Funds will give mental health program a boost

Monday, Feb. 11, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- After her nervous breakdown, Alyce Thomas Thrash became a virtual hermit in her Las Vegas home.

Because of high anxiety, she rarely emerged from her home for 2 1/2 years, except to take her children to school. She would check the locks 20 times a day to make sure they were secure.

But thanks to another person with mental problems, Thrash now has a college degree and is living a normal life, working as a mental health advocate.

Since 1999 the state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services has been contracting with a Las Vegas company to provide peer counselors to help with those with mental problems.

Last week the Legislative Interim Finance Committee voted to fund it as a full-fledged program, allowing the counselors to become state employees instead of independent contractors.

Division Administrator Carlos Brandenburg says this program helps mental clients on "the road to recovery," aiding them in finding jobs, housing and educational opportunities.

It based on the theory that a person who has suffered from mental problems will be able to help somebody who is going through the same troubles.

The peer counselors aid others in handling the chores of daily life.

Kevin Crowe, chief of planning and evaluation in the division says one big problem is that many mental patients miss their appointments to pick up their drugs. Peer counselors can contact those who fail show up and find out what the problems are.

The counselors do not dispense therapy or counseling. That's left up to the professionals in the division.

But they do such things as helping a mental patient fill out papers for a job or a home. Or they show the troubled people how to handle things around the house.

Thrash, who is now the consumer representative and the chairman of the state's Mental Health Advisory Council, says she never rode the municipal bus lines in Las Vegas. But her peer specialist took her out, showed her how to use the system and where to get on and off.

In turn, Thrash says, she taught her counselor how to budget and to cut coupons to save money.

Counselor also can assure patients that things are going to get better, having been ill and gotten better themselves.

The program was started in 1999 by taking about $250,000 from a federal grant to contract with Caminar Co. in Las Vegas to supply four individuals who had suffered mental problems and who could provide help to others in the same boat.

The biggest resistance came from professionals in the mental health system -- the social workers, psychologists and those with degrees, Brandenburg said. He admits had to be convinced that those who suffered through mental illness could help others.

But now the professionals are some of the biggest backers of peer counselors. Under the initial contract, two counselors were placed in Las Vegas, one in Reno and one in Douglas County.

The new funding has allowed the staff to be expanded by two -- one going to Las Vegas and the other stationed in Northern Nevada, Brandenburg said.

The counselors receive training and they understand the system, because they have been part of it. But they don't give out medical advice, he said.

Brandenburg envisions the counselors taking additional college courses so they can advance through the state job system. And others can be hired at the entry-level positions that pay $10 to $11 an hour.

When he took over as administrator, Brandenburg said he did a survey of his clients and they biggest thing they wanted was a job and a home. This program helps them along the way, he said.

The program will help keep some people out of hospital beds, Brandenburg said. A report last week said Nevada puts too many of its mentally ill and disabled into institutions instead of them being in the community with services.