2006 International Recovery Perspectives Conference

About the International Recovery Perspectives Conference

Key Contributors and Sponsors:

The International RECOVERY Perspectives conference is sponsored by the following agencies. We thank them for their support.

ALTERNATIVES – East York Mental Health Counselling Services Agency is a community-based program for individuals with serious mental health problems living in East York / East Toronto.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE CONNECTIONS OF TORONTO (CRCT) provides direct service to adults who struggle with day-to-day living as a result of severe and persistent mental health issues as well as health promotion/community development support to consumer/survivors, families and groups in Toronto.

FAMILY OUTREACH AND RESPONSE (F.O.R.) is a program that provides support services to families and friends of people who are recovering from a serious mental health problem.

The Leadership Project also thanks Licien Valverde, Peter MacDonald and all of the volunteers for their hard work and assistance.

The Leadership Project Conference Planning Group

Karyn Baker - Family Outreach and Response Program
Heinz Klein - Consumer/Survivor Activist
Brian McKinnon – Alternatives – East York Mental Health Counselling Services
Leslie Morris – Community Resource Connections of Toronto
Mel Starkman – Consumer/Survivor Activist
Ann Thompson – Family Outreach and Response Program

About The Leadership Project
The Leadership Project’s goal is the promotion and the enhancement of a ‘Recovery’ vision for the mental health system in Ontario. We do this by organizing educational events with an advocacy message/agenda. All of our events are facilitated in partnership with consumer/survivors, families and service providers.

2006 Presenter’s Biographies

(to view workshop information, click on the workshop number in the workshop area of each presenters biography)

Anita Aenishaenslin Membership Facilitator, Workman Arts, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 12
Anita Aenishaenslin became a member of Workman Arts in 1998. Over time she volunteered at various events and started to work for the company part time in the year 2000. She has now been working full-time as the Membership Coordinator for almost 4 years. Anita is also a visual artist and is currently studying creative writing at York University.

Laurie Ahern Washington D.C., USA

Workshops Plenary Session, 2, 15
Laurie Ahern was hospitalized and labelled with mental illness at the age of 19. She recovered and went on to become the managing editor of four newspapers and a freelance writer for the Associated Press , The Boston Globe , and several other national publications. She has won national awards for her investigative and editorial writing. In addition to being Co-Director of the National Empowerment Center, Inc. , Laurie is the vice-president of the National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy(NARPA) .

Lionel Berger Family Member, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 13
Lionel Berger is a family member, and a lawyer (retired). He and his wife attended the Family Outreach & Response Program 8-week Recovery Series 2 years ago. Lionel has spoken before a number of groups as a family member and also served for 2 years as Vice-Chair and Treasurer of Family Association for Mental Health Everywhere .

Marian Dalal Early Intervention Family Worker, Family Outreach & Response Program, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 13
Marian Dalal is an Early Intervention Family Worker at the Family Outreach and Response Program in Toronto, Canada. She mainly works with ethnoracial families in the Scarborough area. Marian is committed to help, support, and empower families who have relatives with mental health issues.

Marian immigrated to Canada in late 1980s with her brother. Shortly after their arrival in Toronto, her brother became unwell and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, an illness about which Marian had little knowledge of. Apart from adversely effecting her brother’s normal youth life, the illness had seriously impacted on Marian’s social and psychological well-being for a number of years due to the stigma that is often associated with mental health issues as well as lack of personal and professional help and support.

In the midst of so many limitations and barriers faced by new immigrations, Marian however, courageously took up the challenge and empowered herself with education and skills that further enhance her ability to advocate for her brother and to also help him recover. Notwithstanding her brother’s illness and other social barriers, Marian enrolled herself into Centennial College and graduated with a Diploma and later completed a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from York University.
Paul Denison Family Member, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 13
Paul Denison is a facilitator of the Family Mental Health Recovery Series. He has both a partner and a mother recovering from mental health issues. Paul has worked in the social services field at both PARC and the Parkdale Legal Clinic. His passion is music!

