Troubled minds: a best-selling author's latest novel peers into the pit of mental health care.IN 2002, BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL Bebe Moore Campbell (b. February 18 1950, Philadelphia - d. November 27 2006, Los Angeles) was the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, and What You Owe Me, which was also a SAYS SHE FOUND HERSELF IN NEED of moral and spiritual support. A family member who was mentally ill had created a maelstrom Maelstrom, whirlpool, Norway: see Moskenstraumen. in her life, Campbell had followed the steps recommended by mental health-care professionals--obtaining counseling, drug therapy, even hospitalization hospitalization /hos·pi·tal·iza·tion/ (hos?pi-t'l-i-za´shun) 1. the placing of a patient in a hospital for treatment. 2. the term of confinement in a hospital. when necessary--yet her loved one's condition only seemed to worsen. The idea of sharing the details with friends and extended family members seemed impossible. "At first, when I realized that this person had a serious mental illness, I felt shame, embarrassment, all those emotions," Campbell said in an interview. Her latest novel, 72 Hour Hold (Alfred A. Knopf, July 2005) is a tour de force examination of mental illness, told from the perspective of Keri Whitmore, the book's divorced, middle-aged protagonist struggling to save her bipolar daughter from self-destruction. Set in modern-day southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , amid the percolating universe of actors, street people, immigrants and workaday folk who make Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. the nation's most dynamic urban center, 72 Hour Hold provides a window into a world that few Americans would willingly visit. In one of the novel's most pungent pun·gent adj. 1. Affecting the organs of taste or smell with a sharp acrid sensation. 2. a. Penetrating, biting, or caustic: pungent satire. b. motifs, Campbell likens Keri's troubles to the challenges faced by runaways in antebellum times. "Later, when I'd try to remember exactly what propelled me over the edge, I could never say with any degree of certainty what final wind blew me there," Keri Whitmore says after deciding to try a radical form of therapy on her daughter. "All I know is, my child would never be able to say I didn't try hard enough. A click went off in my mind, and I was racing across the plantation in the dark." Cutting Through the Stigma As Campbell sees it, the slavery and Jim Crow Jim Crow Negro stereotype popularized by 19th-century minstrel shows. [Am. Hist.: Van Doren, 138] See : Bigotry analogies are apt, even for many African Americans who seemingly "have it all" in these times. Mental illness effects one in four American families, Campbell says, and figures are probably underreported within the black community. Moreover, life for many black Americans in the 21st century continues to be marked by discrimination and the damaging perceptions of blacks held by some whites--all of which help to keep mental illness a taboo subject for many African Americans, Campbell says. In writing 72 Hour Hold, Campbell hoped to fold the complex history of black Americans' troubled relationship with the healthcare system within a searing sear 1 v. seared, sear·ing, sears v.tr. 1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of with or as if with a hot instrument. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. , heartbreaking heart·break·ing adj. 1. Causing overwhelming grief or distress. 2. Producing a strong emotional reaction: heartbreaking loveliness. story of one mother's experience. At bottom, Campbell's own experiences with the stigma surrounding mental illness were the driving force. Like Keri, Campbell eventually found spiritual and practical support through a grassroots mental-health advocacy group in Los Angeles. "Gradually, by reaching out to others who also had family members struggling with mental illness, I became more of an advocate," Campbell says. Before that, "I had gone through this period of having a secret, of not talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to anyone about it." Care for the Caregiver Three years ago, Campbell helped found an informal support group in her Los Angeles neighborhood. The six-woman group provided a much-needed salve salve (sav) ointment. salve n. An analgesic or medicinal ointment. salve v. salve ointment. to Campbell's psyche. By 2004, Campbell says, the group numbered several dozen regular members. She also helped start a local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI NAMI National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (now National Alliance on Mental Illness) NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness (formerly National Alliance for the Mentally Ill ) NAMI Naval Aerospace Medical Institute ), a 35-year-old advocacy organization for mentally ill Americans and their family members and friends. The NAMI chapter is based in Inglewood, a predominantly black neighborhood that had scant