LEWISTON – Good works sometimes last well beyond a person’s active years.
Alma Desjardins, now living in a long-term care facility, is finding that her efforts as a mental health advocate for nearly 20 years are the source of renewed admiration and inspiration.
It’s happening as her fellow residents and the staff at Russell Park Rehabilitation and Living Center learn the details of her exceptional life through a display there. As those around this friendly and unassuming lady discover the impact of her life, she finds they are coming to her for advice on how they might be involved in similar efforts.
“We are proud to have such an advocate for humanity in our midst,” said Brenda Washell, the social director at Russell Park.
Desjardins started one of Maine’s first group homes and support groups for families of people with mental illness. The home was located on Wood Street in Lewiston, and the supporting organization was called Relatives And Families Together For Support.
RAFTS now has three residential facilities in the area.
Desjardins is also among some three dozen residents of nursing homes and health care facilities statewide who were featured in an April 7 “Remember Me” photography exhibition at the State House Hall of Flags in Augusta.
The exhibition is sponsored annually by the Maine Health Care Association to recognize people with historically significant backgrounds, unique or interesting accomplishments, or those who have overcome either personal or health-related obstacles.
Eye-opener
For many at Russell Park, Desjardins’ story comes as a real eye-opener.
Her daughter, Marie Frank, who recently retired after 42 years in psychiatric nursing, said, “It’s sometimes too easy for a staff person to forget that the resident they are working with wasn’t always as you see them today. Every single one of them has a story.”
Desjardins is pleased that she can still be a resource for useful advice.
“A lot of people tell me, I’ve always wanted to start a group home,'” she said. “They’re coming to me and asking, How could I do something like that?'”
Desjardins recently recalled how her involvement with mental health issues came about.
She worked for many years as the department head of women’s sportswear at the Peck Department Store in Lewiston. Her son, David, was a medical technologist who later studied electronics until he became mentally ill with schizophrenia in his twenties. His illness was the inspiration for Alma’s many years of active advocacy.
She became unable to continue working after spinal surgery, and, prompted by her son’s mental illness and the lack of services available to patients and families, she got involved in volunteer work. In addition, she worked part time as a skilled seamstress.
Pure concern’
She remembers the time when David’s illness first hit home for them.
“After we had cried on each other’s shoulders and done all that, we decided we wanted to do something that was really effective,” she said. That decision was to start a group home.
She inaugurated the first RAFTS home on Wood Street early in the 1980s. Then four years later, she saw it was time for another one. She opened the second on Bradley Street in Lewiston. The first home accommodated six and was for people under 35 years old. The Bradley Street home was for older people.
“We got that second one going and people began to ask for one in the country,” Desjardins said. That led to a third home in Greene. All three are still in operation.
From 1981 to 2000, Desjardins served as founder, president and secretary of RAFTS. There are now about 20 group homes in Maine that follow the RAFTS model.
During those years, Alma also could be found lobbying at the State House in Augusta, being interviewed by reporters, and representing RAFTS at national conferences and conventions.
She was a nominee for the WCSH-6 Jefferson Award sponsored by the American Institute for Public Service in 1992 and was named Outstanding Family Member of the Year by the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Maine in 1994.
Greg Shea, executive director of Tri-County Mental Health in Lewiston for many years, says he placed high value on Desjardins’ service as a board member. She served on the Tri-County Mental Health board of directors from 1988 to 1998 and on the Area IV Mental Health Services Coalition for many years.
“One of the really remarkable things about RAFTS and this woman is that they started it because they were family members who cared,” he said. “She did it out of pure concern.”
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