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Peer Supervision: A Model for Enhanced Vocational and Emotional Support
For many of us in the field of mental health and substance use disorder, the idea of peer services feels like a new and welcome change that brings with it equity and a workforce with a more complete perspective on lived experience. Many people are surprised to learn that peer services have a...
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Supporting Recovery Through Peer Services: How Community-Based Support Helps People Reconnect, Heal, and Thrive
Peer services are often described as supportive, but at their best, they are transformational. Recovery is rarely a straight line, and it rarely happens in isolation. For many people living with mental health or substance use challenges, progress is shaped not only by treatment, but also by...
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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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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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When Outpatient Psychiatric Care Is Not Enough
Key Points: The accepted goal of treatment is recovery—pursuit of a self-directed life, not just crisis stabilization. Those having difficulty pursuing recovery in outpatient treatment should consider residential treatment. Residential treatment ideally occurs in a community over...
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The Mental Health Association of Westchester and The Mental Health Association of Rockland Merge and Rebrand as Greater Mental Health of New York
The Mental Health Association of Westchester and The Mental Health Association of Rockland announced the completion of their merger and the new name of their combined organization: Greater Mental Health of New York, Inc. The merger increases the size and scope of integrated, person-centered...
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Peers and Recovery: Models for Success
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are provided with services by...
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Stability, Wisdom, and Strength: Older Adults in Supported Housing
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services for...
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Consumer Perspectives: The Right Research
This article is part of a quarterly series giving voice to the perspectives of individuals with lived experiences as they share their opinions on a particular topic. The authors of this column facilitated a focus group of their peers to inform this writing. The authors are served by Services for...
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Our Realizations and Truths About Harm Reduction
Looking around the room in our focus group, we all realized two really interesting things about who we are and where we’ve been. Number one, that none of us were kids anymore, which is a nice way of saying that most of us already crossed the threshold of mid-life and were heading somewhere on the...
