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An electronic circular of the Coalition's Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery
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No. 62, June 2010
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The Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery provides assistance
to the New York City mental health provider community through
expert trainings, focused technical assistance, evaluation,
information dissemination and special projects.
THE DIRECTOR’S NEW YORK MINUTE Farewell to Eric By Courtenay M. Harding, PhD Every once in a while a person arrives on your doorstep out of the blue who energizes a whole team with lots of new ideas and energy. That is what 23-year-old Eric Lu did for our Center! I met him in Taipei last fall where I was giving a workshop for eight Asian countries with Professor Byron Good of Social Medicine at Harvard. Eric was in Taipei completing his senior paper at Harvard in anthropology on “The Politics of Recovery.” He had dinner with us and I saw an extraordinary young man. When he came to New York in January, I hired him on the spot even though he was off to Harvard Medical School in the fall. He brought all sorts of ideas to our work combining humanity with science. This is a perfect combination for good physicians, but so often missing today because it is usually one attribute or the other. He volunteered to go interview consumers about their recovery stories and touched their lives. There is nothing more healing than having someone listen to your life and take it seriously. He interviewed some Directors as well and put all of these stories onto RECOVERe-works as well as being the new Editor. I told him it probably would be the last time he would have the opportunity to edit a professor’s work for a while! He learned how complicated systems of care are and how hard people are working to make care better. He worked with Dr. Amy Smiley to redo the young adult website, which will be launched soon. He taught us all about social networking. He essentially brought us into the 21st Century. He sits on the Earth lightly, brings fun and knowledge wherever he goes. His patients will be very lucky to have him and we wish him all the best and thank him for his contributions (too many to list here) to our Center and our Agencies. Right Expectations
Through RECOVERe-works, he plans to showcase recovery stories he has collected from agencies around New York City in hopes of revealing that recovery from mental health issues is very much possible and expected. In his last issue of e-works, Eric provides a double-header that highlights two prominent clubhouses and recovery stories in NYC. “We don’t treat members like mental patients,” David Lehman emphatically stated when I asked him about how Venture House helps people get better. As the Founding Executive Director of Venture House for the past 23 years, David has seen his clubhouse go from a room in the neighborhood YMCA to a two-story building that won an award from Interior Magazine for “Best Healthcare Facility.” Starting off with only four members, today Venture House has 50 active members and over 900 members in its lifetime. I had an opportunity to visit David at Venture House, and I pressed him further on why people suffering from a mental illness get better if they are not treated as mental patients. David pointed out that being a patient focuses more on a person’s illness rather than on a person’s strength. For a person suffering from a mental illness, he said, “hospitals have taught him that he can’t do anything.” A member of Venture House was told in the hospital that she was not capable of making decisions for herself because “every decision I made was ‘self-destructive’.” David argued against this approach and advocated, instead, for treating people with responsibilities and expectations as a way to help them make decisions, feel wanted, and get back their life. One example he cited was teaching people about the rules of using the bank inside Venture House and enforcing rules when people refuse to, for instance, adhere to the banking hours. David holds his members to the decisions they make and the consequences of those decisions, not in a paternalistic way but as an adult to an adult. By not treating members as patients, Venture House treats them as adults who can make choices and carve out their own future. David himself was told that he could never hold a job after being diagnosed with a mental illness in 1960. It took him 18 years to graduate from college, but as he started working at a sporting goods company and then a bank, he gradually gained more responsibilities and other people began to expect more from him. He returned to school and received his Masters in Social Work. When David went to work for Fountain House, another clubhouse in New York City, after 18 months he was asked to go start up a new clubhouse in Queens – hence Venture House was born. Today, David still takes medication for depression and OCD, but he has gone above and beyond anything anyone and he himself had expected. To those who doubt, David quips, “they shouldn’t give up on people so quickly.” Beyond the walls Blending into the neighborhood with its unassuming façade and gentle architecture, the Sky Light Center looked more like a residential building than a clubhouse. Such features appropriately reflected its kind and humble leader, Ernie Lumer, who founded this clubhouse more than two decades ago on Staten Island. After working in a community clinic, Ernie, along with his Associate Director Cathy Holladay, established the ICCD-certified (International Center for Clubhouse Development) Sky Light Center because he was attracted to the values and philosophy of the clubhouse. Ernie and Cathy described the clubhouse as fulfilling the need and right of “people to have a place to come to.” Rather than focusing on people’s illnesses, the Sky Light Center attempts to foster an environment for wellness and fellowship. “The issue of being treated as a person rather than a patient is a profound difference,” Ernie pointed out. “It really says to the people to be free to make your own decision and lead your own life. Many people have years of being in settings where everyone made decisions for