The Green Initiatives Team at Work on Earth Day!

The SUS Green Initiatives Team, directed by Dan Lohaus, was very busy on Earth Day this last week. After 36,000 lbs. of organic soil were delivered, the team had the difficult task of delivering the soil to 5 different residences for their urban gardens (Knickerbocker, Chester, Dewitt, March Hart and Throop). After the hard labor of building and preparing the beds are completed, the team will start planting and cultivating crops.

The SUS Urban Agriculture program, now in its second year, is dedicated to providing a sustainable source of vegetables for our residences. The gardening is very therapeutic to those who work the gardens, and has become very popular with the residents. We hope they have a bumper crop this year. Click here to learn more on getting involved with Urban Agriculture at SUS.

Click here to view photos on Flickr.

Expanding the Medical Home

Imagine being homeless, suffering from a mental illness and/or substance abuse as well as multiple chronic medical problems, without the knowledge or the guidance to navigate through the government bureaucracy that surrounds SSI payments, Medicaid, supportive housing and other government programs. It’s almost impossible for many of us to even fathom that, but for many SUS consumers this is a way of life. Trying to coordinate your health care, housing, and income stream all while trying to get back on your feet and find employment is almost impossible without help.

For those who have found a home at SUS, a continuum of rehabilitation, treatment and support services are delivered with the needs and the preferences of the consumer in mind. SUS’ Recovery Center serves as the cornerstone of this service array. Since 2009, our ACT program,Clubhouse and Employment Services, have been co-located on one-and-a-half floors of a commercial building in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The space also accommodates our outpatient Wellness Works Mental Health Clinic.

The Wellness Works Mental Health Clinic, opened in April, 2011, rounds out the service options available to consumers who are active in their own recovery. It serves as a “clinical home” for consumers in need by providing continuity over time as well as coordination across the domains of their lives (residence, work or training, family, and health); specialized tracks address the specific issues of the medically frail, young adults, and consumers with past experience with the criminal justice system. It is through the co-location of an outpatient Clinic component, that we are able to create an environment conducive to successful clinical treatment, person-centered care, and ultimately, recovery from mental illness.

Consumers now have relatively seamless access to all services and may choose to engage in a single service or a combination of services. In addition to reducing expenses associated with time and travel, consumers enjoy continuity in programming that provides consumers with the tools for managing their own recovery and wellness.

Medical Homes are a large initiative of Health Care Reform and are already being integrated into primary care all over the country. To learn more on patient-centered medical homes read The New York Times, “DOCTOR AND PATIENT; Putting Patients at the Center of the Medical Home”.

The Man, The Pen, And The Moon

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2011 edition of fluence magazine, published by Ricco/Maresca Gallery, and can be found in its original format at:http://www.riccomaresca.com/fluence/magazine.htm. The author, Marie Sabatino, is Program Director of the SUS Brooklyn Psychosocial Clubhouse.

His name was Melvin Way, or Melvin “Milky” Way, or as he signed on the form to consent for our interview: Melvin, Whay., Way. I had planned to meet with the artist on a Sunday afternoon in late December—the same day that New York City had one of the worst snowstorms in its history. When I called Melvin in the morning to confirm our appointment, he said something about not being able to make it because he was “in the process of flipping calendars.” I envisioned Melvin Way enraptured in a frenzy of epic art-making that might somehow convey the heaviness of time passing, moments lost. When I asked Melvin if he could tell me more about that process, he simply said: “Sundays are hyper—my natural high.”

My initial reaction was to attempt to convince Melvin to change his mind. I was eager to learn about the man behind the art. Then, despite my best intentions, I decided that it was better to follow the direction of Melvin Way. We planned to get together for the interview several days later.

I had met Melvin Way once before, at his recent exhibit at the Hospital Audiences, Inc. (HAI) Gallery in Soho just a few weeks earlier. Melvin’s work was first discovered by HAI art instructor, Andrew Castrucci, at a homeless shelter on Ward’s Island in New York City almost twenty-five years ago. In my investigation of the artist, I learned a bit about the mystique of Melvin “Milky” Way, as well as his reputation of being difficult to work with. Yet I found Melvin to be gentle and affable—eager to please, to engage, and to pull one into his world through his art; though, he certainly would not refer to the dozens of tightly condensed ballpoint drawings that adorned the walls of HAI as such a thing. As Melvin put it, proudly pointing to a centipede-like figure in one of his drawings, Key to Life, “I was ingesting this to be myself.” Indeed, much of the works of Melvin Way appeared to possess elements of both searching and self-discovery: a rigorous journey through a complex inner landscape—indefinable, yet with a sense of purpose.

According to most accounts of the artist’s history, Melvin Way has been living with schizophrenia for nearly four decades of his life. It was not clear exactly what Mr. Way understood this to mean. Perhaps the most he was able to intimate about this was that he went through a period of “amnesia” during much of his life. Memories, experiences, and realities at times here, at times gone. The way one might imagine waking from a dream in the middle of the night, bits and pieces pulsating and alive, yet mostly seen through a murky window of consciousness, an unspoken question about what exists in the world outside and what exists within.

This article has been abbreviated, to read it in its entirety click here.

The Pace Gallery Event

On Tuesday, April 12th over 100 of SUS’ friends and supporters gathered at The Pace Gallery. This annual event provide SUS with an opportunity to thank our current donors, introduce new people to SUS and build support as we head towards our Annual Gala.

The evening featured remarks from by Donna Colonna, and Board Chair, Carolyn Powell; it also allowed SUS donors to meet the 2011 SUS Gala honoree, Rob Davis. Mr. Davis is the Managing Director of Concept Capital, and the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Hedge Funds Care.

We thank everyone who attended and a special thank you to Mr. Davis for joining us and The Pace Gallery for donating the venue for the event.

Currently the Gallery at 510 W 25th Street is featuring work from the Artist James Siena, you can see some of the pieces throughout the photos taken from the evening.

Click here to view photos from the event.