MHMRA of Harris County - Annual Report FY 2012 2012 | Page 3

Investing in Healthy Minds and a Healthy Community

F

elix Martinez believes
that one big reason for
his being alive today is to
help people. He is the chairman
of the Consumer Advisory
Council at MHMRA. He
offices at MHMRA’s Southwest
Mental Health Outpatient
Clinic, where he provides peer
advising and support to other
consumers.
Felix himself receives services
through the Southwest clinic,
and he uses his life experience
to relate to the people he helps.
He has battled schizo-affective
bipolar disorder, which can
cause him to hear voices that
other people can’t hear, since
1989. His condition has led to
multiple suicide attempts and
dangerous encounters with
law enforcement. He has come
close to death more than once,
but each time, he has been
pulled out of harm’s way.

Intervention and appropriate mental health
care helped Felix Martinez break the crisis cycle
that led to multiple jail stays. Now, he’s helping
others realize their own recovery. It’s time we
invested in dignity, providing all people who
have mental illness care - not punishment.
One time, when Felix was
living in the Rio Grande Valley,
the voices frustrated him so
much that he attempted to
stab them. He was stabbing a
door frame with a knife when
police found him. He would
not respond to the policemen’s
commands, so one officer hit
him on the head with a baton.
Felix has the scar to this day.
Felix wheeled around to see
who had hit him, and the
police thought he was going to
stab one of them. They were
about to shoot him when his
brother, who was one of the
officers, told them to stop.

At that time, law enforcement
was neither trained nor
equipped to help people
with mental illness, so Felix
went to jail without receiving
treatment. In time, he was
released from jail, but because
his mental illness had not been
addressed, he experienced
another crisis. Again, his
behavior was misconstrued as
an attempt to hurt others, and
he went back to jail.
Felix bounced between jail
and the hospital for some
time. Eventually, a doctor
diagnosed Felix with schizoaffective bipolar disorder and

prescribed him the appropriate
medication. This allowed
Felix to begin working toward
recovery.
Felix moved to Houston to live
with his daughter and began
receiving services at MHMRA.
In 2006, he joined the
Consumer Advisory Council
(CAC). He first worked as a
volunteer, but when MHMRA
adopted the CAC as an official
program, he began to receive a
stipend.
Serving as a peer advisor is
Felix’s job now, but it’s also his
passion.
“We [consumer advocates]
tell people that it’s possible to
recover from mental illness,”
he said. “It’s rewarding to see
when people ask for assistance,
and we provide it. We see
people who are in crisis, but
then later they are happy and
talkative.”

Recovery is possible
Felix’s story reminds me of one of the six goals put forth by
The 2003 President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental
Health. That goal, known as the recovery model, was to make
mental health care be consumer and family driven. Throughout
the Commission’s deliberations, the theme of recovery kept
emerging with multiple meanings and implications. The
Commission determined that recovery should become a
defining expectation of future mental health care.
The emergence of the recovery model has occurred, in part,
because of advocacy done through the consumer movement.
Many definitions of recovery describe it as a process of
positive adaptation to illness and disability, linked strongly
to self-awareness and a sense of empowerment. I like Dr. Bill
Anthony’s version, which says, “It is a way of living a satisfying,
hopeful, and contributing life even with the limitations caused
by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning
and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic
effects of mental illness.” Felix’s story is a great example of this.

In order to succeed in providing recovery-oriented services,
we need to expand and grow the mental health outpatient care
system in our community. Unfortunately, funds continue to be
directed to emergency services and not to outpatient recovery
care. While the availability of emergency services is critical, the
long term ability to maintain meaningful recovery is dependent
upon a robust, ongoing outpatient system that is evidencebased and supports the provisions of excellent care by expert
psychiatrists, psychologists, nursing staff, other mental health
professionals and peer advocates. The key to helping people
grow beyond their limitations and enjoy improved quality of
life is to provide a care system that supports lifelong recovery
efforts.
Sylvia Muzquiz-Drummond, M.D.
Medical Director, Mental Health Services Division

2012 Annual Report | MHMRA of Harris County| 3