By Vivian Shipe
KNOXVILLE, TN — Ever so quietly, she dropped her head to say a prayer for the young mother she was watching through the window. She could see the child was having a psychotic episode and the mother was frustrated as she tried to calm her young son who needed more help than she could get for him.
The older mother closed her eyes and thought back over the years when she went through the pain of her own child’s mental health journey and the pain that the whole family felt over the years trying to get help in a city that had none. Lakeshore was gone and the only help lay hundreds of miles away in Nashville and Chattanooga. Now, she prayed, with the possibility of a regional mental health facility coming into Knoxville, maybe, just maybe, the child struggling in front of her, could get the inpatient care he needs without traveling away from home and those who love him.
The memories begin to rise from the recess of her heart as she remembered the collective effort of city and county, law and legislation to get the help available now. She thinks of med pod four at the jail, never designed to be a mental health facility, she thinks of the officers who have to drive to Chattanooga or Nashville to get help for people who are not criminals yet have to wait weeks and months in jail for mental health care. Safety Centers, and short term facilities exist now, yet it’s not enough, the inpatient days are not long enough and there are not enough beds to meet the needs of oh so many, like the young man she watched , struggling with his illness.The process, the steps, to get more beds , she thought to herself, must begin again.
On Friday March 22, in the very spot where Lakeshore Mental health institute, which had served a 24 county wide region once stood, Senators Richard Briggs and Becky Duncan Massey, surrounded by state and local leaders from both sides of the aisle, took the first step. Speaking to a sea of representatives from hospitals, mental associations, NAMI, community organizations, Helen Ross McNabb and the law department, Massey announced the intention of the body to pursue a 50-bed mental hospital with a growth goal of 100 for Knoxville. Lieutenant Governor McNally, and Senators Briggs and Massey, with the support of the House, asked for and received a report from the Department of Mental Health. Within that report lay two stark truths, the regions population is rapidly growing, as is the number of those needing more acute mental health care. The report provided data recommending the need for a state psychiatric hospital in the Eastern region of Tennessee.
As she listened to the sirens approaching the scene that was unveiling before her eyes, the older woman knew it was time again. Time to take up pen and paper and do her part as she had done before; to tell her story and the stories of so many families like her.
We rise together, she thought, as she wrote the first words on her piece of paper.
Dear Honorable Governor, I would like to share my story …..
