Justice in Mental Health Organization

JIMHO'S HISTORY...
Justice In Mental Health Organization (JIMHO) was founded in 1980 by Richard
Wellwood. In 1975 after Richard's breakdown and first suicide attempt, he ended up in a
mental health system that only seemed to revolve. Richard made further suicide attempts,
was hospitalized, on Social Security, in a day treatment program and a clubhouse program.
Richard was put on Thorazine and in therapy. He was then cut off from his Social Security
benefits, having been deemed fit because he could attend day treatment. Without benefits,
the only income he had was from his wife, who worked at a minimum wage job to help
support him and their two children. Richard sat home with the children watching them
grow up but unable to be a part of their lives.

Through all of this, Richard began to realize that this "system" was not meeting his needs or
the needs of others. The "system" never gave him or others an opportunity to progress
beyond it. Richard began to think about what it would take for him and others to truly get
better. As he went through the process of treatment and rehabilitation he realized that
there was something he needed that was not there.

Richard found that day treatment was ineffective and that vocational rehabilitation offered
no challenge for him. These programs treated individuals like children. He and others
around him were over-medicated and had no stimulation to get better.

Justice In Mental Health means justice within our lives. It means justice in family, housing,
employment and our social lives, with civil and legal rights as well. At this time, Richard
was working for the Center for Handicapper Affairs. He saw how they had come together in
support for their lives and felt that people with mental and emotional problems deserved
the same.

Richard decided, with the help of another individual, that they would gather people
together to advocate for change in the system. It was a slow process. Individuals were
afraid to come forward to say that they were mental health consumers or that the system
needed change.

A Tuesday night support meeting was started with about six to eight members. This was the
beginning of JIMHO. The Tuesday night self-help support meeting was for people suffering
from so-called "mental illness." The meetings were held once a week and the agenda was
decided by those who attended. Issues such as medication, neglect, hospitalization, abuse,
over-medication, housing, employment, human services agencies, Social Security, families
and friends and local mental health agency programs were discussed. The major issue was
the treatment received in the state-run hospitals: abuse, neglect and over-drugging of the
patients.

The group came together to help each other overcome difficulties and to prevent
re-hospitalization. Many individuals in the mental health system do not have the support
of family and friends. The individuals, then and today, only want a chance to put their lives
back together and to be productive again. The group began to help each other find housing,
food and clothing. The group was a place to socialize as well as a place to be where people
understood each other and what each was going through. The group members shared the
pain of their peers with support and real empathy. They shared experience finding
solutions to a variety of problems. They came together to help each other stay in the
community.

No one deserves to be treated as inhumanely as we have been. No one should be neglected
as we have been. Trying to live with our mental and emotional problems kept in the closet
gets us nowhere. We need not be ashamed of where we have been. We should be proud that
we have endured and that we have survived.

As the group grew larger and larger, so did the expenses involved. A proposal was
developed for funding to continue and enhance the work of consumers helping consumers
stay in the community. This project was entitled Project Stay. It provided the minimal
funding for a space, a director, and a few of the bare needs of the project. The rest came
from the community in the form of donations, assistance and support.

The original funding from Community Mental Health was for Project Stay. With the funding,
Project Stay found a site to rent. It was a small office in the basement of a building, barely
big enough for a few people, a table, chairs and a phone. This became a hub for people with
emotional and mental health problems who were in crisis. As people received help from
their peers, they often wanted to give something back. By helping others the way they had
been helped, the volunteer crew of the project steadily increased. Individuals began
coming in just to have somewhere to go where they felt comfortable. In this small cramped
office, the drop-in began.

Many things drove Richard over the years to keep fighting for the rights of individuals in
the mental health system. He was visiting patients in Ypsilanti State Hospital and seeing the
deplorable conditions under which they lived, seeing individuals treated as animals and
somehow less than human, seeing individuals having their homes, their families and their
lives ripped away from them, and seeing his friends and people he cared about so
over-drugged that they couldn't even function. Someone had to speak for these people.
Richard encouraged others to speak as well. He went with individuals to Social Security
hearings and to court hearings. Richard took people to Washington D.C. to speak to the
legislature about conditions in the state hospitals.

Richard and others continued to speak out and educate. They were confronting the stigma
and fear in them and in society. In 1985, Richard testified at the Michigan State Capital
before the House Appropriations Committee, advocating for more money for
consumer-involved projects and consumer alternative projects. Representative Joe
Young Sr. indicated that he would like to see the JIMHO drop-in concept replicated across
the State of Michigan. With his help and encouragement, Richard applied for funding and
Project Doors began.

The first drop-in opened by Project Doors was in Grand Rapids. Over the years, Project
Doors has faced many challenges. The original drop-in located in Pontiac burned to the
ground. In another community, an individual donated a beautiful home in which to house
the drop-in. It was blocked by the city council because the community feared having
people with mental and emotional problems walking in their neighborhood.

Local community mental health agencies have reacted in a variety of ways to the concept
of consumer-run organizations. Some have wholeheartedly supported with funds and
consultation. Others have found the concept of a consumer-run program to be a threat.

Project Doors now has 55 affiliated consumer-run programs. Michigan has the largest
number of consumer-run programs in the nation. These centers serve 15,000
unduplicated individuals each year and the numbers continue to grow.

The Drop-in concept began because of a lack of options in the community. It began as
friends helping friends. The Drop-in concept means that all individuals deserve to be
treated as human beings with rights, respect, and dignity. Individuals deserve to have the
opportunity to live their lives in the community

The goal of Project Stay is to coordinate a community based supportive network for
individuals labeled with severe emotional and or mental health problems in order to
prevent hospitalization or relapse and to teach coping and the life maintenance skills
necessary for individuals to adjust or readjust to living independently in the community
after hospitalization.