DBSA Tennessee Past President, S.L. Brannon
share
  • Home
  • About
  • FIRST BOOK: Two Agreements
  • My new book: A Brand New Day
  • Advocacy
    • Letters to our Governor
    • Advocacy Action Items for DBSA Tennessee
    • Submitted Relative Articles
  • Network Resources
  • Additional Events
  • I\\\\\'ve been there
  • Forums
  • Contacts

A Place to go ... a plea for peer support

11/30/2013

0 Comments

 
Larry Drain recently joined in to pressure the elected officials to seriously consider the consequences of their actions upon the most vulnerable consumers of Tennessee. I ask that you join me in reading his blog and giving serious consideration to what we need to do and individuals to right a wrong. Thank you.

New post on Hopeworks Community


A place to go…. a plea for peer support

by Larry Drain,  hopeworkscommunity.com

All of us need a place to go. We need a place that
provides the resources, the relationships, the support and the experiences that
give us a chance to lead lives of purpose, dignity , and meaning. That place is
different for everyone. Without it life seems never what to be what we want or
hope for. Instead pain and disappointment define our days. Life is a never
ending source of deprivation and opportunity seems reserved for other
people.

For many people with serious mental health issues that place has
come to be their local peer support center. Counseling and medication may be
helpful to them, but neither is sufficient for them to have a realistic chance
at a successful, stable life in the community. They need a lived experience with
other people who have dealt with the same challenges they have, a lived
experience with others who have found that life can be better, that what you
know and practice makes a difference, a lived experience with others who show
that it is possible and needed to take control of their own life and be
responsible for their own choices. They need a lived experience in an
environment which shows them that not only do they have the opportunity to get
but the ability to give in a meaningful fashion, an experience that not only do
they count, but that they can be counted upon. Many of them have been in and out
of psychiatric institutions most of their life. Disruptions and problems have
marked their entire life and they may never have known the stability in living
essential to some measure of happiness and feeling of personal
significance.

Peer support centers have been their safe place. It has
given their lives the impetus that has allowed them to function successfully in
the community many for the first time. Many of them have no insurance or
financial resources and peer support centers are the only place they even have
access to. If you are poor and have serious mental health issues you have very
few places in this state to turn to for help. Peer support centers are one
essential life line.

The proposal to cut peer support funding puts all
this in jeopardy. Peer support centers radically improve the quality of the
lives of the people that go there. They improve the quality of the communities
they are located in. They do not meet the needs of everyone, but the people they
do meet the needs of normally have little where else to go. They give you much
more bang for your back than many much more expensive options. They keep people
out of psychiatric hospitals whose experience in hospitals is that they cant
make it anywhere else.

Peer support centers are a kindness to people who
have very little kindness in their lives. Before you take that kindness away
consider not the savings, but the costs. Think about the costs measured not in
numbers, but just in misery. We all need a place to go that matters.

In the overall scheme of things the money that will be saved by cutting peer
support centers is small potatoes. The gain of keeping them open at present
levels is immeasurable.

Please give us a place to go. Support peer support centers.

hopeworkscommunity | November 20, 2013
0 Comments

The Death of Peer Support

11/20/2013

0 Comments

 
There are 45 peer support centers in Tennessee. Next year if things go as planned there may be none.

The initial recommendation of the commissioner of mental health to the governors request for a 5% decrease in budget was to recommend that 4.5 million dollars be taken from the budget for peer support centers. That would leave 0 for next year.

It makes you just want to shake your head. When I heard I emailed a bunch of people. I thought I had misheard. I knew no one could seriously make such a suggestion. I was wrong.

Peer support centers do two primary things. They save money and they save lives. A lot.

For a few dollars a day per person served peer support centers give a chance at success for people who have never had success. People who have never made it in the community make it. The last figures I saw indicated a 90% decrease in psychiatric hospitalization. The savings from that alone should almost pay for the program. In a time when the jails are filling with the mentally ill how in the world can we shut down one of the most successful community based services we have?? This program defines the notion of "bang for your buck." How is this in any way a savings?? We lecture our children about thinking before they act and considering the long term consequences of their actions. Shouldnt we expect the same out of ourselves and particularly our political leaders?

