Hey NAMI Family ....sorry to be a "blogger slogger"... but the excuse is the same for alot of folks..."Where does the time go????"

Kudos to Val for keeping me straight and on task! Her new name is "The Taskmaster"!!! instead of the "Webmaster" HEEEEEEE HEEEE HEEE.....

Mental Health Month is in May: Our Theme is "Mental Health... MAY DAY!!! MAY DAY!!!
(is anybody out there?)...Our plan is to try to launch our new public awareness campaign, (hopefully), via a live news conference at (hopefully), Phoenix Park...with speakers, hot dogs, balloon release, information, etc, etc.....we are shooting for Thursday May 3rd @6:30 in the evening....we'll keep you posted!

I've included my "rant-n- rave" on the hospital issue!

$$$$$ 1 Billion in HOSPITAL PROJECTS in KY !!!!
$$$$ 600 Million Planned or Underway in LEXINGTON !!!!
“Holy Hospitals !!! Batman!!!! Where’s OURS !?!?@#?????”. . .

By: Kelly Gunning, Executive Director
NAMI Lexington

A-h-h-h-h-h, the Sunday morning paper; usually one of my favorite, relaxing times. Not so this past Sunday, March 4, 2007. The gleaming audacity of the headline proclaimed, “Hospital Construction Everywhere”. What? Could this be true? Everywhere? Really? ... I read on, fully expecting to see reference to the hospital project that our organization has been tirelessly pursuing since 2004 in cooperation with Bluegrass Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, Inc.; the replacement campus for Eastern State Hospital. I scanned, eager to read the long awaited proclamation, my eyes feasting on all the statistics and declarations that, “We are going through a hospital BOOM!” and the recognition that some folks have been enduring “their aging buildings” since 1962 !!!! 1962??? Well, have I got a news bulletin for the folks that just can’t fathom treating patients in such dilapidated, out-moded, inadequate facilities - why don’t they feast their eyes on this little tidbit…We take our loved ones to and we are treated in a hospital that was being constructed in…are you ready for this…1822!!! Yes, this is not a misprint, 1822. The Kentucky General Assembly passed an “Act to Establish a Lunatic Asylum” on December 7 of 1822 and the ten acres of original land and the unfinished Fayette Hospital were purchased. May 1, 1824 the first patient was admitted; 183 years ago.

I read on, the visions of:
· “much grander, much larger” lobbies,
· semi-private rooms where family members can sleep (sans, vinyl chairs) and connect to the internet (!),
· healing art, gift shops, healing art, coffee shops, healing art, boutiques and day
spas (!),
· new technologies; citing, of course, “everyone wants the latest equipment” and ”those things factor into size” and “you have to have the physical plant to house the services”.

I love those visions. I support building state-of –the art facilities. I want everyone in our Commonwealth to have the best care in the best environments we can offer. I want everyone to realize that those things have not occurred for the mentally ill in our Community or the 50 other counties that Eastern State serves, for 185 years. We want things like HVAC systems that actually work, we want treatment areas that in and of themselves aren’t so depressing that you hesitate to leave your loved one there or enter yourself. We want a clean slate, defunct of all the horrors and misguided treatment approaches that have been inhumanely utilized throughout history. We want people who suffer with serious mental illness to have ‘the best”; just like people that want “the best” heart care, “the best” cancer care, “the best” prenatal and pediatric care, “the best” diabetic care. Where are the 185 year old hospitals that treat those serious illnesses? That’s right. There are no 185 year old hospitals for those populations; because they deserve and demand “the best”. It would be unthinkable and unimaginable to not offer every nuance that would promote wellness and a return to health.

The fact that we do not have the appropriate setting for treating the mentally ill is based on stigma, lack of education and discrimination. What other illness population sees its patients taken to treatment in handcuffs in the back of a police car? Mind you, because they are ill, not because they are criminals. Yes, people with serious mental illness, can be, because of their brain disease, disoriented and difficult…would we tolerate that same treatment for an elderly person who had Alzheimer’s disease? A cancer patient with a brain tumor? Serious mental illnesses are life threatening brain diseases. Repeat after me. Serious mental illnesses are life threatening brain diseases. People with mental illnesses and their families deserve “the best”. We deserve state-of-the-art. We deserve the support from the medical Community and the Community-at-large to speak out with us and demand that this hospital become a priority. It has been “on the drawing board” for two years now; developed in collaboration with Bluegrass MH-MR Board, with input from providers, family members and persons with serious mental illness. We are ready and we are damn tired of waiting for it while the rest of the population receives ‘the best”.

Peace Out for NOW!!!!! - Kelly G