The National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse is affiliated with the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion!
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A Rare Side Effect of Some Medications Is Little Known, Sometimes with Tragic Consequences
“In rare cases, antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs cause a condition called akathisia, which can drive people to end their lives,” according to a recent article in Elemental, a Medium publication. “Akathisia is often understood as a motor problem that causes tremors and restless legs brought on by new medication, a dosage change, or withdrawal from medication. It often strikes at lightning speed…Without treatment—and even sometimes with it—the symptoms can become chronic…There has not been a definitive study on the prevalence of akathisia, and experts say that rates vary widely—somewhere between 5% and 20%, depending on the trial…There’s also no data or expert consensus on the exact rate of deaths from akathisia complications. Experts say that the lack of scientific data means that prescribers often don’t warn patients about the risk, if they are even aware themselves.” For the article, click here.
Peerpocalypose 2020 Announces Exciting Slate of Keynote Speakers!
The organizers of Peerpocalypse 2020, to be held in Seaside, Oregon, April 20-23, 2020—and which will incorporate elements of the Alternatives conference—have announced the keynote speakers! They are (alphabetically) Donita Diamata, program director, Peerlink National Technical Assistance Center; Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, executive director, National Empowerment Center; Deandre Kenyanjui, coordinator, Multnomah County (Oregon) Office of Consumer Engagement; Chrissy Peirsol of the MindFreedom International Youth Voices for Choices in Mental Health Campaign; and Nadia Richardson, PhD, founder and executive director, No More Martyrs. (The organizers of the Alternatives Conference have decided not to hold an independent conference this year. Instead, the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), which organized the 2018 and 2019 Alternatives conferences, is collaborating with the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon (MHAAO) to host key elements of Alternatives in MHAAO’s Peerpocalypse conference.) For more information and to register, click here.
Making Peer Support Count: A Campaign to Create a Single Classification for the 2020 Census
The International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS) has launched the “One Classification Counts” campaign to urge all peer workers—regardless of job title, population served, or workplace setting—to submit their occupation on the 2020 census under a single standard classification: Peer Support Specialist. Currently, the Department of Labor (DOL) does not recognize peer support work as a unique occupation, iNAPS notes. With hundreds of job titles, peer support ends up classified under a number of different helping professions, many of which do not require (and sometimes prohibit) having and sharing lived experience as a defining feature. A standard DOL occupational classification will allow better data collection and reporting on numbers of peer specialists, workplace settings, and rates of pay. This will lead to greater leverage to advocate for improved working conditions and wages. “Early in 2020, we will post a survey on the iNAPS website for you to indicate your job title (and comments about this effort), which will be used in our outreach efforts. In the meantime, if you belong to a specific organization or group (or know of a group) we should be reaching to help spread the word, please email us at info@inaops.org.” To learn more, click here.
SAMHSA Offers Free Webinar Series: Recovery from Serious Mental Health Conditions and the Practices That Support Recovery
SAMHSA is offering a free webinar series to introduce participants to “many of the evidence-based and promising practices that support recovery.” The webinars are “Key Elements of Recovery and Recovery Oriented Services” (12/18/19, 1 p.m.-2 p.m. ET), Register; “Supported Employment: How to Support Someone with Obtaining and Maintaining Employment” (1/16/20, 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET), Register; “Supported Education: Supporting Individuals to Begin or Return to Higher Education” (2/6/20 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.ET), Register; “Permanent Supportive Housing: Practices that Support Independent Community Living” (2/26/20 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET), Register; “Illness Management and Recovery: Self-Management Program Providing Psychoeducation, Relapse Planning, Coping and Social Skills Training, and Approaches for Medication Management” (3/10/20 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.ET), Register; “Peer Services: Peer Providers Offer Understanding, Respect, Mutual Empowerment, and Support to Others Through Use of Their Personal Experiences” (March 2020 TBA), Register: (Link to Follow); “Supervision of Peer Providers: Effective Supervision of Peers by Non-Peer Supervisors” (April 2020 TBA), Register: (Link to Follow); “Role of Health and Wellness in Recovery: Interventions to Reduce the High Rates of Morbidity and Mortality Among People with Serious Mental Illnesses” (4/23/20, 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET), Register; “Role of Religion and Spirituality in Recovery: Benefits and Challenges of Religion and Spirituality in Recovery and Strategies for Navigating this Topic” (5/7/20 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET) Register; “Recovery in the Hispanic and Latinx Community: What is the Understanding of Recovery in the Hispanic and Latinx Community and How Can We Support It” (5/21/20 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET) Register. Questions? Contact Katty Rivera, M.Ed. (908.889.2552) katty@shp.shp.rutgers.edu.
