Stories From The Road

Steve Harrington's Webinar in Build Your Resume: Strategies for Getting, Keeping and Advancing Employment

 

NOV. 21, 2014

Time: Noon – 1:00 p.m. Eastern

(11 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Mountain, 9 a.m. Pacific)

November Free Webinar!

Build Your Resume: Strategies for Getting,

Keeping and Advancing Employment

 

Join Steve Harrington, Director of the International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS), as he explores—through an interactive session—ways to build resumes, obtain employment and advance careers.

Steve Harrington, Director of the International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS)

 These are important skills for peer supporters and those they support. The session will use the “chat” function during the webinar so participants can share strategies such as how to fill in resume “gaps,” enjoy a sense of job security, and advance one’s career.

To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices too!)

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1. Click https://optum.webex.com/optum/j.phpMTID=m1a18bae04091baad33db8e8a7f010696

2. Follow all prompts to access audio and join the webinar. You will be asked to

provide a telephone number. Please be sure to provide a single-line number without

an extension. You will be called back and given directions immediately.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]

Or visit the Free Webinars page on our website: http://inaops.org/free-webinar-series

 

Reflecting on PSS Demographics for North Carolina

 

Just a reminder, that it is helpful to visit the UNC BHRP (Behavioral Health Resource Program) Peer Support Specialist website and sort of get a "bird's-eye view" of what is happening at the state level and you will see a chart that is constantly updated on the demographics of the peer movement in NC. 

As I look at this (not really checking my assumptions) these are questions I ponder:

1. With 1,207 Peer Support Specialists...Where are they? How can we find out what they are up to? What are they learning? How can we get them to share their stories...(Ex. what is working and what is not working)?
2. With 20 PhD and 117 Masters Level and 290 Bachelor Level Peer Support Specialists... How can we harness that insight and creativity and get information back from the field on best practices? What can these creative minds offer and give back to the recovery movement?
3. With the 433 that are employed? What information could we gather from them about the solid outcomes and data of the recovery work they are doing? How do we get them to collaborate, communicate and share?
4. With the 774 not employed as PSS? Are there other areas that they as peer supports can make inroads into...whole health? older adults? public health? youth? Can the state and the MCO's offer incentives to work in more rural areas where there are no peers?

There are tons of questions to ponder on...I am not saying these are the most important. There is as much creative potential among the 86 with GED, 352 with High School Education, and 113 with Associate Degrees....What can we learn from them?

 I just look at these numbers and I see a peer workforce with amazing potential. I see an ARMY OF 1,200 WELLNESS WARRIORS...who have the potential to "shake the state" of NC and "make a ruckus" for wellness and recovery.

What does the future hold for peers and the recovery movement?

What questions do you ponder?

The Attitude of "Going Pro"

 

There are some professional principles from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield that really gave perspective and validation about how I should approach my job as a peer support specialist.

To be a Peer Support Specialist ia an emerging career choice whose identity, payscale and legitimacy seems to be trying to find its place in the workforce. I say that it is for us to set forth the standard of how we want to be perceived.  I say along with Steven Pressfield it is found in the attitude of "Turning Pro"   Meaning (as far as I apply this to peer supports) we should dedicate ourselves fully to the art of learning and being a peer professional or specialist.

So what are the qualities that define being professional, Pressfield sets forth qualities of what that means, here are 7  (I took liberty to adapt within a wellness & peer context) :

1. We show up every day. This is a joy and a job.  A duty and a delight. It is our mission and mantra to hold up the hope and support for others. We might do it only because we have to. But still we show up. Still every day we apply our hearts and lived experiences to our work.
2. We show up no matter what. We come full-hearted or half-hearted. For noble reasons or less than noble ones. There should be a fire in our hearts. Still we show up no matter what.
3. We stay on the job all day. We are to be fully in. Though our minds may wander, our bodies remain in the driver's seat. We don't punch the clock until the whistle blows.
4. We are committed over the long haul. We are a part of the peer workforce. We are committed to the movement. Committed to the profession. Committed to the beautiful work to be done here in NC. Others will know whether this is a side-gig or if this is the real deal.
5. We live knowing the stakes are high and real. Others wellness is tied to our own. Others moving forward in their recovery is either hindered or helped based on our own recovery journey. Our families and children depend upon our intentionality towards wellness and our work. We are the ambassadors for the recovery movement in NC.
6. We work for pay and are to be paid what we are worth. We are not here for fun, a past time. There is work to be done and we have invested in learning the art and craft of being a specialist in supporting other peers. This is a career path to be compensated.
7. We master the art of our jobs. There is a body of knowledge to be gained. Core competencies and skills to be acquired. Ethical standards and boundaries to be upheld. This is a profession that requires ongoing training and daily practice.

