PANAMA CITY — Depression is a devastating illness that can ruin lives, and now it is driving a spike between two local homeless shelters.
The Panama City Rescue Mission’s policies under Program Director Rick Briggs have undergone seismic shifts at both the Bethel Village and downtown mission. Those policies have proved successful in his previous experience, Briggs said, including the exclusion of people on mind-altering medication from their population — even those prescribed antidepressants for mental illness, such as depression.
However, approaches to treating mental illnesses in the homeless has split two local shelters, and other local advocates of the homeless have criticized the Rescue Mission’s hard-line approach.
“They won’t allow anyone prescribed a mind-altering drug shelter,” said Cathy Byrd, owner of the Titus-2 Partnership women shelter. “They think God is going to take care of it, and depression is a choice — to just get over it. That is just archaic.”
Byrd left her leadership role at Bethel Village in May to form her own women’s shelter in Panama City. Within the past month, she said the Rescue Mission has approached her to house women turned away from the Rescue Mission for little more than taking antidepressants.
Byrd did not release the woman’s name but said she had been at Bethel Village for six weeks struggling with depression when she decided to get back on her medications.
“She said, ‘I have to take antidepressants,’ ” Byrd said. “And they said, ‘You have to leave.’ ”
The Rescue Mission does not allow users of narcotics or alcohol into the shelter or recovery program, but antidepressants are not narcotics. Briggs said the mission also does not allow anyone on mind-altering medication — including antidepressants — as a safety precaution.
“We want to create a safe environment for the client,” Briggs said, “so we try to be careful about accepting others on medications that would act as triggers for addictive behaviors.”
Briggs said in his previous experience the policy has proved successful for about 85 percent of clients after leaving the shelter’s care. Those who have to take psychotropic drugs are referred to other facilities equipped to treat them effectively, he said.
“We are not a hospital, so we are limited to the treatment we can offer,” Briggs said. “We know our limitations, and we can’t help everyone who comes through the door.”
For those who want to stay with the Rescue Mission, Briggs said counseling methods are used in place of medication. Coupled with a “support system,” the counseling methods are a more effective approach than antidepressants, Briggs said.
“These counseling methods are successful but have nothing to do with being faith-based,” he said. “They are not just used in faith-based institutions, but — being faith-based — we do bring in a spiritual component.”
However, Byrd said she believes the Rescue Mission’s policy of turning away people seeking treatment for depression through medication was harmful to the person and the community.
“Depression and substance abuse go hand-in-glove,” she said. “It’s bad therapy and bad religion.”