MPOWER

Hi People
How are you doing?

Hello Peers,

I'm Florette Willis, the new Acting Coordinator for M-Power.

I'm interesting in hearing from you about issues pertaining to you such as ER Rights, Peer Respites, 5 Fundamental Rights, DMH new Non-Smoking Intitiative at facilities and institutions, etc.

M-Power Board of Directors have taken the following position on the DMH Non-Smoking Initiative:

M-POWER is very concerned that The EOHHS Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative and/or DMH Tobacco-Free Policy violates free will by forcing people to quit smoking in inpatient and residential mental health facilities. It is our contention, all Americans have the right to choose and freedom to do anything within the limits of the law in their own homes. This includes the right to voluntarily decide to quit smoking. Yet the new smoking ban policy enacted at DMH, takes away those very rights by mandating smoke free campuses. These places are people‘s homes and by right they should be able to participate in any legal activity as adults and citizens of this country. We strongly feel that a good example of this public health policy can be supported by allowing people to practice healthy behaviors voluntarily. Furthermore, people in these facilities deserve the right, like everyone else, to decide when quitting is appropriate. In our opinion, anything else is simply coercion, bad mental health practice, not trauma informed and should be illegal.

Forced smoking cessation can also cause irreparable psychological harm to people. Research has found that the vast majority of people using public mental health services are trauma survivors. Regaining a sense of control over our lives in is a key component for healing, hence any “treatment” or policy that is forced compromises potential for healing. Moreover, it is common to adopt habits like smoking or overeating as a coping strategy for extreme distress. Positive coping mechanism can be found to replace them but only when the person is ready and offered in ways that feel emotionally safe; healing and change is incremental and does not happen overnight. Forced smoking cessation and forced dietary changes (see DMH’s “Healthy Changes” initiative) are ways of perpetuating ill health and feelings of helplessness for people with significant trauma histories.

Since the DMH Tobacco-Free Campus Policy allows temporary waivers for most facilities and implementation of modified Designated Area/Buffer Zones Policies, we propose these policies be extended indefinitely to all campuses to best protect the voluntary rights of all individuals.

PLEASE GIVE US YOUR OPINION
THANK YOU.

Great Post. I hope you don't mind me posting here. I love your site, I'll be back for your next article

i do not agree with making someone's rights being mis-handled but psych patients are not the only ones being told to stop smoking while in the hospital. yes, they are more restricted in what they can do about it but this can be said for any patient in hospitals. where are the rights of non-smokers when the smokers, and only smokers get to go outside to smoke and the nonsmokers cannot not get some air because they do not smoke. plus, if the nonsmokers are allowed to go out with the smokers where is the fresh air we seek? certainly not with the smokers. no smoking needs to be upheld for all patients.

hi!

we all deserve fresh air,
while smoking or not!

thanks

I totally agree that taking away people's right to smoke in their homes & in inpatient settings is againset their rights . Whether or not someone is diagnosed with a mental illness , we all have the right to make the decision when we are ready to cease smoking. I have worked for DMH for 21 years & have seen smokers rights totally be obliterated . I do not believe that anyone should have to tolerate 2nd hand smoke , but , there can be reasonable accomodations made .I am also a Peer Support specialisy & although we all know that smoking is a very unhealthy habit , some of the individuals I work with need to smoke as a life line & as a coping skill. I have also worked in residential settings and feel that if individuals pay rent, they should have a right to smoke , as that is their home. There is no reason why appropriate smoking areas cannot be provided outside of the residences .

Thank you for a fantastic post. I enjoyed it.

thank you for your feedback, it is so important that we receive this feedback. I agree, MPOWER is currently struggling to get back on it's feet after the huge shift that happened splitting MPOWER from what is now the Transformation Center. The transformation center took almost all the resources with them and MPOWER is now working on rebuild up the organization without any government funding and with a membership base that tends to be financially disenfranchised so cannot provide much funding through membership fees. Board members are volunteering their time of course as our others, we have a 1/2 time Coordinator, Florette Willis, who is doing a great job, please be patient with us all!

The MPOWER annual meeting coming up and we often have open Board of Directors seats open and would welcome you and anyone in mental health recovery to apply (Florette will know what seats are currently open, I think in the Southeast and Western MA but that could change). We also have subcommittees of the Board - legislative, fundraising, outreach, and newsletter - members are welcome to join these as well. In time we will be developing better mechanisms to connect with members too, so that people can contribute, guide and give feedback on what we do on a more regular basis.

thanks again for writing and I hope we can meet sometime soon, I would be interested to hear how you think MPOWER would have dealt with that situation in the past.

