PLATTSBURGH — Being a volunteer comes natural for Mary Krakowski.

As program director for the Adult Mental Health and Child and Adolescent units at CVPH Medical Center and community liaison for the hospital's Psychiatric Services, she has played an important role in overall mental-health services across the region.

But the lifelong North Country native has also chosen to provide her expertise and caring as a volunteer for community agencies, earning her the prestigious Lillian B. Redcay Award for Volunteer Services from the region's mental-health community.

"I've always been a firm believer in the importance of community, the importance of people helping one another," Krakowski said from her CVPH office recently.

"When I came here (to Plattsburgh) from Lyon Mountain in 1982, I made the decision that I would become involved in the community."

Krakowski first began her career in health care as a nurses aide at Champlain Valley Hospital in 1969 and then as a unit clerk and senior clerk at the hospital.

Looking at health care from the fringes influenced her to become more active in patient services, so she took advantage of a hospital program and enrolled in the Champlain Valley School of Nursing to earn her license as a registered nurse.

She was working on a patient floor shortly after beginning her career when one of the nurses in the mental-health unit needed to take some time off. Krakowski volunteered to fill in.

"I guess I found my niche very quickly," she said. "I always found it very rewarding to see people come in (for mental-health treatment) and then to see the end result."

Her connection with those patients did not end with their discharge, however, as she looked for ways to continue supporting their needs.

She began to volunteer with community agencies such as the Northern New York Center (now Behavioral Health Services North), the Mental Health Association of Clinton County and the Community Services Board.

"Most of these organizations focus on mental health or substance abuse," she said. "The job itself (at CVPH) was very rewarding, but to be an advocate for these people out in the community was rewarding beyond work."

SOFTENED STIGMA
Krakowski often sees people out in the community who she provided support for years ago, and they often thank her for helping them get through those troubling times.

"It's important to recognize that there are so many different umbrellas to this field," she said. "If you want to do what is best for folks, then you have to be involved. We all take part in so many related programs."

Having her finger on the pulse of the mental-health community also allows her to take an active role in identifying local mental-health needs and in securing the funding to ensure those needs are met as well as possible.

"There is a community-wide shortage of psychiatrists," she said. "We need to always be looking for ways to fill gaps in services."

She does believe that the stigma often associated with mental illness has softened over the years and that the public in general has gained a better understanding of what it means to have a mental illness and what it takes to support those afflicted with such a diagnosis.

"I believe that for many years there was a stigma and many myths surrounding mental health and substance abuse," she said. "Over the past decade, I believe this has changed, and I'd like to think that in some way through sitting on all the different boards of directors that I somehow helped to make the change."

The Redcay Award is given annually to a member of the community who has given "outstanding volunteer contributions to mental-hygiene services in Clinton County" and is presented through the county's Community Services Board.

E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com