Anne Marie DiGiacomo Clinical Director, Windhorse Associates, USA

Workshops 8, 14
Anne Marie DiGiacomo has been working in human services since 1977 in non-profit and community mental health arenas, receiving her Masters of Social Work in 1986. During the first 18 years of her career, she worked with children, adolescents and families in both residential and day treatment settings and private practice. Since 1996 to the present, Anne Marie has worked at Windhorse Associates and Windhorse Community Services; both contemplative therapeutic communities that provide compassionate care for adults living with severe distress. She has held the positions of Clinical Director, Co-Executive Director, Admissions Manger and Senior Therapist at Windhorse Associates. Anne Marie is a practicing Buddhist and brings a contemplative perspective to her therapeutic work.

Mary Lou Eaton Family Member, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 13
Mary Lou is a mother and corporate educator. She attended the Family Outreach and Response Program and is now co-facilitating in the Early Intervention Recovery Program. Her experience and learning in the F.O.R.’s support program have made a dramatic, positive change in the relationship she has with her daughter.

Erick Fabris Psychiatric Survivor Activist and Teacher, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 2
Erick Fabris is a psychiatric survivor activist involved with organizing the original Survivor Pride Day of 1993 with West End Psychiatric Survivors. He also helped found the No Force Coalition, 1999 – 2001, and worked for the Queen Street Patients Council/Outreach Society until 2002, as well as a housing worker, and teacher. Erick has since written his graduate research thesis on psychiatric survivor experiences under Community Treatment Orders.

Lana Frado Executive Director, Sound Times Support Service, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 7
Lana Frado is the Executive Director of Sound Times. Sound Times is a large, multi-service consumer/survivor initiative offering social support, educational activities, services for c/s at risk of coming into contact, or in conflict with the justice system, and harm reduction. Most recently, Sound Times has been funded to provide release from custody planning for consumers and survivors who are incarcerated. Lana has served on many planning and policy initiatives, as well having been involved in many survivor initiatives. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors of ARCH Centre for Disability Law.

Lucy Gudgeon Support Supervisor, Houselink Community Homes, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 8
Since 1989 Lucy has worked with homeless and marginalized people in inner city settings and is currently employed at Houselink Community Homes as a Support Supervisor. Lucy has participated in recovery at Houselink since its inception.

Helen Kirkpatrick Clinical Nurse Specialist, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 1, 4
Helen Kirkpatrick is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner. She is currently the Co-ordinator of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Program, which is a collaborative specialty education program between St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton and McMaster University School of Nursing, where she is an Assistant Clinical Professor. Helen recently completed her PhD thesis, “Moving on from Homelessness: A Narrative Inquiry”. It is the stories of people with major mental illnesses who have been homeless and who get permanent housing with supports, and how their stories change. She has also been involved in research on Hope and Schizophrenia, and for ten years was Program Director of a PSR Program for people with schizophrenia(1900-2000).

Robert Mackay Psychiatric Survivor and Entrepreneur, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 10
Since 1997, Robert MacKay has been active in helping define the recovery movement for Canada. This started with improvement of “consumer-run” programs in New Brunswick, which eventually led him to Toronto in 2005, where Robert has been using his knowledge, passion and energy in association with the Ontario Recovers Campaign . His firm, Robert MacKay and Associates currently assists organizations to move ahead with peer support and recovery innovations.

Atsuko Matsuoka Associate Professor, School of Social Work, York University, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 1, 4
Atsuko Matsuoka is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, York University. Her current interest is integrating a mental health recovery approach into social work education. During her term as Graduate Program Director, she helped to launch a strengths-based mental health recovery course for York MSW students. Run by Ann Thompson, this was perhaps the first comprehensive graduate mental health recovery course in Canada given from a critical social work perspective. The course has been successfully run for the last three years. Atsuko hopes to develop mental health recovery based programs and research on aging and/or ethno-racial minorities.

