Why are nonprofits so important?

By: Julia Iachetta, OceanMHS Nurse Residential Housing

Ocean Mental Health Services, Inc. provides numerous children, families, and adults throughout Ocean County struggling with mental health issues, from situational stressors to severe and persistent mental illness.

Staff members are devoted to the care and comfort of our consumers, providing them with the care they require.  The staff members that work at OceanMHS are diligent in their approach with the consumers, and often times their only support.  One role which staff members assume, is of an advocate as staff provide linkage to various community resources.  A majority of the staff member’s role is to educate the consumer on their illness, medication compliance, symptom management, as well as, community supports available to the consumer.

As a nonprofit agency, our staff members are not paid within the average salary range as “for profit” agencies can offer.  However, the rewards for working for a nonprofit agency go beyond the money.  The intrinsic rewards include watching the progress of our consumers as they learn how to manage their life stressors, improving their quality of life, and assist the consumer in becoming a productive member of the community.

The staff members of OceanMHS work together in a collaborative and supportive manner for the betterment of our consumers, utilizing the expertise of colleagues to problem solve unique situations if needed.

The extrinsic rewards include the community acceptance and respect for our consumers as they are an integral part of our society. OceanMHS continues its unrelenting advocacy on behalf of our consumers.  We expect the treatment of our consumers to be paralleled to our own standards of care. There is no “Us and Them” in mental health.

OceanMHS consumers are not ‘crazy’ or ‘nuts’, they are intelligent, educated, compassionate, caring people who happen to have a mental illness which is compromising the quality of their life. Consumers are just like everyone else, they have family, friends, colleagues, co-workers, peers, and neighbors which add meaning to their lives.  At OceanMHS, we pride ourselves in being the county leaders in decreasing stigma and building a community that is cohesive and respectful of the wonderful diversity of the Ocean County area.