If you don't know already, I am a case manager for adults with serious mental illness. SMI is categorized by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizo affective disorder. SMI doesn't cover what we call Axis II which are the personality disorders.
Late Friday afternoon, it's nearing 5 pm and I leave at 5:30. At the end of the day, my office mate Derrick and I are always the "blue dot" or the on-call. Derrick was out on Friday, so it was just me and my supervisor, Roberto. I get a page from the office assistant and return the call. There is a consumer that transportation has failed to pick up and therefore, I have to take her home. It's been a big week. I did more reports and entered more progress notes than any other week. I put in four hours of overtime to make sure to complete these items. So, like a selfish person, I am not thrilled about taking this person home.
This consumer lives about eight miles north of our clinic, which isn't that big of a deal. Going north during rush hour isn't as bad as heading south, which is my direction. What this means is that my drive home now is doubled, and in Phoenix that translates to at least an hour or more. Lovely ending to my week, right? Right.
I put on my best face and attitude and and set out to take this lady home. I had never met her prior. She is a very sweet lady, and she begins to tell me that this is not the first time she was not picked up by the cab company we contract with. Apparently she had to be taken home prior for the same reason. She had been made to wait three hours the time before, and had been waiting two hours this time. How lovely, waiting in a stuffy clinic waiting room for a ride that never comes.
You know that breathless feeling that hits you when you jump into a cold pool? As quickly as your breath is taken in that moment, I was smacked in the face with perspective. This lady's quality of life is not very high. She lives alone. She has medical issues that compound her mental health issues and yet she looks forward to coming to our clinic to play some bingo or watch a movie. On top of all of this, she maintains a charming personality and a great attitude. It would be easy to excuse a nasty attitude and disposition given what she faces as her life. That's all she gets. She gets to live alone, struggle with physical and mental ailments and never get to experience and enjoy the many things most of us take for granted. She doesn't know romance, she doesn't have family Christmases, she doesn't go on vacations, she leads a life that most of us would pity, but does it with cheer and kindheartedness.
This is the very reason I do what I do. There are so many life lessons and opportunities happening around me every day that I can ignore the lack of pay in this field, or the quagmire that is the politics surrounding mental health. I do it for these people, because on a regular basis they give me so much more.
I got home roughly the same time I would on a day with light traffic. Perspective. Irony. God's lessons right in front of my face.
J