Rufus May Clinical Psychologist, Bradford – England

Workshops 1, 6, 11, 14
Rufus May became interested in recovery from mental health problems after psychiatric treatment for psychosis when he was eighteen years old. His experience of psychiatry was that it seemed to create more problems than it solved. He trained as a psychologist and for the last 10 years has been seeking to promote more helpful approaches to states of confusion and distress. He currently works as a clinical psychologist in Bradford’s adult mental health services. He currently supports five self-help/recovery groups, including one hearing voices self help group and one unusual beliefs self help group called the ‘Believe it or not!’ group. He also co-chairs a monthly public meeting about alternative approaches to emotional distress and madness called Evolving Minds . He works within a broad range of frameworks including using Mindfulness, Taoist self help books, Voice dialogue, Marxism, recovery stories, herbal medicine, bodywork, self help group work and peace studies. He also works with others to campaign against coercive medical treatment and for more holistic approaches to mental health problems. Some of his writings are available at the Bradford Centre for Citizenship website.

Paddy McGowan Psychiatric Survivor Activist, Omagh, County Tyrone – Ireland

Workshops 2, 6, 11
Paddy McGowan from Omagh in County Tyrone recovered from Schizophrenia with the support of other survivors and professionals. He set up the first user group in Ireland in1994. He is a prominent proponent of the recovery model and actively engaged in creating alternatives to the medical or maintenance model. He facilitates training and consultancy for professionals, government and families as an independent service user consultant. Paddy also lectures on mental health matters in many universities and colleges to health care professionals and has been involved in developing peer advocacy training to an accredited level and is involved in developing staff awareness training in user empowerment and advocacy. He is also a member of the International Network of Treatments Alternatives for Recovery(INTAR) and has received the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Award .

Shery Mead Consultant and Peer Provider, New Hampshire, USA

Workshops 3, 4, 9, 10, Closing Panel
Shery Mead is the past director of three New Hampshire Peer Support Programs including a peer run hospital alternative. She has done extensive speaking and training, nationally and internationally, on the topics of alternative approaches to crisis, trauma informed peer services, systems change, and the development and implementation of peer operated services. Her publications include academic articles, training manuals and a new book co-authored with Mary Ellen Copeland , Wellness Recovery Action Planning and Peer Support . Shery is currently the project director for the Evidence Based Practice, Consumer Operated Programs Toolkit funded by SAMHSA .

BJ North Consultant, San Francisco Bay Area, USA

Workshops Plenary Session, 5
BJ North has worked in the fields of mental health and drug and alcohol for more than a decade. She continues to enhance her knowledge in these areas through education, self-help teachings and various projects including her current work as a consultant with various community agencies. She builds bridges across uncommon grounds such as, businesses to community, individuals to community resources and agencies to consumers. She teaches the importance and effectiveness of communicating with one another in the spirit of mutual respect.

Mary O’Hagan, Keynote Speaker Mental Health Commissioner – New Zealand

Workshops 2, 5, 7, 10, Closing Panel
Mary O’Hagan experienced severe mental health problems and used mental health services for several years as a young woman. She slowly realized that, like herself, many people were not helped or understood in the mental health system and some were deeply harmed by it. Society, in collusion with the mental health system, had also failed to uphold the rights and participation of some of its most marginalized citizens. In response to this, Mary initiated the user/survivor movement in New Zealand in the mid 1980s. From 1991 to 1995 she was the first chair of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. Mary has been a mental health commissioner in New Zealand since 2000. Over the last two decades she has occupied many roles in many types of agencies, always with an overriding commitment to promote service user expectations of services as well as their full participation in society.

Steve Onken Assistant Professor, University of Hawai’I at Manoa, USA

Workshops 3, 8, 10, Closing Panel
Steven J. Onken is an assistant professor at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa . He is the principal investigator for the U.S. National Mental Health Recovery Research Project for the Development of Recovery Facilitating System Performance Indicators , a multi-site, multi-phase examination of the concepts and dimensions of recovery and the various factors that inhibit and facilitate people’s recovery from long-term psychiatric disabilities. Dr. Onken’s work also focuses on sustainable development of consumer/survivor operated programs, of consumers/survivors as staff within traditional mental health services, and of consumers/survivors within the general workforce. Dr. Onken has direct practice experience in the areas of mental health and disability; civil and legal rights protection and advocacy; sexual orientation, gender expression and strategies addressing hate violence; as well as in community organizing and development and organizational design and management.

