Warren man offers a helping hand to depression sufferers, even as his support system slips away.

Some days you just need to pick your battles. But there are the battles we pick, and there are others that, like it or not, pick us.

Warren resident Rick Norman may not always feel like fighting his daily battles, but both circumstances and choice have made him a seasoned warrior, and he's fighting on multiple fronts.

With several health concerns including epilepsy and COPD complicating a lifelong battle against depression, Norman has been unable to hold down a steady job for nearly a decade. When the onset of epilepsy initially left him unemployed, he found himself homeless and uninsured within 90 days.

For someone who had worked since the age of 15, it was a shocking change of fortune.

Social services including SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare, and Rhode Island's CNOM program (Costs Not Otherwise Matched) allowed Norman to (mostly) keep a roof over his head and obtain his medications (he has 13 prescription drugs he needs to take daily), as well as cover the costs of occasional therapy and psychiatrist visits, and a case worker to help him manage his complicated healthcare profile.

Until recently.

A $29 increase in his SSDI payments put Norman over the Medicaid income threshold by less than $15, and then CNOM was defunded by the General Assembly in last year's budget — leaving Norman holding the bag for $8000 in annual medical expenses, something he simply cannot cover.

Unable to fill his prescriptions, he goes to the pharmacy on a weekly basic and picks and chooses which drugs he will leave behind. Sometimes he goes without the medications that help him breathe, other times he passes of antidepressants or mood stabilizers. The choices are as frightening as they are demoralizing.

Norman understands well why many people object to "entitlement" programs (though he notes that Social Security is not one of them, given that the government is simply returning money to the workers who paid into it.) He'd like nothing more than to still be working full time, and knows that chronic abuses of these programs have given them a bad rap, and cites statistics that reveal that federal taxes paid by a worker earning $50,000 per year go overwhelmingly to corporate subsidies ($4000) vs. health services ($130).

Things are no better at the local level. "Last year after promising no budget cuts, an additional $10,000,000 in combined state and matching federal funds were cut from mental health programs at the state house," Norman says. "It decimated a system that has been cut to the bone over the last decade, despite increased need.

"Are we sure we're mad at the right people?" he asks.

That is where Norman is picking his battles — not in anger, but in advocacy.

He's become an "Intentional Peer Support Specialist," facilitating group therapy sessions through the MHCA-RI OASIS mental health care center in Providence. The methodology, developed a quarter-century ago in Vermont, is 12-step based and predicated on the idea that people who work together, recover together. Peer support is effective — not only does Norman have a unique insider understanding of the struggles of the people in his therapy groups, working with them helps him with his recovery as well.

And recovery is the goal, make no mistake. Despite perceptions that mental illness is a permanent condition, 80 percent of those afflicted with improve with treatment.

Norman sees this every day. "I can help people, because I know what they are going through," he says. "I've lived with suicide, my own attempts and suicide of loved ones; I've lived with homelessness; I've been drug-free for 21 years and alcohol-free for 17 years. I love what I do — it shows you what can happen when you get the treatment you need.

"We need something like OASIS in the East Bay. It is the most cost-effective way to help those who suffer from mental illness."

What Norman, and mental health advocates like him, need, is clear. "The critical piece is legislation to reestablish and fund the CNOM program," he says. "It is critical — it's the last life line for people like me who fall between the cracks. They are also focused on better access to employment, housing, access to speedy treatment, and Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) for police.

"We also need more funding for certified peer support specialists like me, because we not only understand mental illness but we understand the some times horrible side effects of the medications we are put on."

To that end, advocates are holding a Mental Health Recovery Day on Tuesday, March 3, beginning at Roger Williams Memorial Park at 2 p.m. There will be a rally at the State House  from 2:30 p.m. until about 4:30 p.m., which will include an opportunity to spend a few moments with your representatives.

Mental health advocates point out that money spent on treatment and prevention is well spent when you consider the cost of ongoing support vs. crisis intervention, which may land a patient in the E.R., or Butler — at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. It's also a key component of other state priorities such as jobs and the economy. With more than a fifth of all workers suffering from moderate depression or worse, it make a dramatic, measurable effect on productivity. And mental health issues are key to prison reform as well, when it is estimated that mental issues contributes to criminal activity in as many as 30 percent of all incarcerated individuals.

"Whether we treat mental illness or not, we will pay for it one way or the other," Norman says.

When he's not working with OASIS or at the First United Methodist Church in Warren, where he serves as a part-time sexton, Norman volunteers with the Women's Resource Center, Warren Quahog Festival,  The Front Line Ministry for Freedom, Coggeshall Farm, and Art Night Bristol Warren.

He's hopeful that his efforts, and those of other mental health advocates, can turn the tide. They have the ear of legislators including Senator Walter Felag, (D-Dist. 10) who lost his own father to mental health issues 25 years ago and supports increased funding to address mental health issues. "I'm cognizant of the impact on loved ones," Felag says. "We need to ensure that these health issues are addressed in the fiscal year budget."

Despite wanting very much to have hope, today, Norman is  very scared for his own future if his health care shortfalls aren't addressed soon.

I'm one of those people who is falling through the cracks," he says. "It shouldn't be this way."

The Mental Health Walk-in Recovery Center where Norman volunteers, the MHCA-RI OASIS Center, is at 1280 North Main St., and the phone number is 401/831-6937.

Mental Health Recovery Day will be held Tuesday, March 3, beginning at Roger Williams Memorial Park on North Main St. in Providence at 2 p.m. followed by a rally at the State House.