This issue of Recovery Times features stories about the power of connection.

The desire for connection and to give back to the community led one group of patients who are military veterans to create a recycling program. They share how they collect bottles and cans on the Junction City campus to help a community organization that provides support and treatment services to veterans.

We are proud to feature content in this issue that was submitted by a patient who uses poetry to explore his connection to music and his understanding of how others may experience mental health challenges.

You can also read more about how we create connection and provide whole-person treatment through programming like gardening and animal-assisted therapy.

Connection is a critical element of wellness and recovery for all people. I hope you enjoy discovering some of the ways that patients at Oregon State Hospital create connection and community in support of their recovery.

Dr. Sara Walker, OSH Interim Superintendent and Chief Medical Officer

It’s no wonder that Apple Fritter, an 8-year-old rescue-turned-therapy dog, is a bit of a celebrity on most units on Oregon State Hospital’s Salem campus. She’s as sweet as her namesake and happily she welcomes hands reaching out to pat her graying head or pet her auburn coat. But Apple Fritter also understands her role as a helper and the patients who spend time with her understand that, too.

“Not a lot of people can pick up on your emotions,” said Luppay, an OSH patient who has spent one-on-one time with Apple Fritter and her handler, Gillian Quaal, an OSH occupational therapist. “With Fritter, I’ve noticed when I’m not feeling good, she’ll pick up on it. It’s like she knows, ‘Luppay is not OK.’ She’ll walk up to me and I’ll pet her. It puts me in a better mood than where I was.”

Apple Fritter is part of the hospital’s efforts to revitalize and grow its animal-assisted therapy program post-pandemic by starting with a few community volunteers and licensed patient care staff with trained therapy animals.

“Our goal is to increase access to animal-assisted interventions because it’s an intervention that treats the whole person. There are so many ways that therapy animals can support patient hope and recovery,” said Jacqueline Fullerton, Associate Director of OSH’s Occupational and Physical Therapy program.

Nearly every week on the Junction City OSH campus, a small group of patients and staff who are military veterans meet to support one another.

The conversation goes where it needs to: swapping stories about group members’ time in the military, their struggles, the desire to make a difference and create change for one another and their fellow veterans.

They’re a group that doesn’t just talk – they take action. In February, patients in the veteran support group launched a campus recycling program that supports the environment and Veterans Legacy, a local nonprofit agency that provides services and housing to military veterans.

Each week, they volunteer their time to collect plastic bottles from drinks purchased by staff and patients to donate to Veterans Legacy. Many OSH patients who are veterans visit Veterans Legacy’s Camp Alma located in rural Lane County to build community with other veterans and participate in the camp’s programming.

The recycling program offers a way to give back to a place where the OSH patients have created a strong community of support outside of the hospital, said members of the OSH veterans support group.

“I take pride in knowing that other veterans will benefit from what we’re doing,” said Mike Whitney, a Navy veteran and OSH-JC patient.

As a patient at OSH, Bob McGown seeks out opportunities to explore his thoughts and observations through poetry and research.

A physicist with teaching and research experience, McGown said poetry is a way for him to express the abstract in a way you can’t do in scientific writing or essays.

He submitted the poem below to Recovery Times. It was inspired by his encounters with MuSER (Mutal Support for those with Excluded Realities), an OSH peer support group for those who experience voices, visions and/or experience reality in . Robert says he enjoys attending the group to learn from other’s experiences and to learn more deeply about his own.   

“MuSER gives us insight into ourselves – into our own mental health challenges or investigating our own mind because I think that’s what psychology is about – investigating one’s mind,” McGown said. “The poem is about how far we can get off kilter that we’re perceiving an extreme state. That extreme state could be a psychotic break, could be depression or depressed feelings or could be negative feelings or amplified anger. How do we use our mental filter to understand these situations when we’re off our path?”

McGown thanks the OSH Peer Recovery Specialist who leads the MuSER group for encouraging him to express himself through poetry. 

Shallcross and Swanger both center their work on improving the patient experience as they seek ways to empower staff’s professional growth.

As Treatment Services director, Swanger lives out her commitment to the pursuit of excellence by striving daily to achieve the best outcomes for patients. Under her leadership, the Treatment Services Department uses patient surveys, participation data and other sources of information to adjust service delivery and to ensure each patient’s needs are being met. Swanger is also a leader who supports staff’s learning opportunities and collaborates with other psychiatric hospitals across the U.S. to learn and share best practices.

As the only current OSH clinician fully trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)— an evidence-based therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder and many other mental health conditions – Shallcross provides DBT  services to patients and regularly offers foundational DBT training to OSH staff. Shallcross also leads OSH’s Gender Expansive Care and Organizational Support (GECOS) team. Under her leadership, in the past year the GECOS team has developed and implemented processes from patient referral, assessment, treatment and peer support to ensuring patients have connections to community supports upon discharge.

In their roles, Swanger and Shallcross both support treatment excellence at the hospital, and we are so proud to have them on our team!

Interested in joining the OSH team in changing lives? Visit OSHJobs.com.

Oregon State Hospital became custodian of the cremated remains of nearly 3,500 people who died while living or working at Oregon State Hospital, Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital, Mid-Columbia Hospital, Dammasch State Hospital, Oregon State Penitentiary and Fairview Training Center. Those people, as well as members of the community, were cremated at the Salem facility between 1914 and 1973.

In the past 10 years, hospital staff and volunteers have reunited the cremains of about 1,100 people with their closest living relatives. 

OSH invites anyone who thinks they may have a family member who passed away at one of the facilities between 1914 and 1973 to check the online directory.

Families who identify relatives on this list and want to claim the cremains should complete and submit the “Request for Cremated Remains” form. Questions regarding the cremains can be directed to the OSH Health Information Department at 503-945-2976 or at osh.cremains@odhsoha.oregon.gov.  

The hospital holds a ceremony every year at the OSH Cremains Memorial in Salem to recognize those who have been reunited with their families. 

The OSH Museum of Mental Health shares OSH history and the experiences of the people who lived and worked there since the 1880s. 

The 2,500 square foot private, nonprofit museum is located within the oldest OSH building in Salem and features permanent and changing exhibits. The museum is currently run by volunteers and supported by the generous donations of community members and competitive grants.

The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and located at 2600 Center St. NE, Salem.