mental-health resources, Campbell says. "NAMI is a very established organization, but in the past, they hadn't really existed in our neighborhoods." The thriving chapter now provides continuing education continuing education: see adult education. continuing education or adult education Any form of learning provided for adults. In the U.S. the University of Wisconsin was the first academic institution to offer such programs (1904). , support groups and resources both for the mentally ill and for their family members, Campbell says. "No one wants to admit mental illness, no matter what your color, income level, whatever," Campbell says. "But for people of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) people of colour, colour, color race - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important , it is even harder to take. And I wanted readers to know that when you talk about someone struggling with mental illness, they should realize that there are at least two victims involved--the person who has it and their loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl . What I've learned is that there is an enormous emotional toll on the caregiver." Now Campbell hopes the publication of 72 Hour Hold accomplishes two things: "Of course, I want to sell a lot of books, but I also want readers to come away with a better understanding of brain diseases, and of the need to fight against the stigmas that come with that. If there's a message in this, it's that the mental-health system in this country can oftentimes be fraught with land mines, both for the people who have mental illness, and for those who are trying to take care of them. This is absolutely true, more so, for people of color." Amy Alexander, media critic at AOL's Black Voices.com, is coauthor with Alvin Poussaint, M.D., of Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans (Beacon Press This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. , October 2001). About Bebe Moore Campbell Over the past two decades, Bebe Moore Campbell has written several fiction and nonfiction books, numerous articles and a play. She is the author of more than a half dozen books that have been well received commercially and critically. She has also been a regular commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. A native of Philadelphia, she earned a teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. Campbell lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr. She has a son and a daughter. In her latest book, a mother goes in search of healing for her daughter through "radical underground mental health workers." 72-Hour Hold An Excerpt ex·cerpt n. A passage or segment taken from a longer work, such as a literary or musical composition, a document, or a film. tr.v. ex·cerpt·ed, ex·cerpt·ing, ex·cerpts 1. : Trina arrived at my door late that night. The wildness in her eyes was a tide that hadn't ebbed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mommee. Let me come home. I just want to come home." She threw herself against me. Her head against my chest felt warm, familiar. My fingers were in her hair before I even closed tire door. She pulled away stepped back, and the light from the ceiling highlighted the fresh bruises on her face. Trina must have liked my look of horror. She began smiling. "Mommee, that boy I was with started hitting me for no reason." This was probably' a lie, at least the no-reason part. In the kitchen, Trina couldn't sit still long enough for me to press ice against her eye, against her forehead. She squirmed after about ten seconds and then got up. "You have to go to the hospital." She clung to the, her hands around my waist. "No, Mommee. Let me stay here. I'll get back oar the reeds, I promise." She was manic and high. None of her words meant anything. "I'll go back to the program tomorrow," she said. "You have to take your medication right now," I said. "Okay." Books by Bebe Moore Campbell NONFICTION Backlash Marriage: The Two Career Family Under Siege Random House Trade, February 1987 ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 5-551-63125-7 Successful Women, Angry Men Penguin Putnam, December 2000 ISBN 0-425-17663-0 Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad Berkley Trade, June 2000 $14, ISBN 0-425-17474-3 FICTION 72 Hour Hold Alfred A. Knopf, July 2005 $24.95, ISBN 1-400-04074-4 Brothers and Sisters Turtleback tur·tle·back n. Something shaped like the back of a turtle, especially: a. Nautical An arched structure erected over the deck of a ship as protection from heavy seas. b. Books, October 2000 ISBN 0-606-19295-6 Singing in the Comeback Choir Turtleback Books, January 2001 ISBN 0-606-19302-2 What You Owe Me G. P. Putnam's Sons, August 2001 $25.95, ISBN 0-399-14784-5 Your Blues Ain't Like Mine Putnam Publishing Group, August 1992 ISBN 0-399-13746-7 CHILDREN'S Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry Grosset & Dunlap, September 2003 $16.99, ISBN 0-399-23972-3 Ages 5 to 10 |
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