Heart Story: Advocate for Mental Health Client

This story was submitted by Chuck Davis, Mental Health Ombuds

Mental health Ombuds has a client who presented early in 2010 with a sad story. The client had a history of alcohol abuse and mental illness. He had suffered terrific bodily injury due to things that happened to him while he was under the influence of alcohol. Although he was living in a “clean and sober house” when we met him, the house was neither clean nor sober. He was trying his best to maintain sobriety and was extremely frustrated with that living situation. He had fairly recently been through the court and criminal justice system. He told Ombuds he had received unfavorable treatment, rejection and neglect from a number of community “helping” agencies. He stated that his mental health services were lacking and had set him up for failure. Saddest of all, he was out of options, had nowhere to turn, and was thinking about going back to drinking. He told Ombuds, “I might as well give up and stay drunk until I die, for all the good it does me to try to find real help.”

He found a Skagit County Community Action Agency flyer promising that their mental health Ombuds would do their best to assist him. Shortly after his initial call, Ombuds had obtained a medical release form and was at work helping him. Ombuds initiated complaints and grievances about his treatment through his mental health services agency and arranged several face-to-face meetings with that agency. Ombuds subsequently promoted his interests through an intense grievance process with the North Sound Mental Health Administration, the region’s public mental health authority.

Ombuds empowered him to transfer his mental health treatment to a different provider agency that provided him proper mental health treatment. Ombuds also worked on his behalf between the local housing authority and his new provider agency and found him a suitable home within three weeks. The client is now committed to sobriety, has a very positive outlook, is volunteering at a community drop-in center and is working with an agency to find a job. He recently stated, “This is the absolute best I have ever been!”