Rodney    Ballard

Mental illness is not what Jesse Toms would have chosen as the challenge he&#8217;d face in life. The same can be said for Abbie, Lucy, Margaret and the other patients who find help at the Friends and Family Adult 
Day Health Care in Berea.
The Friends and Family center is more than just a certified health-care facility. It is a ministry – one to which people are called.
&#8220;No one wakes up and says, &#8216;I want to work with the mentally ill,'&#8221; says Jason Barrett, executive director. &#8220;I tell people very candidly when I interview them for a job, &#8216;If you are here for a paycheck, you need to go on down the road and get a paycheck someplace else.&#8217; Our hearts are in helping others and making a difference in the lives of others.&#8221;
Instead of the stark white, echoing halls of a usual nursing facility,Friends and Family has a home-like atmosphere, with daily activities, therapy and home-cooked meals. The staff provides a family environment of fun, tenderness and love.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a home where I can make friends,&#8221; says Jesse, a regular visitor at the center. &#8220;I&#8217;ve lived on the streets almost all my life, hitchhiking all around. . . . When living on the streets, I had no place to go. I come here because it&#8217;s a place of stability.&#8221;
The director says the center focuses on the patient&#8217;s dignity, treating the whole self and not just a diagnosis.
&#8220;What we do here at Friends and Family is basically the pool of Bethesda, also known as the place of peace, where people are protected,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Where they are safe.&#8221;

‘Where they are safe’