TROUBLED?
ARE YOU
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UNHAPPY?
Here Are Some ^ Do’s, Don’ts”
To Guard Against Home Fires
MIXED UP?
FEELING LOW?
Guilford County Mental Health Center
404 N. Wrenn Street, 888-9929
ANGRY?
Now that winter’s on the way, homes
will be turning on their heat —and
upping the chances for fire.
In a matter of minutes, your home
could be destroyed, and property that
has taken years to accumulate could
be gone.
Unsafe furnaces and negligence of
basic home safety rules could cause
your home to go up in flames.
Here are some “don’ts” that will
keep your home safer in any season:
Don’t thaw frozen water pipes with
an open flame; use hot water.
Community Mental Health Services
Improved By Model Cities Project
A Model Cities project designed to
improve the city’s mental health de
livery system has been implemented
by the hiring of a project director by
the Guilford Covmty Mental Health
Authority.
Approved last spring by the Model
City Commission, the project has been
delayed by the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare-National In
stitute of Mental Health, who is con
tributing $75,531 to the total budget
of $100,709 for Phase I.
High Point Model Cities’ one-four
th local matching share is $25,178. A
further proposal will be made to the
Commission this winter for funding of
Phase II.
The money will be used to augment
existing and proposed elements of the
county’s comprehensive mental health
plan by enlarging the local mental
health staff and by providing profes
sionals to five agencies in the High
Point community who currently render
mental health and related services.
Coordination among projects is a
key element in the Model Cities pro
cess. The new Community Mental
Health project, planners say, will en
hance the delivery system not only of
other Model Cities projects, but of
others, both public and private.
With the hiring of project director
Beverly McCabe, a community serv
ices consultant, October 1, the project
oflBcially got under way.
TWO PHASES
The project is organized in two
parts. Phase I involves the establish
ment of a 22-bed short-term acute
treatment facility at Greensboro’s L.
Richardson Hospital; and the addition
of several staff members at the Mental
Health Clinic to provide direct services
to High Point residents, particularly
those from the Model Neighborhood.
Phase II, though pending funds, is
designed to bridge gaps between the
county’s mental health services and
those provided by a growing number
of agencies who deal with problems re
lated to mental health. As soon as con-
tractural agreements are worked out
by Ms. McCabe, five professionals will
be hired to act as liaisons with the
Mental Health Center and as resource
persons for their own particular agen
cy.
The L. Richardson facility, Ms. Mc
Cabe hopes, will be open by the end
of December. Mentally ill, alcoholic and
drug-addicted patients will stay there
no more than 14 days, it is planned,
and will undergo intensive individual
and group psychotherapy, detoxifica
tion and rehabilitation.
Until the new facility was approved,
the closest facility for the care of such
patients was John Umstead Hospital,
Butner. Mental Health resident direc
tor Mary Elizabeth Blair, a principal
planner of the project as a member of
the Model Cities Health and Social
Services Task Force, explained the
desirability for community health care.
MINIMIZE BLOW
“There are no psychiatric beds for
those who can’t afford to pay —the
indigents,” she said. “Cone Hospital
(Greensboro) is the only place in the
county for the mentally ill to go if
they need hospitalization. To be sent
90 miles away to Butner is a blow to
anyone if he is sick. We want to keep
the blow to a minimum. That’s why
we put the emphasis on community
care, to keep patients as close to home
as possible, near their friends and
family.”
The volume of out-patient, rehabili
tative and pre- and post-care services
available at the Mental Health Clinic,
404 N. Wrenn Street, has been con
sidered handicapped due to a man
power shortage in the past, Ms. Mc
Cabe explained. They accept referrals
from any source and offer individual
and group counselling — “talk therapy.”
The additional staff members at the
Mental Health Center will help re
lieve the overload of patients. In Sep
tember there were 562 active cases on
file; of those, 25 percent, or 141, were
Model Neighborhood residents.
Although the Model Cities and
HEW-NIMH grants will maintain the
five professionals the first year, it is
Now that
you’re registered,
VOTE!
