INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Despite the fact that mental illness affects about one in every four people in the United States in some way, few want to discuss it.
“You can talk about cancer, you can talk about heart problems, you can talk and talk and talk about diabetes all you want, but people just don’t want to talk about mental illness,” said Sebastian resident Dick McClaine.
Raising awareness and advocating for the mentally ill are the founding principles behind the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an organization with membership of more than 500,000.
Locally in the Indian River County chapter, all of its officers and members volunteer their time, offering several education programs and peer support groups.
The McClaines got involved in the program in the early 1990s when it was still in its infancy and as Dick McClaine puts it, “We were desperate.”
Sitting in the couple’s sunroom, Claudia McClaine lifts a large portrait of her son James from her lap.
The son’s hair, once a beautiful blond, had darkened with age. The stunning blue eyes of his earlier years also seem darker, and a bit far away.
James McClaine’s face also rounded out, a typical sign of the weight gain after years of taking anti-psychotic drugs and other pills to stabilize his mind.
Still, Claudia and Dick’s McClaine’s son was considered handsome.
“A lot of good his looks did for him,” Claudia McClaine says.
In April, James McClaine will have been dead for 10 years after taking his life at the age of 34 with an overdose of the very pills that that were meant to keep the man – troubled for a lifetime with mental illness – stabilized.
“He decided life wasn’t worth it,” Claudia McClaine says.
Dick McClaine, Claudia’s husband of nearly 54 years, sits across from his wife in their Sebastian home. His eyes are patient. His facial expressions show a mixture love and sadness.
The two take turns sharing their experiences of adopting James from Hawaii in 1969 and the dreams they had for him.
They also speak of the heartache that schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, brought on to the entire family, and the support they found from others associated with NAMI.
The McClaines were able to give back to the NAMI group Thursday night when they attended the group’s fund-raising event at Sebastian River High School.
The nationally acclaimed Harlem Ambassadors basketball team took on members of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office playing for the Florida Comets to raise money to promote awareness of mental illness.
Local NAMI organizers hoped to pack the auditorium for the chance of a lifetime event.
In the past, the local group would have a raffle pulling in $1,000 and that was considered exceptional.
Depending on how much money is raised, Jim Davis, the group’s former president, said money will hopefully go toward helping to provide residential housing for the area’s mentally ill, research and learning materials.
“We are passionate about the difficulties of mental illness,” says Davis, one of about five dozen members of the local group.
Like the McClaines, Davis has been touched by the mental illness of a loved one.
This year, the Davis family is celebrating the fourth straight year that daughter Elissa, now 35, hasn’t had to be hospitalized because of her schizoaffective disorder.
The charity event also gave the ball players from both the Harlem Ambassadors and the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office a chance to show off skills and swag on the court.
“I did some research on the team and, well, I think our team is very brave to be going out there and playing,” jokes Capt. Selby Strickland of the Sheriff’s Office.
Strickland says he was honored when he was asked if the deputies could participate.
“Nobody hesitated for a minute,” Strickland says.
The Sheriff’s Office knows a bit about mental illness. Last year, 19 inmates had to be taken from the jail and sent to a hospital under the Baker Act until their minds were stable enough for them to return to jail.
In 2011, there were 1,700 admissions of people in crisis to the Behavioral Health Center at Indian River Medical Center, said Davis.
“I’m excited to help for this cause,” says Deputy Osner Joseph, who has worked in the corrections department of the jail for the past eight years.
Joseph is serving as a both a player and a coach for the team against the Harlem Ambassadors.
While at work, Joseph is member of the crisis intervention team which he and others have been especially trained to do.
“I’m really hoping for a good turnout and to be able to raise enough money to help the community.”
To find out about NAMI of Indian River County’s meetings, classes and services, or to learn how to support the program as a member, volunteer or through a charitable donation, contact Jim Davis at (772) 532-7345 email IRCNAMI@yahoo.com or go to www.namiflorida.org.
