In developing the following proposal, this writer took into consideration the "Personal Assistance in Community Existence" (PACE) guidelines developed by the National Empowerment Center, Inc. (1999) that advocates recovery at the patients' own pace. This program will meet the goals and criteria for Healthy People 2010 developed by the United Stated Department of Health and Human Services (2000). This program attempts to meet the following goals:

The InnerLight Foundation

Goal I: Increase the Quality and Years of Healthy Life

Goal II: Eliminate Health Disparities

• Objectives 1-1, 1-4a, 16-6a: Public Health Priority: Increase access to quality health care
  
  
• Objective 1-15. Increase the proportion of persons with long-term care needs who have access to the continuum of long-term care services.
  
  
• Objectives 8-1a, 27-10: Public Health Priority: Promote healthy environments.
  
  
• Objective11-3: Increase the proportion of health communication activities that include research and evaluation.
  
  
• Objectives 15-15, 15-32: Public Health Priority: Promote safety and reduce violence.
  
  
• Objective18-3: Reduce the proportion of homeless adults who have serious mental illness.
  
  
• Objective 18-9b: Public Health Priority: Promote mental health and well-being.
  
  

Community and consumers will be involved with implementation, evaluation and revision of the program on an ongoing basis. Effectiveness of this program will be measured with a five year research study designed to measure effectiveness of therapeutic methods used, the PACE model, and holistic therapies used. It is the desire of the InnerLight Foundation to develop a workable, model community that other areas can copy, a model that will improve the quality of life for those that suffer from chronic mental illness.

Deinstitutionalization was intended to allow the patient with a mental illness to integrate back into the community after discharge from state run mental institutions. This phasing out of our mental hospitals created possibilities for people with severe mental illnesses to live in their home communities, to try to live, work, and enjoy a better quality of life. That is what deinstitutionalization was supposed to be. Despite the best of intentions, this is not always the case. Most communities do provide adequate care for persons with mental illness. There are some communities however, that do not meet the needs of all of this population. We are concerned with clients that do not need hospitalization, but need more care than out patient, or day programs provide. "The InnerLight Foundation" is meant to address some of these needs.

The view of schizophrenia as a progressive, deteriorating disease is being challenged by current research and selfreports. A new paradigm of recovery is emerging. Long-term follow-up studies have demonstrated that the majority of peopie with schizophrenia significantly improve or recover over time, with substantial heterogeneity within the illness itself, among people with schizophrenia, and within a given individual (Davidson & McGlashan, 1997). In addition, consumers with the illness are writing and speaking out in greater numbers, describing their subjective experiences with the illness and the health care system (Deegan, 1988, 1996; Leete, 1988; Lovejoy, 1984).

Hope is considered an essential element in recovery and rehabilitation. Many first-person accounts of schizophrenia describe regaining hope as a turning point in a person's recovery. Hatfield and Lefley (1993) summarized the consumer literature on schizophrenia and found that hope was linked to some of the most poignant statements made by consumers. However, they noted that little was known about the way professionals and families could instill hope effectively.

Some things that help include:

• * Cognitive strategies.
• * Determinism.
• * A philosophy of life and world view
• * Spiritual strategies.
• * Relationships with caregivers.
• * Family bonds.
• * A sense of being in control.
• * Goal accomplishment.

Hope comes from within a person. However, others can have an impact on a person's hope, and the way this can be done for people with major mental illnesses is an increasing focus for clinicians (Adams & Partee, 1998; Deegan, 1996; Russinova, 1999; Spencer, Davidson, & White, 1997). Russinova (1999) described three types of hope-inspiring strategies. The first explores the healing potential of supportive relationships; the second focuses on increasing the consumer's inner resources; and the third facilitates the use of external resources. Self-transcendence has been identified as an outcome attainable through spiritual perspective, acceptance,or hope. The critical attributes of hope are:

• * A future orientation.
• * An energized action orientation.
• * A general or particular goal.
• * A feeling of uncertainty.

Two additional studies demonstrated positive hope-specific outcomes of broader treatment interventions (Holdcraft & Williamson, 1991; Littrell, Herth, & Hinte, 1996). In previous research (Kirkpatrick et al., 1995), clinicians working with people with schizophrenia identified several hope-instilling strategies:

• Building relationships.
• Facilitating success.
• Connecting to role models.
• Managing the illness.
• Educating both clients and the community.

THE BASICS OF RECOVERY INCLUDE:

• Remaining hopeful and envisioning a future of growth and development.
• Having the right to choose-- without it there is no motivation.
• Knowing that you are not a label or a diagnosis. You are a living, changing person-not an object.
• Realizing we posess talents hidden to others, finding that talent, and expanding upon it
• Speaking for ourselves. When others speak for us we are devalued.
• Establishing our own homes in the community where we can choose our roommates or live alone.
• Acknowledging the need for friends, peers and intimate relationships.
• Realizing that peer support and self-help keeps us grounded and connected.
• Protecting and nurturing the spirit within us.
• Knowing that all things are possible and that to be alive is a miracle.

Other essentials include; safe niches, natural supports, reconciliation with family, self-discipline and will, belief in oneself, successful experiences, meaningful work, psychotherapy, and the passage of time.

All of these basics will be addressed in the "InnerLight Foundation" Farm Project.

As a chronic major depressive, this writer holds strongly with these three beliefs:

1. I believe that a cure for some severe mental illnesses will be developed in my lifetime.
2. I believe I can make a difference in the life of someone with severe mental illness.
3. I believe that a person with severe mental illness can attain a satisfying quality of life.

InnerLight Farms, is an attempt to give those that have been "lost in the shuffle" a new hope for a brighter future.