Greg Fitch is starting a nonprofit that strives to give people experiencing mental illness \u201ca voice in change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old Juneau resident wants to help mental health patients organize, let others know about their challenges and break the stigma surrounding them. Then, he wants to lobby, advocate for change and make accessing the mental health care system easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can the system know how to provide for us if they don\u2019t know what we go through on a daily basis?\u201d Fitch wondered.<\/p>\n
Fitch knows firsthand about the challenges and stigma surrounding mental illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mental illness is bipolar. I\u2019ve been diagnosed with some other things, like PTSD. I\u2019m a recovering addict and alcoholic. Alcoholism and drug use is very prevalent within the mental health community. We self-medicate because sometimes we can\u2019t get the proper medications,\u201d he said in an interview earlier this month at his Juneau home.<\/p>\n
Fitch always suspected he had mental health issues. He said his mother was schizophrenic and mental illness runs in his family.<\/p>\n
He described being bipolar as having bouts of mania, or hyperactivity, followed quickly by extreme lows.<\/p>\n
\u201cMania is like having a heightened sense of you can save the world. You\u2019ll be running around trying to accomplish things, but you\u2019re actually accomplishing nothing because you\u2019re sick, and you don\u2019t realize it,\u201d Fitch said. \u201cAnd you have mood swings, which is called cycling. I\u2019m what you call a rapid cycler. I can cycle from a state of mania to a state of depression in minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he was diagnosed with bipolar and taking proper medications, Fitch had a nervous breakdown in 2004 and tried to kill himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible experience. Mental illness is a very dilapidating disease and so many people go through it, but they\u2019re afraid to come out and say so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since then, Fitch has found good medical care and is doing much better \u2014 enough to start an oraganization called Mental Health Consumer Action Network, or MCAN. He said the group is applying to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is in the process of forming a board.<\/p>\n
Juneau resident Levi LeCount has volunteered to be on that board. LeCount met Fitch at Polaris House, and he instantly related to the need to break down stigma.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m disabled physically and mentally. I\u2019m in a wheelchair. I have cerebral palsy, so I\u2019ve dealt with stigma a lot of my life, as well,\u201d LeCount said in a phone interview Friday.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also bipolar and has other mental illness diagnosis. He wants MCAN to help get people with mental illnesses organized \u201cso we\u2019re a little more respected by the outside community.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeCount said organizations meant to help people experienceing mental illness \u201cdon\u2019t always do the best job and it\u2019s hard for a mental health consumer sometimes to articulate that for themselves.\u201d That\u2019s where he envisions MCAN helping out \u2014 to be that voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to just get through your day when people don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on in your head, when you can\u2019t explain how you\u2019re feeling or why you react to a certain situation the way you do,\u201d LeCount said.<\/p>\n
Fitch said the first goal of MCAN is to break the stigma surrounding people with mental illness. He was recently on a Capital Transit bus and saw a man having a really hard time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was talking to himself. He was having a problem navigating the system and trying to get help,\u201d Fitch said.<\/p>\n
Instead of helping the man, Fitch saw people standing up and moving away from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople didn\u2019t want to be around him. People were scared of him. People need to be a little more understanding of what mental health is about. We\u2019re not out to hurt you. We\u2019re not out to do anything to you. Sometimes we have problems and we struggle with it, and people need to be understanding,\u201d said Fitch, who talked to the man and calmed him down.<\/p>\n
Fitch said MCAN plans to hold anti-stigma drives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to do T-shirts with some amazing slogans. Instead of \u2018Got Milk?\u2019 the shirt will say, \u2018Got psychosis?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Once MCAN has built a board and a robust membership, Fitch said he will identify what issues to start advocating for.<\/p>\n
Some things he would like to see is better access to the healthcare system, more people on Medicaid and an expansion of services for people with mental illnesses. He thinks the hospital should have a unit devoted to crisis stabilization, a place where people can be watched for a few days.<\/p>\n
Getting a nonprofit off the ground isn\u2019t easy. Fitch said he\u2019s been teaching himself tax law and nonprofit law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a struggle on a daily basis, but it drives me harder to do something,\u201d he said. \u201cI have something to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitch hopes he and MCAN can fire up the community of people experiencing mental illness and make a difference in their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re part of society, we\u2019re intelligent people and we\u2019re everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
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