Stories of our lives: Raymond Schwartz

Editor’s Note: San Diego Jewish World is interested in publishing mini-biographies of members of the Jewish community who live in the greater San Diego County region.  In this article, inaugurating the feature, Raymond Schwartz reviews the high points of his life and his career.

By Raymond Schwartz

SAN DIEGO — I was born in 1935 in a Jewish-Italian section of Flatbush, Brooklyn. I attended Erasmus Hall High School, the oldest (opened 1787) and largest in students numbers (13,000 in 1950’s), and did very well, graduating at age 16 ½. At that time (1953) one could not gain college entrance until age 18, so I had to work for my dad in the garment industry in downtown New York City. When I hit 18 I entered Long Island University and hoped to become a marine biologist because I read The Sea Around Us, a book on the seas. It all came to a halt in my second year of studies when I took a lab class that included microscopy. And there began instances where my hopes were dashed. I had difficulty seeing the stains of various slides, and my professor realized that I was Color Blind! That ended the idea to be a marine biologist.

So instead I enlisted in the U.S. Army. I spent three years in the Army, 15 months of which were in Korea. I applied and was accepted into UCLA after leaving the service, and moved to Los Angeles in 1958. In one of the first classes, history, I became enthralled with it, and history was now my major field of study. By 1961 I achieved the Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1963 I applied to UCLA again and was accepted into graduate school so that I could achieve a Master’s degree in History. And by 1966 it was awarded, an M.A. in Ancient History and Classical Studies. My intention was to get a teaching job and become a professor.

Medical issue arises; my eyes

I had had problems in both of  my eyes since my early teens, yet nothing was ever diagnosed by any doctor anywhere. But whatever the eye problem was, it was getting worse. Finally I was seen by a specialist in a hospital lab specializing in eye problems. And the doctor gave me his findings. He said that I was born with a corneal genetic disorder that ran in the family (my mother’s father, it turned out). The disorder had only been discovered recently by two German doctors. The bigger problem was that it was to cause blindness in both eyes. The corneal tissues self destructed and there was no apparent cure!

But there was a small possibility, one that just had been tried. It was a new type of surgery called a “transplant” in which another person’s tissues were grafted onto yours. I felt I had to try it. I was 26, and had no other choice without such a trial but to go blind. In November of 1961 I underwent a transplant in my left eye, thereby becoming the second transplant patient at the hospital. For a whole week I was to lay immobilized, my head sandbagged and body drugged so that nothing moved. After a week like this, I was allowed to wake up, bandages removed, and I opened the eye. And I could not see anything and I was blind. What was worse was that the hospital had drugged me too long and did not stop it in stages before waking me out of it. The result was that I threw a seizure that evening at home. And I would throw more, and become epileptic the rest of my life. A second surgery was attempted 6 months later, and it also failed. I was now a 26-year old history student with one eye and a seizure disorder, and prospects for a future were wilting fast.

From History to a new Work Objective

But I was a New Yorker and was raised with the attitude of “never give in, never give up.” While still taking classes for the M.A., I went into the History Department for some reason and happened to notice on the bulletin board that the County of Los Angeles was searching for a County Historian. I jumped at that chance for it meant a real job. So I signed up to take the County job exam on a given Saturday morning. To prepare myself for the exam, I read the California Almanac because I had absolutely no learning of local history at all. Finally, the day arrived, and I got in my car (although blind in one eye, California allows you a license as long as one eye is over 20/40) and drove all the way from the coast to downtown Los Angeles to the County Building.

I arrived 15 minutes late to the exam! I ran to the exam room. It was locked. I shouted out, “Please open up, I want to take the exam.” I began banging on the door. Nothing happened, no one opened the door. More banging of the door. Still nothing. Finally, a cleanup crewman came out from another room nearby and said “What are you doing?” I told him about the exam for County Historian. And the cleanup man told me, “Mister, that exam is next week! You didn’t miss it. But if you stick around for 20 minutes, there is another County exam, for something like County Welfare. You interested?” I stayed and took that exam. And the following week I took the exam for County Historian. And now for the next weird event. I got called in for an interview by the Department of Public Welfare and did so well, I was offered the job. But what about the job I really wanted, County Historian? I never got called in for an interview despite being Number 2 on the list!  So I accepted the Department of Welfare job out of need.

Social Work here I come

I had two degrees, both in history, and never had any real training or education in what one would classify as social service. Yet here I was. The department gave me some training, mainly in how to get the information necessary to determine eligibility for welfare and the forms to use. That was it. And I was given my first case.

She was an elderly woman, widowed recently, who had come in to apply for public welfare because of little income in reserve. She sat down in her chair, and when I asked her what brought her in to apply for public welfare, she shrieked out, “I’m so embarrassed! Welfare!” Without thinking, I grabbed onto her hand, and said to her, “Please, don’t cry. This is a program that you earned while you and your husband worked all those years, because you were paying taxes that support it! It is not something to be ashamed of. It is your right.” And with that, she stopped crying…and thanked me for being so kind and understanding. I had tears in my eyes at that time as well. But I had actually done something I had never done before, felt I could have a part to play in something like this before. I had made a person feel good about herself in a situation of stress. This feeling would stay with me in future. And it was only a start.

