{"id":2969,"date":"2019-09-16T17:34:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T17:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2969"},"modified":"2019-09-16T17:34:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T17:34:17","slug":"frederick-kelly-cumis-testament-of-hope-for-the-mentally-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2969","title":{"rendered":"Frederick Kelly: CUMI\u2019s testament of hope for the mentally ill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Early one morning in\n2002, Frederick Kelly left home in St. James and set out to work on a\nconstruction site in St. Ann, as he did many mornings before. This morning,\nhowever, was different. He suffered a mental breakdown and for weeks, or\npossibly months, he roamed the streets, eventually making his way to St. James.\nTo this day, he has never returned home. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the theory posited by Nurse Joy Crooks, Mental\nHealth Nurse and one of the founding members of the Committee for the Upliftment\nof the Mentally Ill (CUMI), having treated Kelly for the past 15 years. CUMI is\none of the few organizations in the country which tend to the needs of mentally\nill persons who have been displaced, or whose families simply cannot afford to\ncare for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelly\u2019s story began in 2002, after a concerned citizen saw\nhis state and made contact with the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH). A\ndehydrated, confused and mute Kelly was then picked up, his head, bound with\nbarbed wire, during episodes where he tried to silence the voices he was\nhearing in his head. His feet were swollen from walking hundreds of miles to\nSt. James; and his lips were white from lack of water and food. Kelly remained\non the psychiatric ward at the CRH for two years before he was handed over to\nCUMI to continue his treatment, as no family members could be located. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crooks said, \u201cWhen [Kelly] came [to CUMI], he was not\ncoherent or able to give rational answers. It took many years to regain his\nspeech. He put wires really tight around his head and those wires stared to\ngrow into the skin and the skull; and it took a long time to heal after slowly\nremoving the foreign bodies. He had many years of therapy to understand why he\nneeded to take his medication. He can\u2019t remember everything from his past but\nnow he can express himself\u2026and we can trust him to do daily errands for us such\nas paying utility bills, and taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;FIFTEEN YEARS\nLATER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, 15 years later, Kelly is now CUMI\u2019s bearer and\ngardener. After months of therapy, Kelly began to speak again, and after a few\nyears, began to read and write. He remembers that he has two children, but\ncannot recall as yet, their names. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI like CUMI a lot,\u201d Kelly says, \u201cI clean up the yard and I\npay the bills downtown and I like to work with Miss Joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrederick is quite bright. He plays quiz, bingo and he can\nread and write. All these things have come back since he has been stable,\u201d\nCrooks added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelly is one of the lucky ones; he sleeps at the Refuge of\nHope Night Shelter and attends CUMI daily. Other mentally ill persons, however,\nare left to roam the streets, without help. CUMI intervenes when it can, but\ntoday struggles to keep its doors open, as its operating costs continue to\nrise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To provide food, clothing, medication, therapy, and the\ngeneral operational costs for the organization to stay open is about\napproximately $6 million each year, and they receive very little support from\nthe government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each year, CUMI hosts its major fundraiser, the CUMI Come\nRun with the support of Running Events, the Tryall Club, and a host of\ncorporate sponsors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On September 21, the 11th CUMI Come Run will be held at the\nTryall Club starting at 6:30am. This year, CUMI is hoping to raise $4 million\nto bolster its trust and looks forward to the support of as many persons to\nhelp to reach this goal. Registration is now open for persons to sign up online\nat runningeventsja.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeffEarly one morning in 2002, Frederick Kelly left home in St. James and set out to work on a construction site in St. Ann, as he did many mornings before. This morning, however, was different. He suffered a mental breakdown and for weeks, or possibly months, he roamed the streets, eventually making his way to St. James. To this day, he has never returned home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1536,112,773,1535,797],"class_list":["post-2969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-feature","tag-committee-for-the-upliftment-of-the-mentally-ill","tag-cornwall-regional-hospital","tag-cumi","tag-frederick-kelly","tag-mentally-ill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2971,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions\/2971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}