Volunteers needed for safe house

The Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders Alliance’s safe house Alon House in Blairgowrie is in need of volunteers.

The alliance’s chairman Ronald Creasy said the non-profit organisation was founded in 1991 as an aftercare facility for people with psychological disabilities who cannot go back into society after they were hospitalised.

Alon House is home to seven people at present, but has the capacity to house nine residents.

House mother Mary-Ann Dobrobic said she planned to turn one of the empty rooms into a room where the residents could exercise their creativity with activities such as sowing and making cards. “We need people who can give their time,” she said. “Something like giving a resident a lift to a specific place where they need to be and to bring them back afterwards. That kind of help is needed.”

Dobrobic does not live on the premises and there is currently only one paid employee.

Creasy explained that the alliance had four objectives. These were to run the house and to help sufferers and their families, promoting ideas to the State Mental Health Department and the dissemination on mental health, to get Tara Hospital outpatient activities up and running, and to obtain funding for a second group living facility.

The safe house has been open for 15 years and four of the original residents still live at the house.

Details: Ronald Creasy creasy@iburst.co.za