Auditory hallucinations -- the “voices” schizophrenics hear -- occur in the same place in the human brain as do nightmares. The difference between you having a nightmare and a schizophrenic hearing those voices is that you can wake up from your nightmares. Too often, even with medication, someone with schizophrenia can’t escape the voices.
That’s another reason we admire our Resource Advocate Program (RAP) staff at the Mission. They work out ways to help people who sometimes seem beyond help to others.
D.W. came to RAP one day after being discharged from prison. His only possessions were his dentures and the prison clothes on his back. D.W. has schizophrenia. Medication seems to have little effect on his auditory hallucinations.
D.W.’s voices endlessly scream insults at him. They also make it hard for D.W. to assimilate and process spoken instructions. So D.W.’s advocate at RAP coached him to respectfully say, “I have two disabilities that make it hard for me to understand what I’m expected to do. Would you be willing to help me by writing it down?” Then the advocate helped D.W. phone his parole office and request the instructions they had given him (some of them as spoken directions only) a second time so she could put them in writing for D.W.
It didn’t stop there. D.W.’s RAP advocate arranged appointments for him, putting those appointments on a calendar for D.W to check every morning when he took his medications. That coaching helped set D.W. up for success in showing up when he needed to. The Mission also gave D.W. a backpack, toiletries and two changes of clothing to help him in this crucial time of personal transition.
It might well be a long and winding road for D.W. in his journey to stability, housing and self-sufficiency. It often is for the chronically homeless. From here it seems probable that he’ll be a regular guest at the Mission for awhile, getting the services RAP can provide.
That’s fine with us. At RAP, D.W. has advocates who know that D.W. can understand expectations that are written out for him. As long as he asks for the assistance his disability demands, that simple practice is building a foundation of hope in D.W. that could lead to success.
We intend to be one voice that actually creates a haven of clarity in D.W.’s sea of chaos. Thanks to the RAP advocates, that can happen.
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