Educating Mental Health Staff About Secular Recovery

By Will Parsons, LSR New Jersey

Recently Kathleen and I addressed the staff of the Cumberland County Guidance Center here in southern New Jersey. Cumberland County is north of Cape May County where we have a small LSR meeting on Thursday night.

There were about thirty staff present from various State and County human service organizations. The staff was mostly young and middle age females with associate and bachelor degrees who work with mental health clients. I was surprised that there were not many twelve steppers there, but then this was not an alcohol rehab. I talked about what it felt like to be addicted and what it felt like to be in a major depression and why people who have not experienced those states have no idea what it feels like and thus offer very stupid suggestions.

I also presented my thoughts about causes and treatments. Talked about some strengths and weaknesses of AA and made a pitch for alternatives to AA. In explaining LSR, I mentioned active listening, honest speaking, compassion, the workbook, unhooked.com, LSRmail, and chats.

The audience was interested, laughed appropriately, and asked relevant questions. One of the major problems the County Guidance Center has, is that the State is releasing as many patients as possible from mental hospitals and giving them to the counties with a lot of money. It is cheaper to give the counties money than to keep the clients in the hospital. The patients whom the State is releasing are serious cases –schizophrenia, bipolar, major depression, and alcoholism. These clients can barely function. Most of the patients are taking a variety of street drugs and alcohol on top of their other drugs. The councilors do not know what to do about the drug abuse.

Here are some of the questions we were asked -- "I have a client in rehab taking Paxil. He and his wife say he is doing better. His rehab counselor says that he has to throw away all mind-altering drugs. Do you think this is right?" "When does a person cross the line from social drinking to alcoholic drinking?" "How do I convince someone that they have a drinking problem and that they should stop?" "Have you thought about starting a meeting here?"

We answered the questions as well as anybody could. After the meeting people hung around to talk with us for a while and to pick up literature. We probably will not get members for our Sea Isle Meeting but we did pass the word that AA is not for everyone and that there should be alternatives. It is possible that we will pick up some on-line. They would be happy to have an LSR meeting there.

After the meeting Kathleen and I went to a small Mexican restaurant, ate and talked for a while. Later the Director thanked me for the presentation and said it was well received.

Love, Will

5/30/01