Man hopes to help destroy stigmas of mental illness
Jenaye Antonuccio (photo by Sherry DiBari)
July 21, 2008
Two women converse on the wide front porch. Piano music wafts out from the open front door — a welcome change from the busy street below. Inside, someone sitting at the computer turns and smiles; two play a game on a couch in another room. The kitchen counter is brimming with supplies for a fresh meal. The back door opens to picnic table full of lively conversation. Flowers flourish, splashing color on a backyard cove created by hemlock, ivy and latticework.
One woman rises from her chair.“Well, I’m going home,” she announces. “Home?” someone asks. She says her goodbyes; the conversation picks back up. Yet the question hovers in the air. This is home for many, even if some have another place to return to at night.
“Here,” says Scott Kreps, handing over a jar of homemade marinara sauce. As executive director of Athens Mental Health Inc., he oversees The Gathering Place in Athens, Home Away From Home in Logan, and The Friendship House in McArthur. The sauce, visibly full of tantalizing local ingredients, is labeled “GP Gold - Marinara for the Masses” with a rendering of the Gathering Place. A grant from the Presbyterian Hunger Project enabled its mass-production, and the sauce is sold at the Village Bakery’s Village Market. It is one small aspect of many positives Athens Mental Health Inc. offers as an alternative to strict hospitalization for those coping with mental illness.
Kreps moves about the house, greeting each person by name, inquiring of personal details. Everyone responds; everyone knows who he is. The 7 N. Congress St. house is an older Athens classic, complete with servant and main staircases, warm woodwork and diamond-pattern leaded windows. For 30-plus years, The Gathering Place has striven to provide a safe haven for whole-person recovery. Kreps has served as director for the last three and a half years. It is clear he is home as well. “I believe in this work. I believe in the people I work with,” he says.
Kreps is devoted to a few core issues: restoring capability and capacity to groups of oppressed individuals, providing access to healthy foods in a Type 2 diabetes-plagued region, and fostering sustainable longevity of local farms. These issues prompted him to tailor his master’s thesis specifically for The Gathering Place.
Titled “Healthful Hunger Reduction: A Community Development Project,” the Presbyterian Hunger Project grant provided employment for him, and new initiative funding for The Gathering Place, including the making of the aforementioned sauce. Programs such as connecting people to secure housing, cultivating health and wellness by providing healthy take-home meals on Fridays, connecting with Green Edge Gardens through Community Supported Agriculture to augment their meals and pantry, and maintaining a community garden spot are also highlights.
As with many who call Athens home, Kreps’ road to Athens has been wide-ranging. Armed with three seemingly contradictory degrees from Ohio University, he sees all varieties of study and experience tied together. “I’ve always been a person wanting ongoing diversification of my experiences,” says Kreps. “Combining my skill-sets in a place that has been a strong force for those that experience oppression, I am extremely proud to be part of such an amazing legacy.”
In a room full of local information and resource pamphlets, with constant interruptions from pressing phone calls and queries, he recounts his personal expeditions as an observer, entertainer, caregiver, overseer, father, citizen and friend.
“I’ve always rooted for the underdog, and I’ve always seen this as key,” says Kreps.
In his early youth, he remembers, his family often visited a local organization that housed a mixed population of people with mental and developmental disabilities. His family often went to socialize, entertain with clowning performances, and simply be present among the residents. “That was a gift — being so close in proximity, developing relationships and friendships with folks that had different issues than I had,” he says. “At that young an age, it was really important for my growth and development.”
Earning his first degree in outdoor recreation was a physical test: he pushed through to early graduation before starting a rigorous internship the next spring.
Two quarters were spent heartily living Athens life as a non-student. As a bounty hunter of sorts with an alias, he collected unpaid checks for a local landlord. He then purchased a one-way ticket to England to complete his degree at an outdoor recreation facility. He became skilled at instructing wind-surfing, rock-climbing, and sea-kayaking to youths at risk. Community programming and gardening became part of his repertoire.
Upon returning to U.S. soil, he caught and identified mosquito larvae, earned a master’s degree in higher education with a focus in college personnel, was a house parent for abused and neglected children, then an assistant resident director in the dorms. He became a father. A two-year stint at Marietta College in ’00–’02 as area coordinator for first-year student programs spurred a desire to return to Athens, where he found employment at Tri-County Mental Health and Respite. A second master’s degree in international affairs with focus on community development and food politics gave him the final push to his current position.
Constant activity and variation have seasoned Kreps’ life. So why settle at Athens Mental Health, Inc.? What rules of the game made this network-of-care the goal?
He says he was never in it for the money. “I get such joy because most of the people that come through here are the most genuine people you will ever meet,” says Kreps. “They don’t have time or energy to mess around with NOT being themselves. To me it is inspirational. When I can see someone’s quality of life, their ability to enjoy life and be able to hold down a job, be able to gain some perspective and intuition and trust their own self, that gives me energy.”
In the midst of the bustle, his efforts are not without effect. Kreps admits to exhaustion in managing the intricacies of non-profit work and political processes. But it’s all worth it.
“I used to say this was people’s second home,” says Kreps. “Now I know that this is their first family; it is their first home.” He stresses that humans need other humans for better mental health, not isolation. “Social connections and having an outlet in a place that’s safe, a place that is de-stigmatized — it is so vital.”
It is no easy task to provide space for the uninsured who cannot afford a $495/day hospital bed while experiencing mental-health symptoms. Athens Mental Health Inc. operates on a $150,000-per-year budget that pays for seven staff (two others are compensated through a grant and work/living-space trade), three facilities and utilities, parking spaces, programming, non-donated food, and special trips. The Gathering Place serves an average of around 110 people a week; The Friendship House (McArthur) and Home Away From Home (Logan) see an additional 30.
“Over the last 10 years, people think that individuals with mental illness are more dangerous,” says Kreps. He seeks to destroy the stigma, and utilize the potential for community and economic development. “I‘m an educator at heart,” Kreps says. “I’m not a wait-till-the-house-burns-down type of person. I want to be at the front end, helping move things forward.” His visions are clear. “People won’t just say, ‘I’ve heard of the Gathering Place,’” he says. “They’ll say, ‘I know they do great stuff.’”
Kreps loves Athens and believes in its rural sustainability, small-business models and potential for agro-tourism. “Athens has such a rich history,” says Kreps. “Every single issue that I can think about and prioritize in my mind – it’s all about potential.”
In the future, he says he’d like to start an Athens parkour group (which focuses on an international sport that’s growing in popularity, involving a person on foot getting from point A to point B in an urban landscape as quickly as possible). He and his son have already tested their skills and maneuvers on the OU campus. He also has aspirations to write a retrospective book about Court Street businesses. But for now, he is enjoying living on Athens’ west side with his three cats, son and partner.
