A place where they can ‘Drop-In’ and relax Silver Spring nonprofit gives adults with mental health issues a ‘home away from home’

A place where they can ‘Drop-In’ and relax

Silver Spring nonprofit gives adults with mental health issues a ‘home away from home’

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

by Meredith Hooker

Staff Writer

Rockville resident August Spector goes to the Affiliated Santé Group’s Silver Spring Drop-In Center on a regular basis and enjoys his time there.

He takes part in the center’s activities, like the workshops it’s held. He serves on the center’s advisory committee. And he spends time with his friends, playing pool, working on the computer or doing any number of other activities.

‘‘You can let your hair down a little bit,” he said, describing the camaraderie at the center. ‘‘People feel good about themselves when they come here.”

The Silver Spring Drop-In Center, which has been open for a little more than a year, is open to adults age 18 and over who are Montgomery County residents and have experienced mental illness or have otherwise needed mental health services. The center is consumer-run, a consumer being an adult with mental health issues.

At the center, adults can shoot pool, watch movies, play board games, do arts and crafts or just relax. They also can take advantage of twice-monthly NAMI (Nation’s Voice on Mental Illness) Consumers Advocating Recovery Through Empowerment support groups. During the holidays, the center will have parties.

The center, a nonprofit organization funded by the county’s Department of Health and Human Services and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is free, and adults can come and go as they please, said center coordinator Miriam Yarmolinksy. Unlike rehabilitation programs, there is no attendance requirement.

While the center offers an unstructured, relaxed social atmosphere, the Santé Group also offers services in the same space on Eastern Avenue, like a psychiatric rehabilitation program. The center is open 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Between nine and 14 people will be at the center at any given time, Yarmolinsky said.

‘‘The idea is to encourage people to socialize,” Yarmolinsky said. The center not only acts as a place of support, but also reduces the social isolation that many adults with mental illness can face because of the stigma associated with it.

‘‘Sometimes people with mental issues can develop a lot of social anxiety,” said Silver Spring resident Greg Mansfield, a consumer at the center. ‘‘If someone asks you what you do for a living and you say you’re disabled due to mental illness, it can make it difficult.”

For instance, Yarmolinsky said, those with mental illness can be perceived to be unstable, unreliable or weird. But that’s not the case. And everyone, she said, needs peers and people who understand them.

That’s why Germantown resident Patrick Hodges regularly takes the bus from his home to the center even though there’s also an upcounty resource, Gaithersburg’s On Our Own, for residents with mental health issues.

‘‘I like the people here,” he said.

Mansfield recalled one woman who had paranoia and anxiety and didn’t stay with any program for very long, but regularly comes to the drop in center. Many times, he said, adults with mental illness tend to withdraw and not socialize as much.

‘‘Before I started coming here, I had very little social interaction,” he said. ‘‘I stayed at home most of the time.”

Structured programs don’t really appeal to him, he said, because they seem more like day care. But he likes the drop-in center because it’s self-directed and he can come and go when he feels like it.

Edee Schwartz of Burtonsville said she’s enjoyed and benefited from the people she’s met at the center. Twice she’s left with people and gone other places to socialize.

Silver Spring’s John Mullen also goes to the drop-in center regularly since it’s easily accessible from his apartment and said he’s made several friends by doing so. He even found out that Mansfield lives in his building. Mullen also said he’s also been able to get information at the center about housing and benefits.

Yarmolinsky said she tries to provide information about food stamps, housing assistance, benefits and security and other topics consumers might be interested in. Consumers can also use the center for networking purposes since many of them work both full- and part-time.

‘‘You can get a different kind of help or support here,” Schwartz said.

For instance, Schwartz said, she hates using the computer at home because she’s not really a computer person, and by herself, she gets frustrated. And that frustration can aggravate anxiety and depression. But at the center, she can ask people for help.

‘‘This is a home away from home,” Hodges agreed.

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