UPCOMING HOPE HOUSE EVENTS

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1 HOPE HOUSE NEWSLETTER Where We Go From Surviving to Thriving NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2017 HOPE HOUSE WILL BE CLOSED: Thursday & Friday November 23 & 24 Thanksgiving Holiday Monday & Tuesday December 25 & 26 Christmas Holiday Monday, January 1-New Years Day UPCOMING HOPE HOUSE EVENTS Each Tuesday in November -1-3-Acrylic painting with Terry at Hope House Thursday, November 9th, 5-6-Hope House Thanksgiving Day Dinner (details inside) Wednesday, November 22, 1-3-Visit the Humane Society, Sign up at Hope House Friday, December 8, 1:30-3-Members Meeting Tuesday, December 12th & 19th Equine Therapy, Need to sign up at Hope House Wednesday, December 13, 1-3-Caroling at the Nursing Home Friday, December 22, 12-3-Hope House Holiday Party for members Wednesday, December 27, 1-3-State Park Snow Walk, Sign up at Hope House ATTENTION, MEMBERS! If you receive a letter from the county stating that you need to sign up again for Medical Assistance, please call Hope House for help right away so that you don t lose your coverage. Medical Assistance covers medications, prescriber visits, labs, etc. that help you stay healthy.

2 Hope House Thanksgiving Dinner Members, this is your big chance to invite people to an event! The Hope House Thanksgiving Dinner will be Thursday, November 9, serving from 5 to 6 pm. Members and former members are welcome to bring their friends and families. Hope House will be able to provide rides home after the dinner, please sign up beforehand so that Kate has a head count for rides. Headwaters School of Music and the Arts Painting is back! Terry will be here to teach Acrylics on Tuesdays in November! Equine Therapy! Equine therapy has returned! Thank you to Beltrami County for providing funding, and to Eagle Vista Ranch for making the arrangements. See your calendar for dates!! Please be mindful of the dates, there will be no drop-in on those days. Winter State Park Walk We love that Bemidji shows all four seasons, let s get outside and enjoy our winter! If you plan on joining us for the State Park winter walk, please be mindful of the weather and bundle up! We won t have enough extra hats and WELCOME INTERN AND VOLUNTEERS TO HOPE HOUSE Intern A warm welcome to our fall semester intern, Ethan! He will be with us through mid December, if you haven t had the chance to meet him, stop in to drop in! Ethan will be doing an activity in November, he will be playing guitar and teaching a song or two. Bring your guitar and play along, come learn a new instrument, or just bring yourself and enjoy the music! (We have extra guitars) Volunteers! A big thank you to the nursing students we ve had with us this fall! You have been such a joy to have in drop-in and we really appreciate all you do!

3 Fun is an Important Part of Mental Health Recovery When is the last time you had fun laughed, smiled, or got excited about life? Have you ever laughed so hard your face hurt? If you have depression or schizophrenia, or other diagnoses that leave you with negative emotions or few emotions, it may be difficult to think of a time when you had fun. It can feel like you are doomed to live in a dark hole forever. But you are not doomed. What is fun for you? Fun is different for everyone. Some people get energized by collecting stamps other people might find stamp collecting boring. Some people are energized by groups of people other people find groups anxiety-producing. Some people are energized by watching pets- others may feel uncomfortable around animals and don t find that fun at all. At Hope House there are many people who once felt like they would never have fun again. They were in the hospital or emergency rooms over and over, they slipped from independent living to sheltered housing and sometimes to homelessness. They lost friends or family supports because their behaviors were beyond what family or friends knew how to handle. Many had payees, guardians, staff who made decisions for them, and less and less freedom to live as they wanted. They felt hopeless. But people at Hope House have done a few things to get fun back in their lives. They have worked on their recovery skills better nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress techniques, and routines, including medications if prescribed. They have worked on their social skills how to make and keep friends, how to deepen relationships, how to say no to keep themselves safe. They have worked on managing their symptoms noticing early warning signs, learning how to talk with a doctor about symptoms that aren t going away easily, having a crisis plan and an advance psychiatric directive in place in case things get worse. Many Hope House members also use the drop-in center to get to know others with mental illness and learn that people there have ways to cope and have similar experiences. Once they have skills for coping with mental illness, the fun starts to come back. Walking a horse around a corral awakens a person. Writing a poem or talking cars leaves one energized. Telling a joke and realizing that people are genuinely interested in it brings a spring in one s step. And before you know it, you find yourself laughing, or smiling. Not every day is good, but people at Hope House understand when it is not good. People at Hope House find ways to have fun and help each other have fun. The drop-in center is a place where you not only can practice and share the skills you have learned, but also have a place to have fun. If you are a member, please join us! Just a reminder that Hope House staff cannot accept gifts from members. If you want to recognize them over the holidays, a note telling about what you are learning about yourself, and how you are getting your life back is always welcome!

