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The Power of Peer Support: Walking Alongside Someone Towards Recovery
I remember the nights I’d cry, looking in the mirror, not recognizing the girl I was looking at. I wanted and needed a way out. With so much shame and stigma around substance use and mental health, I did not know how to ask for help. The process of calling detoxes and getting certain documents...
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City Voices: A Peer‑Run Legacy of Connection, Recovery, and Community
In 1995, a man named Ken Steele began what he described as his recovery from a “30‑year schizophrenic odyssey.” His story stretched across the United States — from Hawaii to New York City — through periods of homelessness, halfway houses, and profound disconnection. Everything changed...
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Building Sanctuary: Creating Trauma-Informed Workplaces to Heal Burnout and Secondary Trauma in Behavioral Health
The quiet exhaustion in Sarah’s eyes told a story that statistics could never capture. After eight years as a behavioral health nurse, she found herself sitting in her car each morning, summoning the strength to walk through the clinic doors. Anxiety in her chest, her neck, and the very hands she...
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Amplifying Peer Specialists in the Behavioral Health Continuum of Care
We have witnessed the ongoing strain on our traditional mental health care system over the past five years. There is a growing need for help across communities, where help seekers are experiencing nuanced mental health challenges. From suicidality, stress, bullying, substance misuse, to family...
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The Impact of Peer-Based Storytelling on Workplace Mental Health
NAMI-NYC participant reflections illustrate why a peer-based approach matters. One participant shared that they did not know anyone in their life who had experience depression and that hearing a peer speak made them feel less isolated, saying, “I don't have anyone who has depression around me, so...
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Westchester County Develops “Lives Forward” Program – Providing Dual Certification MH and Addiction Peer Training to Currently Justice Involved Individuals
The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said, “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Few things illustrate this better than using one’s lived experience to support another person seeking recovery from co-occurring disorders. Now formally recognized as “peer”...
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Re-imagining Conservatorship: Recovery and Career Planning Through Peer Support
For most young people, career guidance centers on traditional roles—doctor, teacher, engineer, builder. Rarely does anyone tell a child struggling with a mental health condition that their experiences might one day qualify them for a career rooted in healing, empathy, and shared understanding....
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New York State Releases Landmark Maternal Mental Health Policy Roadmap
In a major step forward for maternal mental health policy, the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) has released a comprehensive 128-page report detailing actionable recommendations, systemic challenges, and aspirational goals to improve mental health outcomes for birthing persons across...
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A Harm Reduction Approach to Informed and Compassionate Care
Harm Reduction allows us to consider and implement practices that help individuals make safe, viable choices in support of overall wellness. Harm Reduction is also “a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs”1 and is “a key pillar...
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Staff Engagement Improves Patient Wellbeing in Psychiatric Settings
Inpatient psychiatric units are often the first point of stabilization for individuals in crisis, many of whom are experiencing acute anxietFy or depression. Standard treatment models include group therapy, individual sessions with psychiatrists and therapists, medication management,...
