After losing everything she had in a fire, Ironton resident Sandra Sisler said she would have been lost without her "family."

"I would have been in a hospital if it wasn't for them," she said. "They even gave me a pillow."

Sisler is a client of Consumers Helping Consumers, an agency that assists mental health clients through education, computer training, teaching living skills and peer support. The organization sponsored an open house Monday at the thrift store it operates at 1724 S. Third St.

"This gives people a reason to get up in the morning," Debbie Sanders, community service coordinator for the Adams, Lawrence and Scioto

Alcohol Drug Addiction Mental Health Service (ADAMS), said. "Most of these people haven't been in an institution, but they have no other place to go. This empowers them to be more productive."

One of the organization's consumers, Sanders said, used to live in a group home. Now, he has a job, is attending trade school, is getting married soon, and will no longer be on SSI.

"He's turned his whole life around," she said. "He was empowered to be self-sufficient, and he's done well for himself."

Besides helping the consumers with educational and living activities, the organization's 56 clients also work in the thrift store, Charles Plakaros, board chairman, said. Also, the items in the store are donated, and are usually sold by the bag. The items are priced low, but if people are in need of clothing or furniture, sometimes they are simply given away.

If the clients need to talk to someone about a particular problem they are having, they can simply drop by the store and either talk with someone one-on-one or with a group. All work units meet Monday and decide what to do for Tuesday's "Evening Drop-In," in which they may just get together and talk or possibly watch a movie.

At the open house, Plakaros, Ironton Mayor Bob Cleary and new executive director Esta Bolen presented a plaque to the retiring executive director, Ruthann Ramey.

In 1998, when Shawnee Mental Health lost funding, Ramey and others handled the paperwork that started the organization.

"She was the backbone of the whole thing," Plakaros said.

Ramey said she is resigning because she wants to hand the organization to others to allow them to work on their own.

"They need to spread their wings and fly," she said.