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Do you have a major mental illness? Are you lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender? A unique program for consumers who suffer from the dual stigma of homosexuality and mental illness is approaching middle age at the Heights-Hill Clinic on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. An outpatient program of South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island, it was founded in 1996 by Ronald E. Hellman, M.D., Program Director. It is the only program to be run by a state agency that serves exclusively lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) individuals with mental illness.

Dr. Hellman points out that therapy for LesBiGay-Transgender consumers is complicated by the effects of homophobia and heterosexism. LBGT individuals tend to feel unsafe, uncomfortable, less open and less likely to expect real help with their treatment in ordinary venues. Gay peers tend to ostracize other gays with mental illness, and people with mental illness sometimes harass gays.

The South Beach Heights-Hill Program was specially designed for consumers who find themselves confronted by this dilemma. The clinic environment particularly geared to offer an accepting atmosphere. Licensed providers are carefully trained in LBGT issues. And affirmative support groups have been organized to bring together in one place a wide variety of individuals who find that they are not abandoned and alone.

The program eliminates the ambivalence towards LBGT clients often encountered in the mental health care setting. By providing a safe, non-threatening environment, the program helps LBGT consumers actively engage in treatment.

Since its inception, the program has helped more than 60 individuals receive quality care. The LGBT Affirmative Program is a model program that can hopefully be replicated in other mental illness treatment facilities around the State of New York.

Your correspondent has been a member of the South Beach Program since it began in 1996. It has provided a safe and nurturing environment where I could discuss personal issues, which, to my surprise, were shared by others. Some topics come up again and again, as participants relate their experiences in a world that is often hostile and unsympathetic to their needs.

Many consumers are single, and they find that one of their greatest problems is learning how to socialize and connect with others who may not understand them or the challenges they face. Others have to cope with the difficulties of being unemployed or without a place to live, or both. The Clinic has available to it resources to help out. And consumers bring up every week stories of the importance of medication and meeting psychiatric appointments.

LBGT consumers often face the same dilemmas that conventional people do: how to date, where to socialize with similar people, how to adopt behaviors that protect their health, and so on. It is true almost without exception that at each group session, every consumer present is given the opportunity to contribute to the general conversation, which encourages even the shy types present to participate.

Sometimes events of the past week are brought up for discussion, particularly when they have a bearing on the mental state of the person who has experienced them. In this way, the understanding and support of the entire group can radically alter the frame of mind of the person in pain. It almost always turns out that others in the group have had similar experiences and can suggest ways to cope and work out the psychological ramifications of the troubling event.

The program director navigates between the various needs of participants, and tries to suggest practical solutions to problems that may confront anyone, from social security benefits to apartment rentals to programs of the Gay and Lesbian Center in Manhattan.

Representatives of the Program recently traveled to Albany on a day of Outreach to lobby some of Brooklyn's representatives on the need for funding to initiate programs around the city, as well as the goal to expand the core program itself.

The Treatment Center is located in downtown Brooklyn at 25 Flatbush Avenue, as is an outpatient program of South Beach Psychiatric Center on Staten Island. The Clinic is next to two subway stops: Nevins (2,3,4,5) and Dekalb (M.N,D,Q,R).

Some of the other services provided include psychiatric and psychological assessment, medication monitoring and counseling; individual, family, and group psychotherapy, multi-family psychoeducational groups;and rehabilitation counseling. For further information contact Jean Okie, PhD. or Lori Gralnick, C.S.W. at (718) 875-1420.