Mental health care gets a boost: Grant will pay for respite center in Fox Valley

June 11--A hefty state grant will provide Fox Valley residents who suffer from mental illness a welcoming place to find around-the-clock support during difficult times.

NAMI Fox Valley, a branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has received $441,000 to establish a peer-run respite center. It's one of three Wisconsin organizations to receive money for the centers as part of a $29 million state budget initiative to improve mental health care.

Paula Verrett, recovery specialist for NAMI, said respite centers are an innovative concept, and research shows they are effective. They provide an alternative to hospitalization and offer services in a home-like setting. The centers will be the first of their kind in Wisconsin. Only about 10 such centers operate in the country.

"It's a place for people who aren't in crisis, but are concerned about going there," Verrett said.

People in need will receive private rooms and typically will be able to stay for up to five days. They will participate in recovery-related programming and social and recreational opportunities.

The centers vastly differ from hospital settings. Instead of nurses distributing medications, people who use the center will be responsible for managing their own regimens.

People who have succeeded in recovering from mental illness will staff the center.

"There's comfort in having the support of other people who have been there and who have overcome it," Verrett said.

The peer-run centers will be available to adults with mental illness through self-referral.

In addition to respite centers, the state's mental health initiatives include the creation of a state children's mental health office and expansion of coordinated service teams that would increase home counseling for children.

Unified approach

Amanda Matthews, executive director of the Northeast Wisconsin Mental Health Connection, said the grant recognizes the region's dedication to mental health care.

Fox Valley providers have worked hard to develop a unified approach to mental health and open new avenues to care.

The other organizations that received money will open centers in Madison and in western Wisconsin.

Karen Iverson Riggers, NAMI's program and development director, credited state lawmakers for commitment. The Fox Valley's center will provide a place "where people will feel cared for, respected, supported and empowered to take charge of their recovery," she said.

NAMI leaders hope to open the center in 2015 but have not yet begun to look for a location.

Verrett said she's long envisioned a comforting place to aid people who are struggling, and she wonders whether her own recovery would've happened faster had a resource like the center been available.

"This has been a dream of mine forever."

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