Job training, social skills are taught KAPA’A – When Kauaians Gordon Tai See, Charles Brown and Dennis Alpeche walk into Friendship House, they see a second chance at life. See, 46, Brown, 52, and Alpeche, 52, receive clinical treatment elsewhere
Job training, social skills are taught
KAPA’A – When Kauaians Gordon Tai See, Charles Brown and Dennis Alpeche walk into Friendship House, they see a second chance at life.
See, 46, Brown, 52, and Alpeche, 52, receive clinical treatment elsewhere for mental illness. But they go to Friendship House at the north end of Kapa’a town every day to benefit from friendship and employment training and opportunities, and to gain self-reliance, a sense of responsibility and a purpose in life.
Friendship House is a pyschiatric rehabilitation program for Kaua’i adults with serious mental illnesses and who seek to improve their lives.
“If it were not for this place, I would learn nothing,” said See, who aspires to work in math or physics. “If it were not for this place, I would be sitting at home, doing nothing.”
Friendship House is the only organization of its kind on Kaua’i that serves people with schizophrenia, severe depression, behavioral disorder and mania. The program boasts 225 members, all of whom visit the center voluntarily. Only 75 active members are served daily.
Established in 1988, Friendship House is patterned after a psychiatric rehabilitation program used in 300 “clubhouses” throughout the world. Four clubhouses are located on O’ahu and one is on Big Island.
Members learn how to use computers, develop clerical skills, cook and work in retail stores and businesses.
See, diagnosed with chronic paranoia schizophrenia, said he has been a member of the center since 1996, after moving to Kaua’i from Big Island, his home.
As a young man in his 20s, See studied at the University of Hawai’i-Hilo campus and majored in architectural engineering because he liked “building things.” The training and support from Friendship House staffers could enable him to realize his dream of becoming a professional in a technical field, he said.
“This is the start for me, because I see myself going back to school one day,” See said. “I want to get there.”
See’s mental disorders began at an early age.
“I was 4 years old, and I remember the right side of my body and my right arm always twitching,” he said.
At age 20 in 1975, See was diagnosed with paranoia, and his condition deteriorated the following year.
“The twitching got really bad. I worried excessively about people talking about me,” See said. “It seemed to me that I was in a worried state all the time.”
It was only because of the medication that he was able to deal with his condition, overcome severe stuttering and think clearly, he said.
Today, See no longer lives in a care home, but lives with other people in a home in Lihu’e that is supervised by a house manager.
He takes the bus to Friendship House every day, noting that “if not for this place, I would live in seclusion.”
Alpeche, a Wailua resident, said he became a member of Friendship House by chance. He visited a friend at the center last August, only to find out the friend had died. He said he looked around the facility, liked what he saw and joined last October.
He said the facility is a second home to him.
“It is only here that the mentally ill can come and be themselves and learn and do whatever they want to do,” he said.
Alpeche takes computer clerical classes to sharpen his skills in the hope he can find an accounting job again. He worked in the accounting office at the old Coco Palms Hotel for 23 years, until Hurricane Iniki shut the resort down in 1992. Today he’s a sales clerk at a Kapa’a gas station.
Alpeche also wants to improve his social skills.
“It is one my goals. I don’t have any friends, which has been my choice, until now. This place teaches me how to do it,” he said.
Alpeche began questioning his mental condition during his first year of attending Chaminade College in Honolulu (now Chaminade University) in 1967, majoring in elementary education.
He remembered he worried excessively, weighed 99 pounds and was “sick, very, very ill.I was in a state that frightened me. I was anorexic.”
After finishing his first semester, Alpeche returned to ‘Ele’ele to seek medical help. He was subsequently diagnosed by a psychiatrist with paranoid schizophrenia.
Alpeche, who came from a family of four sisters and three brothers, left school so that one of his siblings could attend college. He was institutionalized at Mahelona Hospital in Kapa’a in 1967 and was put in a seclusion room for the next two years.
At the same time, because he valued education, Alpeche took business classes at Kaua’i Community College, earning a two-year degree in business administration.
With help from the college, Alpeche said was offered the hotel accounting job.
Alpeche said medication he has taken since 1967 has enabled him to deal with his mental health problems and to live a life that is as normal as possible. He said support from his father, a former field supervisor with the now-defunct McBryde Sugar Plantation, his mother and his siblings also made the difference.
“Without them, I would be a street person. They gave me so much support,” Alpeche said.
What he is learning at the Friendship House is giving him hope for a better life in the future, he said.
Attending Friendship House has enabled Brown, a resident of Kilauea, to learn about “mental structure” and has given him time to work on a high-tech chip that he says produces electricity abundantly and cheaply.
Brown, who has participated in Friendship House programs for the past five years, teaches people how to use computers. He also is learning how to cook.
A Vietnam War veteran, Brown was first diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in the Army in 1968. Coming to Friendship House, and his decision not to use medication, he said, “has helped me stay focused in my life.”
A member of Friendship House must be 18 years or older, registered with Kaua’i Community Mental Health Center and referred to the center
In a nurturing environment, members are called at their homes when they are absent, taught the value of work and are encouraged to develop relationships and to use the center.
To encourage them to reach goals, and each member’s strength, rather than their mental illness, symptoms or psychiatric history, is emphasized, according to Jack Yatsko, program director at the facility.
Members are prepared for life situations through pre-vocational work units, food service, communications, vocational services, education and social recreation.
One of the biggest components is the work program, according to David Jordan, a vocational coordinator. Members are prepared for work through:
- On-the-job training. Before a member starts a job, a Friendship House staff member learns it and trains the clubhouse member. Even after the members start working, Friendship House will continue to provide support, Jordan said. A member can stay in this program longer to build skills.
- Supported employment, through which Friendship House helps members update resumes and provides ongoing training.
- Independent employment, including instruction in job-interview techniques.
“We are integrating our members back into our community, allowing them to become self-sufficient and productive members of our society,” Jordan said. “We work very hard at it.”
Nearly half of the 75 members are gainfully employed by 19 businesses on the island.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
