THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609220018
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 88 lines
Wayne Jones joined 250 other volunteers Saturday, looking for information to help fellow citizens deal with mental illness, drug addiction, mental retardation or homelessness.
Keynote speaker Eric T. Scalise, a professional counselor from Williamsburg, came to provide some guidance.
Both men shared a similar philosophy about community problem solving: Citizens and professionals must work together.
``It doesn't always take a professional,'' Scalise told the second annual Citizens Helping Citizens conference at Scope. ``You see, that's another myth help someone. That's important, but not all.
``I'm in private practice. Someone might see me once a week. Who's going to have contact with that person the other six days?''
Jones proclaimed: ``We do!''
Like many volunteers, Jones does not work through a government social-service agency. He's a lay minister with Norfolk's Faith Deliverance Christian Center who spends much of his time taking the Gospel to the streets.
There, he often serves people with complex social problems.
``We run across the homeless. We come across those that are drug-addicted. We come across those who are prostitutes and those that are HIV,'' Jones said. ``You come across an array of people, so many of them.''
Information from the conference, he said, not only gives more insights into these problems, but will help volunteers make referrals to the appropriate social programs.
``Our communities need to come together and network with the information they have, so they can help the individuals who are struggling,'' Jones said.
Volunteers attended workshops with titles such as ``The Community's Role in Relapse Prevention,'' ``Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems'' and ``A Day in the Life of the Homeless.''
They also discussed many of the myths surrounding mental disabilities, addictions and homelessness.
Ron Pritchard, a substance-abuse counselor at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, took aim against three common myths: that addicts must hit bottom before they can be helped, that people with mental retardation cannot hold jobs and that homeless citizens choose to live on the streets.
Such myths, Pritchard said, need to be explored ``and exploded.''
George Pratt, executive director of the Norfolk Community Services Board, which sponsored the conference, said myths about people with mental disorders were reflected in stereotypical language, such as calling someone crazy or a lunatic.
``It's important that we start challenging ourselves to use the right terminology,'' he said, urging the volunteers to help educate friends, relatives and co-workers as a way to dispel the myths and stereotypes.
``One myth is that people with mental disorders act unusual all the time. Not true,'' Pratt said. ``For instance, there are many individuals who have very severe depression who can go to school and can hold their jobs.''
Another myth, Pratt said, ``is that people with mental disorders can pull themselves together. If a person is suffering from an organic brain disorder, they must have treatment in order to get better.''
``Having an organic brain disorder . . . is no more a weakness than we would say of a person who has high blood pressure or a high cholesterol count or a person who has diabetes . . . or chronic asthma,'' Pratt said.
Don MacKeil spoke of the myths concerning people with mental retardation, such as his son.
``The biggest myth,'' MacKeil said, ``is that they are so very different from the rest of us.''
People with mental retardation, he said, have individual abilities like everyone else.
Sarah Paige Fuller discussed the stereotypes of homelessness and how the homeless population is changing.
Fuller, a homeless-outreach caseworker, said 20 percent of the homeless are employed and a third are families with children.
Homeless families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population but are those most often turned away from shelters because of lack of space, she said.
Many homeless, Fuller said, are invisible because they sleep in cars or abandoned buildings. That makes the homeless with a mental illness or a drug addiction more visible, reinforcing another stereotype, she said.
Fuller warned about another myth - that the federal government will continue funding programs for the homeless. Washington, she said, is cutting back, causing the financial burden to increase for local communities.
Eric Scalise, the counselor from Williamsburg, reminded volunteers that ``relationships really are the key.''
``Without people,'' he said, ``it doesn't really matter whether you have programs.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Eric T. Scalise, a counselor from Williamsburg, was the main speaker
at the Citizens Helping Citizens conference on Saturday. by CNB