by LaMara HunterKelly | Aug 8, 2016 | In The News
Caroline White at the office of the Hearing Voices Network in Holyoke, Mass. The program, which relies on members supporting one another, does not use the words “patient” or “treatment.” Ms. White, who hears voices in her head, said psychiatric therapy had made her feel “hopeless, because the drugs just made me feel worse.” Photo Credit – Sasha Maslov for The New York TimesBy Benedict Carey
Aug. 8, 2016
HOLYOKE, Mass. — Some of the voices inside Caroline White’s head have been a lifelong comfort, as protective as a favorite aunt. It was the others — “you’re nothing, they’re out to get you, to kill you” — that led her down a rabbit hole of failed treatments and over a decade of hospitalizations, therapy and medications, all aimed at silencing those internal threats.
At a support group here for so-called voice-hearers, however, she tried something radically different. She allowed other members of the group to address the voice, directly:
What is it you want?
“After I thought about it, I realized that the voice valued my safety, wanted me to be respected and better supported by others,” said Ms. White, 34, who, since that session in late 2014, has become a leader in a growing alliance of such groups, called the Hearing Voices Network, or HVN.
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 8, 2015 | In The News
Advocates for adult mental health resource centers, funded by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health through an umbrella program, are asking supporters to contact legislators to prevent the program’s budget from being slashed in half in Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The budget is currently before the House Ways & Means Committee, and supporters say its proposals might force the closure of resource centers created through Recovery Learning Communities.
Currently six Recovery Learning Communities share a budget of $3.4 million. The program’s funding dates to 2007, and the communities’ centers are described as offering peer-to-peer support for individuals who have had a psychiatric diagnosis or have experienced addiction or a trauma and need to access resources. The communities’ centers are designed to give immediate assistance…
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 7, 2015 | In The News
Supporters of the Recovery Learning Community are in Boston today to rally and advocate at the State House against a proposed 50 percent cut to the community’s $3.4 million budget. It has been funded since 2007, through the Department of Mental Health, and the reduction is part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed state budgetfor the new fiscal year.
There are six Recovery Learning Communities in the state, and they were created by the DMH to offer peer-to-peer support to individuals who have experienced a psychiatric illness, substance abuse problem or a related challenge. Each RLC operates through its own area partners to offer a variety of resources.
Advocates say their value is in the fact they offer immediate assistance without the need for a referral or intake process.
Baker’s proposed budget is said to increase, by 1.7 percent, funding for the DMH whose budget would be $12.4 million. The proposed budget is also said to include $17. 8 million, an increase of 5.1 percent, in funding to adult mental health and support services. This amount includes……
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by LaMara HunterKelly | Apr 7, 2015 | In The News
BOSTON – The head of a network of peer-supported mental health centers in Western Massachusetts is warning that some of the centers are at risk of closing due to a budget cut proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
“If we got cut by 50 percent, we’d have to close centers,” said Sera Davidow, director of the Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community. “We’re really not sure how we’d survive it.”
Advocates for Recovery Learning Communities around the state rallied at the Statehouse on Wednesday against a provision in Baker’s proposed fiscal year 2016 budget that would cut $1.7 million, or half of the total state funding………
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