Antonio Lambert has struggled with his mental health a great deal in his life.  He has been an addict, incarcerated, and also living on the streets.  But, what is most miraculous about him is that he has recovered, become a mental health peer, and even gotten into a position where he trains other mental health peers to do their job. 

In an article on him in the New York Times entitled, "After Drugs and Dark Times, Helping Others to Stand Back Up," the importance of peer support in the recovery process is highlighted.  A mental health peer is someone with lived experience with mental illness, who has recovered, and then provides mental health services for others. In the article, the success of peers is explained: "recent research suggests that peer support can reduce costs, and in 2007, federal health officials ruled that states could bill for the services under Medicaid — if the state had a system in place to train and certify peer providers. In the years since, “peer support has just exploded; I have been in this field for 25 years, and I have never seen anything happen so quickly,” said Larry Davidson, a mental health researcher at Yale. “Peers are living, breathing proof that recovery is possible, that it is real.”

This article really explains what I have experienced as a peer providing mental health services.  Clients who see that they have a healthy person in front of them who once struggled with mental illness get much more encouraged than if they see a clinician that has "book knowledge" of mental illness but no experience in it themselves.  How can you know what truly will help people if you have not been down the road of recovery yourself?  The peer model has been used with great success in the Alcoholics Anonymous world for years.  I'm really happy to see that it is now expanding, and becoming a well-recognized form of treatment for those with mental illness as well. 

Be Well,
~Emily
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At my conference in Washington DC, I got to meet some truly inspirational Consumers who were doing some great things.  I wanted to share with you one person who really stood out to me.  Her name is Sunny Algoso.  Sunny is from Hawaii (aren't we jealous?).  She is a Consumer doing great things with her life.  Sunny is a peer educator for the State Department of Health, facilitator of the HOPE Impact support group, and host of monthly `Olelo television program, “Hope in Recovery."  This television show is played on the 'Olelo website under the "Community" heading: http://www.olelo.org/.  Mental Health America of Hawaii has named her one of its 2011 Outstanding Community Mental Health Leaders. Sunny is truly a national treasure, and I'm so grateful to have gotten to know her!

  Be Well
~Emily

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Why hire a peer support person to help your child?  I'm so glad that you asked.  Here are the top  reasons why peers are so wonderful:

1.  They've been through it, so they understand.
2.  They are less likely to be judgmental.
3.  They are more skilled at being an advocate because they've actually been there and used services themselves.
4.  They can empathize, not sympathize because they've been there.
5. They often can "call you out" on your areas of sabotage faster because they've sabotaged in similar ways.
6. They are usually motivated to show that people with mental illness can work, so they work very hard.
7.  They usually have a lot of great referral sources because they've used the providers themselves, and they know what to look for in a provider.
8.  They are in this job not to make a lot of money (because believe me, they don't), but because they really care.
9.  They are passionate about what they do, because they know first hand how hard it is to struggle with these illnesses. 

Be Well!
~Emily
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