The Oracle

Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: Local

Two houses on Hewitt Ave. that make up the Diane Ahrens Crisis Residence

Nestled next to Hamline University's Center for Second Language Teaching and Learning, and across the street from the Delta Tau sorority house, the Diane Ahrens Crisis Residence may at first glance look like any other
house in the Midway.

But the frequent passerby may begin to notice the differences:
the ubiquitous smokers looking out from the porch, the occasional arrival of a silent ambulance out front, or the sign in the yard, notifying visitors, "People Incorporated bans guns on these premises."

Despite its proximity to the university and old Hamline ties, the
Diane Ahrens house may present a front of mystery. And, as with all things,
one eventually realizes there is only so much that can be learned from anything by staring at its outside.

To learn more about the residence, it only took an e-mail to the resident's director, CLA graduate Dr. Cullen Johnson. From his third floor office at the residence, Johnson described the center as an "acute" crisis center, offering a safe place for residents to receive temporary and intense mental health counseling following a particularly difficult or unsettling event in their lives, such as the loss of a loved one.

Johnson notes that many of the residents are homeless, and most suffer from some kind of chronic mental illness, such as bi-polar disorder, major depression or schizophrenia.

With an average stay of 3.7 days, the Diane Ahrens Crisis Residence
has 12 beds for temporary use, and often serves as a stepping stone
for residents between hospitalization and a transition back into
independent living.

For many of the residents, their struggles with mental illness have been
life-long. Johnson notes that many of the residents have been shuffled in
and out of hospitals their entire lives, often moving from isolating
hospital wards back into independent living, only to repeat the cycle later.

With locked wards and physical restraints, Johnson notes that some hospital settings treat patients with severe mental illnesses almost like prisoners. The Diane Ahren's center strives for a supportive, less restrictive environment.

Residents are encouraged to participate in activities at the center, from watching movies to reading books in the library. The residence also provides an eclectic, but professional staff. Nurses are on-call sixteen hours a day, and Johnson notes that there are at least two therapists in-house at all times, the residence also has two on-staff art therapists, and a "cooking zealot" providing meals everyday, which residents eat together in the dining room.

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