Mental Health Nonprofit Helps Clients Eat Healthy, Make Friends

April 22--TWIN FALLS -- Counselor Terri Voyles wants to help people with mental illness see themselves the way she does.

"They are amazing people," Voyles said.

Freedom In Choices Community Mental Health Recovery Center opened in October. There, Voyles runs the nonprofit Positive Mental Health, which started in January.

Five adults between the ages of 40 and 60 who have severe mental illnesses attend the nonprofit's day program, a peer-to-peer recovery group three mornings a week.

"They have a place to go into the community," Voyles said. "They don't have any of the stigma and can start reintegrating real life skills into their life. They don't get out and people don't interact with them. People don't realize they are just amazing people."

People who suffer from severe mental illness often don't like to leave their homes, Voyles said, because symptoms can be obvious to others.

"If they have a place to go, they have a reason to get up in the morning," she said. "Otherwise there is no reason, and it increases the depression and increases the cycle."

Attendees learn how to manage their symptoms caused by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or a combination of the two.

"It's more a group setting, so they can build relationships," she said. "Everyone needs friends and it's hard to do when you can't leave the house."

Voyles has a bachelor's degree in education and is finishing her master's in mental health counseling. She is a certified substance abuse counselor and a certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner and has worked in the mental health and substance abuse fields for 14 years.

"The day program is where my heart and passion is," she said. "We are supportive in nature. We do more teaching than support."

In March, the day program participants started growing their own garden plants like tomatoes and peppers. There is a kitchen on site and Voyles also teaches healthy eating and cooking. They prepare meals, eat together and complete 30 minutes of exercise.

"I love this population because they are the under-served population that do not have a lot of resources," she said. "There is so much stuff in the media that portrays mental illness in negative light. They are normal people fighting a battle within themselves. They are intelligent, so intelligent. They have higher educations, and they have their breaks, and it just takes them down. They feel all alone. My goal is to help them succeed in life."

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