FYI: Important Training Opportunity
SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and Center for Mental Health Services announces Part II of the two-part Teleconference/Webinar on the topic of Peer Support
Part II: Emerging Roles for Peer Specialists/Peer Supporters Working with Veterans and Individuals With Histories of Incarceration
Thursday, October 16, 2008
1:30-3:00 p.m. EDT
Peer specialists/peer supporters play unique valuable roles in services designed to promote recovery practices for people with substance use disorders who have co-occurring mental health disorders . The expertise that comes from lived experience shapes the peer specialist/peer supporter's ability to provide quality, recovery-based services. Exposure to strong role models promotes a belief in hope and recovery. Peer specialists/peer supporters offer strategies for self-advocacy and the development of skills that support and facilitate the recovery process.
This presentation addresses the innovative and critical roles of peer specialists in providing services and peer support to veterans and to persons with histories of incarceration. Presenters will discuss the preparation and training they have undergone for their positions as peer supporters; their tasks and responsibilities; how they made a successful transition from consumer to provider; and the importance of supervision and mentorship to their professional development. Each presenter will also share personal experiences as a veteran or with the criminal justice system and discuss how these experiences inform their work.
Presenters: Angie Agnew, Michael McPherson, and LaVerne Miller, Esq.
Angie Agnew is a program assistant/peer advocate with University Legal Services' D.C. Jail Advocacy Project in Washington, D.C. This program servesindividuals with psychiatric disabilities who are also involved in the criminal justice system. Ms. Agnew works to help remove some of the challenges andbarriers encountered by individuals as they seek to transition into the community by assisting them to navigate systems and connect with services and supports. Ms. Agnew provides education, training, and outreach through workshops, seminars, conferences, etc. She has presented on her experiences with incarceration and with the mental health system, recovery, and the basic right to health care, and has been featured in a number of programs focusing on issues facing persons returning to the community. Ms. Agnew's ultimate goal is to develop a movement of formerly incarcerated psychiatric survivors to strengthen mental health consumers' awareness of the unique needs of per! sons in jail, prison, or under probation/parole; promote the voices of those who have survived both the criminal justice and mental health systems in administrative and policymaking decisions, and to sustain a support network to provide mentorship, employment opportunities and hope to the thousands of individuals released from institutions each year. She is from Chicago Illinois, where she was a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC).
Michael McPherson is a disabled veteran and a survivor of co-existing disabling disorders. He currently works for Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (Disability Rights California) Peer/Self-Advocacy Program as the southern California coordinator. Through his own rehabilitation he earned his bachelor of science degree (with honors) in Workforce Education, Training and Development from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and he is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Mr. McPherson started the first Veterans Peer Self-Advocacy Group in southern California in November 2002 a few months after Veterans Village of San Diego, where he is also an alumnus, had its Stand Down for Homeless Veterans. The group provides advocacy, education, and training on how to exercise human and legal rights in addition to developing effective coping strategies for rehabilitation and ultimately a career or employment. Mr. McPherson is the Far South Board of Directors representative for ! the California Network of Mental Health Clients and the assistant coordinator on the National Alliance on Mental Illness Veterans Council for Veterans Integrated Service Network 22 (VISN 22). He also serves on the County of San Diego Mental Health Board.
LaVerne Miller is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Northeastern School of Law. She has worked as an assistant district attorney in New York County and a community organizer in southeast Queens. Since 1996, she has been the director of the nationally recognized Howie the Harp Peer Advocacy Center in New York City. The Center trains consumers to work in human services. Graduates work as peer specialists, peer advocates, service coordinators, job coaches, and substance abuse counselors in more than 40 mental health, jail diversion/prisoner reentry, and substance abuse programs in New York City. Since its inception, the Center has placed more than 650 consumers in permanent competitive employment positions. In 1991, the Center's Employer/Provider Technical Assistance Program was founded to increase the recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement of consumer staff in the workplace.
Registration: Click here to register for this teleconference/Webinar, please click on the following link:
After you register, an e-mail will be sent to you with instructions for joining the session. PARTICIPATION IS FREE. To hear the presentation, you must dial-in to the teleconference/Webinar. Please dial-in 5-10 minutes before 1:30 p.m. EDT to ensure that you are included in the teleconference before it begins.
Please note that Web access will permit you to view the presentation slides. The presentation will be available on the day of the event and will be posted until January 16, 2009.
A reminder e-mail with dial-in instructions will be sent out 1 day before the call on October 15, 2008.
If you have questions or need additional information about this teleconference/Webinar, please contact Tammy Bernstein at Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. at (518) 475-9146, ext. 222, or at [email protected].
Briana Kreibich
Anti-Methamphetamine Initiative Program Administrator
Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families
Division for Substance Abuse Policy
1700 W Washington, Suite 101
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Ph 602-542-3455
Fx 602-542-3643
[email protected]
www.gocyf.az.gov
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