I spent the morning visit a couple of the adult residences run by Greater Lakes. The way it seems to work is that a client gets picked up and sent to Western State or Puget Sound Mental Health. When they are stable they go to a managed facility like Seely Lake Lodge. Then to a more independent facility with little supervision. Anywhere along the way they can decompensate though and cycle back through the system.
Many clients are long-term patients with medication non-compliance and illicit drug use being the two most common causes. Meth (i.e. crystal meth) seems to be an epidemic around here. WA is by some reports the manufacturing capital of the world for meth, with some reservations in the area have evidence of production in over 25% of the homes!
Meth is just about the worst drug these providers have seen thusfar. It can kill you with the first dose (esp. with pre-existing heart problems). It is almost 100% addictive after the first dose. It is cheap and easy to make. Oh, and it has this wonderful effect of permanently creating psychoses in many users! Want schizophrenia, voices telling you to do stuff or the ability to empathize with vegetable matter? Just use Meth for awhile. Scary stuff for our society, but I'm sure there are newer chemicals just around the corner.
This afternoon I sat in on my first therapy session with an insurance client. Until now, clients have pretty much been Medicare or Medicaid patients. So she was very normal with some relationship issues and anxiety. Not to belittle these very real problems, but they seemed so miniscule compared to the permanently compromised individuals I've been seeing for three weeks now. It was a nice break and a chance to actually provide some input from my own personal experience.