4 Hope House Employment Report for July to September 2017: Four members are working full-time, nineteen are working part-time for a total of 23 members who are employed. Types of jobs: Retail cashiering, stocking, deli, and carryout, dishwashing, farm and manual labor, auto sales and mechanics, small engine repair, management, nursing, office support, cleaning, laundry, overnight staff, performing, sales, to name a few! Did we miss your type of job? Tell us about it for the next newsletter! Your name will remain anonymous. Seventeen additional members want to work. Individual Placement and Support (IPS) can help you find work, and quickly. Members, please stop in the Hope House group room any Tuesday between 12:15 and 2 pm to learn how IPS can help you! REMEMBER! Fall Back SET YOUR CLOCKS Back ONE HOUR SATURDAY NIGHT (November 4) SUDOKU Sudoku is easy to play and the rules are simple. Fill in the blanks so that each row, each column, and each of the nine 3x3 grids contain one instance of each of the numbers 1 through 9. Livewire

5 6 November 2017 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Library (Meet at the Library) Grateful jars Homemade Muscle Maker: Play-dough Acrylics with Terry Ruttgers (Sign up and meet at HH) BARC Therapy at HH 5-6 Thanksgiving First Presbyterian Church (501 Minn. Ave) 10 12:30-1:30 LAC Meeting 1-3 Thanksgiving Cards Acrylics with Terry Mall Walk (Meet at the mall) Jam Session with Ethan Bingo! Acrylics with Terry 7-8:30 REACH for friends & family of someone with mental illness Humane Society (Sign up and meet at HH) No Drop In! 23 Happy Thanksgiving Hope House is Closed 24 Hope House is closed Acrylics with Terry Tim Horton s (Meet at TH s) Writing Group

6 December 2017 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Holiday Cards Ornament making Glazed and Amused (Meet at G&A) Gingerbread Houses 8 12:30-1:30 LAC Meeting 1:30-3 Members Meeting Equine Therapy (Sign HH) Caroling at the Nursing Home (sign up at HH) See Kate for more info BARC Therapy Charades Equine Therapy (Sign HH) Little Caesars Pizza (Meet at LCP) Telephone Pictionary Holiday Party No REACH 25 Happy Holidays (HH Closed) 26 Happy Holidays (HH Closed) State Park Snow Walk (Sign up at HH) Resolutions BINGO!

7 It s that time of year. The holidays have passed and Spring seems like a distant memory. Everything seems to be just dull grey and white. It s the time when smiles seem few and far between. We call this sad and depressed mood cabin fever. But what is it about Winter that makes us feel so blue? Is it just the cold or is it something else? There is a name for the bleak moods that many of us feel. It is called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. Here is what I have learned about SAD. SAD affects 4%-10% of the population. It is a form of seasonal depression that comes in October and doesn t leave until late April. SAD is characterized by feelings of depression and irritability. We crave carbohydrates and many of us gain weight as a consequence. Winter SAD is only one form of the depression. Some people experience SAD during the Spring and Summer months becoming anxious and stressed. They tend to eat less and lose weight. So what can be done to combat SAD? One treatment is using a full spectrum light. The user faces the light from a distance of 18 inches away without looking directly into the light source. Getting exercise outdoors may also help. Even a short walk may alleviate some of the symptoms. Some people take Vitamin D. It is important to speak to your doctor before taking supplements. The reason that SAD is so prevalent especially in northern parts of the world is the length between sunlight and darkness. The darkness causes our bodies to produce more melatonin which makes us sleepy and less serotonin which helps us stay awake and be more energetic. Everyone has a circadian rhythm, which affects the production of those two chemicals. When the seasons change, the rhythm changes causing the symptoms of SAD to appear. Unfortunately for some people who experience major depression, the symptoms of SAD are not alleviated much by the season s change. For these people medications and counseling are a must. If your depressed mood does not lift with the change of seasons, its time to seek professional help because major depression does not lift on its own. Not only can depression affect your life, it can also affect the lives of those around you. Unresolved depression can even lead to suicide. If you are having thoughts of death or suicide, seek help at once. It could very well save your life. Submitted by Hope House Member

8 th Street SE PO Box 1097 Bemidji, MN Staff: Joseph Cook ext. 102 Tim Fellman, ext. 103 Barbara Fisher, ext. 107 Vicki Frisch, ext. 105 Kate Schoeneck, ext. 111 Robin Wold Director, ext. 109 Jody Yerbich, ext. 101 Phone: Phones are not answered between Noon & 1 PM. (Please leave a message during those times.) Crisis Line: United Way Helps Here