How close are we to Freedom

We talk about being on our own, as we are consumers, being connected to various agencies through mental health. Being free, of our disability, having the ability to care for ourselves, providing and sharing with others, keeping a home, shop, even work or go to school. What does this take? I realized I had to find respect for myself amongst the millions of other low income, and physically as well as socially distressed people that exist nationwide. That’s a lot of people. I had to work with people who know the ropes, and I had to learn to become self sufficient in a new way, on a different level , moving from homelessness, to welfare and finally gaining access to employment and or training instead of joining gangs or selling and using drugs or worse.
This transformation, not only for myself, yet for others as well is moving beyond the fears of the mind and those we harbor living day to day. For many of us, who were once trapped in abandonment, vacant homes, or just sleeping against any wall, found our blessing and having been given a decent place to live, began to come to grips with the agencies which supported us. Yet we had to give to them also, demonstrating we can be capable of overcoming not only the mentalities of being once homeless, yet also the disorders we face mentally, by working with those who can mentor those who had given up. We begin to reach for new opportunities to improve our lives through the dedication of social workers, case managers and therapist, not to forget assisted housing agencies, and vocational rehabilitation. Is this far enough?
Reliability, motivation, determination, stamina, dedication, those words are critical in changing our lives from being a mental health consumer, to becoming a citizen and or a provider in society. We have to become mentally and socially conscious if our ideas of which our therapist and case workers have helped form are to help us walk from vagrancy to good health, ideas and a new life—
Written by Donald Sammons