She writes eloquently about the retrospective insight this experience gave her:

‘It is the positive experience of not being depressed which makes me believe that I had been depressed for much longer than other people are willing to acknowledge…Coming out of depression is something one must experience to understand. It is difficult to describe to others, even to remind myself at this stage what it was like to enjoy music again for the first time, realizing in retrospect that for years I had gone through the motions of enjoying music without the sensuous pleasure of the real thing. The ecstasy of the beauty of spring in the Scottish landscape is another landmark in my recovery which its is difficult to convey to others.’¹

In the absence of any guarantee against the return of her depression, Altschul nevertheless lived the remainder of her life well. Her characteristic determination, iconoclastic acumen and dry wit seems to have been joined by a fresh appreciation of life. She inspired a generation of mental health nurses, and if the obituary written by one is anything to go by, she was held in genuine regard by them in return.

1 Vicky Rippiere & Ruth Williams, Wounded Healers: Mental Health Workers’ Experiences of Depression. (Wiley: Chichester, 1985), p. 167.

Annie Altschul teaching Bethlem and Maudsley student nurses at Brakespeare House, Dulwich

Read the simple “handout” above to see what you can learn and how you can help friends or family members living with mental illness. With a  simple gesture of  increasing our knowledge about mental illness and its prevalence, we can all be advocates for this poorly understood population.

Download: audio-post-2011-05-24-16-30-36.mp3|titles=Audio%20Post

When I was a med-surg nurse and encountered questions about living with a mental illness, I didn’t know how to respond. Half way through my forty-year career, armed with a new master’s in psychiatric nursing, I began teaching mental health nursing to senior baccalaureate students. As I was planning community support groups they could attend, I stumbled upon NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. And I’ve been hooked on their mission ever since. As their publication, NAMI Advocate, says, “NAMI is…the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.”

The Spring 2011 issue of NAMI Advocate features an interview with Dr. Joyce Burland, founder of NAMI’s Family to Family education program. Finding a lack of informational resources when her sister became mentally ill, she, as a PhD in clinical psychology, discovered and got involved in NAMI. In the interview, among many misconceptions people have about mental illness, she adds, “Mental illness is the illness where you never get a covered dish” (p. 15).

I stopped short when I read this quote. How true! Friends come running over with dinners when you have a baby or have your gall bladder out or have ongoing chemo or radiation treatments. But, mostly due to the stigma of mental illness, persons and families living with mental illness often suffer in isolation. “Don’t tell anyone at church that you saw me here,” I remember one of many patients saying when I was with my students on a psychiatric ward. “I don’t want anyone to know.”

The Family to Family program was set up to have families help other families. Family members are trained to be the teachers of the 12-week education course. Burland says, “There is a huge amount of information, generally unknown to those outside of this experience, about things we found that will help us in this struggle” (p. 15).

A friend of mine, Barbara Doyle, has co-taught the Family to Family course many times and has trained teachers.  She’s been a member of NAMI since 1983, and, among other offices held, she’s also a past president of NAMI Illinois. She sent me a few responses from course participants. One response summarizes them well: “I have benefited immensely. [The course] educated me about mental health disorders. More significantly (for me) is being sensitized and empathetic to the individuals in my life.”

And that’s what we need in the U.S. from all of us—to get the facts and to become sensitive to and empathic toward families and persons living with mental illness. These are essential first steps to erasing stigma.  Seeking out NAMI and what they have to offer is a good place to start.

Note their national convention meets in Chicago from July 6-9, 2011, at the Chicago Hilton on south Michigan Ave. Come, empower yourself to join the fight against stigma. Plus, take a run along the lake in the morning, loiter over a latte at a street-side cafe, and enjoy my city!

From Amy's archives - 1992

Amy identified herself as a former nursing student of mine, since married, at Trinity Christian College. I’d last seen her when her class asked me to speak at their baccalaureate chapel in 1992. Thinking about their future careers, I’d spoken on “Making a Difference.”

You may remember Amy. I featured her e-mail on this blog on 12-5-10. It can also be found under “Reviews of Caring Lessons/Readers’ Responses” at the top of this blog.