them and they become passive about themselves.” With its focus on wellness, the Sky Light Center helps develop individuals’ self-esteem and recovery goals through a work-ordered day and activities such as yoga, jazzercise, and smoking cessation groups. Another important focus at the Sky Light Center is getting people back to work in the community. There is a founding belief that people with psychiatric disabilities can and have a right to work and be back in their communities. Working allows people to feel productive and confident about their abilities, and it also allows them to connect with others and build relationships. “It puts people back in the community relating to other people,” Ernie stated. Without work, many people would isolate themselves at home, which worsens their illness. Working helps people think of themselves not just as a person with a mental illness but as a person capable of reaching his or her goals and a “fuller life.” One member of the Sky Light Center, Matty, used to suffer from severe depression, but after going to the clubhouse and participating in the activities, she eventually found a starting position at a peer advocacy program and in the end became the director of the program. Once she had nothing, but now she has a job, brought her family together, and moved into her own home. This transformation however doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the gradual step-by-step progression that the Sky Light Center fosters, which helps get people back on their feet again. With 150 active members and 40 of them working at a job, the Sky Light Center prides itself on trying to blend together the walls of the clubhouse and the rest of the greater community by exposing its members to other people in the community. Such exposure will help facilitate a smoother transition for individuals integrating back into society.
Introduction to Benefits Management FREE half day training offered in various locations across the city designed for clinicians and other staff interested in learning the nuts and bolts of benefits management. The latest changes in SSA guidelines will also be discussed. Facilitator: Margie Staker and Patricia Feinberg, MS Fourth Annual Peer Specialists Conference in NYC As Peer Specialists we act with passion and experience, as guides in people's recovery process. We are change agents in the transformation of the mental health delivery system in New York City. How can our experiences, creativity and ideas continue to improve recovery-oriented services? How can we take the lead in this process? How can we, as Peer Specialists grow into positions of leadership in our jobs and our careers? Date/Time: June 15, 2010, 8:30am-4:30pm To register for any Center training or presentation, please go to: www.coalitionny.org/the_center/training/ Note: If you are typing the URL in your browser, the space between “the” and “center” is in reality an underscore symbol “_”.
The Mind Your Health Peer Coaching Program Description: This program will train peer specialists to help consumers set and achieve health and wellness goals, encourage health promotion activities, and empower consumers to develop and maintain self-management skills and play a more active role in managing their own care. It is accepting 25 applicants who are committed to being a change agent and advocate for healthy lifestyles in the workplace and community. Program Overview information here. Organization: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 10th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference Description: This is the largest supportive housing conference in the country. Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, is the keynote speaker. Organization: Supportive Housing Network of New York Brief Therapy Workshop for Spanish Speaking Practitioners Description: This workshop will describe, model and facilitate learning brief, strategic, system therapy. The lessons learned and skills obtained will be applicable to clients in all types of community care. Organization: Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services Refocus on Recovery 2010 Description: Presenting the best international recovery research, this conference will feature international keynote speakers, pre-conference master classes and showcase national studies about changing practice. Organization: Institute of Psychiatry at The Maudsley and King’s College London Asperger’s Syndrome: Film Shows Life with Asperger’s Dr. Lloyd Sederer, the Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health, reviews the film, Adam, which traces the realistic challenges, love and dreams of an individual suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-i-sederer-md/aspergers-syndrome-film-s_b_584018.html Creativity, Schizophrenia Share Similarities in the Brain MedicineNet reports on a recent study that shows creative people and people who suffer from schizophrenia share similar dopamine systems in the brain. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=116516 Deadly Consequences: Why We Need to Integrate Health and Mental Health Dr. Lloyd Sederer, the Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health, writes about the importance of providing both health and mental health care in a coordinated and collaborative manner. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-i-sederer-md/mental-health-deadly-cons_b_566630.html Project TEACH: Helping Practitioners Provide Mental Health Services in Primary Care Practices Dr. Stewart Gabel, the Medical Director for OMH Division of Children and Families, highlights Project TEACH as a way to support pediatricians and family physicians in their service for youth with mental health issues. http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/resources/newsltr/2010/may/#med Puerto Rican Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment SAMHSA published a report that examines the use of substances among Puerto Rican populations. http://www.samhsa.gov/shin/More.aspx |
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Eric Lu is a Junior Fellow in Behavioral Health at the Coalition’s Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery. The Coalition Home | Center for Rehabilitation and Recovery | Site Map
Tel: (212) 742-1600 Fax: (212) 742-2132