Furious Seasons

July 24, 2009

Soteria Alaska Opens

In an email today, Jim Gottstein, president of the Alaska-based PsychRights group, announced the opening of the new Soteria-Alaska project. The project is modeled on the now-defunct Soteria House in California. Explains Gottstein:

"The original Soteria House proved that outcomes for people diagnosed with schizophrenia could be dramatically improved if a psychosocial approach was used instead with neuroleptics used as a last resort and stopped as soon as possible when they were used."

While there was some controversy about client outcomes at Soteria House, which closed in 1983 due a lack of funding, I've long felt the model looked promising enough for it to be tried again. The US spends many billions of dollars a year in taxpayer funds through Medicaid and Social Security disability and other programs for the care and treatment of people diagnosed with schizophrenia but we are seeing terrible clinical outcomes for some people including greatly reduced life spans due to the effects of medications. That kind of situation argues that some other system of care and rehabilitation should be tired, at least on a pilot basis, to see if other approaches might not work as well or better.

The Alaska project opened with two clients, but plans to accept others as soon as its state license is approved. I congratulate everyone involved in the effort to make the new Soteria a reality. I hope it works.

There are several other Soteria-style projects in Europe. A lengthy report on the original Soteria House authored by its founder Loren Mosher can be found here.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at July 24, 2009 12:24 PM

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Comments

I know they have had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this open. Including a community that was quite weary of those supposed dangerous "Mentally Ill" off their medications in the nieghborhood.

Now if we could get his duplicated 10 to 20 thousand times in the lower 48 over the next few years; we would be making some progress finally in humane mental health treatment.

Posted by: small step at July 24, 2009 06:03 PM

Thanks for the update! this is what we need in the U.S. in every single state!

Posted by: Stephany at July 24, 2009 07:31 PM

Look at the science, there is no lab test to detect mental illness, no "bad" chemicals to detect in this modern age of science. To apply ONLY chemicals-drugs-meds as a solution will not work. Other treatment methods besides Pharma chemicals have to be funded by the Government, if it is truly helping the people.

Posted by: mark p.s.2 at July 25, 2009 02:27 AM

There's no money to be made in the USA in making people truly healthy and independent, thus I expect this to collapse due to underfunding.

In a public, single-payer health system, in which taxpayers have a vested interest in keeping fellow citizens out of hospitals and doctor offices, this sort of an idea is much more palatable. Which explains why this kind of approach enjoys more success in Europe.

Not to mention, if Soteria ever did freakishly gain prominence in the US, the pharma lobby would be sure to nip it in the bud, snuffing it out forever.

Posted by: The Skeptic at July 27, 2009 12:32 PM

skeptic said:"Not to mention, if Soteria ever did freakishly gain prominence in the US, the pharma lobby would be sure to nip it in the bud, snuffing it out forever."

Pharma already made sure that it is snuffed out, it's one person at a time with one Soteria at a time, and at least those ppl won't be drugged up and shut up, as time passes each recovered individual adds their voice to the choir and eventually, just maybe it won't be so "freaky".

Posted by: Stephany at July 27, 2009 01:50 PM