"I would trade him places"

She said to me, "I would trade him places." "You mean the man on death row?" I said. "Yes, him, he was whining that they were going to kill him and all I could think is how fortunate he is that he gets to die so nice and all. I'd like to be him, except I don't really want him to be free." I asked if she were suicidal, she denied this saying she wouldn't kill herself, which is why she is envious of him. It was a long day in the mental health field. A morning full of ethics training and an afternoon full of hopelessness. Chronic depression is a cruel, unforgiving, unrelenting disease. We can treat, but rarely cure. I took care of my client, tried my best to ensure her safety, and prayed for her in my heart. I laughed to myself as I rolled around my new "title." Iowa is revamping everything these days. Since I am a licensed master level social worker, Iowa says I am now an "LPHA." I had to ask what that stands for. It means I am a licensed practitioner of the healing arts. I giggle because we call this the healing arts when I can heal no one. I know the One who can, but I'm not really supposed to bring Him up unless they do. I play that one by Spirit. So I can diagnose and write orders for rehabilitative treatment, and I feel terribly inexperienced. I'm coveting everyone's prayers as our agency figures out what all of this means. I'd also love for you to pray for our clients. It is so interesting because all of us will struggle with some type of mental illness at some point in our life. And we know so little about it. I try to dialogue about it as much as possible just to help people get educated. If it were cancer we'd encourage treatment, seek it out, and fight hard, knowing it is possibly terminal is scary. Depression is more scary because we can't wrap our hands around it. It doesn't always show up on an MRI. But, it can be terminal too. To me, suicide just means the mental illness killed them and treatment didn't work. I hope and pray we can help each client. We are learning so much more, but there it a ton to learn. We all know someone affected by mental illness. Reach out to them this weekend. Offer them Hope. They need to know Him and we need to share Him.
On a much lighter note, our family is doing well. Natalie is still growing and has just learned to "scream." Not out of frustration, just because she can. There is a lot of noise at her house these days. Chris and I are going on our first date tomorrow night since she was born. I'm so excited for it and a little nervous to leave her too. I know she'll be fine and we will have fun. I love you all, have a great weekend!
Allison