Zarsanga Popal Health Promoter, Community Resource Connections of Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 5
Zarsanga Popal is a Health Promoter with Community Resource Connections of Toronto . She has a Master’s in Social Work. Zarsanga is working with various community groups and organizations around issues of access and equity as they relate to mental health.

Judith Rosenberg Founder of The Spark of Brilliance Support Association

Workshops 12
Judith Rosenberg, Founder of The Spark of Brilliance Support Association, is a former nurse(1963) and a graduate of the Applied Counselling Program(2003) at Conestoga College. Rosenberg is a mental health advocate, and has acted as co-chair of the Front-Line Sub-Committee for the Southwest Ontario Task Force for Mental Health Reform in 2000 – 2001. She is a member of the Family Mental Health Network, an association of family allies who lobby for mental health awareness and the establishment of ACT/PACT Teams in Wellington-Dufferin. She is on the Advisory Board of Spark of Brilliance. In collaboration with Homewood Health Centre and ArteVida Cuba, Rosenberg established the first Healing And Recovery Through The Arts International Conference in Cuba in 2005, and is the founder of ART-Based Recovery Therapies International (ARTS International), an organization to promote healing art therapies in communities across the globe.

Adele Rosenbloom Survivor Provider, ‘Compass’, Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 6
Adele Rosenbloom is a mental health professional and a ‘second generation’ psychiatric survivor. She has been very active in the psychiatric survivor movement: she was a founding member of the Ontario Psychiatric Survivors Alliance (OPSA), helped organize a national survivor conference in Montreal (Our Turn, 1988), and co-produced three educational videos on survivor and mental health issues. Since 1999 Adele has worked for an Assertive Community Treatment Team (Compass, Toronto East General Hospital). Adele applies the recovery model to all aspects of her work. She lives in Toronto with her partner, their two sons and her dog.

Peter Sackaney Traditional Counsellor, Anishnawbe Health Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 14
Peter Sackaney is a former residential school attendee and a survivor. Those negative experiences that impacted the earlier years led him to become a professional counsellor over the last 20 years. His work is focused on working with and for Aboriginal People. He has worked in various native communities addressing issues such as substance and solvent abuse, anger, family and domestic violence, and residential school trauma. Peter believes that a holistic approach is the most important component to healing by using traditional teachings and ceremonies to address self-care and wellbeing.

Susan Schellenberg Psychiatric Survivor, Artist and Writer, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 12
Artist, writer, Susan Schellenberg committed to healing from a 1969 psychosis and ten year course of anti-psychotic drugs in 1980. Since that time she has kept an art and written record of her dreams and inner journey as her mind healed. Susan’s Shedding Skins dream art and text is on permanent exhibit at the Centre For Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Peter Smith Artist in Residence, Workman Arts, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 12
Peter Smith struggled for many years before being diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Now more or less recovered he works as a visual artist. He teaches and is Artist in Residence at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto for the Jean Simpson Studio .

David Stark Peer Support Coordinator, Windhorse Associates, Northampton, Mass. – USA

Workshops 4
David Stark has been Peer Support Coordinator at Windhorse Associates in Northampton, Massachusetts since 1999 and a Peer Counselor since 2000. He has served on the board of directors since 1997, holding the offices of secretary, treasurer and vice-president. David is trained in Boston University Recovery Workshop, WRAP, Peer Advocacy, Clubhouse, Clinical Mentoring and has attended the Massachusetts Leadership Academy. He has published an account of his Windhorse treatment in the chapter “Sanity Recovered” in Housecalls: Psychosocial Interventions in the Home . David has led the Windhorse Peer Counselor Training Course three times since 2001 and facilitates various ongoing groups. He also serves on the Western Massachusetts area board of the Department of Mental Health. David holds a B.A. in psychology and linguistics from Princeton University.

