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Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
Saturday, May 9, 1998

Local group’s road to recovery

Robert Fanjoy
Guest column

WHEN Peg Dwyer calls the meeting to order, her board members are prepared and ready to conduct business. These people are not discussing financial strategies for some Fortune 500 company, neither are they making decisions which will affect a work force of thousands, but they are taking care of important issues their own mental health.

Dwyer is the president of the Fairfield County Mental Health Consumer Group Inc., or FMHCG, an organization run by consumers of mental health services and committed to helping themselves and other consumers down the road to recovery. In 1995, FMHCG was one of four organizations in Ohio to receive a three-year grant to fund consumer-operated services ranging from transportation to socialization activities

These programs differ from traditional mental health recovery approaches in that they empower the consumers to make many of their own decisions regarding their treatment.

"This has been a very worthwhile organization," says Dwyer. "It has brought a lot of consumers out of their shells and even helped some get employment. The community has gotten involved in some of our activities, and the group’s presence has fostered a camaraderie between. consumers and professionals."

The group has undergone a few changes since its earliest form as People Advocating Change in 1993. Even while growing from a small, informal group to its current form of a board of 10 consumers overseeing activities for more than 100 others, their philosophy has remained the same: to focus specifically on the recovery of mental health consumers.

To foster such recovery, the group provides services such as transportation to sell-help seminars, workshops on mental health recovery, and social activities such as trips to Cincinnati Reds baseball games, holiday picnics and summertime pool parties.

Perhaps the most important singe service the group provide is a drop-in center called Our Place," a three-story residential home in Lancaster.

Our Place is a place for Consumers to socialize, hold special events such as movie nights and Valentine’s dance, and otherwise spend time with one another.

The Fairfield County Mental Health and Recovery Service Board assists the group in various ways, such as providing ‘Board Governance Training," which covers everything to what the president of a board does, to helping the group revise its bylaws.

While the group is happy to have the support of these professional agencies, they are proud of their autonomy in the operation of the group. Executive Director of FMHCG Janet Galligan points out that independence and autonomy are two of the greatest benefits the consumers receive from involvement with FMHCG.

Since the group serves as a model for possible future consumer-run recovery programs, the Ohio Department of Mental Health contracted with Ohio University’s Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) to evaluate the effectiveness of the FMHCG.

ILGARD Research Associate Lesli Johnson, Ph.D., who is the principal investigator on the project, sees the group as an important element in the recovery process. "Any time a person can shift from seeing others as sources of help and assistance to seeing themselves as directing that activity, tbey are going to feel much better about themselves,’ says Johnson.

Preliminary ILGARD finding support that notion. Consumers stated that being active in the group has given them a sense of purpose, improved their quality of life, given them opportunities to meet people and make new friends and allowed them to be more active and helpful to other consumers.

Professional organizations are seeing the merits of the group as well. Galligan states, I’ve only received positive comments from agencies such as the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the MH & RS Board" Galligan says that "some days its hectic, but most days its a joy. I have a son with schizophrenia, s it is a positive thing for me to be involved with helping these consumers help other consumers."

Dwyer and the two previous board presidents, Kenny King and Rick Branscome, have worked hard to make FMHCG a success. "The people in the community have become more aware, they reach out to us mare, and there is less of a stigma associated with mental illness in Fairfield County," says Dwyer, taking pride in a job well done, but ready for more.

Robert Fanjoy is a public relations associate of the Local Government Administration and Rural Development at Ohio University