The High Hopes
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Inside this issue: Board Chairman & Executive Director Message
Winter 2006
Spotlight On Success
The constant voice is n1uted, the unseen enemy disappears
Learning to Stand at Hig h Hopes
11
The Spirit of Giving What is that Thing?
Ways to Give From the Horse's Mouth Eandy-an d-the --High Hopes Driving Program
High Hopes Happenings Symphony in the Meadows 2006 tunes up! New Board Members Elected High Hopes Journa l In accorda nce with the Ame ricans wit h Disabilities Act, The High Hopes Rider is avai lab le in alterna t ive formats upon request. Please contact Judie Driscol I at Ext. 19.
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Therap eutic Riding, Inc. Phone : 860.434 .1974 Fax: 860.434 .3723 www.highhopestr.org
We focus on the here and now." That's how Deborah Brennan, Rehab Therapy Supervisor for the Psychiatric Division of Middletown's Connecticut Valley Hospital describes work with her sixteen patients who, in groups of three, make the 58 mile round trip twice weekly to High Hopes. The half hour sessions are opportunities for patients with significant impairments to gather their energies and focus on a single activity, free of debilitating delusions which often include imaginary voices and imagined enemies. The one focus they all share is the care, riding and love of the horse. The Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH) serves those in the state who need the most. Only those in the Psychiatric Division who have stabilized, through treatment or medication, are eligible for the sessions at High Hopes. Of a Division population of 180, only 20, over the two years since the program began, have qualified. While at High Hopes, Deb Brennan's staff and the profe ssionals and volunteers at High Hopes seek to instill self-esteem, cognition, acceptable social behavior and a sense of personal boundaries in the patients. Brennan notes that High Hopes sessions are not direct services, nor treatment sessions but a step toward recovery and hugely valuable in the full range of therapies w hich can lead to the discharge of a patient.
Kathy Ferrero, a psychiatric nurse at CVH, noted that she had small expectations when the program first began. But, as a featured speaker at High Hopes' annual meeting in November, she recounted success stories which include impro ved behavior, renewed socialization skills and enhanced self-perception . Ever an issue at any state facility is the matter of funding. Bussesand gasoline are not large expenses but staffing costs can be . It is the protocol that sessions be partnered equall y by CVH professionals and those from High Hopes. For eve ry CVH staff nurse or supervisor engaged in service to Deb Brennan's patients at High Hopes, a substitute professional must be found in Middletown . In wor king with CVH patients , High Hopes staff and volunteers undergo specific training, much of it provided by CVH professionals but also by the High Hopes Volunteer Enrichment Series. " Mental Health Issues" was the topic of Deb Brennan's January 11 program . In it she shared 25 years' exper ience and strategies for working with peop le with mental health issues. For participants in the CVH program at High Hopes, some constant voices fall si lent and some unseen enemie s take flight .