I stayed with the Department for four years (1964-1968). During that time at work I met a new person on the job who happened to have just graduated with a Master’s Degree in something called Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley. The person and I became good friends, and he told me to get the M.S.W.! And in 1967 I applied, to UC Berkeley and to a school in San Diego, San Diego State (then) College. In 1968 I was accepted by SDSC and came to San Diego to get an M.S.W. It was a very new beginning for me in a new city and in a new work environment that would become my career! And still I had one eye to see out of. Yet it was only the beginning.

During my two years at SDSC, I received an internship job at the state hospital for the developmentally disabled in Orange County. For this, I would spend 2 days at the hospital and return and take classes 3 days a week. The internship proved valuable because after receiving the degree in 1970 I was offered a job opening a state licensed six-bed facility in Pacific Beach (its first) for developmentally disabled (DD) adults. I quickly learned the licensing code of regulations and within 30 days got the place licensed. As a result I became its Administrator and hired its staff. The job lasted 6 months but what I learned would be of great importance for years to come.
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Marriage and Family

I obtained a part-time job that led to greater satisfaction and a lifetime of joy. This was with the University of California San Diego Hospital, in which I was to deal with state benefits for the medically indigent needing treatment and funds to pay for it. The job was not to be permanent I was told, and I was prepared for that. But what came of this opportunity was totally beyond expectations. I worked in a sleeping room for interns at the hospital, with insufficient desk space. Usually I worked on a cot they slept in. Outside this room was a filing cabinet. And nearly every day a young woman employee walked by and we both looked at each other and nodded. I became very interested in meeting her, but needed the courage to “break the ice.” So one day, I hid in the room and when she came by, I jumped out and startled her. And that, believe it or not, is how we met, my future bride, Bonnie. This led to courtship, a wedding, and a wonderful loving life together these 42 years. We have 2 adult sons, and could never be happier. Still, with one eye.
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The second Master’s Degree, in Social Work; A New Career

I got other jobs, one with the local Epilepsy Society, and wrote three papers that were published in the National Epilepsy journal on the subject of the epileptic and work opportunities, and lawyer issues with epileptic patients. The job lasted nearly 3 years and I loved it it.

The Eye Problem, Part Two

In 1982 came another twist of fate. A specialist at Kaiser Zion Hospital wanted to see me and see what could be done with my left eye. He viewed the eye and told me that he felt he could do another transplant and maybe it could be successful because the surgery had progressed from the 1960’s drastically. I happily agreed. And the surgery itself was different. It did not take a week, only 6 hours from beginning to end. The bandages came off. And I could see!  I could see!  After 21 years, Raymond Schwartz had two good eyes once again.  (I have undergone 4 more transplants, the last this January 2015, in order to keep vision because they do not last indefinitely.)

But the right eye had never been touched and needed its surgery which was done in 1984. When the bandages came off, I could not see clearly. The surface of the eye had been creased, and I was seeing double. And there was nothing that could be done about that, I was told. I was now back to one eye again. This would stay until 2012! By chance, I had pushed for help and out of desperation one of my eye doctors suggested a “Hard Lens” be placed in the eye daily. It was tried, and…I got 20/20 vision back in a minute wearing it! Through most of my adult life, I have lived with one or the other eye with useful vision, yet accomplished so much.

My Social Work Career, Part Two

But back to my career, mainly with one eye again. The long lasting work that I obtained was with the County Department of Mental Health which begun in 1978 and lasted until I took retirement in 1996. This was a great shift from the DD community to the Seizure Disorder community and now to the Mental Health community.

My first assignment was with a special unit dealing with mental health clients who refuse treatment and become threats to themselves or others. There are very special state laws dealing specifically with this issue because it means that the state may interpose and have the person taken to a hospital to force treatment against the patient’s will. It has been a problem in the courts due to “civil liberties” violations alleged by the ACLU among others. This job lasted the one year but was very useful later.

I then transferred to the County Mental Health Hospital in San Diego. There I worked under a state program called “Continuing Care” in which I, a social worker, was united with a psychiatric nurse and a psychiatrist and we went into the field searching for mentally ill who needed treatment but could not afford it, or did not especially seek it out. By treating them in the field wherever they were found, it saved money due to less expense in Emergency Room use at the hospitals. This lasted 6 wonderful years until the program lost state funding and disbanded.

During that time, a very important occurrence took place. The psychiatrist in charge asked me to investigate why the patients placed in state licensed “Adult Residential Facilities” had many patients returning within a month or two after long terms in hospital treatment. Why were they not getting better care there?  These facilities were unlocked but were to provide by state regulation 24 hour “care and supervision.”

