Peer Support Services tagged posts

Care For Your Mind acknowledges and appreciates the collaboration of the National Network of Depression Centers in developing this post.

Michelle R. Kees, Ph.D., University of Michigan

On November 11th, our country will pause to celebrate a courageous, resilient group of men and women—our nation’s Veterans. In the words of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Day is a day to honor these heroes for “their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.”

As they return home from foreign conflict, these men and women deserve to succeed and thrive in their civilian lives, but may need physical, mental, and/or emotional support in order to do so.

On this important holiday, we wanted to share information about some of the challenges Veterans are facing as they make the transition to life at home—and the programs that are in place to help them.

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Care For Your Mind wraps up the series on peer support services this week with a post from Olga Wuerz, a certified peer specialist, WOC (Without Compensation) who shares first-hand the value of including peer support services as an integral part of the mental health care delivery team at VA hospitals and centers.

Why I’ve Chosen the Rewarding Profession of Certified Peer Specialist
Olga Wuerz, Certified Peer Specialist, WOC and President of the Dallas VA Mental Health Veterans Advocacy Council

I started working on the Acute In-Patient unit at the Dallas VA Hospital about 8 years ago...

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How to increase the visibility and availability of peer support services—an evidence-based practice—is an important topic during any discussion on mental health care reform. CFYM will be discussing this topic over the next few weeks. On Wednesday, April 29, look for a recap on a congressional briefing hosted by DBSA to educate congressional staffers on this critical component of mental health care.

Larry Davidson, Ph.D.
Director, Program for Recovery and Community Health
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

Stories of frustration and sorrow from family members who w...

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Allen Doederlein
President, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)

Photo Credit: The Hill

Last Thursday, February 26, I represented those with lived experiences at The Hill’s mental health briefing Fixing America’s Mental Healthcare System to an audience of nearly 100 leaders and activists in Washington, DC...

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In his Sunday column of the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof offers his suggestions for the “Most Neglected Topic” of 2014. There is certainly a lot to choose from: political battles that shut down the government, ongoing war in the Middle East, lack of functionality of the ACA website.

In the opinion of Kristof, however, we aren’t paying enough attention to mental health issues in this country. And he shares similar views to comments I observed in Tuesday’s CFYM post. Both Kristof and commenters suggested that the media bears some responsibility for the problem...

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