b'If a troubled person doesnt meet todays definitions of danger to self or others, it might be hard for that person to enter mental health services. This reactive approach has resulted in guestsbecame overwhelmed by the large dorm environ-being hospitalized or entering a crisis center or jail.ment and demonstrated a behavioral outburst that About two in five people who are incarcerated havecreated conflict resulting in an exit. a history of mental illness, with 37 percent in stateHere are some of the answers we came up with and federal prisons and 44 percent in local jailsto better engage with this population: (source: National Alliance on Mental Health). What does this customer value? They want Many times, over the years, I have pressedsafety, community, to be listened to. charges for criminal trespassing, vandalism, and so on, hoping that the person would get help. Some What do we value for our customer? We want to people did ultimately receive mental health servicescare for the whole personspiritually, mentally, this way, but most found their way back to the mis- and physically. sion after serving time.We started dreaming about how we could serve this Many guests who are not a danger to themselvesgroup better. Most importantly, we started consid-or others often do not believe they have a mentalering how we could share the hope of Jesus with health issue. Often when people have a seriousthis group. Before long, we took practical steps to mental illness, like bipolar disorder or schizophre- make those dreams a reality: the Renew Center. nia, they dont take their prescribed medication.This name was inspired by Romans 12:2: Do WebMD states that one major reason for thisnot conform to the pattern of this world, but be behavior is anosognosia, a word of Greek origintransformed by the renewing of your mind. Then that roughly translates to without knowledge ofyou will be able to test and approve what Gods will disease. You may also hear it called lack of insight.ishis good, pleasing and perfect will. What it boils down to is that a person is unawareThe Renew Center is an emergency shelter of their condition and unable to accept it.for diagnosed and undiagnosed mentally ill At Shelter KC, each year we assess threeguests. This shelter has eight StepUP beds customer service questions based on the Peter(www.stepupbed.com) and provides community Drucker model: Who is our customer? What doeswithout overwhelming crowds. Guests are allowed our customer value? What do we value for ourto stay in during the daytime and have a living customer? Through this process, we have devel- room space that uses trauma-informed design (go oped different customer groups, such as theto www.shelterkc.org to find out more). During under-employed, sex offenders, and the disabled.their 14-day stay, Renew guests can rest, develop One of the customer groups we recently felt werelationships with peers, attend Bible studies (a needed to address was the undiagnosed mentally ill.Psalms devotion about how God teaches His people This group had been growing each year, and theseto engage with their emotions), and participate in guests often only stayed a few nights before theymental health groups. \x02 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 35'