Sunday, April 1, 2012

Seeing God?

“The statistics on sanity are that one of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.” –Rita Mae Brown 

 Last week I was visiting one of our facilities and when I opened the front door of my car to leave I noticed a man sitting in the back seat.  Thinking he had mistakenly gotten into the wrong car I asked why he was there. Maybe he thought I was taking him to another facility or else had me mixed up with one of the program’s drivers.

                “Someone told me you were close to God,” he replied.  “That maybe you could help me know him better.”

His answer set off an alarm. While at times my ego lets me fancy myself a spiritual guru, his response caught me totally off guard. When I gathered my thoughts I invited him to get out of the car so we could talk.  I wasn’t sure who he was - or if he was even one of our clients. For all I knew he was under the influence of drugs or maybe an angry former client. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t a danger to others or himself.

After we spoke a few moments I found out he was a current client. And I also learned that he had emotional or mental issues that we weren’t qualified – as peer counselors – to deal with. His comments and responses were inappropriate and illogical.  For example, he said he was getting communication from “invisible people who were gesturing to him.”

After twenty minutes I was able to convince him to let us take him right then for an emergency mental health evaluation.  He was prescribed medication and returned to our facility the next morning to continue working on his recovery.

            Hopefully he'll be okay.

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