Lack of funds closes mental health drop-in center

When Maggie Walker heard the news recently that a man had hung himself in a local park, she felt sick with worry. She wondered if it was someone she knew.

One week earlier, Walker and her fellow caseworkers for the Salvation Army's Open Door Center for the mentally ill, had been tasked with telling their clients that the center was closing.

Federal grant money that supported the Marysville center since 1983 has dried up, Walker said.

Most of her 15 to 20 clients suffer from either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and the facility, she said, serves as a safe haven for them.

"All of them have some type of anxiety," she said. "Most of them hear voices. You can't be sure what they're going to do when they're not in a stable state of mind."

Without the familiar surroundings of the center, where, until recently, Walker and three co-workers shared space with Sutter-Yuba Mental Health Services workers, she said, "they're just lost."

It turned out the suicide victim was not a client. But since locking the door to the drop-in center for the last time on Wednesday, Walker has been on high alert.

Many in her charge are homeless, and some are drug addicts.

Now the sole contracted employee for the program, Walker uses a Salvation Army passenger van as a kind of mobile office, and takes calls transferred from the old phone number on her cell phone.

Clients call frequently. Most need a friendly and familiar voice to assuage their fears, she said.

On Friday morning, Jose "Joey" Luis Zamarron's right arm and hand were shaking slightly.

The shy, neatly groomed man would be getting counseling soon at the Sutter-Yuba Mental Health Services building in Yuba City.

He had been there before, he said, but without the daily routine and stability of the Marysville drop-in center, he just wasn't himself these past few days.

"I'm stressed more," he said.

Zamarron, 37, had been found three years ago sleeping on the levee near the Twin Cities Rescue Mission.

In those days, he said, "I isolated."

After he was referred to the Open Door Center, he got help applying for public assistance, and was able to rent an apartment. Until Wednesday, he had been spending roughly five hours each day, five days a week socializing, playing games, watching television, doing his laundry and relaxing at the center.

He takes six prescription medications, which he carries in a compartmentalized pill box. The drugs inside are listed on paper, and taped to the box.

"This will be OK," he said, a little uncertainly, "but it'll be different."

James "Jimbo" Beers still speaks with a Mid-Atlantic accent from his years in Baltimore.

Beers, 59, has depended on services and safety from the center for nearly 20 years.

"That's a long time," he said. "I guess I've learned by experience that structure is pretty important. If I don't have a reason to get up, I stay in bed all day and get very depressed."

Beers has a cheerful smile and manner. He makes friends easily, Walker said.

He stays in touch with a sister in Utah. It's more than most of Walker's clients have in the way of family support.

"Most have no one," she said.

Beers' mouth gets dry from the medications he takes. The drugs also make him sleepy.

In order to fight these side-effects, he drinks massive quantities of a concoction he makes from energy drinks and Gatorade.

"Sixty-four ounces isn't good enough," he said of his fluid intake. He chuckles, but Walker scolds him. The habit has resulted in seizures and trips to the hospital.

"Heck, over the past 22 years, I've gone eight or nine times," he said.

Beers has been going to the Marysville center long enough to remember when it was run by Pathways. Salvation Army took over the contract in 2002.

Three years ago, the center moved from a building at C and Third Streets.

"It only moved a block down, but even that was a traumatic change for them," Walker said.

She and other staff had hoped to set up a drop-in center in a Salvation Army office building and chapel in Yuba City not far from the 10th Street bridge.

But the storage space they planned to use doesn't currently meet standards set by the American with Disabilities Act.

Before the Marysville center closed, she and her former co-workers put together a list of emergency contacts and printed them all out on a single business card for each client to keep.

"What can you do? You give as much support as you can and as much stability as possible," Walker said.

Meanwhile, she worries.

"You just can't hit these folks with so much change," she said.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or npasternack@ appealdemocrat.com