Recently, we met in person again with a very special mission. Amy has been visiting bookstores and nursing programs in the area where she lives. She’s also addressing hundreds of postcards to nursing programs across the country that suggest consideration of Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor’s Journey of Faith and Self for adoption in bridge, capstone, or professional development courses. Her enthusiasm for the book has prompted one school to adopt it already. Another had committed earlier.

Meeting again - 2011

In addition to what my publisher, Deep River Books, does to promote my book, having Amy volunteer to help me in whatever way she can has been a huge blessing–one that has earned her the title of “publicist” in my book of friends. Another superlative example of nurses helping nurses!

She shrugs it off and says she’s just helping me in what she has dubbed as my new ministry–spreading the word about the message in Caring Lessons. Amy wants to make sure nurses and nursing students know one nurse’s story about maintaining your “me” while being a mom, returning to school again and again, caring for and about other people and yourself, and changing minds about persons living with mental illness.

So, thank you, Amy, for making a (huge) difference in my life, as well as in the lives of your patients, family, and friends!

For sure, as I graded a multitude of care plans, I felt a compulsion to circle every wrong “it’s” and “alot.” Sometimes my students accused me of acting more like an English teacher than a nursing prof. But my mother’s verbal corrections of my childhood grammar re-enacted themselves in my circling behavior on the students’ assignments.

But aside from grammar corrections, I never thought to teach students how to write beyond their care plans, charting, and case studies in APA format.

What a waste! Nurses should be encouraged to write, primarily to educate the public about what it is we are about–a thinking, doing, and feeling profession. Head, hands, and heart. All at the same time. Not many professions can claim this honor or privilege or responsibility. Through  writing, with our extensive knowledge base, we can be an effective educative force as we undergo changes in our health care system.

I had the opportunity to talk about this topic to over 60 people last week at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. I was very grateful for the nursing chairperson’s enthusiasm last fall about Caring Lessons and subsequent invitation to come to speak about nurses and writing. The faculty liaison who coordinated my visit ensured that everything ran smoothly from my accommodations on campus to an informative tour of their modern nursing department to a glass of water during my talk and more.

So, thank you, the faculty of Hope College Department of Nursing, for your hospitality and for your forward thinking about the role of the nurse as writer. I’ll meet up with you at Alpen Rose  anytime! And next time I’ll know not to spread the ketchup on my toast.

If you can, use Word Power Point to open the following sharp poster they’ve made.

PresentationFlyer-LoisRoelofs

If not, check under Events at the top of this page for more information.

I hear through the Facebook grapevine that a 50s high school classmate from South Christian High School, a 60s colleague from Blodgett Memorial Hospital, and former nursing students from Trinity Christian College may be in the audience.

So, along with new friends from Hope College and their clinical agencies, I’m greatly looking forward to meeting each of you and chatting about the value of writing about your life!

Yes, it’s a bit overwhelming, but Krystyna has been selling Caring Lessons for me since it came out last fall. Tomorrow she is hosting a Tea with Lois for her clients and friends who bought the book. Doesn’t that sound too good to be true? I thought so when she first told me. Then I realized she was SERIOUS!

Check back in a few days. I’ll have pictures to show off the generosity of this very fine person.

FYI. My book, Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor’s Journey of Faith and Self, is now available in the bookstore at Hope College in Holland, MI.

Other Christian college bookstores where Caring Lessons is available are at  Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI; Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA; and Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL.

Advance notice: save Sunday, February 13, 4:30pm,  for a reading at Women & Children First Bookstore on North Clark in Chicago.

January

Thursday, January 13, 2011, 9am
Speaker, Palos Heights Christian Reformed Church/MOPS
Topic: Don’t Lose Your ME While Being a Mom!
Palos Heights, IL

Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 4pm
Speaker, Valparaiso University College of Nursing Congregational Health Project/Zeta Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International
Topic: One Nurse’s Spiritual Journey
Valparaiso, IN

Thursday, January 27, 2011, 6:30pm
Lansing Public Library
2750 Indiana Avenue
Lansing, IL
708-474-2447

Sunday, January 30, 2011, 11:30am
Hope Christian Reformed Church
Adult Education Meeting
5825-151st Street
Oak Forest, IL
708-687-2095