Nicki Glasser
MPOWER Board member

I'm a little behind when it comes to blogs, etc. so I've never written one. So here goes. I don't know exactly what I'm trying to do in writing this, but I would love some feedback.

Until four months ago, I was the Peer Specialist on an outreach team. Our clients or people or whatever is best to call them, experienced very serious mental illnesses and I think it's safe to say, from talking a lot to them, that they'd all been through hell. BUT many were living in the community after years and years of hospitals, jail, and/or homelessness. Some for the first time. This is both the story of an incident with one client and the response of a team leader and a corporation.

This client's life and condition were often described as "tragic" although I like to think that no one's life is tragic while they're still alive to make things better. But certainly he'd lived through tragic events, suicide, mental illness and a heartbreaking fatal accident in his family. On the illness side, his symptoms included mood swings, long-term delusions, and paranoia. He would hate me for writing this because I think he heard those labels so much. However, what was amazing was that he had times of clarity and it seemed as if part of him was completely untouched by the negative things. He could go from clear to not clear and back again many times within a day.

He showed a combination of appearing desperately to want to connect and share his experiences and a appearing to want to keep people away. I didn't know what to expect next. I think I kept trying to talk to him when others were scared away by his volalitity. He seemed so alone but also social. Maybe I was closer to him because I shared with him some of my own experiences with mental illness and how somehow I was doing better now. I held out hope, and I still do, that sometime in his life his obstacles wouldn't stand in his way so much and that everyone would see him as the sweet, kind person that I saw flashes of. We all just wanted things to be better for him.

One day, I went to see him without being assigned to. I had heard at the daily meeting that he had been doing well on the day before and I was happy because the day before, my client/group co-leader and I were so worried about him. When I saw him in his apartment, at first he was angry that I didn't do more for him, such as buying him cigarettes. Then I told him that I wasn't sure whether I was in fact harming him somehow or at least not helping him. He said "How could you do that?" Then he got angry again and from what he said. I knew that some kind of paranoia was going on for him. He picked me up by the collar of my coat, threw me against the wall of his apartment, opened the door and threw me against the wall in the hallway. He was saying "Get out" and otherwise yelling at me. I didn't tell anyone that night because I was afraid of what might happen to him and I was afraid that I would be punished somehow. (My team leader and Lead Clinician had driven me to tears once over something very very small.)

There was some sympathy the next day when I told some team colleagues of the incident, but the team leader didn't even ask me how I was. He wrote down my description of what happened but later I found the notes crumpled on a desk in the chart room. No one told me what to do next and I wondered if I was obligated to press charges. I'm not exactly knowledgeable of this stuff. I called the crisis phone to ask if I needed to do or say anything and the team leader yelled at me for bothering him so early. So I felt as if no one care and I called HR. BIG mistake! The HR person (a very nice person) met with me with my team leader. Then, he basically blamed me for the assault and wrote up a final warning for me. I had just resolved to just hold on when the second meeting occurred. The HR person asked me "Is this the right job for you?" I said "yes" because I loved the job and I loved the clients. Then she asked me "Are you sure you can work with Joanne and Phil?" I said yes because I really did not want to quit. Phil came in and basically demolished me verbally so I felt forced to quit. I am receiving unemployment when unusually people don't when they quit because I told the insurance adjuster my story and she was horrified. I cried on the phone because she was nice to me and no one had been in this matter.

So, there are big questions that I think of every day and that I'm not sure will get resolved.
Was I wrong to get close to the client? Was I wrong in going there? Does the client hate me and have I harmed him instead of helped him? Does the rest of the team think that I did wrong and that I deserved to be forced to quit ( they probably don't know the details). And another thing. I'm not angry with the client because I think a lot was going on in his head at the time, yes psychotic, and he felt very scared and angry.


Maybe things would feel so bad (and they still feel really bad four months later) because: My team leader and maybe the Corporation treated me so badly. Because of them, I no longer feel as if I did a good job on the team and I go over and over everything that I did there. And I just want to know if the client hates me but he apparently wanted me gone so I'd better stay away from him, even if all I want is to talk to him once. I'm kind of worried about him, whether he'll be angry at himself for what happened or even want to harm himself/

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking even though there are so many questions for me about what really happened. Writing this has been helpful for me. I don't feel so alone. Thanks for reading.

99171673167, My first blog click here http://reciprocallinkchecker.org/
My first blog click here, iyuhocglwa.
My website click here, 02420506735.

gvlrlkkheu, My website click here http://blogesaurus.com/
My blog Click Here, 04045825803.
My blog click here, iruplbocyt.

Thanks for contributing so much with this good content.