Opinion: housing offers the mentally ill a new opportunity

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Schizophrenia is a disease that affects one in 100 people. Do you know 300 people, at work and play? Most likely, three of them are going through hell right now. Imagine at that figure, about 40,000 Albertans are currently suffering. The main factor in schizophrenia is psychosis. While it is not a personality divided into two or more, psychosis is a division of a person’s understanding of reality.

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In my own personal experience with psychosis, most of the time I experience four things: being more suggestible even to great ideas; false beliefs in my mind known as delusions; false information from my senses (hallucinations) that support delusions; different levels of paranoia that cause the feeling of being chased or followed.

Despite how people with schizophrenia appear on television and in many media, violence is no more common among those who suffer from it than it is among the general public. The Alberta Schizophrenia Society affirms this and goes a step further by saying that people with the disease are more likely to be victims of violence, which is also true in my experience. When you walk and think that God has just given you the secrets of the universe and you will live forever, people fear you and act against you.

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When the media reported the horrific beheading of a man on a bus, they pointed out that Vince Li, the perpetrator, had schizophrenia. They did not point to their repeated attempts to obtain medicine and help for their illness, but they were repeatedly turned away just before the tragedy occurred.

The greatest tragedy of schizophrenia is that four out of 10 people with the disease will attempt suicide, and one in 10 will eventually succeed. The damage that suicide causes can devastate the lives of all those left behind. At age 17, a close friend died this way. This sent my life into a downward spiral and eventually into a severe psychotic episode that required hospitalization.

After leaving the hospital, I thought I would do better in Vancouver. The big problem was that I brought my faulty brain when I did. I ended up getting sick again and decided to go back to Edmonton and accept treatment.

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I have asked psychiatrists and other mental health workers what they think is most important to a psychiatric patient, and they almost always say housing. Without housing, without stability, without a place to access the right medications, it is extremely difficult to help someone with a mental illness. When I came home from the coast, I had to live in a shelter in the center of town, which was a humbling experience.

It is sad that so many people with schizophrenia die by suicide. Most of them are simply too depressed and lonely to move on. At my job, we try to reach people in this situation over the phone, which can be very rewarding. Others may be experiencing severe psychosis and severe side effects from the medications. The most important thing to remember is that these people need love, friendship, and acceptance in the community just like anyone else.

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But what is the solution to the huge problem of schizophrenia? How can we help 40,000 Albertans? I think one of the first things you should do is contact your local schizophrenia society. If you can afford it, make a donation. If you can’t, volunteer. If you can’t volunteer, you can do one of the most critical things we desperately need more people to do, you can be a mental health ally and try to raise awareness and reduce the horrible stigma surrounding mental illness.

The Alberta Schizophrenia Society, of which I am a member and an employee, has interesting information about their clients. They run three housing facilities, one in Edmonton and two in Red Deer. They have found that the cost of lodging, supervision, and feeding for a person with schizophrenia is about $ 70 per day per bed. The psychiatric hospital would be lucky enough to manage $ 400 per day per bed. Not only does housing make financial sense, it would give a generation of mental health survivors a whole new opportunity.

Leif Gregersen lives in the McCauley area. He has written and published 12 books, three of which are memoirs of his experience with mental illness. His time is divided between teaching, giving presentations on mental health, and writing.