I think this topic was discussed loads of time before at this forum

Today, was a very interesting day. I started off by attending what's called "Peer Connections". It's a day when community providers come into the state hospital (ASH) and meet with patients, hand out brochures and answer questions. One of my peers came up and invited me to the hospital picnic for M6. So after peer connections, I got to spend some time with her, she was so excited. We talked over hotdogs, about where she wants to live in the community and I saw her smile when we talked about a pass next week. After the picnic, I met with a team of peer mentors and we had our pictures taken and I gave them a tour of the hospital grounds. But things were so much more different than they have ever been any other time I walked the grounds. This time, I held in the palm of my hands a set of keys, and not just any ordinary set of keys. It seemed like it represented a shift of some kind, both personally and culturally. I now have six eager individuals at various stages in their own recovery ready to embark on a new chapter in the history of ASH. Where we go from here, I'm not 100% sure, but I know that I am not alone because others have walked before me and they now offer support and wisdom. Thanks Pat, Nicole, Matt, Dan and Tom for your insight and support.

Please note the survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.

I don't know if I remember a "faqs" seet that was so inclusive of good information from former state hospital closures. It is included on the links. This will definitely be important to informing our discussions on what advise and resources are needed for this to be a responosible closure and successful benefit to individuals at ASH! I think someone ought to go in there and offer free PMHCA membership to everyone currently going through this.

What would be some helpful things that PMHCA membership could do to let people know that they're not alone and there are lots of us out here who care about what they will be going through?

For more information on the State Hospital Closure, click on this link http://pmhca.org/?page=news_detail&id=576, also found in the News on this website.  It contains the news release, Frequently Asked Questions, and Talking Points.  Please check it out for more information.  Thank you.

The announcement of the closure of Allentown State Hospital was made today. I have many thoughts regarding the closure. Most of them are concerns for my friends and the people I know who reside at the hospital. They are not just names on a list. I was down at the Purple Rooster (canteen) this week having lunch with someone and another patient talked about her discharge and how scared she was about leaving. I hope and pray she has the support she wants. I hope this forum can be a place to share thoughts about the closure.

The Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition is excited to announce the first Pennsylvania statewide survey of trained Certified Peer Specialists. This is a chance for all Certified Peer Specialists to let their voices be heard!

This survey has been initiated by the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, the Mental Health Association of Southeastern PA/Institute for Recovery and Community Integration, and the Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition.

The survey focuses on your experiences with Certified Peer Specialist Training and employment opportunities. The survey will be anonymous and the data we gather will be used to help us further advance the peer support movement and better support peer specialists.

Please see the following survey announcement for more information about the survey and for instructions on how to complete it. It is an online survey, so you will need to complete the survey on a computer with an Internet connection. The URL address is included in the enclosed announcement. The survey will be available to complete online for approximately six weeks (January through early February 2010).

I hope you will take the time to complete the survey. We need to hear your voice!

Best wishes,
Nicole Darr

Nicole Darr, CPS
PA Peer Support Coalition Coordinator

____________________

Announcement with link to the survey:

(Please note that this survey is only intended for Certified Peer Specialists in Pennsylvania. Thank you.)


Calling All Certified Peer Specialists!

Share Information about Your CPS Training and Work Experiences!

Click on the link below to complete the CPS survey
(or enter the address into your web browser – enter it exactly as you see it below)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DDM8X8K

Read the following for more information about the survey.

The Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) is initiating the first Pennsylvania statewide survey of trained Certified Peer Specialists to better understand your CPS training and employment experiences with the assistance of the University of Pennsylvania Collaborative on Community Integration (www.upennrrtc.org) and the Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition (http://www.pmhca.org/?page=coal ).

The survey is intended for individuals with the following characteristics:

1)   A Pennsylvania resident
2)   A certified peer specialist who was trained in Pennsylvania
3)   18-years of age or older

The survey is open to anyone, regardless of your current work status (i.e., unemployed, employed full- or part-time, volunteer) or the types of position you are in (e.g., peer specialist/peer support, case manager, advocacy, policy advisor, county administrator, etc.).