Mel Starkman Psychiatric Survivor Activist, Toronto, Ontario – Canada

Workshops 6
Mel Starkman is a Torontonian native born, bred and educated in this city. He has an Honours B. A. from the University of Toronto, and after a short spell as a teacher he became an archivist at the Ontario Archives and his alma mater. A published poet and author he is multi-disciplinary in his interests and reading. Particularly interested in the plight of the marginalized in our midst he is active in self-help organizations that invite participation, personal responsibility and peer support. He is the Chairperson of Sound Times Support Services , Co-chairperson of the Edmond Yu Safe House Project and archivist of the Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto . Mel carries on in his retirement oblivious of any difference from his working days, in fact ever busier. In his spare time he does some acting with the Friendly Spike Theatre Band .

Phillip Thomas Writer and Senior Lecturer, University of Bradford – England

Workshops Plenary Session, 1, 5, 7, 11
Philip Thomas is a writer and Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Citizenship and Community Mental Health, in the School of Health Studies, University of Bradford . He is also chair of Sharing Voices Bradford , a community development project working with Bradford’s Black and Minority Ethnic communities. After working as a full-time consultant psychiatrist in the National Health Service for over twenty years, he gave up clinical practice in 2004 to focus on writing and academic work. His academic interests include critical social and cultural psychiatry and philosophy. He has developed alliances with survivors of psychiatry and service users, locally, nationally and internationally, and is well known for the column he wrote with his colleague Pat Bracken in Open Mind magazine , called Postpsychiatry . He is a founder member and co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry Network in Britain. He has published well over 100 papers and articles, both in peer reviewed and in popular journals. His books are Dialectics of Schizophrenia(1997) ; Voices of Reason, Voices of Insanity written with Ivan Leudar (2000); and, Postpsychiatry , co-authored with Pat Bracken (2005). His next project is a collection of short stories about madness.

Ann Thompson Survivor Provider, Family Outreach and Response Program, Toronto – Canada

Workshops 4, 8
Ann Thompson is a survivor provider, living in Toronto, who has recently completed an MSW in critical social work at York University. Her area of concentration is mental health recovery. Ann’s major research paper explored a framework for critical social work practice in mental health recovery, using a strengths perspective in a family setting. She has been working with Karyn Baker at the Family Outreach & Response Program to develop curriculum for mental health recovery education. In addition, Ann has received training as a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Facilitator and has developed curriculum to teach a course in Critical Perspectives in Mental Health in the graduate social work program at York University. She is presently employed by Family Outreach & Response Program as a Family Recovery Resource Worker.

Elise White Peer Counsellor, Windhorse Associates, Northampton, Mass. – USA

Workshops 4
Elise White completed the Boston University Recovery Workshop and was trained in Peer Counseling at Windhorse Associates in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was hired as a Peer Counselor in 2005 and recently received additional training as a Clinical Mentor. She has served on numerous teams at Windhorse as well as co-facilitating the groups the Art of Eating Well(2006) and Peer Counselor Training(2006). In addition she is currently the staff liason to the Administrative Steering Committee and has served on the Outcome Evaluation Project Committee at Windhorse. Elise graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in psychology.

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Plenary Session – Critical Perspectives on Recovery
Presenters
Laurie Ahern, Rufus May, BJ North, Phillip Thomas

Handouts

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Workshop 1: Critical Challenges for Helping Professions

Over the past several years the focus of mental health recovery literature and research has begun to shift from what recovery looks like to how to practice with a recovery approach. Providers from within their own professions are, increasingly challenging traditional ideas about the nature of knowledge and expertise, and such things as diagnosis, treatment and “best interests” of the client. A panel representing the fields of nursing, psychiatry, psychology, and social work will address these issues from a critical perspective.

Presenters
Helen Kirkpatrick, Atsuko Matsuoka, Rufus May, Phillip Thomas

Handouts

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Workshop 2: Human Rights, Advocacy, Activism and Recovery

The matter of human rights and activism are key components of the recovery model. In the recovery approach, individual and civil rights are upheld and respected. This poses a direct ethical challenge to society and the entire mental health system. Meantime, a more coercive approach (i.e. community treatment orders) has asserted itself in professional practice. How do we address this conflict of interests and directions, and more broadly, what is our responsibility to those enduring egregious human rights violations in psychiatric institutions in Eastern Europe, South Asia and around the world?

