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MISSIONFrom page 1Afor a job or visit a mental health clinic.“I didn’t even know they had rescue missions,” he said. “I would have never guessed I had this in me — it's amazing.”A lone woman drifted toward the dining room exit, one of the last to finish dinner.Whitesell has pointed Becky Cannady out before; he set up an appointment for her to get a psychiatric evaluation at life Management Center last week.Life Management was full, but Bay Behavioral interviewed her and scheduled a follow-up appointment, he said. Then she returned to the streets.'‘She lives in the woods. She's always wandering,” Whitesell . said.According to online court records, Cannady was charged with trespassing last May. She pleaded no contest but was found guilty and sentenced to three days in jail.Whitesell said she recently pulled two butcher knives on her alcoholic boyfriend.“She doesn't drink or anything, she’s just way out there,” he said.Her appearance is the opposite. Cannady enters and leaves rooms quietly with averted eyes. Her stature and. clothes are modest; her voice is soft. Her small face and feathered hair are the same shade of brown . making her red-rimmed eyes stand out. She is 31 and somehow looks both old and young.Whitesell recently arranged for Cannady’s father to be present when she came to the Rescue Mission for dinner. Her father wanted her to come home and said she was better when she took her medication.She wouldn’t go.Cannady’s mother has called Whitesell at the mission hoping to talk to her daughter.“I used to go into a depression and starve myself and had to get medications,” Cannady said. “It would make me so sad, I’d take it out on myself. You take Zoloft arid it puts you backQjn.frack.” ;■ ■pC^rmady spoke frankly abouther depression, but said her lastbout with it was four years ago. „ Since then, she likes to change scenery to keep herself from being sad.“I love camping and visiting different people,” she said. “Sometimes wilderness, with the peace and quiet... and I stay away from abusive behavior.99Cannady has five or six children who do not live with her, Whitesell said. She also has a residence and business — Cannady’s Garage — in Jackson County, she said, and will go home when she “gets back on her feet.”When the conversation lagged, Cannady calmly smoked a cigarette. When she spoke again, she brought up the U.S. Capitol, and her tone became wary.She said people live underground, both beneath the White House and in Italy. “Seminoles” and others live underground “all the way from here to Des-tin,” she said.Her diction remained clear, although her meaning grew murky.“There’s a lot going on,” she said cryptically. “Be careful, there’s a lot of tribal warfare going on in Panama City.”Cannady also said there is a lot to share about her family. She said they were under investigation by federal and “overseas” authorities. She could not go into further details.Revolving doorsAlthough Whitesell keeps records of mission guests in a computer program, the check-in process has a grassroots feel.He greets every guest by name as they arrive. He knows their addictions, their disabilities, their medical history and often their family. He knows who should take a Breathalyzer test to satisfy the mission’s strict no-alcohol policy, who missed a doctor’s appointment and whoneeds work.Whitesell started as the mission’s first client advocate on March 1. It was the Rescue Mission’s response to a recurring problem.“We were seeing a revolving door of the same people able tosleep and eat here, but never confronted with the reality of “you don’t need to do this,”’ said Michael Martin, director ofoperations.Among the many hats he wears, Whitesell is often the first point of contact for homeless people who have symptoms of mental illness. And that’s no small number.While only 4 percent of Americans have a diagnosed mental Alness, the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness esti-■ Jmates between 20 and 25 percent of homeless people have serious mental illnesses.Rescue Mission staff members nodded their heads vigorously when asked whether mental illness was common amongthe clientele.\The staff members said they were not allowed to ask if someone has been diagnosed with a mental illness, but executive director Thurman Chambers estimated at least 50 percent of homeless people at the mission have mental health problems.Dr. Anthony Reading, medical director at Bay Behavioral, agreed.In a recent anonymous survey conducted with 120 homeless at the mission, 10 percent•-'•••.vs-: •i'S.Sy.SplPself-reported a mental disability.Betty Ball, program director for the mission’s women and children’s program, said the number likely is higher because many people are unaware of their mental illness or have not received treatmentI’m not sickThose who minister to the homeless have little power in cases like Cannady’s. They can’t detain her, force her to attend an appointment or insist upon treatment Many who Whitesell suspects have mental illnesses are confused or unwilling to think beyond the present.“They are dealing with what’s going on right now,” Chambers said. “That’s their world.” Whitesell must remind certain people to take showers or wear clean clothes. Some mightbe functional to work a day or two now and then, but their symptoms make it difficult.“If I told them to go (to a mental health appointment), they wouldn’t,” Martin said. “But Joe (Whitesell) is a whole’nother ball of wax. He knows the displaced community like the back of his hand, and they trust them.”Through time spent over-liigfiipa‘i-umy.y/ •* ’ ‘.v\ lt;V-coming his own addiction to alcohol in the Rescue Mission’s recovery program, Whitesell became familiar with the small world of the streets. He once walked outside to break up a knife fight, he said, and they stopped fighting to keep from inadvertently hurting him.“I used to never come downto this area, but now I know everybody everywhere I go,” he said. “They know I help everybody.”But even for Whitesell, it can be difficult to convince clients to get help with suspected mental illnesses. One of the mere two men he has scheduled mental health appointments for since early March did not show up and has not returned to the mis-4 vsion.Cannady was well informed about her history with depression but said she was currently healthy. Whether or not that’s the case, Whitesell handles many calls from people con-' cemed about Cannady. Mission records show she was released from a work program last year for insurmountable psychological problems.This unwillingness to attend appointments or stay on medication presents the biggest obstacle to helping people, the-v-S* v.\*x- v‘\vLog on to EmeraldCoastiobs.com foreasy step-by-step instructions..•a:-.*.y v .■?. x4 *Brought to you by° # '4- yfwww.EmeraldCoast.com.lt;yL3Rescue Mission’s staff said. Staff members mentioned denial, the stigma of mental illness and a dislike of a medication’s side effects as factors thatfurther discouraged homeless people from seeking help.“Everything is more difficult when you are homeless, without a support system and with the chaos of society,” Life Management Executive Director Peter Hampton said.“But that problem of the lack of awareness (of mental illness) is much greater. We see that with people who have residences, too. In a general sense, many of the people who are referred here don’t show up.”Even if one of Whitesell’s referrals did show up, he mightbe shuttled over to Bay Behavioral if Life Managemenffyas *;v full. He might have to wind his way through a complicated j cess as Whitesell helped to find sources of funding for medication or therapy.He might likefy return to the Rescue Mission in need of help.“If you told him to dig a 20-foot hole, he wouldn’t stop until it was done,” Whitesell said of one man whom he suspected had a mental illness. But you have to tell him how to pick up the dirt and put it in a pile.”lt;inmm. t’•.VV •'•re*.■rw
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Mon, May 03, 2004
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Chastity W.
AL, USA 22 Mar 2022
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