Courtesy of NYAPRS E-News
“Power Statements: A Peer Specialist’s Best Friend” Video Provides Useful Advice
A 2017 video created by Pat Deegan PhD & Associates LLC and narrated by Deegan talks about how “power statements” can “help peers remain ‘peer.’” Power statements are “carefully crafted self-advocacy statements that amplify the voice of our peers to the treatment team. When peer specialists invite peers to create power statements, we know we’re remaining true to what makes our work unique,” Deegan says. “In my opinion,” she notes, “all too commonly, peer specialists get assimilated into working and talking just like traditional mental health clinicians…The danger is that if we drift away from what is unique about being ‘peer,’ our work will become indistinguishable from the work of the clinical staff.” Deegan gives an example of how to avoid this trap, and notes that “peers should not be judging or assessing peers” and “the work of peer specialists should always be guided by the goals of our peers.” To view the short video, click here.
Courtesy of Jacek Haciak
Three New Scholarly Articles About Peer Specialists Are Available for Free Download
Three new scholarly articles about peer specialists are available for free download, courtesy of researchers Dr. Nev Jones and Dr. Jessica Wolf. “Our original goal was to explore issues of workforce mobility and advancement that had previously received little empirical attention—including differences in career development supports and lived experience climate between peer-run and traditional services, as well as perceived barriers to advancement—and [we] hope we have done just that,” Jones writes. “To facilitate access to these articles across the peer community we've created a direct Dropbox link that also includes the brief report-out from the national survey of state certifying entities that Jessica Wolf and I undertook.” For the articles—“National Trends in Peer Specialist Certification,” “Organizational Climate and Support Among Peer Specialists Working in Peer-run, Hybrid and Conventional Mental Health Settings,” and “Investigating the Mobility of the Peer Specialist Workforce in the United States: Findings from a National Survey”—click here.
Children in Florida and California Suffer and Sometimes Die in Psychiatric Hospitals, Two Newspapers Report
“A cop car comes. A child is handcuffed and taken to a mental health facility. The scene is all too frequent at public schools across the state.” The state in question is Florida, which the Tampa Bay Times covers in the second part of its series on Florida’s deeply flawed mental health system. “Over the past seven years,” the paper reports, “children have been taken from public schools in Tampa Bay more than 7,500 times and temporarily placed in mental health facilities. They often leave campus handcuffed in the back of police cruisers. Some are as young as 6. The numbers are climbing here and across Florida under the Baker Act, a 48-year-old state law used to involuntarily commit people deemed a danger to themselves or others…” For the article, click here. And, on the other side of the country, the Los Angeles Times has reported on the deaths of children on psych wards. “The Times review identified nearly 100 preventable deaths over the last decade at California psychiatric facilities…The total includes deaths for which state investigators determined that hospital negligence or malpractice was responsible, as well as all suicides and homicides, which experts say should not occur among patients on a psychiatric ward. It does not include people who died of natural causes or other health problems while admitted for a psychiatric illness.” For the article, click here. For the first article in the Tampa Bay Times series—“You’re Trapped. They’re Cashing In. How one Florida psychiatric hospital makes millions off patients who have no choice”—click here. (This article was included in the October 2019 Key Update.)
FCC Approves a New, 3-Digit Suicide Hotline; However, Caution May Be Warranted. And Youth Suicide Rises
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has unanimously approved designating a three-digit phone number―988―as the country’s nationwide suicide hotline. The decision is up for public comment before it can be formally implemented, which may take 18 months. “Overall, the record supports the use of a dedicated 3-digit dialing code as a way to increase the effectiveness of suicide prevention efforts, ease access to crisis services, and reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health conditions," according to an FCC study, reported by NPR (click here). (You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line.) According to one source, a major shift in suicide prevention and mental health crisis response is envisioned with the new 3-digit 988 number (including the development of national standards of care, services, training, resources, and more). However, calling a suicide hotline may sometimes lead to police showing up and, at the least, an involuntary commitment. At worst, the police, fearing a threat to themselves, may shoot the caller (click here). There is also a warm line directory (www.warmline.org) but warm lines may also call the police if the warm line staff perceive an imminent risk of self-harm, according to a source. See also “The Crisis in Youth Suicide” (click here), “3 Suicides in 2 Months Jolt a College Campus” (click here), and “Youth Suicides, County-Level Poverty Go Hand in Hand—Association most striking for gun suicide” (click here).