Presenters
Laurie Ahern, Erick Fabris, Paddy McGowan, Mary O’Hagan

Handouts

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Workshop 3: Peer Support and Recovery: Research, Evidence and Best Practice

Peer support and Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) programs yield positive outcomes in people’s recovery, and are now considered by many as ‘best practices’. In this workshop we shall examine their effectiveness in terms of the evidence, as well as the progress that has resulted as peer support and WRAP programs are more widely applied, moving from the margins into the mainstream. Also, the workshop shall explore the extent to which the recovery model is been researched and applied in university and college programs and by professional associations.

Presenters
Shery Mead, Steve Onken

Handouts

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Workshop 4: Emerging Recovery Curriculum and Training

As more and more programs and agencies choose to adopt recovery values and concepts, the need for additional training in mental health recovery competencies has emerged. This workshop will explore recovery competencies and present some models of educational curriculum that provide this training.

Presenters
Helen Kirkpatrick, Shery Mead, David Stark, Ann Thompson, Elise White

Handouts

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Workshop 5: Diversity, Culture, Community Development and Recovery

Recovery is a model of liberation for personal and social change so it necessarily attends to issues of race, class and poverty. This workshop will explore the recovery model in the context of diversity, community development, anti-racism, civil rights, economic justice and social change. The presenters will address the value of incorporating community development, anti-racism and cultural sensitivity into peer support and mental health services. The presenters will also address the barriers to change, strategies for representation, and the challenge to government, service providers, recovery advocates, family members, and the survivor movement to be inclusive and pro-active in the areas of race and culture.

Presenters
BJ North, Mary O’Hagan, Zarsanga Popal, Phillip Thomas

Handouts

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Workshop 6: Hearing Voices: A different message

People are pathologized for a widespread phenomenon, the hearing of voices. Fear of the unknown informs this reaction; people get labelled and are treated differently. We need a different response, starting by listening to and learning from those who do hear voices. Many do have a different message, one that rejects or at least qualifies pathology, and considers issues like trauma and alienation in its stead. The workshop presenters will also address the practical dimensions of managing and adapting to the experience of hearing voices.

Presenters
Rufus May, Paddy McGowan, Adele Rosenbloom, Mel Starkman

Handouts

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Friday, November 17 to view biographical information on a presenter, click on the presenter’s name

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Workshop 7: Recovery: Challenging the Power of Psychiatry

The consumer/survivor movement and recovery advocates have started a dynamic process that is taking people and the mental health system beyond maintenance and coping. Survivors now have a voice within the system, and with recovery, a platform for change. Providers of service and human service academics see the inherent value of the recovery model and are taking steps to work in accord with the model, in partnership with consumers/survivors. Psychiatry, however, seems unmoved by the paradigm shift that is underway. Will psychiatry move beyond defensiveness, examine its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, acknowledge its intellectual isolation and take steps to learn from, and share power with the people in its care? Recovery is about having choices and making healthy decisions; this is true for all parties involved in the mental health system, including psychiatry.

Presenters
Lana Frado, Mary O’Hagan, Phillip Thomas

Handouts

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Workshop 8: Changing Service Culture for Recovery

This workshop will be helpful for organizations and providers who are aiming to implement recovery concepts within their service setting. You will be encouraged to explore what you do well, where you could improve and ways to develop a plan to implement recovery values and principles throughout your organization. Evidence-based recovery programs will be introduced as well.

Presenters
Anne Marie DiGiacomo, Lucy Gudgeon, Steve Onken, Ann Thompson

Handouts

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Workshop 9: Trauma, Peer Support and Recovery

“In trauma-informed peer support we come together around many shared experiences that may also include some negative mental health treatment issues”.

(Shery Mead)

This workshop will explore how peer support can provide opportunities to help us think about these experiences in new ways, as individuals, and collectively as advocates. As we unite in sharing our experiences, a collective healing begins to take place, opening the doors to real change in our lives.

