An Interview With Dawn Robinson, Former Case Manager at State of Connecticut Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services
Image courtesy Dawn Robinson
Serenity:
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I was wondering, what was a typical day like in your world?
Dawn:
Usually, we would have a morning meeting to start the day and find out if there were any hot cases. Normally, the doctor, therapists, case managers, employment specialists, and education specialists would all sit together. We did have an OT person, and we would discuss with anyone who was decompensating, what we could do, and what were some of the things that they could do themselves to feel better at that moment. Typically it was an hour meeting unless we had some real targeted issues, but most of the time it was an hour. We would talk about things from people decompensating, which was the very worst, to so and so, may have a new boyfriend. So we would talk about things we could do and what groups we could ask if they wanted to take part in. We had women's groups, which I ran, a spirituality group, and an LGBTQIA+ group.
Serenity:
The groups when I went were very helpful and probably the best part about being in the facility, beyond getting some peace of mind and being away from the world. Speaking of the groups, maybe you could tell me some more about what the woman's group was like and what were the things you would talk about?
Dawn:
Oh, yes. Some of the women's groups were really good groups. It was integrated with women's health as well as how we see the world, and our place in the world, depending on who we are. Generally, we talked about things that some young women didn't know and were helpful to their growth. We would have little exercises, to help them kind of understand their part in life and where they can go in it.
Serenity:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Like guiding them in the right direction.
Dawn:
Definitely.
Serenity:
So I'm assuming the spiritual group had a lot of prayer.
Dawn:
Well, it was not a lot of prayer. I took it from a different point of view, such as how our spirit helps us through the day. How having a spirit to guide you. When they would hear about God, it would make them feel bad because they think of any so-called wrong stuff they've done in their life and their mental illness, and how it affects other people. Those facts can leave you without hope. So in there, I wanted to give them a reason to have hope and know that WE are people, period. Doesn't matter who you are, people are body, soul, and spirit. I would tell them or ask them, “Have you ever been to a funeral?” And they would say “Yes.” And I'd say, “What about that person who seemed to be different if you look into their eyes? What would be different about their eyes from when they were alive?” And they would say, “They're dead. You don't see any life in those eyes.” I said, “Well, what do you think is missing?” And they were like, “Oh, well, the person is missing.” I said, “Yeah, kind of. It's their spirit that's missing” When that spirit leaves, it's like when you take off a coat. If you have a coat on, the coat moves with you. If you put your arm up, the coat goes up, and it moves around, but when you’re not in the coat it’s lifeless. There’s just something, and there’s nothing. That helped a lot of my clients understand the spirit part. Then we connected the spirit part to a higher being. Knowing that the higher being, no matter if you were Christian, or Muslim, that higher being is a God and that God is of love. Why would a God that loves you, hurt you?
Serenity:
I struggle with religion myself, being born and raised Catholic. So I did attend one of the spiritual groups and we talked about shame and guilt and not having the choice to not accept shame and guilt that comes with having mental health conditions, and feeling loved and supported by God and caring for your holy spirit.
You also mentioned that you took part in an LGBTQIA+ support group. Could you tell me more about that?
Dawn:
Now that was statewide, we started out with a small group just discussing how people were accepted in the community. We would talk about things we could do to embrace our identities and causes we could back. That was really fun. You’d get someone who's Transgender and someone who's Gay and they would have issues with each other’s life, but we showed them their differences are the same because we’re all different. It’s ok to be different.
Serenity:
As a staff member, how did you all support each other during the day?
Dawn:
One thing was by noticing each other. You have to be really aware. When my husband died I would go to supervision with my boss and I would start talking about my clients, and she would stop me and say, “No, how are you doing?” and I would say “I’m pretty sad. I’m this, I’m that.” and she would never let me get off the topic because she knew I had to get it out. That’s what we did for one another. If I noticed for example one day my co-worker was edgy, and I knew she was upset about one of her consumers they were trying to send to a program in Utah, and she was so angry about it, but I didn’t want her to say something that would get her fired. So I had to intervene between herself and her supervisor and I had to let them know how we felt about this consumer because we didn’t want that. For things like that, we really had to band together to make sure that the administration knew where we were coming from.
Sometimes I would work on the lock unit, and on the lock unit, they would do takedowns, which is when somebody is put in restraints. It's very hard on the staff who have to do it because you build a relationship with those same consumers. When you know them and you’re having to say calm down, because you know what’s going to happen if you keep saying this, or doing that or throwing things, or whatever’s going on in the moment, and they’re saying I just want to be heard. Usually, that’s all it is, is somebody saying they want to be heard.
Serenity:
Yeah, you’re so right. We all want to be heard. What would you say the best thing you learned about yourself is while working in that facility?
Dawn:
You know what I learn and tell everybody, is everyone has mental health issues. Everyone. The difference is usually the amount of coping skills, and how we cope with it. Like today, my thing was being overwhelmed by the look of this apartment I just moved into. But then I had to sit back and talk to some people, well you know my cousin tells me “Oh, I’ll come and help you.” but she just got out of surgery, and I told her “No, you don't, you just got out of surgery”. But once you feel that support and love around you and you know there’s somebody there to listen or help, you begin to feel better.
Serenity:
You’re right, your mental health is totally dependent on a varying group of factors, how wealthy you are, and access to resources, two your environment, where you’re living, how your city or town takes care of your environment and three, how your immediate friends and family support you. You could have all the support in the world and still need the care of a mental health facility because your mental health is so out of control.
Dawn:
Right, and that’s for most things I find a lot of people think that you can throw money at a situation and it will be fine, but I look at things like all the actors and stars and musicians that have had money that have died from drug abuse. With all of the money in the world, you still can't take care of your mental health. Usually, if you’re drug addicted, it’s for a reason. It could even be a perceived reason, “Oh everybody looks at me strange.”, or you think everybody's looking at you strange but they're not really, but it’s real to you. So what do you do? You go take drugs to feel better.
Serenity:
Yeah, I can only imagine. I take medicine for my mental illness, and if I didn’t I know I’d probably have to go back to the hospital. Did you have any experience creating routines for people in the hospital?
Dawn:
We had a young man who was a paranoid schizophrenic, and there wasn’t much of anything he could do on his own. We took a bunch of post notes and put them in his room, with his schedule and we all worked on his schedule including the case managers and the therapists what he needed therapeutically, what he needed like playing video games and he needed to know that 11:30 at night he had to put away his video games. We would also take our consumers shopping, and we would help them with their list according to how much money they had, we would help them cook, help them at the laundromat, and teach them living skills. So that they would always have someone who was prepared to work with them. Sometimes we would go out to coffee, to teach them social skills.
Serenity:
Well, this has been very illuminating, is there anything else you would like to share?
Dawn:
I think one thing that we all have to do is self-care, which I think is extremely important, like you said today, you laid down, well you knew that and you were able to do that. It’s so important that we have self-care, and like me today I was able to reach out to people that made me feel good. We have to do self-care and we can't be so selfish and egotistical, cause I feel like it’s all ego when I feel like I get to a place where I ask for no help because I feel like I can do it all. It's not true. I feel like that’s the biggest part of mental health, because of our ego. I would like everybody in the world to remember one, we all have mental health and two put that ego aside and know that you can ask for help.
