It’s just about lunch time for Club members at Places for People, located in the Central West End of St. Louis. As they’ve done for the last 38 years, members are gathering for a tasty meal “on the house,” or some relaxation, socializing or friendly competition at the pool table.
They come from throughout St. Louis City and County with at least two things in common: they have experienced mental health issues and have been supported in some way by Places for People.
“It saved my life,” said Chuck Hein, who had a history of suicide attempts.
“Health problems hit, then the mental problems came back, and I was getting ready to be kicked out of my apartment (this was in 2004)…and my landlord is friends with Places for People. He houses a lot of the mentally ill and other people that – you know. So he said, ‘Chuck, I can call a place called Places for People and maybe they can help you.’”
And help they did.
In addition to helping Hein get disability and the mental health services he needed, Hein was able to reconnect with people and his culinary talent. He is now one of the lunchtime cooks for his friends at The Club.
“In helping to make meals for people, he kind of reconnected with that part in his life and we benefited because he has some excellent recipes and he’s a very good cook,” said Scott Bayliff, associate executive director of Places for People. “It helped him with his depression. It helped him with his goals in life and he’s done very well.
Hein has moved from client to serving on the consumer advisory board.
“I am part of the advocacy board, which is voted on by the clients and consumers,” Hein said. The board is encouraging older members to get active again.
“Even if we can get you once a month or twice a year, that’s still better than staying at home,” Hein said.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports an estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older, or about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
Persons with mental illness struggle with overcoming the stigma, ignorance and fears other people have about the conditions, as well as coming to terms with and addressing their own condition.
Coupled with poverty, it is a struggle for the mentally ill to pull together the resources needed to get themselves together. Many with some of the most challenging mental disorders may become isolated or wind up living on the streets. That’s when Places for People are at their best.
“Our agency specializes in people with serious mental health disorders who are not engaged in services elsewhere – who typically are not on any type of medication and who are homeless and who often also have co-occurring substance abuse disorder,” Bayliff said.
New clients are first asked where they would prefer to live.
“If they have typically, no resources right off the bat, and/or they have a very difficult history… in their past housing, we will often put up people in weekly hotels,” Bayliff said.
“In the meantime…we would have applied for Medicaid…food stamps… other basic entitlements so we could have some resources to start working with.”
The organization works with a network of landlords to find them a place within that proximity. And they keep it “real.”
“We make sure they know what they are getting into, because some of our clients are going to be difficult tenants, not just because of their mental health disorders, because of the associated disorders, because they are human beings,” Bayliff explained.
“At the same time, we advocate for our clients to make sure that the landlords stand by the Landlord-Tenant Code and they don’t take advantage of or victimize our clients in any way.”
As a Dept. of Mental Health provider, PFP uses housing subsidy money while clients work to obtain entitlements. Most of their clients subsist on disability or Social Security. Only about 17 percent work, Bayliff said.
“Housing stock is getting less and less. It’s harder to find decent, affordable, reasonable housing that our clients would want to live in,” he said.
“You’re talking about $675 a month, and if $400 is going for rent, that doesn’t leave a lot for anything else.”
They use a “whatever it takes” approach to put clients back on their feet.
“We help our clients access psychiatric care, access medical care, we get them the entitlements, we get them to find housing,” Bayliff said.
“But we also provide integrated substance abuse services as well… we coordinate the teaching of basic daily living skills.”
They act as the payee for many of their clients to help them better manage money.
Abraham Harper said he came to Places for People 10 years ago, when he was only 18 and suffering from schizophrenia, anxiety and depression.
“They put me in a group home and they showed me how to cook, how to clean, how to wash my clothes and how to basically, prepare to live on my own,” Harper said.
“And when they put you in an actual apartment home, which is leased in part, by Places for People…they are payees and they help us with our bills and they pay our rent and make sure we go to grocery shopping and those things.”
Harper said Places for People have helped him in many ways.
“They helped me encourage myself to be better, they give me my meds every day and make sure I take my medication everyday and they are very understanding about different people’s problems as it comes to relating to their own, because we are all similar in a way.”
Harper moved from client to employee as well. Previously, Harper helped move clients in and out of apartments. He now works as a janitor.
“I have the biggest job of them all because I have to clean all of the bathrooms everyday,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s a good piece of mind, basically, to be able to get up and work all the time and they pay you.”
And he is serving others.
“He has an absolutely great personality and he’s happy…he’s moved out into an apartment of his own and he’s really grown into a very nice young man, and I have no doubt without our agency being here, he would have taken a turn that a lot of people take, unfortunately, when you are poor and you don’t have the right supports and you have a mental health disorder,” Bayliff said.
With about 375 clients and 90 total employees, Bayliff employees wishes they could serve more.
“You can serve fewer and give them the kind of services they need to be able to really succeed,” Bayliff said. “We justify that by targeting those clients that, frankly, would not be able to succeed in a traditional mental health center.”
He said what is needed is additional state revenue, more landlords and greater public understanding.
Referrals
Places for People gets referrals from psychiatrists, hospitals, the police and other advocacy organizations. It also has outreach workers with established relationships with homeless shelters and day shelter programs.
For more information about Places for People, call 314-535-5600 or go to www.placesforpeople.org.
Mental health and African Americans
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), rates of mental illness among African Americans are similar to that of the general population. However, culturally diverse groups often suffer a disproportionately high burden of disability as a result of mental disorders.
“This disparity does not stem from a greater prevalence rate of severity of illness in African Americans, but from a lack of culturally competent care and receiving less or poor quality care.”
Because of cultural differences in how African Americans express symptoms of emotional distress, the APA said there is a high probability of misdiagnosis for some disorders, such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.