Out of the Ashes

SUMMARY

From the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, a consumer describes her painful journey through a long course of psychosocial rehabilitation in a day treatment program, culminating in the cherished goal of emptoyment. As an individual with multiple disabilities, her past experience with occupational therapy in physical rehabilitation only addressed the presenting body part, not the whole person. Her feelings and need to learn emotional coping skills were not acknowledged until her desperate call for help through an overdose. In the process of becoming whole, she deals with the new stigma of an even more disabling label-mental illness.