Mental Illness

Byron understand the struggles individuals may have with mental illness and how those struggles affect day-to-day living.

A person is playing cornhole outdoors, aiming at a target on a board with red bean bags. Other people are nearby, some in wheelchairs, and there is a building, trees, and a parking lot in the background. The sky is partly cloudy.

Currently, a majority of our residents have multiple diagnoses, with the majority having some sort of mental illness diagnosis. These diagnosis include bi-polar disorder, mania, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression disorder, schizophrenia and multiple-personality disorder, just to name a few. With the onset of Mental Illness normally occurring during a person’s early to mid-twenties, many residents had started families, college or a professional career and then brain chemicals started to drastically change. This loss of what could have been can be difficult for the resident, their family and friends to come to terms with.

In addition, there is a stigma around mental illness throughout our country that often times leads to limited access to resources for many who are experiencing an acute episode or prolonged condition with their mental illness. It is vitally important to our work to break down this stigma and recognize and celebrate that those with mental illness can live a purposeful and fulfilling life.

Through various partnerships, including Park Center, who provides Out Patient Talk Therapy Services, we provide resources above and beyond the normal regiment of care. Some of our team members are certified in crisis prevention and intervention. Regular visits to Carriage House are also available to our residents. Their “Club House Model” encourages recovery and reintegration through meaningful daily living activities.

Our dedicated team works closely with our Certified Family Nurse Practitioner who specializes in psychiatry related to the use of antipsychotic medications. We meet as an interdisciplinary team, which includes a Resident Engagement Specialist, our Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, our Director of Nursing, our Pharmacist, and administration staff, to discuss the medication plan for each resident. Federal regulations require an ongoing Gradual Dose Reduction of these medications.

An elderly man with a gray beard wearing a party cone hat, gloves, a gray shirt, and black pants, sitting in a wheelchair in a hallway of a medical or care facility.

You wouldn’t take insulin away from a diabetic, would you?

An elderly man with gray hair and glasses wearing a navy blue Seattle Seahawks baseball cap with a gray jacket, sitting at a table inside a building near glass doors, smiling, with a tattoo of a horse on his left forearm.
An elderly man with gray hair and glasses wearing a navy blue Seattle Seahawks baseball cap with a gray jacket, sitting at a table inside a building near glass doors, smiling, with a tattoo of a horse on his left forearm.

As an organization, we are working diligently with LeadingAge and our government representatives to fundamentally change these regulations. “If an individual’s medication levels are working for them, why would you purposefully try to change those?” asks Deb Lambert, our CEO of Byron Wellness Systems.

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Older woman dancing with a younger woman at a celebration, others seated around, large digital screen in the background displaying 'Welcome to Dice & Diamonds Viva Byron!'
An elderly woman with glasses and a bun hairstyle sleeping in a hospital bed, with a black dog lying next to her and a person petting the dog. The bed has a white pillow and a blanket, and the woman is wearing a colorful floral shirt.
A woman wearing a Mickey Mouse patterned shirt, a bucket hat with colorful mushroom prints, and a white belt, smiling and sitting at a table in a restaurant or cafe.
Two women dressed in Halloween costumes, one as a pumpkin with a black jack-o'-lantern face on their orange cape, and the other as a witch with a pointed hat, smiling for a photo in a hallway or lobby area.