Tanners active in support group

By PAUL MENSER

pmenser@postregister.com

The couple helped start an Upper Valley chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Early on, John and Martha Tanner saw where the system was failing them and their son Craig, who has schizophrenia. There was no place for him.

Jail was not the answer. Craig's first brush with jail came after a psychotic episode in 1997, which resulted in incarceration in Montana.

The jailers there were willing to turn him loose, gravely disabled, in a snowstorm. They would not hold him for extradition unless his parents filed a criminal complaint. Later, the Bonneville County prosecutor didn't want to have him extradited anyway, so that he could be treated.

The Tanners learned how ill equipped law enforcement was to deal with people who are mentally ill, despite the fact that jails and prisons are filled with people who suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who are unwilling to submit to treatment voluntarily.

The Idaho Department of Correction estimates 20 percent of its inmates suffer from mental illness.

Seeing all that prompted the Tanners to do something.

With Doug Call and others, the couple helped start NAMI Upper Valley, of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a national advocacy group.

They are regulars at a NAMI support group, and helped start the Family to Family classes now run by Beth Howell and Jewel Seward twice a year.

The classes run 21/2 hours once a week for 12 weeks a session, and teach families how to help their ill family members and understand the diseases and the treatments available.

At the support group, which meets every second and fourth Tuesday in the Idaho Falls Recovery Center conference room, people can speak in a roundtable setting about their experiences with mental illness, and direct them toward resources they might not otherwise know about.

NAMI has done much to inform the community and the Idaho Legislature about the needs of those who have mental illness and how their supports can be improved. Recently, Rep. JoAn Wood spearheaded receiving a $1.24 million grant for drug abuse and mental illness treatment in the Bonneville County Jail.

NAMI was also instrumental in the two mental health courts started in Bonneville County with the assistance of the Idaho Supreme Court, Region VII Mental Health, District Judge Brent Moss, Judge Linda Cook and Eric Olsen.

Today, the court, among the first in the country, serves as one of five training sites in the United States. People from around the country come to Idaho Falls to learn how to effectively run a mental health court.

Related to this is starting up Dual Recovery Anonymous, a 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, a resource for people to get a handle on both their mental illness and substance abuse.

Three needs

Although Region VII is leading Idaho in resources for people with mental illness, there are many needs that are going unmet, NAMI advocates John and Martha Tanner say. Here are three things that would improve the situation.

Increased treatment access for people who have not committed a crime

What advocates hear is that the recent legislation improving care in jails and prisons and allowing judges to order treatment from the bench is having the unforeseen consequence of taking away services to those who have not committed a crime. Fewer people awaiting substance abuse treatment on Health and Welfare rolls are able to access treatment because court orders are taking up the available slots.

A secure treatment facility for the dangerously mentally ill

Treatment within the prison and jail system for those with mental illness and for substance abuse is improving. Important consideration is being given to a separate new corrections facility. But an additional, very important need is for a separate facility for people with mental illness considered dangerous but who have not been adjudicated and who by law must not be co-mingled with those in corrections who have committed a crime. Idaho's state hospitals provide outstanding care, but they are not set up as a secure facility for the violent or dangerous.

Crisis intervention teams

This involves setting up a team with law enforcement members who volunteer for special training in the crisis management of those with mental illness. They work in concert with local mental health professionals, who are available to assist them in defusing the situation or guiding transport to the appropriate treatment facility. The overall goal is to reduce jail as the default care for those needing treatment for mental illness, and it also reduces the risk to unskilled law enforcement of assault or use of deadly force to the out-of-control person with mental illness.

Where to go for help

NAMI Idaho: (800) 572-9940

NAMI Upper Valley: The support group meets the second and fourth Tuesday of every month in the basement conference room of the Idaho Falls Recovery Center, 1957 E. 17th St.

Region VII Mental Health: 528-5700

EIRMC Behavioral Health Center: 227-2100; (800) 209-8405

New Beginnings Inc. Mental Health Center: 522-1904

Psychological Services Associates: 552-0490

Rehabilitative Health Services: 522-8899

Reliance Mental Health Services PC: 525-8339

Vista Family Services: 552-0355

CLUB Inc.: 529-4673

A to Z Family Services: 524-7400

Above and Beyond PSR: 521-7225

Access Point Family Services: 522-4026

All Star Counseling Services: 200-7377