NAMI Provides Community Help through It’s Family Support Group The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Family Support Groups, offered by NAMI Affiliates in communities across the country, are free, confidential and safe groups of families helping other families who live with mental health challenges. In NAMI Family Support Groups, families join a caring group of individuals helping one another by utilizing their collective lived experiences and learned wisdom. Family member can achieve a renewed sense of hope for their loved one living with mental health challenges.
NAMI Ohio Parent Advocacy Connection, the local organization of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, will offer its NAMI Family Support Group Program for the winter beginning December 2, 2020. It will be held on Wednesday at noon via zoom. Please email for link to Dana Berryman, NAMI Ohio PAC, dana@namiohio.org or call (614) 580-0726.
Participant Perspectives on NAMI Support Groups: “Before coming to the support group, we had never spoken about mental illness to neighbors, friends and often not even to our relatives.” | “NAMI Family Support Group really works and it makes the group experience even better.” | “I just attended my first NAMI Family Support Group and the facilitators and the group experience was just the kind of support I was seeking at this time.”
NAMI is the nation’slargest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI {Affiliate Name} is an affiliate of NAMI {State}. NAMI {Affiliate Name} and dedicated volunteer members and leaders work tirelessly to raise awareness and provide essential education, advocacy and support group programs for people in our community living with mental illness and their loved ones.
Employing Young Adult Peer Providers Two-Part Webinar on Employing Peer Support presented by the Ohio Department of Mental Health an Addiction Services (OhioMHAS)
At the end of September, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and RecoveryOhio presented a two-day, online conference entitled, “Employing Young Adult Peer Providers.”
The Day One presenters included Lois Hochstetler, Assistant Director for Community Treatment Services with OhioMHAS; Jonathan Delman, JD, PhD, Technical Assistance Lead, Transitions to Adulthood Research & Training Center, Massachusetts Medical School and Dylan St. Germaine Clinical Research Assistant, Transitions to Adulthood Research & Training Center, Massachusetts Medical School; and Steve Osborne with an overview of How2Life, a youth-targeted mobile app demonstration.
For Day Two, there were opening remarks from Alisia Clark, Assistant Director for Community Planning & Collaboration, OhioMHAS followed by a Panel of Youth Peer Supporters featuring John Dellick, Young Adult Peer Supporter, Youth Move Ohio; Amanda Stoddard, Communications Director, Recovery Center of Hamilton County; Makayla Lang, Youth/Young Adult Coordinator, Wingspan Care Group; and Quanita McRoberts, State Youth Treatment Project Director, OhioMHAS. The conference concluded with presentations by providers who are Employers of Peer Supporters, Chris Pedoto, Executive Director, The Recovery Center of Hamilton County and Kathy Hooks, Director of Youth Employment & Engagement, Daybreak.
Both days, Dr. Delman served as a steward through the conference. Considered a national expert in the transitions to adulthood, peer support services, activating consumer participation in both treatment decisions and policy development, and transition-age youth, Dr. Delman helped unpack some of the topics at hand. Some of the more significant moments of the two-day conference, in fact, came in the Q&A with both presenters and the peer mentors, the exchanges honest and thoughtful and full of additional insights and emotional connections.
What Does Peer Support Involve? Peer recovery services are community-based services for people with a mental illness or substance use disorder. Services are activities that promote recovery, self-determination, self-advocacy, well-being and independence.
In Ohio, peer recovery supporters become certified by taking an in-person training or by having three years of work or volunteer experience as a peer navigator, peer specialist, peer supporter, or peer recovery coach. Regardless of the pathway to certification, individuals must also have completed 16 hours of online E-Based Academy courses, which include topics such as ethics, human trafficking and trauma-informed care, pass the OhioMHAS Peer Recovery Services exam, sign and agree to the OhioMHAS Peer Recovery Services Code of Ethics and pass a Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) background check.
John Dellick
Peer Run Organizations are services or activities that are planned, developed, administered, delivered, and evaluated mainly by people with direct lived experience of a mental health and/or substance use disorder. Peer Run organizations include consumer operated services, recovery community organizations, peer drop-in centers, club houses and more.
Peer run organizations aim to enhance the quantity and quality of support available to people seeking recovery from mental health or substance use disorders. They are grounded in three core principles: a recovery vision, authenticity of voice, and accountability to the recovery community.
These groups promote public awareness and education, personal empowerment, and peer-based and other recovery support services and activities which may include:
Makayla Lang
– Telephone recovery support services – All-recovery meetings – Structured volunteer/work activities – Social activities – Wellness activities
Ultimately, peer run organizations are responsive to the needs of individuals participating in services and be based on local needs as identified by the individuals participating in the service.
Through the promotion of sharing personal experience and knowledge, individuals engaged in peer support play an active and vital role in laying the foundations for sustained recovery.
Amanda Stoddard
OhioMHAS Peer Recovery Supporter (PRS) Training teaches individuals in recovery from a mental health and/or substance use issue to use their experience to help their peers who are also in recovery. To attend training, you must personally be in recovery from an addiction and/or a mental health issue.
Peer Specialists are individuals in recovery from mental health and/or substance use issues who strategically share their lived experience with clients to inspire hope, provide emotional support, and aid in developing a recovery plan.
Unique qualities and practices of the Peer Specialist: – Disclosure- Use their own recovery story with clients strategically – As people in recovery they are role models/exemplars – Advocate for client’s voice to be heard – Engage in mutuality – Impact culture
Major Benefits of young adult peer integration: – Boost Engagement – Client experience, satisfaction – Outcomes – Generating hope at rock bottom – Reduced symptoms and re-hospitalizations – Improve well-being, self-esteem, and social functioning – Improved educational progress – Improve organizational culture
All PRS Trainings are hosted and organized by our community partners at the local level. Our community partners may include Mental Health and Recovery Boards, Peer Run Organizations, and Behavioral Health Providers. The local host of each training will determine the registration process. You are not required to submit an application or materials to OhioMHAS until you apply for certification as a Peer Recovery Supporter (after you complete training and pass your online exam). For a list of available trainings, and contact information for each training, view the 40-hour PRS Training Calendar.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Family Support Groups, offered by NAMI Affiliates in communities across the country, are free, confidential and safe groups of families helping other families who live with mental health challenges. In NAMI Family Support Groups, families join a caring group of individuals helping one another by utilizing their collective lived experiences and learned wisdom. Family member can achieve a renewed sense of hope for their loved one living with mental health challenges.
At the end of September, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and RecoveryOhio presented a two-day, online conference entitled, “Employing Young Adult Peer Providers.”
For Day Two, there were opening remarks from Alisia Clark, Assistant Director for Community Planning & Collaboration, OhioMHAS followed by a Panel of Youth Peer Supporters featuring John Dellick, Young Adult Peer Supporter, Youth Move Ohio; Amanda Stoddard, Communications Director, Recovery Center of Hamilton County; Makayla Lang, Youth/Young Adult Coordinator, Wingspan Care Group; and Quanita McRoberts, State Youth Treatment Project Director, OhioMHAS. The conference concluded with presentations by providers who are Employers of Peer Supporters, Chris Pedoto, Executive Director, The Recovery Center of Hamilton County and Kathy Hooks, Director of Youth Employment & Engagement, Daybreak.
