Let's All Help to Improve the Community

by


I just celebrated my two-year sobriety anniversary on October 8.  That same day, I had a three-hour interview at Wright State University in Dayton, to get into their Rehabilitation Counseling:  Chemical Dependency Program.  At the end of the interview, I was told to expect to get a letter between one and three weeks, confirming if I’d been accepted or not.  I got an e-mail an hour and a half later, stating that I’ve been accepted.

Part of the reason I want to become a counselor for people with chemical dependencies is because I’ve had my own issues, and I want to help people with theirs.  I can relate to them.  Another reason I want to do it is because since I’ve been writing for the We Care People, it’s reinforced my passion for mental health awareness and wanting to help people.  Everyone who works for them wants to help people.  It’s in the title.

This is why the upcoming levy is so crucial.  The need for treatment of people with mental illness has risen, while the funding to provide that need has gone down.  We can’t help people to our best capacity in that situation.  And everyone deserves the opportunity to receive help and to become a fully functioning person in society.

Some people may think the levy doesn’t affect them, so why should they vote for it?  Well, it affects everyone.  The people who make up the society we live in will be affected in a positive way, and those people are the same ones who will hold jobs that will directly affect us.  Whether they go into nursing, retail, or the food services industry, they will affect us in some way.  Everyone we come into contact with us.  And wouldn’t you want the people who are affecting you day in and day out to be working up to their potential?  The passing of this levy will increase funding for the We Care People so that the people who are helped by us get the best possible treatment, improving the overall atmosphere in which we live.

This is also about the Golden Rule.  If you were an addict, someone with depression, or someone with PTSD, wouldn’t you want to be helped as much as you could?  We should want the same thing for our fellow citizens.  I have bipolar disorder.  I can say firsthand that, had I never received treatment, I don’t even know if I’d be here right now.  Care is so important.  

I hope to one day work somewhere like Coleman Behavioral Health, in part because I’ve seen how dedicated and caring the staff is.  They don’t turn people away.  They could do even more, serve more people, and serve them better if this levy passes.  
This is about equal rights.  We should all have the right to thorough health care, including mental health care.  This November, please help us by supporting this levy.

Please help us care.