LLOYD
I’m a Navy veteran. I’ve been struggling with alcoholism for a long time. I don’t think the professionals really understand addiction. They think it’s a will power thing, but it’s not. I knew something was wrong and I had to keep going back to VA hospitals and finally I was diagnosed with Bipolar in 1999. They told me it would take four to five years before they got the medication right. Well, it took five years. I went to a dual diagnosis program in Lake City, and I finally got it right, or they got it right, or we got it right--I don’t know how you want to put it. It is a disease and it has different components. I drank to change the way I felt and it wasn’t a social thing or anything. With medication all those negative feelings are gone.
My case manager and the program allowed me to transition down here. I’m now working thirty-six hours a week at the hospital--they’re talking about going permanent. I’ve also set up long-term housing and it’s all because of the case managers and the VA. They didn’t hold my hand; they told me what was available and I went after it. They didn’t baby-sit me. I will have my own apartment probably in two weeks. With the care I finally got at Lake City and the program here, I finally got some help and it all started in 1972. I just don’t think people understand. They see a drunk and that’s all they see. They don’t see what’s behind it.

MITCHELL
My name is Mitchell and I’m a Marine veteran. I’ve been on drugs and alcohol since leaving Vietnam. I’ve tried a number of times to get clean but the addiction made it difficult. The educational classes here helped me find out more information about my addiction. This is a sickness and it can’t really be cured, but it can be helped with education and learning ways to stay clean. I am here at the Bailey program and it’s helping me, because I don’t have housing. I was in the street. I didn’t choose to go in the street, but it just happened because of my drinking and my drugging. I lost all kinds of things that I had--all materials. I even lost self-esteem. The VA and the program I’m in have given me another opportunity to reach out for life once again. I have been here, at this program, sixty days and it is a thirty to ninety day program. I’m filling out papers for VOA (Volunteers of America) and I’m hoping and praying that I am chosen to be in that program, because after this I really don’t have any where to go. I mean I have family in Ocala, but everything belongs to them and not me. VOA helps you stay on the right track. They help you with schooling, and they’ll feed you and provide a place for living. It’s basically everything you need to get back at a stable level. All I have to do is just stay clean. That’s what I’m working on—staying clean and trying to get a life back for myself, which was destroyed by my addiction.

HAROLD
I’m an Army veteran. I was chronically homeless since the 80’s. I was living in my car when a case manager interviewed me, and I told her I wasn’t eligible for anything. She encouraged me to fill out an application, and I did so. I found out I was accepted into Bailey. It’s been a very positive thing. Everyone treats me pretty well and that’s about it.