Forbes Contributor Advises Employers to Step Up Their Accommodations for Staff with Disabilities
In recognition of the annual UN-sponsored International Day for Persons with Disabilities, on December 3, Forbes published an op ed entitled “Bring Your Whole Self to Work! Hiding Disability at Work Is Damaging to Productivity.” Its author advises employers “to stop waiting for disclosure to provide adjustment. Ask ALL your employees what they need to work at their best. At every HR interaction point (recruitment, appraisal, promotion) talk about accommodations that you are providing already. Give examples!...” For the Forbes piece, click here. For the Purple Space Network’s #PurpleLightUp campaign, a global movement to draw attention to the economic empowerment of people with disabilities and highlighted by Forbes, click here. And for more employment resources, including “Full Disclosure: When Mental Health Professionals Reveal Their Mental Illness at Work,” “Promoting Supportive Academic Environments for Faculty with Mental Illnesses: Resource Guide and Suggestions for Practice,” “Welcoming Work Environments,” and more, see the Temple University Collaborative’s Employment Resources: click here.
Doors to Wellbeing Invites Veterans to Apply for the National Advisory Council of Veteran Peers
The “National Advisory Council of Veteran Peers (NACVP) has been established to provide valuable feedback on peer support to strengthen relationships between communities and service members, veterans, and their families,” Doors to Wellbeing writes. NACVP is “our ‘boots on the ground’ to give recommendations and feedback regarding programs, practices, and resources that enhance and support veterans both locally and nationally. All members will be veterans.” The deadline to apply: January 3, 2020. To apply, click here.
Western Mass RLC to Host Hearing Voices Group Facilitator Training in Boca Raton, Florida
The Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community is hosting a Hearing Voices Group Facilitator Training February 24-26, 2020, in Boca Raton, Florida. Its primary purpose is to train people to start their own Hearing Voices Groups. There is a $100 fee for this training, which can be waived upon request. Participants are responsible for their own food and travel expenses. Application deadline: January 3, 2020. For more information and/or to apply, click here. Questions? Email info@westernmassrlc.org
Two Latest TU Collaborative Newsletters Feature New Training Manual & Invitation to Research Study, and Year’s Wrap-up, Respectively
The first of the Temple University (TU) Collaborative’s two latest newsletters highlights its new “Independence Through Community Access and Navigation (ICAN)” training manual. “This supported leisure intervention uses the Individualized Placement and Supports model to promote participation in community-based recreation and leisure,” the TU Collaborative writes. “This training manual is designed to support mental health professionals interested in implementing the ICAN intervention…” The newsletter also includes a request for volunteers for an exciting research study!” For the newsletter, click here. And for the latest newsletter, featuring the TU Collaborative’s yearly wrap-up (which is hot off the press!), click here.
“Framework for the Development of the Mental Health Lived Experience Workforce”
Although the “framework” at the links below is “Queensland [Australia]-focused,” it incorporates findings from social scientist Louise Byrne’s U.S.-based research into the effective employment of peer workers, and she believes there is “transferability across many settings…” According to the summary, “The framework and associated resources are intended to increase understanding of lived experience value and functions and provide clear information for organizations on how to structure and support lived experience roles; as a set of tools to assist and guide organizations along all stages of lived experience workforce development; [and] to provide a detailed framework that can support the development/expansion of lived experience roles across Queensland and improve collaboration within mental health settings.” For the “Lived Experience Resource Framework,” click here. For the summary, click here. For a poster for organizations to have as a reminder on the wall, click here. For a “role titles and descriptions companion document to help organizations develop appropriate peer roles across a range of settings and at different levels within the organization (including senior or management roles), click here.
Courtesy of Jessica Wolf
“The Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)”
“The Parties to the UN Climate Agreements have recognized that persons with disabilities are key stakeholders in the international response to climate change,” the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) writes. “As such, they must be engaged throughout the UNFCCC processes and their rights respected and promoted through any climate activity, including mitigation, adaptation, or capacity building. This document recalls the relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and of the Sendai Framework and provides a compilation of all references to persons with disabilities adopted by governments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.” To download the free report, click here.
