Melody Warsh um is a mother teacher and volunteer wh
says she fought a 30 year battle with the disease th
mental health professionals wer supposed to help her
with but instead left her feeling humiliated. I live
with PTSD with psychotic features and as soon as
someone hears the word psychoti they think I am that
person that's into some sneaky little dark closet and
I'm doing some sneaky little back channel thing on
social media and I'm about to pull out an A.R. 15 and
get on the rooftop somewhere and dangerous bone in my
body. But how does that make you feel that people think
that when they hear I'm angry, it angers me, it angers
me so bad because it puts a barrier up to people asking
for help Washam penned an open letter to the state's
attorney general pointing to a 2016 Department of
Justice lawsuit against the state of Mississippi for
unnecessarily institutionalizin adults and Children
with mental health disabilities A federal judge agreed
there should be more community based options. The
National Alliance on mental illness in Mississippi says
even the state's big institutions weren't providing
help people needed. So Daniel Wembley is the executive
director of the National Alliance on mental illness in
Mississippi. And prime example, a lot of the facilities
are in bigger cities in the state. So if you live in a
rural area, you have to manage getting to the facility.
Once you get there you have to make sure you have an
appointment if you have an appointment, there has to be
insurance. So there's a lot of things that go into
actually getting treatment now. In 2022 the magnolia
state known for catfish cotton and southern charm is
trying to figure out how to provide patients with the
necessary care closer to home. The good news is changes
are on the horizon. For starters, the state is taking
full advantage of the new national Suicide and crisis
Lifeline, another area program making strides the peers
program. We have people who live with mental illness
that are in recovery that are able to help others in
their recovery, Jessica. James is one of those peers
specialists in recovery who's helping others. She's a
longtime Mississippi resident, proud of her
accomplishments, she's achieved her associates degree
with honors, raised two success kids and has been a
peer support specialist with NAMI for eight years. Well
how I ended up um I guess I was born into it for James.
It was a long path to get to where she is today. You
suffer with what well, anxiety and depression um also
was told that may have a little pTSD as well. James
recalls one tough day on the job. She loved, she'd been
missing work but couldn't muster the strength to get
out of bed. I would have a boost of energy at times, I
would go and do and you know stuff like that. But then
all of a sudden it just seemed like my whole world just
crashed down. A supervisor called her in after seeing
her doctor's note. James says the supervisor dialed the
number to make sure the note was real. It was
devastating for her, you know, and I'm seeing her do
this in front of me. I feel like I'm being punished
with me being sick, you know, like you didn't care,
have that hopeless feeling didn't last long. She
remembered seeing the NAMI promotion table and a health
fair. She went to with her son that led to a
partnership between the two as appear James now helps
others pushed through the mental health issues she
faced. This isn't about looking at a disease, it's not
what's wrong with you, it's what's strong with you.
That's our focus with our people. Melody Warsh um who
we introduced you to Earl earlier is also a peer
support specialists. We caught up with her during work
at the Mental Health Association of South Mississipp
She says the program isn't what you would call clinical.
It's actually unique because there are no psychiatrists
or licensed therapists involved and it's voluntary.
There's no one size fits all model and that's something
that those of us with lived experience. We do
understand, we are about sitting down and exploring
that with you and um finding out what your pathway i
and what's going to work, right And it might be a
Franken program, you know that you do a little 12
stepper thing here or you might have some spiritual
thing going on and then you need to drop in. Um, you
know, meditation. A 2019 report by mental health
America says peer support specialists lower the cost of
mental health services and help reduce the rate of
hospital recidivism. The National Institute for Health
Research also found people receiving peer support
lowered the risk of being hospitalized by 14% and
significantly increased recover The state of
Mississippi is now starting to focus on it a little bit
more and make sure that peer specialists are in every
county. Um, I think last year there were 164 trained to
be peer specialists across the state. And then some of
those that want to say between 10 and 12 were actually
in jail systems so they can now lead others through
their mental health journey and say it's okay not to be
okay. As the magnolia State tries to grow its mental
health programs to satisfy the Department of Justice,
mental health advocates are helping to cultivate the
pierce program to provide help to those in need, timmy.
S quick Newsy gulfport Mississippi