[NYAPRS Enews] MHW: Former Psychosocial Club Evolves into Peer Run Recovery Center

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Following is timely piece on the recent conversion of a
Rochester based social club to the state's first peer run recovery
center. New Directions staff Barbara Sebastian will elaborate on this
option in a presentation at NYAPRS' upcoming Annual Conference, "Whole
Self, Whole Health, Whole Lives" to be held at the Hudson Valley Resort
on September 22-4 in Kerhonkson. The presentation will examine the
options to apply for a PROS Medicaid license or to become a peer run
Recovery Center faced currently faced by many NYS programs. For
conference program details and to register, pls. go to
http://www.nyaprs.org/conference/. 

 

Former Psychosocial Club In New York Evolves Into Peer-Run Operation

Mental Health Weekly  July 26, 2010

 

The name of the operation remains unchanged as New Directions of Greater
Rochester, but perhaps the "New" should now be marked in bold capital
letters for an entity that could be establishing a model for peer-run
support services in New York state.

 

The state's first peer-run recovery center opened last month, more than
a year after a psychosocial club with the same name was closed by its
operating entity, the Rochester Psychiatric Center. Much of the credit
for the "new" New Directions goes to a group of about 10 consumers who,
upon learning that the closing of their previous gathering place was a
done deal, stayed active in keeping alive the idea of a community
resource for people with serious mental illness.

 

"These are men and women, different ages, different diagnoses," Barbara
Sebastian, a New Directions peer assistant who is one of three paid
part-time staffers at the center, told MHW of the core group of
planners. "We didn't worry about what someone's diagnosis was. We
treated everyone like a human being and kept going."

 

It would take more than a year for the collective enthusiasm and toil to
result in an operation open to serve the community. A key element in the
effort's success involved a partnership between the consumer leaders,
who handle day-to-day affairs of the center, and the Mental Health
Association of Monroe County, which is the center's fiduciary authority
and is responsible for administrative details that include auditing and
insurance.

 

"This is about linking people to community resources," Pat Woods, the
Mental Health Association's president, told MHW. "We don't have specific
criteria for use of the program. We don't ask about a diagnosis, or
require a referral." 

 

Woods added that much of the planning effort has focused on identifying
and lifting barriers to individuals' accessing community services, from
the interpersonal to the logistical. The idea, she said, is to allow
these individuals to rely more on resources in the greater community
than on the mental health system more narrowly.

 

State Support

Woods and Sebastian trace the origin of the new operation to a visit to
Rochester from (John Allen) the director of recipient affairs for the
New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH). The state was beginning to
advance the concept of recovery centers, and it became clear from the
meeting that took place in Rochester that the state would support
establishment of a center to replace the psychosocial club if those
working on the project could see it through to completion.

 

"They couldn't really give us any type of guidance on what programs we
could include in the center," Sebastian said of state officials. "They
said that if we got off track they'd let us know."

 

New Directions is receiving both start-up funding and ongoing annual
support from OMH. It has begun by continuing programs that had been
successful in the psychosocial club setting, in areas such as
self-esteem and anger management, Sebastian said. But the effort will
expand to include skill-building and vocational services, as well as a
volunteer effort.

 

"We want people to work in the community and be able to feel better
about themselves," she said. Woods added that the vocational element
probably will be characterized by informal support rather than
structured job coaching. "We want to have people brought in to present
on what's out there in the community," she said.

 

The services will include a focus on socialization as well, as
information available at the center will highlight community events and
encourage people to attend in groups. The peer staff will seek to make
the consumers' visits to the center a productive time on a social and
skill-building level, so that the building does not simply become a
preferred site for drinking coffee, Sebastian said.

 

The center opened in mid-June and held an open house a couple of weeks
later. It is occupying leased space in a building that formerly housed
offices, in a largely residential neighborhood. Consumers generally are
finding out about the resource through word of mouth in the community or
by being informed by their mental health caseworkers.

 

Organizers expect to be able to serve about 50 to 100 people at any one
time, with some consumers visiting regularly and others dropping in once
in a while. The center will collect a small membership fee of $1 a
month, but the support services generally will be free of charge.

 

The state now has worked on guidelines for peer-run recovery centers and
presently has a request for proposals (RFP) out for these services.

A couple of other planned centers in the state are fairly close to
approval stage, but the Rochester center is the only one already in
operation.

 

Sebastian is proud to be part of a pioneering effort for the state. "It
makes me feel that we've done what we set out to do," she said.
Individual benefits Sebastian explained that the center has two staff
members on duty at any one time (it is open weekdays during typical
business hours). Along with three part-time positions, the center has a
full-time program manager.

 

Sebastian has clinical depression, and she said the opportunity to
pursue a cause after the psychosocial club closed gave her an important
sense of purpose. "Without this opportunity I would have isolated
completely, and I would have been really mad at the state of New York,"
she said. Instead, "I've gotten my self esteem on an even keel,"
Sebastian said. "This experience has made me realize that I have
something to offer."

 

She believes the newest version of New Directions can prove to exceed
the accomplishments of the previous operation. "We've got a lot of
insight into the problems people are facing," she said of the peer
leaders at the "new" New Directions. "We've all been through it." 

 

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