“Film and TV Miss the Mark in Portraying Mental Health Conditions,” Researchers Say
“A new USC report reveals that mental health conditions are rare in film and TV: Few characters…exhibit mental health conditions, and those who do are routinely dehumanized,” according to a University of Southern California press release. “The study examined 100 top-grossing films and 50 popular TV series…Fewer than 2% of all film characters and roughly 7% of TV characters experience mental health conditions on screen…The majority of portrayals also feature straight, white, adult males.” For the press release and a link to the 42-page report, click here. But do some TV shows get it right? For “Not a Stereotype: 5 TV Shows That Depict Mental Health Surprisingly Well,” click here.
Documentary—Free to View Online—Highlights a Sports Announcer’s Lived Experience with Bipolar Disorder
ShowTime calls Bipolar Rock ‘N’ Roller “[a] raw and unflinching account of Mauro Ranallo’s decades-long struggle with Bipolar Affective Disorder. The voice of WWE and Showtime Championship Boxing, Ranallo has called some of the biggest sports events in history—all the while fighting his own epic battles with mental health. Follow his journey as he combats the stigma behind mental health issues and sheds light on what it’s like being at the top of the industry despite seemingly insurmountable odds.” To watch the 70-minute video for free, click here.
Courtesy of @zookmann
A Comic Artist Tells Her Story of Dealing with Depression
“How I Got Out,” by Caits Meissner—the prison and justice writing program director at PEN America—uses graphic images to tell how she dealt with depression. The story ends, “I thought about 15-year-old me, covered in bad poems and glue. I thought, what would she do? And that’s what I did.” To read it, click here.
Digest of Articles about Alternatives to Traditional Mental Health Treatment and Resources, and Healthy Lifestyle Advice
For “New Therapies Help Patients with Dementia Cope with Depression,” click here. For “Mental Health Benefits of Gardening: Nature’s Healing Touch,” click here. For “You are what you eat? How Nutrition May Affect Brain Health,” click here. (Editor’s note: At the preceding link, to a video and transcript of a segment from CBS’s Sunday Morning, the psychiatrist who is interviewed briefly endorses anti-depressants; but that is not the focus of the piece.) For “The Worst Part of Schizophrenia Isn’t What You Think It Is: Even after the voices go quiet, people with schizophrenia struggle to focus and think clearly. Can computerized brain training solve a problem that drugs have not?” click here. For “Psychologists Explain How to Stop Overthinking Everything: Overthinking can lead to serious emotional distress and increase your risk of mental health problems,” click here. For “The Time Has Come to Take the Self out of Self-Care: While the reminder to care for oneself can lead to improved wellbeing, the idea is increasingly commodified and weaponized against those who are most vulnerable. Here are four problems with our golden age of self-care,” click here. For “National Parks a Boost to Mental Health Worth Trillions: Study,” click here. For “Hypnosis Changed My Life: When my anxiety and insomnia returned, my therapist suggested a new form of treatment. The results challenged my inner skeptic,” click here.
The December 2019 Digest of Articles about the Criminal Justice System, in Which Many Individuals with Mental Health Conditions Are Incarcerated (and the Key Update continues after this Digest)
Here is the December wrap-up of stories about the criminal justice system. (Note: Some of the titles and other language are not politically correct but are reproduced as written.) For “Sick and Alone: Jailing the Mentally Ill in Alabama,” click here. For “Federal panel told roadblocks to prison mental health services violate inmates' civil rights,” click here. For “Multnomah County staff mishandled hundreds of mental health abuse complaints, report finds,” click here. For “Peer support inside jail helps inmates have hope,” click here. For “Prepping for Parole: A group of volunteers is helping incarcerated people negotiate a system that is all but broken,” click here. For “College behind bars: Education’s transformative power for America’s incarcerated men and women,” click here. For “In College Behind Bars, Prisoners Step into the Classroom,” click here. For “Incarcerated People Can Do More Than Beat Harvard in a Debate,” click here. For “How Dehumanizing Language Fuels Mass Incarceration,” click here. For “The Growing Racial Disparity in Prison Time: A new study finds black people are staying longer in state prisons, even as they face fewer arrests and prison admissions overall,” click here. For “A Jury of One’s Peers: Prosecutors use a system of “strikes” to engineer nearly all-white juries. Eliminating this system would not only make juries less racist, but also bring us closer to the original intent of the jury system,” click here. For “Broken Ground: Why America Keeps Building More Jails and What It Can Do Instead,” click here. For “Prosecutors Usually Send People to Prison. These Are Getting Them Out: Prisoners who fought for years to prove their innocence couldn’t win in court, no matter how much evidence they amassed. Then the offices that put them away got involved,” click here. For “How This Prison Collaborated on a Larger-Than-Life Work