HELP: WOMAN IN SEARCH OF HER LIFE

The scenario of the Cape Girardeau woman who has spent the past 10 years needing mental health treatment is uncommon, mental health professionals say.

"I'm thankful that's very atypical," said Mati Stone, director of clinical services at the Community Counseling Center.

Usually spouses of mentally ill people are eager to get them into treatment, Stone says, and, when asked, the mentally ill person goes.

There are remedies available to this family, however, though one of them is not the legal recourse they have at times considered. "It is the spouse who would be recognized in a court of law," Stone said.

"...There is nothing legally that would allow parents or a sibling to do anything. There's nothing they can do legally to force her into treatment."

Stone has suggestions for this family or for other families whose lives have been clouded by mental illness and who don't know what to do during this, Mental Health Month.

Stone said the family can:

Join a support group and familiarize themselves with the different mental illnesses and the services available.

"They can learn about the usual causes of these illnesses and how to cope with their own feelings about it," Stone said.

A number of these monthly-meeting support groups Families of the Chronically Mentally Ill, the Manic-Depressive and Depressive Association, Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse meet or can be contacted through the Community Counseling Center. The phone number is 334-1100.

Contact the regional mental health coordinator for the state Department of Mental Health. The coordinator will determine whether the person is mentally ill and at risk, and has the power to order a 96-hour involuntarily detention in a mental hospital for evaluation and treatment.

Being at risk means posing a danger to themselves or to others.

In Cape Girardeau, the regional mental health coordinator is Shirley Batterton, whose office is located at the Cottonwood Treatment Center. The phone number is 290-5924.

Anyone families as well as government agencies, law enforcement, probate courts can refer an individual to her for evaluation.

The credibility of the person making the referral is checked and an affidavit is taken. More information is taken from witnesses before the mental health officer meets with the person whose well-being is in question.

The respondent usually is very cooperative and sometimes willing to go to the hospital voluntarily, Batterton said.

"If someone in the family is not willing to let them in we'll go back and get a police officer," she said.

If a court orders the detention, the person would go to the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington, or to one of three facilities in Poplar Bluff Doctors Regional Health Center, Lucy Lee Hospital or the John J. Pershing Veterans Hospital.

A 1985 statue also gave the state the power to order an involuntary detention for people who are substance abusers and are dangerous to themselves or others.

In Southeast Missouri, people would go to the Gibson Recovery Center (males only) in Cape Girardeau, the Stapleton Detoxification Center in Hayti, and the New Era Center in Poplar Bluff.

If the person doesn't require an involuntary detention, Batterton said, her office will try to match them with voluntary services.

"If the family is in need of any kind of services, we'll bring in whatever agency is appropriate," Batterton said.

"We provide as much help as possible to the family."

The Community Counseling Center is a private non-profit corporation designated as the administrative agent for the Southeast Missouri region by the state Department of Mental Health.

Many people in the community are living with severe mental illnesses, Stone says, and it is never too late to seek treatment. But, she cautions, "These illnesses are lifelong. There's not going to be a magic recuperation."

In the case of the woman who has been living with her untreated mental illness for the past 10 years, Stone says it's unlikely she would require institutionalization. "The state hospital's admission criteria are strict," she says. "You have to be quite, quite ill to get in."

Depending on the illness, her treatment might consist of a psychiatric visit every three or four months, regular medication and perhaps biweekly individual or group therapy, Stone said.

The yearly psychiatric cost would amount to $130 plus $130 for the in-depth initial consultation.

The cost of medication can vary greatly with the illness, Stone said, but $75 per month might be a ballpark figure.

The cost of biweekly therapy would be about $140 per month.

Insurance coverages for these costs also can differ widely, Stone said. Some companies that pay 80 percent of medical costs will cover only 50 percent of the cost for outpatient mental health treatment.

Other insurers place a $5,000 lifetime cap on mental health costs. Others limit treatment to psychiatrists or certified psychologists who have a Ph.D.

Support from the state is available in some instances.

If the family members in this story join a support group, they eventually can become strong enough and knowledgeable enough to talk to a minister who could work out a reconciliation between the family and the woman's spouse, she suggested.

"They could all come in for treatment together," Stone said. "It sounds like there's a lot of alienation among the parties.