At this point I mostly want to help with coping strategies so that they won't need to resort to pills.
The harm I've seen done from medication towards the mentally ill kinda fucks with my head, it's always made me really uncomfortable as not just a matter of results, but the mindset from more neurotypical people that lends to it happening time and time again.
People need to be educated how to handle themselves and their peers rather than watching pill dependency make them worse overtime. In many cases the warning labels advise that the very things it's treating are otherwise long term side effects, like antidepressants making for a more desperate depression, or antipsychotics driving people insane.
Once harm's been done to their receptor sites, once the body produces even less of the chems naturally over expecting the meds to do it for it, and if this was done during formative years? I have watched this style of guinnea piggie guess work destroy lives, and the ones handing these pills over often do so with a mentality more casually harmful and negligent than even your local drug dealer, and do so with bribes from pharmaceutical companies as the drug pushers of the modern age.
You want to help people? Really? That's quite admirable.
How will you go about your dreams? If they're your dreams. I find that most people don't really consider their goals to be their dreams. They're not quite as obsessed as I am. It's like we're speaking a different language. It's very lonely, to hear someone say it's their dream to do X, knowing the expectation value. I think what people really need to achieve their dreams is to enjoy the process. IMO everything else is secondary, whether they have narrow or broad interests, none of it matters unless they enjoy the process. The more they enjoy, the easier it is to realize their dreams. Some people force themselves to have goals. For others, I think it comes naturally. Or they're somehow trained for it. It's good to set goals, but I doubt it's why they get up every day.
Hypothetically speaking, if I were you, I'd probably start my own research by setting up a booth on the street or something, asking patients to come in. I don't want to wait; I always felt that there were bits and pieces in the University education that were lacking. But that's my personal take.
Edit: Removed the first bit since I realized we mostly agreed.