of Art: French artist JR worked with California prisoners to create his latest installation,” click here. For “Imagine Being on Trial. With Exonerating Evidence Trapped on Your Phone. Public defenders lack access to gadgets and software that could keep their clients out of jail,” click here. For “The Steep Costs of Criminal Justice Fees and Fines: Court fees and fines unjustly burden people with debt just as they are re-entering society. They are also ineffective at raising revenue,” click here. For “He spent 27 years in prison making murals he’d never see finished. Now, he’s the Philly DA’s artist-in-residence,” click here. For “Pennsylvania will no longer hold death-row prisoners in endless solitary confinement,” click here. For “Why 1,200 people who never took a life are condemned to die in Pa. prisons,” click here. For “NJ Bail Reform Leads to Fewer Arrests, New Report Shows,” click here. For “For Some Death Row Inmates, Kelley Henry Is the Last Line of Defense: As Tennessee continues a historic execution spree, tireless lawyers stand by the condemned,” click here. For “Lee Correctional and other prisons working to offer inmates hope and skills,” click here. For “Racism and Probation in the ’80s: It’s ‘History Repeating Itself,’” click here. For “How Dehumanizing Language Fuels Mass Incarceration: Projects to dismantle the system of mass incarceration must exist alongside a concerted effort to restore the humanity of incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, and other justice-involved people,” click here. For “He Waited 6 Hours for Help at Rikers. Then He Tried to Hang Himself,” click here. For “Restorative Justice: A Much-Needed Alternative to Mass Incarceration,” click here. For “‘What we’re doing doesn’t work’: Poverty incarcerated by incarceration, recidivism,” click here. For “Smart Decarceration Project at the University of Chicago: SDP is excited to announce a new collaborative study with the Cook County Illinois Adult Probation Department that will implement an evidence-based screening tool to respond to probationers’ mental health needs,” click here.
FROM PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE KEY UPDATE BUT STILL FRESH!
Free SHARE! Conference on “Supervising the Peer Workforce” Seeks Proposals
A free conference for supervisors, peers, managers, human resources specialists, and administrators—where they can “learn best practices for hiring, employing, supervising and supporting the peer workforce”—will be held on March 25, 2020, in Culver City, California. SHARE! (the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange)—a non-profit organization that operates two community self-help support group centers in Los Angeles—is organizing the conference. For more information and/or to submit a proposal (deadline: January 15, 2020), click here.
Survey Seeks Respondents Who Are in Administrative/Leadership Positions in the Mental Health Field
If you are in an administrative/leadership position in the mental health arena, “the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) Committee on Psychiatric Administration and Leadership invites you to participate in the International Survey on Administrative Psychiatry. The survey has two purposes: 1. To identify the concerns and needs of mental health professionals/psychiatrists in administrative and leadership positions. 2. To determine training needs in administrative psychiatry. We ask you to complete this brief, [15- to 20-minute] questionnaire to help us in developing recommendations for action. We also want to let you know that, if you fill out this questionnaire, you permit the committee to use your anonymous data for scientific work.” Peer providers are included. For the survey, click here.
Courtesy of Oryx Cohen
Free Resources for Peer Worker Supervisors Are Posted on the iNAPS Website
The International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS) has posted an array of resources for supervisors of peer support staff. The sources of the 18 disparate resources include the Transformation Center, the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), the Café TA Center, the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), the Carter Center, the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, SAMHSA-HRSA and the Center for Integrated Health Solutions, and other organizations and individual experts. For the peer support supervision resources, click here.
If You Have Experienced Psychosis, “Psychosis Beyond the Box” Wants to Hear From You.
“Psychosis Beyond the Box” seeks to gather anonymous descriptions of “aspects of psychosis that are often neglected, such as felt presences, visual or quasi-visual experiences, and alterations of space, time or distance,” as well as strategies to help with any distressing or challenging aspects of the experiences. The narratives will be compiled and shared in early psychosis programs and other service settings across the U.S. A major aim of the project—which is not a research project—is “to validate the diverse range of things people with psychosis experience, and help people, especially young adults experiencing psychosis for the first time, feel less alone and isolated (in these experiences).” For more information about the project, based at the University of South Florida, or to share your story, click here. Questions? Write to Nev Jones (genevra@usf.edu) or ShannonPagdon@gmail.com.
