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My mentally ill mother had lived in a Brooklyn adult home for about fifteen years when she started to have what my family considered to be some minor problems, both psychiatrically and physically.

The home panicked, and not only psychiatrically hospitalized her, but after she had exhausted her hospital stay, transferred her to a nursing home in the boonies of Westchester County, about an hour's drive from New York City.

The move infuriated my mother, who was not ready, physically or psychologically, to be in a nursing home. It had also displeased the family, because it was a major inconvenience to get out there, whether by car or train.

When my mother hit the ceiling and commanded us to get her out of there, we were told by officials to just ignore her pleas for mercy and force her to get used to her new surroundings.

To be blunt, almost nine months later, everybody is still unhappy and even the nursing home has come around to the view that my mother would be better off somewhere else.

Fortunately, this story may have a happy ending, thanks to the efforts of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and the Urban Justice Center.

It was NAMI who gave me a list of organizations to contact about mental health issues.

One of the organizations was the Urban Justice Center (UJC-646-602-5600).

I called UJC, left a message on their system, and they got back to me promptly.

I described my dilemma and they immediately reeled off a page worth of vital information. They recommended two quality adult homes and then gave me the Department of Health's website, which lists all homes in New York State and their inspection reports (the inspection report and evaluation of my mother's former adult home was not positive).

They also gave me the telephone number of an organization called the Coalition for the Institutionalized Aged and Disabled (CIAD-212-481-7572), which empowers adult home residents. Lastly, they gave me the number of the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS-212-801-3333), which monitors vacancies for supportive housing.

So far my family has connected with one of the two recommended adult homes (we loved its location) and that same home, which unfortunately had to wait-list us, gave us a lead toward another good place.

Without advocacy groups like NAMI and the Urban Justice center, we would not have known where to begin our search. My family thanks both groups.