It’s happening now, the new role for certified peer specialists is going on in Milwaukee and I am right on top of it. Let’s be the change that we want to see happen.
Category Archives: joy
WCBS 880 Special Series: Bad Medicine - Part 1
WCBS 880 reporter Irene Cornell is doing an extended series on drug abuse, called Bad Medicine: When Painkillers Kill. The series will run through May 23. Be sure to check cbsnewyork.com for her pieces if you miss them on-air.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Veteran narcotics detectives, accustomed to shutting down heroin mills and tracking cocaine cartels, have had to learn some new tricks, WCBS 880′s Irene Cornell reported.
Posted in joy
#PalHunger | Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals Demonstrate in Ma'ale Adumin Settlement
Monday May 14, 2012 09:45 by Heidi Williams – IMEMC & Agencies Follow @imemcnews
Ma’an agency news reported that a group of demonstrators closed the main entrance to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumin on Sunday located east of the city of Jerusalem, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank.
Image Ma’an
Dozens of activists from the Popular Resistance from Ramallah, Jerusalem and Bethlehem attended the demonstration and were joined by dozens of international and Israeli activists.
Posted in joy
Least restrictive to whom?
I just came a meeting about re-designing the mental health system in Milwaukee and much of the discussion focused on bottlenecks that keep people confined in expensive, restrictive housing. It was productive but also frustrating. We are balancing the needs of consumers, advocates, policymakers, taxpayers and many more players. I became concerned that we might spend the majority of the meeting expressing our frustrations without picking anythying as a a target that we could accomplish.
I suggested that we pick one thing on the housing front that we could do and that helped lead us in the right direction. It’s ironic because people are finding success stories in some of the things we are currently doing but not everyone would consider them successful or even desirable. But, like the book says, start anywhere. So, as information gets to the point where I can be more public, I will revisit this topic. I am interested in knowing what people think about this issue, so feel free to comment. What would you like to see in housing that would improve the lives of people with a mental illness in Milwaukee?
Posted in joy
The Atheist Visibility Movement: Should atheists slam religion or show respect?
A Midwestern atheist tells of sitting in her lunchroom at work and listening as conversation opened up around her about religious differences. Her co-workers included several kinds of Protestants, a Catholic, even a Jew. Sensing they were in risky territory, they worked to find common ground. “At least there aren’t any atheists around here,” one woman said in a warm inclusive tone.
Posted in joy
I’m so proud of being loved by you
With the title of this post I am of course dating myself, which is okay. When guys see me on the street, they say, hey, old school. The hipper ones just said school. One guy said Fred, as in Frederick Douglass.
So you know from that introduction I am from the baby boomers generation. In my mind I am listening to a song by The Impressions “I’m so proud of being loved by you.” There ‘s a line “compliments to you from all the people we meet” that resonates with me. I think of this as I write about a young couple: Diana Vang and Jonathan Brostoff. I met him when he was a student at UWM involved in something called compa that included some Catholic worker activists. We worked on issues of social injustice such as the mistreatment of workers on tomato plantations whose food was used by Taco Bell.
Jonathan was a great guy and well-liked. So I was not surprised to learn he had snagged a nice woman like Diana. I met her when I attended the UWM Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. She’s religious, smart, interesting, devoted to the community and wants to make a difference. I can see the two of them being great parents years from now. A lot of very positive traits. So when I talk with peers about relationships, I sometimes throw in things about being proud of the person who loves you. Are you proud knowing that your girl friend is the person that she is? Do you think how lucky you are to have met that man who you hold in your arms? Are the values you hold most dear reinforced when your sweetheart leaves to go to work?
If not, what’s wrong with that picture? Are you proud of being loved?
Posted in friendship, joy, role models, romance
Mental Health Freedom
“I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Immediate Resources
Op-Ed Article
From: Mad in America…
sounds interesting,tho a little long
Posted in joy
One last speech at Empowerment Days
I gave a brief talk at our press conference at the State Capitol on Certified Peer Specialists. and I talked about the principles I used in providing peer support.
1. Avoid retraumatizing peers by minimizing the number of times we need to call the police and utilizing Crisis Intervention Team officers whenever possible.
2. Treating people the way that I would wish to be treated because I remember my experience as a participant in a recivery program.
3. Offering peole the right and opportunity to recover.
These were the keys to my recovery:
1. Finding a meaningful role for myself as a peer specialist which gave me an opportunity to look forward instead of mourning the jobs that I had lost and the marriage that had failed. I know that the marriage collapsed lsrgely as a result of my own mistakes.
2. I have found friends and colleagues at work and around the State through Grassroots Empowerment Project.
3. I give back to others what I have learned about what works and it’s so much more than simply taking medication. It includes exercise, access to sunlight, avoiding addictive behaviors and participating in the community.
4.Educating myself by talking with peers, clinicians and policymakers.
5. Finding comfortable surroundings so that I can feel safe and secure.
That is my vision of what being a certfied peer specialist is all about. I wish the same for everyone who is seeking recovery to have access to someone like me in the community.
Tonight’s speech to policy-makers
I am Kenyatta Yamel a certified peer specialist in Milwaukee. I have 8 years of experience as a peer specialist working in supported apartment programs developed to fill the gap of safe affordable housing for people living with mental illnesses. I was also a peer specialist at the Crisis Resource Center that was created as an alternative to hospitalization.
I am a Vietnam era veteran which was a key factor in my recovery from mental Dis-Ease. After experiencing a series of losses, including jobs, my marriage and my housing, I turned to the Veterans Administration for help 10 years ago. While I was living in veterans housing I learned about peer support. I joined a committee that was meeting to develop peer support in Milwaukee and Waukesha County. The fact we have come this far is a testament to survival.
Because of the low wages I earned, I was unable to secure safe affordable housing, even being evicted from a slum dwelling. The roaches followed me to my next residence, which was incredibly humiliating. My teeth deteriorated and started to bleed due to the lack of dental insurance. And I had to rely upon food stamps and financial aid from college to pay my bills. I was often miserable and depressed. And I was truly a candidate for anti-depressants.
I don’t want any more peer specialists to endure these kinds of horrors. We need livable wages so that we can afford our medication or wholistic health services. We need position that offer professional respect and collaboration with clinicians and most importantly our peers. And finally we need to be able to see peer support as a chosen profession not one into which we were thrust by accident. We embrace certification the way we help our peers embrace recovery.
I tell consumers to look upon diagnosis as a snapshot. So it is with tonight. I want everyone to think of this gathering as a picture. Remember this picture when you look back 5 years from now on how far we have come. With your help, we will go there together. Thank you.
Related articles
- The fight for peer support is not over (hopeworkscommunity.wordpress.com)