But it is more than an economic issue. It is more than a political issue. It is profoundly a moral issue and it is wrong!!!

If it actually sees the light of day it will be the planned abandonment of one of the most vulnerable populations in this state who basically have no where else to turn for this kind of help for a short term financial gain that in the end will cost far more than it saves. In plain terms it will be an act of large cruelty.

I urge you to stand loud and express your opinions. This is an old battle we thought done last year when support for peer support become recurring dollars. Once again we are a political football. Now is the time to end the game.

Larry Drain
hopeworkscommunity | November 18, 2013 at 8:12 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | 
0 Comments

    Author - 

    S.L. Brannon D.Div..

    Editor: numerous contributors are personally invited.

    Archives

    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    AARP
    Action Alert
    Action-alert
    Advocacy
    Affirmation
    Affordable Care Act
    Allen Doederlein
    Alternative Medicine
    Bad Law
    Bad-law
    Barber Bill Proposal
    Bipolar
    Borderline Personality Disorder
    Bp Magazine
    Branding
    Budget
    Caregivers
    Compassion
    Co Occurring Disorders
    Cooccurring Disorders
    Coping
    Crazy
    DBSA
    Dbsa Tennessee
    Dbsa-tennessee
    Dc
    Dc95f383fe5b
    Death
    Deaths Of Thousands
    Demi Lovato
    Democrat
    Denial
    Depression
    Dual Diagnosis
    Education
    Elected Officals
    Elected-officals
    Forced Commitment
    Grieving
    Health Care
    Health-care
    Health Care Law
    Health-care-law
    Health Reform
    Health-reform
    Help For Depression
    Homelessveterans
    Homeless Veterans
    Hopeworkscommunity
    Huffington Post
    Hurts Most Vulnerable
    Hurts-most-vulnerable
    I'm Here
    Immoral
    Jobs
    Larry Drain
    Leading Researchers And Clinicians
    Legislative Bill
    Legislative-bill
    Malpractice
    Mc Donaldsa18086f9b6
    Medicaid-expansion
    Medications
    Medicine
    Memorial
    Mental Health
    Mental Health Care
    Mental-health-care
    Mental-health-day-on-the-hill
    Mental Health In Tennessee
    Mental-health-in-tennessee
    Mental Health Services
    Mission
    Money
    Mood Disorders
    Moving Backwards
    Moving-backwards
    Murphy-bill-proposal
    National-institues-of-mental-health
    New Laws
    Outstanding-performance
    Parity
    Patient-protection
    Peer-specialist
    Peer Support
    Peer Support Centers
    Peer-support-centers
    Personal Stories
    Personal Story
    Personal-story
    Petition
    Petition-to-save-service-centers
    Politics
    Prejudice
    Proposed Legislative Bill
    Proposed-legislative-bill
    Protected Health Information
    Ptsd
    Pushing Back Against Stigma
    Recovery
    Republican
    Resilience
    Resulting In Death
    Scientific Advisory Board
    Self Advocacy
    Self Help
    Senator Murphy
    Silence
    Social-security
    State Organization
    Steve L Brannon
    Steve L Brannonf11c90eedf
    Stigma
    Suicidal Ideations
    Support Groups
    Teens
    Tennessee Department Of Mental Health And Substance Abuse
    Tennessee-department-of-mental-health-and-substance-abuse
    Tennessee Government
    Tennessee-government
    The Leading Patient Directed National Organization
    The Leading Patientdirected National Organizationf0151a2bc0
    Themighty.com
    Therapy
    U-s-congressman
    Vanderbilt-university
    Veterans
    Veterans-employment
    Victimized
    Vulnerable
    Washington
    Wrap-training
    Youth

    RSS Feed
Proudly powered by Weebly
Photo used under Creative Commons from DominusVobiscum