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Persons in Recovery and Families
President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, launched in 2003, calls unequivocally for a "fundamental transformation of how mental health care is delivered in America." (DHHS Publ. No.SMA-03-3831, 2003). In this report, Goal 2 stipulates that in a transformed mental health system, "Mental health is consumer and family driven," and an objective for that goal is to "involve consumers and families fully in orienting the mental health system toward recovery." If one accepts the premise that how health care is organized and delivered is fundamentally connected to how trainees in all disciplines are being educated to do it, then it behooves training programs to begin the hard work of not only reviewing what they are currently doing in training but reconceptualizing and revamping how training is done and by whom.
Given the broad scale indictment of the health care system by influential reports such as the New Freedom Commission and the broader Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st. Century, a fundamental transformation of our training programs, across all disciplines and specialties, is in order. Yet, feedback from various sources suggests that the "training establishment" has yet to either fully understand the need for national change or embrace change as essential. Some disciplines, it is reported, have yet to hear fully about the New Freedom Commission or even acknowledge problems at the level of training.
Programs that use consumers within the workforce as certified peer specialists offer a fresh new model that focuses on delivering recovery based support delivered by peers who "have been there" as a part of the service package. Studies done in Georgia show that participants in this model have improved outcomes at reduced costs when compared to traditional day treatment. Peers are also being used to "bridge" from the hospital to independent living in New York. Also exciting and encouraging is NAMI's training course designed to teach health care professionals at all levels what families and consumers need and want from treatment. The use of peers and family members in providing services and training health care providers is an exciting and hopeful development.
Resources
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
www.dbsalliance.org
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
www.nami.org
Georgia Certified Peer Specialists Project
Georgia was the first state in the country to bill Medicaid for a service called "Peer Support" and train a workforce of more than 200 Certified Peer Specialists. This links to the Georgia CPS Project website.
www.gacps.org
True North: The NAMI Provider Education Program Comes of Age
by Joyce Burland, Ph.D. (PDF document)
The NAMI Provider Education Program: A 10-week course in mental health illness and education and consumer/provider/family collaboration skills for line staff at public mental health agencies. (PDF Document)
Infusing Recovery Based Principles into Mental Health Services: A White Paper by New York State Consumers, Survivors and Ex-patients (PDF Document)
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