Thursday, June 18, 2009
Providing a 'helping hand'
Organizers and participants of the New River Valley Bridge Program gathered to celebrate the program.
Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times
Victoria Cochran (foreground) jokes with Shirley Owens and grandson Joshua Sayers, 6 months. Cochran was a program director and helped found the New River Valley Bridge Program. Owens, who has struggled with alcoholism and depression, found help through the program. "I went from the bottom to a full cup," she said, lauding the program.
Carolyn Dixon, a former board member of the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley, and current board member Bob Hendrickson greet each other as the association and the New River Valley Community Services held a symposium celebrating the success of the New River Valley Bridge Program.
But her life started looking up when, rather than going to jail, she enrolled in a program for individuals suffering from mental illness and substance abuse.
"Everything just caught up with me," Quesenberry said to a crowd of about 50 at a symposium for the New River Valley Bridge Program on Wednesday. "I honestly believe the Bridge Program helped save my life."
The Bridge is a jail diversion program that serves as a partnership between the criminal justice and mental health systems. It identifies people in jail who have a serious mental illness and allows them to live in the community, rather than jail, and receive treatment and counseling for their illness.
The goals of the symposium were to raise awareness of the program and celebrate its successes, said Mike Wade, community relations specialist for New River Valley Community Services.
"It's a program that is still relatively new," he said.
He said local government officials and state legislators have continually endorsed the program, but it is important to keep providing the community with evidence that it is successful.
The program, led by the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley and NRVCS and begun in March 2007 after a year of planning, serves residents in Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and the city of Radford. In two years it has enrolled 89 participants and thus diverted them from the Montgomery County and New River Valley Regional jails.
According to Harvey Barker, executive director of NRVCS, 16 percent of people in jail have a serious mental illness, such as major depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Among women, the number is 30 percent. These numbers put a strain on jail and prisons, since it costs more to incarcerate someone who is mentally ill.
Heather Custer, the clinical supervisor for the Bridge, said many of these people have never had the resources or support to seek help. If a person has a mental health or substance abuse problem, that person needs to be in treatment, she said.
Participants in the program said they found the Bridge to be a much better solution to their problems than jail time.
"Incarceration is not a rehabilitation," said Shirley Owens, who said she had been in and out of jail several times because of her alcohol abuse and depression before she enrolled in the Bridge. She said the program encouraged her to talk about her past problems for her recovery.
"The Bridge Program has helped me to see there are underlying causes. Someone just doesn't become an alcoholic," she said. "There's a reason."
Derrick Tunstall, who had been charged with two hit and runs and several traffic violations and suffered from bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence, said the program will work for people if they are sincere and devoted in their recovery efforts.
"It's amazing, when you start turning your life around, just how fast it will turn around," he said.
Quesenberry said she is indebted to the program for the support she found.
"They really do care about you," she said. "They give you that helping hand."
