Leland Johnson, M.F.W.
Outreach Worker, Berkeley Mental Health

Mr. Johnson worked with the homeless and mental health consumers in Berkeley, California, for more than a decade, before he helped form Berkeley's new Assertive Community Treatment program, which consists of teams of clinicians, social workers, and other professionals who by sharing resources increase the time and services they can deliver to mental health clients,--many of whom are homeless.

I've always been sort of dedicated to community work. That's just ingrained in me, and my family. My approach is, I've always believed you need to engage the person. That's the first step. And you really need to know their story, and know what they want for themselves. Then you can begin to work toward that direction. It's like you are helping them reclaim their history--because it can get so lost in the psychosis. So I try to work with people to piece it back together. What you see on the street, over and over, again, is that homelessness is about loss. So it's about helping them cope with the loss and sort of regain their lives.

There are really magical moments that happen in this work--those moments where you have the mother thanking you for reconnecting her with her child who has been on the street for 20 years.

I remember there was this one homeless woman who had been out there on the streets that long. Her family, they had come out here several times, trying to look for her, but couldn't find her. I spent a couple of years tracking her on the outreach team, and I could see she was obviously disabled. (Plus) poor hygiene, not eating well out there. She used to wear rings on her fingers and get gangrene. And what was happening was the system wasn't working. People would go to the hospital, but there would never be any aftercare or connection to services.

Now that's what we do with the Assertive Community Treatment Team: When they get in the hospital we maybe can catch them in the hospital, develop a relationship and try to get them stabilized. This was the case with her. We used to meet at the frozen yogurt store and I'd buy yogurts for her, then slowly, I'd say, "Well, I could get you in a motel room," then in board and care. Eventually, she got in this board and care, and I had been encouraging, "We could reconnect with your family, you know." The mother and father had wanted to reconnect with her, because the father was sick and maybe wasn't going to be around much longer. The one thing he wanted to do in his life was to see his daughter one more time.

Finally, she agreed. I called information--she was from Iowa. And just as information was giving me the number in one ear, she was giving me the number in the other ear. It was the same number after 20 years. It was like, "I had the number all along, but now I'm ready to use it."

What was interesting is she had had children 20 years ago, and they were little kids when she had gone on the street, and now her grandchildren were the same exact age as when she had left her children. So she was going back to see her daughter again, and see her grandchildren. That's what this work is about, reuniting families. This is why I do what I do.

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