In this area, most of these patients are discharged to family, put in residential care facilities, or nursing homes. However, if they refuse to take the medications needed to keep their illness in check, or are going through a crisis, they become uncontrollable. The families, residential care, or nursing home does not want them any longer. Speaking of an acquaintance, Fields (1997) writes, "Relatives no longer will take him in. Society has abandoned Jack with the good intentions that have paved a road to an urban hell euphemistically called the community." The patient, before recovery and off his/her medication, begins to react to internal stimuli. When this happens, their behavior becomes very unpredictable. Many wind up back in the hospital, or sometimes in jail.

There must be alternatives available for the person with a severe mental illness, a "happy medium" that can be provided for the well being of the client with a severe mental illness, until she/he is ready to live alone and take proper care of him/herself.

What is needed is a safe, non-threatening living environment that meets the needs of the client without making them feel as if they have no input regarding their care. An environment is needed that nurtures the client along the road to recovery, yet does not force the client out on his/her own too early.

Just because these clients are no longer under the care of the State does not release the community from a moral obligation to care for our fellow human beings. It is the proposal of our group, that a foundation be formed to finance the formation of a therapy and training community for persons with severe mental illness, and eventually other groups that wish to provide the same type of programs. This is not another means of institutionalizing the client, rather a means of helping them recover, instead of medicating them and releasing them, with no hope of living a happy, productive life.

We wish to be an alternative to short-term hospitalizations, which provide no real chance for recovery. The InnerLight Foundation will be devoted to the safety, care, and improvement in the quality of life of persons with severe mental illness, to train them to be productive, and to study of the effect of "a family-like" environment on the recovery of these patients. It is our hope to become a model community; We wish to be a resource for others who also wish to help those suffering from a mental illness live a richer, fuller life, and to enable the client to recover and become a productive member of society.

We will also attempt to research alternate therapies and treatments involving nutritional programs, and vitamin/mineral replacement therapies, utilizing holistic beliefs and non-chemical non-traditional treatments. We will utilize treatments that incorporate some standard therapies with alternative, spiritual, occupational, and medical treatments, to treat the "whole client". Those suffering from mental illness are ridiculed, made fun of, and ignored by the general population. How can the person with a mental illness be allowed their freedom and still insure that they have adequate care, remain on the road to recovery, and become productive citizens? This proposition will address those questions, as well as provide an alternative to long-term hospitalization. Each life that can be normalized will be further proof that the person with a severe mental illness can be successfully treated, instead of just medicating them, and housing them forever.

We propose to start a non-profit foundation that will fund a not-for profit therapeutic farm "community" for persons with a severe mental illness. This community will be for the patient that can function within a safe, non-threatening environment, but cannot remain functional yet out in the so-called normal community. The main function of this farm community will be to keep the patient in treatment, keep the patient functional within the context of the community structure, and to give the patient a safe, non-threatening environment in which to live while recovering and learning a skill that will help them get a job.

With the ultimate goal of teaching, the person with a severe mental illness that he/she can function in society without stigma and that mental illness is treatable.