Presenter
Shery Mead

Handouts

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Workshop 10: Recovery: System-Wide Implementation

Recovery is being implemented as the lead policy in certain state/national mental health systems. New Zealand, Ohio, Connecticut and others are leading the way. The presenters will offer their perspectives on the sweeping changes underway, addressing state-wide recovery implementation as it relates to innovation, as it affects what services are offered, enhanced and created, whether empowerment principles are being applied, and overall, whether it is leading to positive recovery outcomes.

Presenters
Robert MacKay, Shery Mead, Mary O’Hagan, Steve Onken

Handouts

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Workshop 11: Medication: Informed Choices and Challenges

The recovery path is about choices, and that includes the difficult choices and issues attached to medication. Some of the questions to consider: do the medications help or hinder wellness/recovery? Are people making informed choices? Can people access the medication/treatment of choice? Is there help to withdraw from psychotropic medications? The presenters will address these and other issues to stimulate discussion about how these substances help and/or hinder the recovery process. The discussion will also address the problem of the pharmaceutical industry in respect of its huge profits, its exponential growth and the endemic medicalization of societal problems.

Presenters
Rufus May, Paddy McGowan, Phillip Thomas

Handouts

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Workshop 12: Creative Expression and Recovery

Creativity is frequently the hallmark of madness, and recovery. Many people with mental health challenges describe how artistic and creative expression is their way of expressing and sharing their inner life and vision. Creativity offers an interpretative path, and potentially the road to recovery. The presentations and discussions will provide for a better appreciation of the role and relationship between creativity and recovery.

Presenters
Anita Aenishaenslin, Judith Rosenberg, Susan Schellenberg, Peter Smith

Handouts

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Workshop 13: Families: A Critical Role in Recovery

Families and friends help to create an environment in which recovery happens. They can play key roles in terms of ‘holding the hope’ and promoting choice and self-determination. However, families are usually encouraged by psychiatry to adhere to the traditional treatment approach at home. This often creates power struggles and misunderstanding in the family. Education approaches that go beyond the medical model are crucial so that families learn about recovery from a critical perspective and understand the impact of their role in recovery. Presenters will share these innovative approaches.

Presenters
Lionel Berger, Marian Dalal, Paul Denison, Mary Lou Eaton

Handouts

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Workshop 14: Working Through Extreme States of Distress

Mental health workers and peer support workers frequently respond to people who are in extreme states of distress (commonly described as ‘psychosis’). This workshop will address some of the ways that workers can help people who are hearing voices that are dominating their lives, or who are in states of dissociation? It will also address how we help people spiritually when they are in great turbulence; or, how we assist people to make peace with their ‘demons; and, how to really listen to people when they are sharing their unusual beliefs with us.

Presenters
Anne Marie DiGiacomo, Rufus May, Peter Sackaney

Handouts

Workshop 14 Resisting the diagnostic gaze 2 Rufus May

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Workshop 15: Recovery is a Human Right

Mental health recovery is a concept that is unheard of in many parts of the world. This is problematic because it is a person’s human right to have the opportunity to recover. The presenter, Laurie Ahern , will speak to this topic from her perspective as the associate director of Mental Disabilities Rights International, and among other topics and issues she will address her work bringing the PACE (Personal Assistance in Community Existence) model and the message of survivor empowerment and self-determination to international mental health communities.

Presenter
Laurie Ahern

Handouts

No handouts

Closing Panel and Plenary Session: Strategies for Recovery System Transformation

Presenters
Shery Mead, Mary O’Hagan, Steve Onken

Handouts

No handouts

Conference Recovery Resources and Articles

All handouts below will open in Adobe Reader. To save a copy of an individual handout on the hard drive
of your computer click on the Save a copy button in Adobe Reader.

Download all the handouts from the conference in a zipped folder
Click here

Download all the handouts from the workshops on November 16th in a zipped folder
Click here

Download all the handouts from the workshops on November 17th in a zipped folder
Click here

Download all the additional recovery articles in a zipped folder
Click here

2006 International Recovery Perspectives Conference

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