“Experiences with Hospitalization” Survey Seeks Participants
“The purpose of this survey is to help us understand people's lived experience with voluntary and involuntary treatment because of suicidal thoughts. It was created by people with lived experience…We are planning to use this information to facilitate discussions with suicidologists and the suicide prevention community about the impact of the use of these interventions, particularly within marginalized populations. We feel the voice of people with lived experience with these interventions has not had adequate opportunity to be heard, and hope that by completing this survey anonymously, people who have been most impacted can find a safe way to share their experiences. Please note that this is not a research project.” For more information and/or to participate, click here.
Thanks, Leah Harris
International Survey on Antipsychotic Medication Withdrawal Seeks Respondents
“Have you taken antipsychotic medication (such as Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify, Risperdal, Haldol, Geodon, Stelazine, and others), for any condition or diagnosis, with or without other medications? And did you ever stop taking antipsychotics, or try to stop taking them? Are you 18 years or older? If yes, you can take this survey about antipsychotic withdrawal and attempts to withdraw, including if you stopped taking them completely or if you tried to come off and still take them. The survey aims to improve mental health services by better understanding medication withdrawal. Lead researcher is Will Hall, a therapist and Ph.D. student who has himself taken antipsychotics. Service users/survivors/consumers from around the world also gave input. The study is sponsored by Maastricht University in the Netherlands; co-sponsors include the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. Questions? Please contact will.hall@maastrichtuniversity.nl.” For more information or to take the survey, click on www.antipsychoticwithdrawalsurvey.com
Virtual Group Is Launched to Advance Peer Research Capacity, Leadership, and Involvement
Nev Jones, Ph.D., and Emily Cutler, a doctoral candidate, have launched a new listserv dedicated to building research capacity, leadership, and involvement among peers, survivors, and service users. Dr. Jones, assistant professor, Department of Mental Health Law & Policy, University of South Florida, was part of the team that developed “User/Survivor Leadership & Capacity Building in Research: White Paper on Promoting Engagement Practices in Peer Evaluation/Research (PEPPER),” published by the Lived Experience Research Network. For the white paper, click here. Anyone interested in joining the virtual group can email Nev at nev.inbox@gmail.com.
Do You Supervise Peer Support Workers? Then Researchers Have Some Questions for You
Researchers in the University of South Florida’s Department of Psychiatry and at Magellan Health are investigating the backgrounds, training, and experiences of individuals who currently supervise at least one peer support worker in a behavioral health setting or agency. “To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first comprehensive research study of the landscape of peer support supervision practices in the United States,” writes Dr. Nev Jones, the primary investigator of the study (Protocol Number 00040223). Participants must be at least 18 years old and work in the United States or U.S. territories. An online survey lasting approximately 10 minutes will ask about respondents’ backgrounds, training and preparation for supervision, perspectives and practices, and views on barriers and facilitators to high-quality supervision. There is no monetary compensation. Questions? Contact Dr. Nev Jones (genevra@health.usf.edu) or the co-primary investigator, Dana Foglesong (dfoglesong@magellanhealth.com). To access the survey, click here.
What Happens to People after Discharge from First Episode Psychosis/Early Intervention Programs? New Study Seeks Answers—and Participants
A study led by Dr. Nev Jones at the University of South Florida seeks current and former clients as well as family members of clients previously enrolled in early intervention in psychosis (EIP)/coordinated specialty care (CSC) services. The study aims to better understand what happens after discharge from EIP/CSC programs, including in the areas of school or work and access to/use of other mental health services. Eligible participants must be at least 18 years old and must be “current clients within one month of discharge from an EIP/CSC program, former clients discharged at least six months (at the time of the scheduled interview), and the family members of former clients.” In exchange for a phone interview of approximately 1.5 hours, each participant in the study (Protocol Number 00035193) will receive a $75 money order. Questions? Contact Dr. Jones at 813.415.5532 or by email at genevra@health.usf.edu.
Disclaimer: The Clearinghouse does not necessarily endorse the opinions and opportunities included in the Key Update.
About The Key Update
The National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse is now affiliated with the Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion!
The Key Update is the free monthly e-newsletter of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse. Volume 16, No. 6, December 2019. For content, reproduction or publication information, please contact Susan Rogers at selfhelpclearinghouse@gmail.com. Follow Susan on Twitter at @SusanRogersMH