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Mental health awareness: Peer specialists play key role in mental health treatment

Republican & Herald (Pottsville, PA) - 5/30/2016

May 30--Editor's note: As part of National Mental Health Awareness Month, The Republican-Herald interviewed Schuylkill County residents affected by mental illnesses and is publishing a series of articles detailing their struggles and how they manage each day. The goal is to raise awareness about mental health.

No one understands what it is like to get through the day with a mental illness than someone who has done it. That is why many mental health agencies like NHS Human Services and The ReDCo Group, both of Pottsville, employ certified peer specialists to connect with their clients.

"They are evidence that recovery is possible," Jenn Kramer, NHS Human Services adult behavioral health and community director, said Tuesday.

Kramer supervises the peer specialist program at NHS Human Services with Lisa Irving, transitional living coordinator.

"They give hope when people feel there is no hope," Irving said.

To become a certified peer specialist, a person must undergo two weeks of training by a state licensed program. The two approved vendors in Pennsylvania are The Institute for Recovery and Community Integration and Recovery Opportunity Center.

Applicants must have worked at least 12 months within the last three years, have a high school diploma or GED and be in recovery of their own mental illness. Once training is complete, they can apply for a position with a mental health agency that offers a peer specialist program.

Peer specialists are also required to take continuing education credits.

NHS now has nine peer specialists serving 53 clients. The agency hired its first peer specialist in 2011.

"The reason we started doing peer services was because at the time it was only ReDCo doing them and we wanted to provide a choice," Kramer said. "It seemed like the right thing to do for the community to have a choice."

Irving said clients that qualify to get a peer specialist need assistance in one or more of the following areas: education, social, self maintenance and vocational. For a client to get a peer specialist, they must be referred to the program.

Melanie Moore had her peer specialist training in 2008. She is now one of the most experienced peer specialists at NHS Human Services.

"In the early stages, we are very much somebody that holds hope for somebody who is really struggling," Moore said. "We provide inspiration, hope and encouragement in the beginning until we can develop a rapport and find out what really are their struggles, what is really holding them back in their recovery with mental illness. Once you build a rapport and get connected, then we start to focus on goals. What do they want to achieve? Not what we want for them, but what do they hope to do with their life and how can we assist them in finding resources and building new skills."

Peer specialists are also advocates for their clients and encourage them to have a more active role in their treatment, she said.

"One of the biggest things we do is get people to empower themselves to understand their illness, understand what resources that are out there, understand their insurance, how to communicate with their doctor. It is a lot of very practical skill building things," Moore said.

Michelle Salukas is also a peer specialist with NHS Human Services. She said the program allows them share their experiences.

"I'll be working with some of my peers and it may not be the exact issue that they are dealing with at that time, but I may have had something similar that they are going through and I can let them know how I overcame that situation at that time," Salukas said. "Them knowing that you have been in their shoes actually makes them feel more comfortable with you. They want to open up more to you."

Jade Eichner, another peer specialist with NHS Human Services, said they can also connect easier with clients on a personal level.

"We are also there to share things, like a general story, and it allows them to open up more and it helps them feel a bit more comfortable," she said.

Salukas also said they can help people learn how to control their symptoms without relying on medications or therapists.

"It is more about becoming independent with coping skills and I think when it is someone else who has had an illness and they've learned steps they can use in their everyday life to control their illness it is a whole lot different than a doctor saying, 'Why don't you try some relaxation, why don't you go for a walk,' " she said. "We have a perspective that's way different because we have been in their shoes and that's a big part of what we do and the reason why it has been so successful and valuable to our peers."

Service providers do not have that perspective, Kramer said.

"I can come in there and say I know how you feel, but I really don't," she said. "They have the one key that a lot of the doctors don't have and that's experience going through the local system."

Moore said certified peer specialists do not tell their clients what to do but help them make their own choices and find all available options.

"I say we are like a guide rail for them," Salukas said. "We call it the road to recovery, so I say we are their guide rail to keep them on that path."

There is also a lot of advocacy and empowerment involved in being a certified peer specialist, Moore said.

