ms. Gardner and several NAMI members joined in. The attendees who had been seen at PES were quite open in describing their backgrounds and expressing their opinions on the treatment they had received. Attention was also paid to the ongoing care that followed as a consequence of their evaluations. Understandably, these accounts were mixed. While it was appreciated that these experiences occurred during stressful periods of their lives, some negative comments were not unexpected. These reports were carefully noted, as were more positive reports.
Though fewer participants were present on the second day, it was equally informative. All these individuals were the parents of offspring (teens and twenties) who had been evaluated at PES – some more than once – and all of whom had significant psychiatric histories. Again, the families’ recollections varied and included positive and negative comments. Of note, however, was the knowledge and relative sophistication of these parents, considerably more than would be expected of the general public. Thus, what they related carried considerable weight.
Both the PES staff and we at NAMI were impressed with how productive these two days had been. What these meetings provided were the views and personal accounts of both those “living with and living in support of,” in ways that should enhance the study being undertaken by the U-M Psychiatric Emergency Services and served as a valuable reminder of how NAMI can play an important part in the overall services offered to individuals impacted by mental illness.
At the conclusion of the second day’s session, information on the NAMI Family to Family program was presented. The participants were told that they were all prime candidates for inclusion in our upcoming series of classes and several of them expressed interest in enrolling. PES staff also expressed interest in all the classes and groups we sponsor, and they were provided with a variety of NAMI brochures which will be made available to patients being seen in that service at the U-M Hospital. Our day closed with both of our organizations expressing satisfaction over this joint project and pledging to strengthen our ties to work closely together in the future.