Image: Melissa Rosewall is a supported employment and education specialist with First Episode, MHealth Fairview’s NAVIGATE program for psychosis. (Courtesy of Melissa Rosewell)
Melissa Rosewall discusses her work at MHealth Fairview’s NAVIGATE helping psychosis patients get back to school and work.
By Holly Gilvary
Melissa Rosewall has always been a person her friends feel comfortable seeking out when going through a hard time. Now, her full-time job is devoted to doing the same kind of work, helping patients during possibly the most difficult situation in their lives – encountering an episode of psychosis for the first time.
Rosewall is a supported employment and education specialist with First Episode, MHealth Fairview’s NAVIGATE program, where she helps patients transition back into school or working life after experiencing psychosis. Her job includes helping people get accommodations, apply for new schools and learn how to communicate their needs to a boss.
All of her work is oriented, she said, to getting people back on track to life as they want to live it.
NAVIGATE launched in January 2017 with funding that MHealth received from the National Institute of Mental Health for two teams. Rosewall joined one of those at that time.
Rosewall said her own struggles with mental health and those of family and friends inspired her to pursue this career. She likes the direct support and care to patients she can provide in her job at NAVIGATE.
Unlike her previous work, where she supported adults with developmental delays by training employers on how to work with people of different abilities, she is on the front lines of care at NAVIGATE.
But like all workplaces, the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted almost all of its work into remote interactions, which Rosewall said can be challenging. Before going virtual, a lot of Rosewall’s work included meeting people at their homes or schools to help them look through schedules and figure out how to best navigate life after or while experiencing symptoms of psychosis.
“[We are] not getting that same personal connection, going into people’s homes, going into coffee shops, seeing people in person. I think that’s a really important aspect of the program that’s just missing right now,” Rosewall said.
The most rewarding part of the job, she said, is seeing NAVIGATE’s model work for people and help them return to their normal lives.
“It’s really cool to see that model working in action,” she said. “Seeing people get a new job, get an A on their exam that they worked really hard to study on, having the schools approve accommodations for people. Just kind of these little wins, really keep me going.”
Rosewall also highlighted the importance of destigmatizing mental health disorders like psychosis and schizophrenia. While they can be very serious conditions, Rosewall said they “are not a death sentence.”
“[Schizophrenia is often] a stigmatized word, and I think when people hear someone has schizophrenia, they make assumptions and jump to conclusions [based on] movies or TV shows that they’ve seen,” Rosewall said. “Most of the people live very typical lives, and can have jobs, and have friends, and get married, and can live a totally normal life with some symptoms of schizophrenia.”
For college students experiencing mental health struggles as serious as psychosis, or even of any kind, Rosewall’s two pieces of advice are to talk to a professional, if possible, and to “try to find a balance.”
“If I could go back and tell myself in college how to help myself with my mental health, it would be to slow down,” Rosewall said. “School isn’t everything. A’s aren’t everything. It might feel like it is in the moment, but in the long run, having things you’re interested in doing, seeing friends, spending time with family, is going to be way more beneficial than getting an A versus an A-minus.”