Surviving ... and thriving: Kelly Skinner of Wernert Center lauds peer support for those with mental illness

This is the fourth in a series of profiles of people who have quietly made significant contributions to our community. If you know of such a person, please contact Ann Weber at aweber@theblade.com or 419-724-6126.

Kelly Skinner is living proof that people can make their way out of the fog of mental illness.

"Treatment works. Recovery is possible," she declares in her bright corner office in the cheerful yellow building at 208 West Woodruff Ave. near Uptown Toledo. This building is the Thomas M. Wernert Center for mental health recovery and support, where she's the executive director.

"We are not your community mental health center with psychiatrists, therapists, and social workers on staff. We do social work but we're not licensed social workers," says Ms. Skinner, 51.

Employees have earned their credentials in what people used to call "the school of hard knocks" — the random blows that life inflicts. Every employee here has been on the receiving end of mental health treatment and services.

"They're all survivors, and what they offer is hope, encouragement, improved quality of life," Ms. Skinner says. It's more than inspiration, though. They also help people find solutions to their needs, whether it's learning how to ride the bus around town, how to communicate with their doctor, or where to get an affordable pair of eyeglasses.

As the agency's brochure puts it, "... we offer unique peer support and believe that no one can understand the experiences of living with mental health challenges better than someone who has walked down that road."

‘A depressed kid'

Ms. Skinner's walk officially began with what she calls "a major depressive episode" in late 1993, when she was working as a certified respiratory therapy technician. That led in June, 1994, to the first of two psychiatric hospitalizations.

But she believes her illness goes back many more years.

"I was probably a depressed kid due to my circumstances," Ms. Skinner says, referring to the death of her mother when Ms. Skinner was a senior at Whitmer High School. In her 20s, she says, she masked her symptoms with alcohol and drugs.

Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when Ms. Skinner was 11. Five years later, cancer was discovered in her ovaries. Those cancers also have claimed Ms. Skinner's maternal grandmother, four aunts, and a second cousin.

It's been almost 14 years since breast cancer touched Ms. Skinner, then 37.

She found a lump just as she was putting the first severe depression behind her and looking to return to the workforce. She underwent a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation.

It was in December, 1996, during treatment for breast cancer, that her second — and last — psychiatric hospitalization took place.

Cancer made her a believer in the power of peer support, first after her mother's death and then after her own diagnosis.

Back at Whitmer in 1975, seven or eight students had lost a parent at about the same time. With the help of a counselor, she started a peer support group that was her introduction to the comfort of "shared living experience," she says.

"I was that kid who wanted to be like everybody else, and not everybody else was having a mother die. [Peer support] provided me what it does, I think, for our members now: that I didn't feel so alone," Ms. Skinner observes.

"This is what saved my life in dealing with cancer as well," she continues. "Yes, I had my other friends and family, but it was the deep, deep relationships I formed with other survivors" that were her lifeline.

Meanwhile, she was looking for a job that would be less emotionally draining than working with sick patients. While she had been working as a respiratory therapy technician, Ms. Skinner had earned a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Toledo and had done an internship in chemical dependency counseling. But she also considered going into photography or construction.

That's when she saw an ad for a job with Consumers Union of Lucas County — later renamed the Thomas M. Wernert Center. "The ad said ‘people living with mental illness are encouraged to apply,'" she says.

Consumers Union hired her as consumer advocate in 1998 and named her executive director in 2001. "I can't imagine doing anything else. It is just the perfect fit for me," Ms. Skinner says.

Carol Nagy, president of the center's board, likes the fit too. "I have a lot of faith in Kelly's direction and leadership. She is very thorough in relating information to our board of trustees and keeps us up to date with all current events," she says.

As head of the agency, Ms. Skinner oversaw construction of the building that now houses the center. It opened in March, 2004.

"It was a huge personal accomplishment for me," she says.

Ms. Skinner describes herself as a hands-on administrator. "On any given day I can go into the club area and know everyone's name. It's not unusual for me to sit in on an art class or a women's meeting."

The idea of being a club is key to the center's identity. People who attend its programs are "members," not clients, consumers, or patients.

"We think of ourselves as a club," Ms. Skinner explains. "Just as anyone else has a membership to an organization or association where they network and connect with friends, this is a safe place that hopefully our members think of in that way."

Activities range from informal socialization to support groups, outings, and classes that teach daily living skills, communication, decision-making, wellness, and other topics. The overriding goal: "To decrease the isolation that many of us with mental illness often experience," Ms. Skinner says.

"In my opinion, medications, psychiatrists, the whole medical model is not the only way to recover from mental illness," she adds. People who receive peer support in addition to treatment are more likely to thrive, Ms. Skinner says, "as opposed to just survive or learn to live with their illness."

Again, she is proof — thriving in a life that includes godchildren, nieces and nephews, biking, kayaking, nature, photography, and walking with her dog Keegan (who comes to work with her each day).

Ask about the stuffed polar bears that populate her office, and she explains that one of her goals is to observe and photograph migrating bears in Manitoba, Canada.

Meanwhile, she'll focus her lens on trying to dispel the stigma of mental illness and help those who are living with it to build a better life. "Seeing all the recovery successes is such a joy for me," Ms. Skinner says.

Contact Ann Weber at: aweber@theblade.com

or 419-724-6126.