I have had the opportunity recently to talk to 2 mental health professionals about our program at Titus. Our small mostly unknown little house is a healing balm for those who come here. Both of these MHP are partners in care for women we serve. In trying to briefly give them an overview of what we do I referenced the philosophy of Dr. Mark Ragins, a 30+ year psychiatrist among homeless in California. His book, which covers a lot of work with symptoms of psychosis, he and I share a general disregard for simply diagnosing based on symptoms and treating each symptom with medication after medication. As we worked with marginalized populations we realized with substance abuse. We realized the solution had to be more comprehensive and holistic than just helping them get clean and sober. So we have sought to develop individualized care that encompasses life-recovery, not just substance use recovery, to the fullest extent possible.
As I watched a presentation by Ragins, then got his book, I recognized that the things we target and address can all be grouped into his three-point diagram and its philosophy sums up ours, too. Especially this paragraph:
“Instead of conceptualizing psychosis (or any mental health challenge) as a disorder you have in your brain, I’m urging that we conceptualize it as a profound experience that emerges and resolves as a product of multiple alterations of function acting in combination, no one of which produces the experience on its own” His model is summarized in a triangle with three domains to be examined and addressed in treatment: self-identity, relationships, and experiencing reality. A page from the book is shown above.