9 Highland Road: Sane Living for the Mentally Ill

Winerip combines triumph of the spirit with the harsh realities of prejudice. The mentally ill have more than just their sickness to battle. People are afraid of what they do not understand. They make assumptions that all mentally ill are violent, crude, childlike, or sexually deviant. Unlike an obvious injury like a broken leg a schizophrenic or multiple personality disorder cannot wave their affliction in your face and tell you when it will be healed. No one wants the likes of them in their neighborhood. In the pages of 9 Highland Road Winerip pulls back the curtain on the political controversies and uncovers the fear-induced prejudices about group homes for the mentally ill. He does not sugarcoat the harsh realities of childhood show more traumas that are at the core of some patients' initial break with reality: psychological, verbal and physical abuses in the form of violence, rape, incest and torture. What was particularly stunning were the varying degrees of responsibility families accept regarding the wellbeing of their son or daughter. Winerip also touches lightly on the problem of homelessness and delves more deeply into the miracles of modern medicine. show less

This book changed my mind about mental health group homes. I'd always thought I'd protest if one opened near me. This book, by a New York Times reporter who spent several years researching, describes the process to get it opened, against organized opposition by neighbors and double crossing politicians. Finally the first residents move in. Then the book follows the lives of several patients who live there. Some get better, some worse, some stay the same. The staff who live on site know their clients better than hospital staff who have more patients or patients they don't see as often, and can assess how they're doing on medication and when they might need hospitalization. Patients can ask for voluntary hospitalization when they know show more they need it.

He makes a convincing case that for many patients such houses are a better treatment option than hospitalization, at a much lower cost, and that they are good neighbors. Many of the people who fought hard to keep it out of their Long Island neighborhood end up supporting it. Other neighbors have no idea it's a group home for people with mental problems.

There's a lot of meticulous reporting about the red tape and general idiocy of public mental health programs. One woman is unable to see a specialist at a reduced rate because it would be $10 more a month than the state doctor - and since there's no alternative, she's kept in a more expensive facility for no good reason. Another patient can't get a new antipsychotic drug because the state hasn't authorized it unless he returns to the hospital where he won't be able to see therapists - the rules say he has to take it with hospital supervision, even though the group home staff will be able to spend more time with him than staff at the hospital.

The author mentions how few such homes exist to support the large population of mental patients. He points out that in the state of New York, there are far more group homes for the retarded than for mental patients. If such patients can live in a group home, some of them will get better and end up saving the state money. This book was written during the 90s and I'm sure if things have changed, it's for the worse. A very interesting book. show less

An interesting look into the lives of a collection of individuals living in a group home for the mentally ill in Long Island in the late 1980s/early 1990s. It's amazing how so many things have changed, but so many things have stayed the same. (Content note: this book contains the r-word many times, but not as a pejorative.)

Before reading this stunning book, I never even considered the idea of group homes being a solution for living conditions in the mentally ill community. The fact that they are cost-effective, benign to the neighbors, and can even help a mentally ill person permanently ease out of the system should convince anyone more group homes for the mentally ill should exist. Let's hope this is the new paradigm for the mentally ill in the 21st century.

Before reading this stunning book, I never even considered the idea of group homes being a solution for living conditions in the mentally ill community. The fact that they are cost-effective, benign to the neighbors, and can even help a mentally ill person permanently ease out of the system should convince anyone more group homes for the mentally ill should exist. Let's hope this is the new paradigm for the mentally ill in the 21st century.

From Publishers Weekly
Julie Callahan, victim of her father's sexual and physical abuse, suffers multiple personality disorder. Anthony Constantine, a paranoid schizophrenic, wrestles with tormenting voices whose power is reduced somewhat by the drug clozapine. Stan Gunter, a polyglot pianist, plunged four stories after he heard God commanding him to jump over a balcony; miraculously he survived. These are some of the residents of a group home for the mentally ill in Glen Cove, N.Y., the focus of this harrowing account by New York Times national educational correspondent Winerip. Having spent two years at the home on a daily basis, he makes us care deeply about these people, their crises and breakthroughs in therapy. Beginning with show more coverage of community protests that aimed to prevent the home from opening in 1987, this narrative highlights warring state and local agencies, funding cutbacks and bureaucratic snafus; in so doing, it exposes glaring weaknesses in the mental health system.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--

From Library Journal
Most people are not familiar with the idea of group homes for the mentally ill. Winerip, a correspondent for the New York Times, corrects the situation in this absorbing account of a group home in Glen Cove, Long Island. Particularly noteworthy are his portrayal of the politics involved in the fight to establish the home as well as his well-written case histories of five of the home's residents. According to Winerip, not only are group homes less expensive to operate than mental institutions, they have higher success rates. Contrary to popular opinion, these homes and their residents cause no harm to their host communities and should not be feared. This thorough, wonderfully written book will set the standard for future works on this overlooked subject. Highly recommended wherever demand warrants, especially in communities where group homes exist or are planned.
January Adams, ODSI Research Lib., Raritan, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.-- show less