HELPING PEOPLE LIVE THEIR BEST LIVES

Safety is the first priority at Oasis Housing. Our residents are at high risk of substance abuse, being victimized by predators, skipping or misusing medications, conflict with law enforcement due to behavior rooted in their illness and suicide attempts. They can easily lose their life or become re-institutionalized or incarcerated. Consistent, caring support services are essential to provide the safest environment possible.

Hope is a foundation for living one's best life. It takes hope and courage to follow the medical professional instructions get treatment, therapy, and take medications for years with no promised end in sight. Dealing with a chronic illness that is stigmatized by society can be terrifying. At Oasis, we plant and nurture seeds of hope in each of our residents—hope that they can do it, that there are things to look forward to, that they can manage their illness, that life is worth living, that, like other people, they can live their best life.

Each resident at Oasis is valued for their own individual personalities whether the illness creates challenging behavior or not. Each person has a say in as many things that affect them as possible. Choices about their schedule, roommates, and what they would like to eat are simple but important ways to have some independence and control over their life. Activities, such as celebrating individual accomplishments and birthdays, are another way to focus on them as an individual rather than just part of a group.

Mental illness is a life shattering disease. Most often there is no fast fix for the consequences. Some have struggled with it much of their lives, others have had it hit them when they were well on their way to the life they had planned, to accomplishing their dreams. No one plans for a crushing depression that leaves it a challenge to keep breathing, to even have a desire to breath. No one plans to have constant demeaning voices in their head that drown out anything else and leave it impossible to concentrate on things around them.

Whatever package of diagnosis and symptoms their individual disease torments them with, mental illness can destroy careers and relationships. It can quickly put them into poverty, homelessness, or institutions. It takes hard work and persistence to hang on to hope. Compassion and caring can lighten that challenge and make a difference where it is needed.

Everyone has a right to be treated with respect and dignity. Oasis residents' rights to make choices and decisions are treated with respect. Others may not agree with them, but a decision will be honored as long as the decision is safe. Mental illness does not make them less intelligent or less worthy of being as independent as possible. We respect those rights.

Mental illness is often isolating both because of the stigmas still attached to it and because, for some with severe illness, some behaviors may not fit general social expectations. Everyone has the desire to belong somewhere, to have friends, and to be acknowledged. Oasis boarding homes are in residential neighborhoods and operated family style. There are people to interact with as much as desired. Oasis gives each person a caring place to belong, a place to call home.