 The survey was designed to be completed online in about 15-20 minutes.  Your answers will be completely anonymous.  This means that nobody will know how you responded to the questions.  Taking the survey is completely voluntary.  You can choose to answer only those questions that you want to answer, however, more complete surveys will better help us understand your experiences.  Only Dr. Mark Salzer (mark.salzer@uphs.upenn.edu) and his staff at the University of Pennsylvania will have direct access to the data.

The data are to be used for OMHSAS planning purposes, but may be used in public presentations and publications.  Again, you will not be able to be identified in any way.

Please contact Olga Levshits (levshits@mail.med.upenn.edu) at the University of Pennsylvania if you have trouble accessing or completing the survey.   

SValimont,

I am glad you posted. Hopefully a few others will read this and offer some thoughts, too.


First of all, it sounds to me like you did your best in a challenging situation. I think you reached out to him with empathy and showed care by inviting him to talk with you further. I know when I'm in a very dark place, just having someone who is willing to take the time to listen means a great deal.

It sounds like there are a few things going on here:

As far as the boundary issues in terms of you actually being off-duty: have you received any guidance or mentoring from your supervisor? Are there any clear guidelines in your program (I assume you are working in a peer support or peer mentoring program?) for how to address these kinds of situations?

The reason I ask is that it would be to everyone's benefit to have some clear guidelines established.

If your program does not have clear guidelines, you may consider reaching out to your supervisor and bringing this topic up... see if some guidelines can be established. (And I would hope your supervisor would listen to your input on what those guidelines should be.) That might help you feel more confident in your actions when a situation like this comes up. It should also help any peers you support: if you let them know as soon as you begin working with them when you are available and who they can contact at the times you're unavailable, it might alleviate any uncertainty they have about where to reach out at various times, also.

As far as the professionals telling this gentleman to contact you--it's hard to comment on this without more knowledge of the specifics. I am wondering if the professionals he talked with were aware that you were off duty? If not, they may have thought it was appropriate to suggest peer support to him at that time. Again... it's just hard to say. Are you generally available for "walk-ins"--or do people schedule regular appointments with you? Perhaps some outreach to other programs might be a good idea so they know how your program operates?

I do think that as a peer support specialist you have ALSO (in addition to the professionals) have a place in supporting someone in need. It sounds like some of the processes and guidelines just need to be worked out. You shouldn't be left on your own to determine what those guidelines are... it's something your program/supervisor need to address. Have you brought this particular event to your supervisor's attention and gotten any feedback or mentoring there?

Nicole

Hey all, I had a bad visit at work today. Suffice it to say I went in on my day off and I was eating my meal when one of the consumers was feeling very ill. At first I mentioned to the consumer that it was my day off and that he should find somebody who was working. Iam usually the type to help whether Im working or not but today I had alot of things I needed to take care of. I had only intended to eat grab some paperwork and then take care of my appointments. When I overheard that he wanted to harm himself, I then immediately took him into the office to talk about some crisis intervention. I had previously tried talking to him about his feelings in the latter part of the week and he had gotten worse. I wanted to be their for him and tell him that everything was going to be ok but what got me was that he said the professionals told him to come see us. It was a very confusing situation. They are trained and equiped to help anyone in need. I usually would try to intervene with some positive feedback but felt myself just letting him know that I could call crisis services for him and asked him if he felt like harming himself or others. He said that he could take himself to crisis because they are his primary health care provider.
I wanted to reach out and tell him what he wanted to hear but clamed up and just tried to get what I thought the best thing for him at the time. I am having difficulty with setting up boundaries. any advice?

Hi PAGEMINI,

My name is Nicole and I coordinate the Peer Support Coalition.

I'm sorry you're feeling lost. You aren't alone in this... I know there are other CPSs who've been through the training who also feel the need for some more outreach and support.

If you would like to talk one-to-one I'd love to hear from you and figure out together what resources might be a good fit for you. There are some continuing education opportunties and CPS professional development/ support groups that might be useful for you. You've taken an awesome step in reaching out here...

My toll-free phone number is 1-800-88-PMHCA, and email address is nicole@pmhca.org

If you call, ask for Nicole Darr. (Someone else will likely pick up and then transfer you.)

P.S. There is an online survey in development that will be released in the new year (2010) to be distributed to all CPSs that will give all of us who've been through the training to voice some of our experiences since the training. I hope you will share your experiences there.