A True Story of Healing...
"Our son John was fifteen, an excellent student, enjoyed school, sports, his friends and entertaining other with his jokes. He was a very outgoing teenager until that summer when he became quiet, withdrawn and moody, spending a lot of time alone. He was going to be attending a new school that fall and we assumed that he was very apprehensive about the change.
He became progressively worse. He was hospitalized in Cleveland just after his 16th birthday for six months and then hospitalized for over two years. Almost a year later we were offered a tentative diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 16 to 17 months to find a medication that helped.
When John returned home at 18, he had no high school diploma. We had good doctors and insurance, but no one could advise us on programs available to John. Those we did try didn't know what to do with someone on private insurance. Support meetings let us know we were not alone. John tried to work, did get a GED but needed many hospitalizations.
My husband's company was purchased and we were left without insurance once COBRA ran out. We were faced with high rates for insurance with mental illness coverage. John was able to be covered as a disabled dependent, until our insurance announced that mental illness wasn't an illness and would not be covered.
Our family tried to cover John which led to him feeling guilty and cutting back on his medications. This led to the necessity for an emergency hospitalization. We had no insurance he was sent to North Coast. It was the best thing that could have happened. John was put on new medication and instructed to call Neighborhood Counseling, now Recovery Resources.
Recovery Resources provided John with an excellent psychiatrist, day programs to help John find his strengths, a men's group, and social worker to help him find his way through the maze and difficulty of applying for government assistance. He was also directed to an agency that provides subsidized housing and counseling for the mentally ill. John has an apartment and a weekly visit from a social worker through that agency. John has not had a psychiatric hospitalization since becoming a client of Recovery Resources eight or nine years ago.
Our only regret is that we didn't know about Recovery Resources years earlier."
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