"A lot of times, I think in my career as a certified peer specialist, I have taken on the role of advocate many times," she said. "There are unfortunately a lot of holes in this system."

With the less state funding every year for human services, the role peer specialists have in mental health care is more important than ever before, Moore said.

"We are ending up where people have less and less resources, so we have to think out of the box, be creative and try to link with other community agencies," she said.

Some of the other community agencies and organizations the peer specialists said they have worked with include Schuylkill Women in Crisis, Servants to All, Service Access and Management, Allied Services, Salvation Army, Schuylkill Community Action and God's Helping Hands.

"It is overwhelming when you have a debilitating mental illness just to get through your day, to keep appointments," Salukas said. "To be able to try to put your life together can seem just insurmountable."

Moore said it is also difficult for clients to keep appointments because the hospitals and most human service agencies in Schuylkill County are located in Pottsville.

"We are an 800-square-mile county and everything is located in Pottsville," Moore said. "That does not work when you are asking someone to travel six hours round trip on STS. It is difficult to provide services in such a large geographical area when everything is based there."

Salukas said they often help their clients learn bus schedules.

"With social anxiety, getting on a bus makes people nervous," Salukas said. "We will buddy them until they get used to it and they are able to do it on their own."

Moore said lack of transportation is a reason why she struggled with mental illness for so long.

"That was one of biggest barriers I had," she said. "I didn't have a car for seven years and I stayed sick because I couldn't access what I needed."

Moore said every peer specialist at NHS Human Services has their own strengths. For example, some peer specialists are trained to work in the criminal justice system. Others have special training focusing on veterans or people with developmental disabilities.

"We all have different strengths and we all play off each other well," Moore said.

Twelve new peer specialists, 10 from Schuylkill County, were trained last June by the Recovery Opportunity Center, which is headquartered in Arizona. The training session at M&T Bank, 1 S. Centre St., Pottsville, was organized by the Berks County Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, which also covers Schuylkill County; Schuylkill County Mental Health and Developmental Services; AHEDD, a private nonprofit group that finds employment for people with disabilities; Community Service Group; Northwestern Human Services and ReDCo.

The Berks Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and Schuylkill County Mental Health paid the tuition of some of the county residents.

Kramer said the idea for a local training session came from a peer.

"The hard thing is finding good, qualified peers because there is no education programs local to a lot of them," Kramer said.

People usually have to travel to areas like Philadelphia for training and pay even more for overnight stays, she said.

Two of the people at that training session -- Joanie Thomas and Joe Mooney Jr. -- were recently hired as peer specialists at NHS Human Services.

"We have gone through the experience of being through the mental health system and dealing with mental illness," Mooney said. "I have experienced personally just about all aspects of it and I know what it is like to be in a situation where you want help. You want someone to understand you and there is nobody there. I am glad that I am given this opportunity now to come in to talk with people to say, 'Hey, I've been there, I understand what you are going through, I know how to help you solve these problems,' which is something I didn't have."

Thomas is the first member of the peer specialist team at NHS Human Services to have had a peer specialist.

"I had a peer specialist and they helped me greatly," Thomas said. "With mental illness, often times you feel isolated. I was one of those people and my peer specialist helped me get out of that shell and showed me resources."

Kramer said that there are more than enough referrals to go around for the peer specialist groups in the county. The number of peer specialist jobs depends on the state budget. If the jobs are available, Kramer said she thinks the agencies would collaborate again on a local training session.

"It's a wonderful journey to see somebody change and grow and build skills and come into their own," Moore said. "It's really an amazingly rewarding job."

Eichner said even the small moments, like taking a walk with a client for the first time, are a major step in recovery.

"Those little tiny steps they take that they might not even realize are amazing," she said.

Being a peer specialist is also a way of continuing recovery, Mooney said.

"It gives you a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of success," he said. "That really boosts your confidence and self respect knowing you are doing a good thing."

Moore said it is also important for them to be open about their mental illness.

"The more people are out and open, I think it changes the perception of mental illness," she said. "We are willing to get out there and say we are people living with mental illness and we have happy, full lives."

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