Tuesday, Nov. 7.
hoped that the agencies to which they
are assigned will accept financial re
sponsibility for them thereafter.
One is the Family Services Bureau,
whose new staff person will work par-
ticulary with clients involved with the
courts. The second is the High Point
Drug Action Council, who will utilize
the additional person to counsel ad
dicts.
The High Point Mental Health
Association, a lay, volunteer group,
will for the first time have a full
time staff member to organize their
efforts in the community.
The fourth new worker would be
assigned to the Mental Health Center
itself to work with volunteer agencies
from the private sector such as the
YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army, Boys
Club, Boy Scouts, civic clubs and oth
ers who seek to provide services for
the retarded, mentally disturbed or
mentally ill.
Guidelines for fifth person have not
yet been drawn, according to Fontana.
It is planned that he will direct his
efforts to early detection and preven
tion of mental illness among youth.
Don’t keep oily, greasy or paint-
smeared rags in the house; they could
catch on fire easier than you realize
by spontaneous combustion.
Don’t let electric cords for irons,
lamps, and appliances get wet.
Don’t replace blown-out fuses with
pennies, wire or anything other than
a new fuse.
Don’t overload circuits.
Don’t let old papers and trash ac
cumulate in closets, attics, basements,
garages and porches. Throw out trash
regularly.
Don’t let children play with matches.
Don’t smoke in bed.
On the other hand, do follow these
rules:
Have your heating plant, chimney
and roof inspected every year. Sooty
or leaking flues cause fires.
Use a fine mesh metal screen in
front of your fireplace to stop sparks.
Know the location of the nearest
fire alarm box and how to turn in an
alarm. Memorize the fire department’s
phone number; 885-2171.
Watch your stove constantly while
broiling or frying. Never pour water
on burning fat.
If you smell gas, open windows and
call the gas company immediately.
There are an estimated 680,000
home fires annually in the United
States: don’t let yours be one of them!
Revenue Sharing
(Continued from page 1)
ing —rather than isolating a problem
such as housing or education — and
build interrelated programs aimed at
eliminating those problems.
The Model Cities process of plan
ning, managing and evaluating pro
grams, it is hoped, will show its true
value as revenue sharing comes to
High Point. The involvement of cit
izens will remain the all-important
link in that process.
She Thought It Was ^Fishy
(Continued from Page 1)
and considered herself swindled. She
didn’t know about the dozens of others
in this community — and apparently
hundreds in other cities across the
state —in the same predicament.
Lawyer McGee, along with Doris
Lindsay, a civic-minded citizen, un
earthed the names of the 52 other
people from High Point alone who had
had dealings with the local keypunch
school. Findings were turned over to
the Consumer Protection Division of
the state Attorney General’s Office,
who conducted its own investigation
of the firm.
The matter was also referred to the
North Carolina Department of Higher
Education, which must license such
schools in order to operate in the
state. Meanwhile, a former instructor
of the school met with local former
“students” and exposed some of the
company’s practices.
AMMUNmON
All these new facts gave ammunition
to Legal Services to demand the
school to return the fees not only of
Ms. Hickman, but of all others ident
ified in High Point who apparently
had also been cheated.
A threat of a lawsuit, as well as the
threat by the Department of Higher
Education to revoke their state license
permanently, prompted the keypunch
company to make restitution to all 53.
Ms. Hickman and most of the others
got back every cent of the money they
had paid in fees to the firm.
Though the matter was settled out
of court, the company can never open
another school in High Point. How
ever, because the national office made
restitution to all concerned, and thus
saved their reputation, they are still
allowed to maintain schools in other
parts of North Carolina.
Leona Hickman’s case is only one
of many civil matters handled by High
Point Legal Services. Although it is
not affiliated formally with Model
Cities, it works closely with Model
Cities and many Model Neighborhood
residents in settling legal affairs.
Its office is located at 106 E. Grimes
Street. McGee and senior attorney Jack
Poisson can be seen Monday through
Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.