I went to a facility and investigated. It was an eye opener (excuse the pun). At the time I entered, a staff person was handing out the medications each resident was to take, which by regulation was the duty of the facility. It had full control of all medications and they were under lock and key. I asked the staff person what the pill she had was, and what it was for. She said she didn’t know, only that it was to be given at that time. I asked how does she know if it is working properly? Again, she didn’t know. I returned to the office and told the psychiatrist my findings, and I told him I had a great idea. Why not allow me to create a medications training program especially for the facility staffs of these homes.  The course could also cover various types of mental illness, how they appear, and how to see when the person is having an attack and may need additional treatment in a unit, etc.

This was agreed on, and within 2 weeks I had begun a new total training program, the first of its kind in the State of California for the staffs of state licensed facilities for the mentally ill, right here in San Diego. But I was not finished. I came up with a second idea; how about a monthly newsletter I would write and send to each home, a paper filled with news of regulation changes, more ways to help staff work in these homes with the residents, etc. And I also came up with a third idea, that representatives of the homes should come to a monthly meeting I would hold at the CMH headquarters so that they could meet and discuss ways they have found that have been successful in difficult situations. This sharing of information was vital because they had never bothered to share and care before.

Next, I came up with idea number 4. I started the first Bed Availability Hotline throughout the County with CMH providing an 800 phone number. With this number, anyone needing an empty bed in a licensed facility could find one any day or time. Again, this was a first in the State. I in a short time became known throughout the State as “Mr. Board and Care.” I have worn that title ever since with pride.

While the county mailed out my newsletter for some years it finally ended, and I have continued it on my own using email addresses to send it out to save on postage. As a result of all these ideas, I wrote a number of books on the subject, including The Residential Care Handbook which detailed how to open a licensed home and deal with the regulations, and Daily Living Skills Handbook, which assisted staff in giving the residents some skills of personal care and social skills.  Others were  A Family Handbook on Mental Health and Behavioral Problems and Their Behavioral Solutions which dealt with how to handle situations using behavioral ways instead of negative commands.

After 6 years with the great program of Continuing Care, I was promoted and made an Administrative Manager of a new program called Case Management. In this, Case Managers were assigned specific areas and followed patients who were at risk due to poor treatment cooperation. I did this for 8 years in the San Diego area, managing 5 Case Managers.

During that time I and another Social Worker received a State grant and started a wonderful program called “Senior Peer Counseling” in which we trained volunteer seniors to meet with other seniors in their homes and just talk about whatever that senior wanted to discuss. The volunteer Senior Peer Counselors were unpaid, but gave many hours to the program. The Volunteer Peer Counselors met with me and the other Social Worker weekly to discuss cases. In the 4 years this program operated, a total of 120 Peer Counselors received the training and counseled 1,400 seniors all over the County. This was one of my finest experiences in the County system. But the program lost funding from the State and it disbanded much to my chagrin. Soon after, I was transferred to East County and managed 5 Case Managers there for my last 2 years with CMH.

During this time, in 1980 I took the State exam for the Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and passed. This was a new classification for the Social Worker and allowed a social worker to practice as a clinician and see patients for therapy.

After leaving CMH, I held a number of positions for periods of time. These included being a lead consultant to a number of licensed facilities; setting up a program at a licensed home for seniors; setting up a behavioral modification program for severely retarded adults; a licensed clinician at a hospital that offered day treatment programs; coordinator of a program that worked with both mentally ill and substance abusing residents in licensed homes;  doing psychiatric social work and discharge planning at a local hospital; lead social worker at another hospital and being in charge of two others there; again doing Senior Peer Counseling but this time with the Naval Medical Center for about 2 years, and a few other jobs.

Chesed Home

Then in 2011 something else took me by surprise. I was contacted by a small group of persons, among them Devorah and Jay Shore. They had a property they were looking at in Escondido that was owned by a person who wanted to open it as a state licensed facility for the adult mentally ill but he ran out of funding.

The Shores wanted to get involved, and asked me to help get it licensed. The beauty about this endeavor was that it was to be a facility based on Jewish values, the only one in all of San Diego. Nothing had been done locally like this before, and, of course, I accepted gladly, and worked with them on this project. Funding came through later from a 501c3 program and the facility was opened in 2013, for 6 residents with preference towards the Jewish faith. State law forbids any facility to refuse a person based on religion, but you are allowed to show a preference so long as you do not refuse entry. When it opened, I trained some staff due to my years of experience. And I was asked to serve on the Advisory Board of the facility, Chesed Home. It has already achieved great success in getting some residents graduated from the licensed facility to its unlicensed Independent Living Facility next door.

Volunteer with LifeShare to boost Transplant Donations

After over 40 years in the field of Social Work in the mental health field, I still like to volunteer. Because of my own involvement with transplants, I have volunteered as a guest speaker to Life Sharing of California, as has my  wife Bonnie, who donated a kidney to her younger sister.  We talk to high school classes about the program.

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Schwartz resides in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego.  Your comment may be posted in the space provided below.