Because our legitimacy and profession will not be taken seriously if we don't show up every day. If we are not fully in, then it will show. People will know whether we are committed to this profession and the movement.

It is for us to set that standard. Going pro is an attitude and outlook that causes us to approach our jobs and the people we support with a level of care and concern that it deserves and they deserve.

That we deserve. We are specialists. We are professionals.

350,000 North Carolinians Who Want To Work

 

350,000 North Carolinians. Those with lived experience of mental health challenges and without work. Those who need to work. Those who want to work.

This should not be. With initiatives as North Carolina's Supported Employment Initiative, the IPS Model will soon cause such glaring realities as these to no longer be.

In NC, there is a collaborative effort taking place between mental health and vocational rehabilitation to "turn-the-tide" on the need for employment for adults with severe mental illness.

The Johnson and Johnson Darmouth Community Mental Health Program, under the research and direction of Debbie Becker and Bob Drake from Dartmouth's Psychiatric Research Center were in attendance. They have seen their IPS Model change the landscape for supported employment efforts across the US and now in North Carolina.

NC's IPS Supported Employment Initiative Networking Event was held in Durham on February 20th as the kick-off event of this initiative. Dave Richard, Division Director of NC DMH/DD/SAS were in attendance along with Elizabeth Bishop, Acting Director of NC DVRS.

This event was the launch of a supportive employment initiative of the IPS Model to be implemented across NC. There have been four selected sites in NC selected to collect data and provide results of the evidence-based supportive employment initiative.

The unveiling of this initiative is based on three important facts:

1. The majority of people with mental illness want to work
2. The IPS Model of supported employment is nearly three times more effective than other vocational approaches
3. People who obtain competitive employment through supported employment services have increased income, improved self-esteem, improved quality of life, reduced symptoms and reduced utilization of mental health services.

I had the opportunity to share my vocational recovery journey story with those in attendance and this is a clip of that experience. 

 

This conference caused me to reflect on the mission statement of Recovery Innovations that I now work for and the culmination of the work I do as serving on the Community Building Team:

"To create opportunities and environments that 
empower people to recover, to succeed in accomplishing their goals, and to reconnect to themselves, others, and to meaning and purpose in life."

There will be many employment peer mentors that will rise up from this initiative and be trained and hired to support individuals in their efforts to reconnect with themselves, others and their meaning and purpose.

The end result for this event and these efforts will be that there will be hundreds that will be placed into competitive employment for years and remain there.

What an exciting road that lies ahead.

 

Employment & The Road To Recovery

 

The fact is that 60 to 70 percent of those with co-occuring illness want to work yet only 15 percent of those individuals are currently employed. 

The good news is that when people who participate in IPS supported employment programs are almost three times more likely to gain employment than other types of employment strategies.

It is a myth to say that work is too stressful for individuals with co-occuring illness. We know that work improves self-esteem, adds a sense of purpose, and contributes towards recovery in positive ways for many people with dual disorders.

It is a myth to say that individuals with co-occuring illness will do poorly and are prone to relapse. It is known that when individuals are given opportunities for competitive employment with the right supports that they thrive. They become more intentional in their own wellness and relapse is not so much the outcome of work but is due more to unemployment, housing instability, and loss of social supports.

 Employment was for me the consummation of my recovery journey. Employment is vital towards one's wellness, one's feelings of empowerment, one's sense of contribution and is what will truly help that individual reconnect with themselves, others and their sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Links to Peer Support Specialist Job Listings

I wanted to provide links to the job listings in the human service field in NC. Within these sites, you will find the listings for some of the Peer Support Specialist openings across NC. Don't forget to consider joining the NC Linked-In Peer Support Specialist site to "stay-plugged-in" (see link below).  These are some of the major listings:

--BHRP NC Peer Support Website--

• NC Peer Support Jobs       

--NC Peer Support Specialist LinkedIn Group--

• Linked In Site                                           

--LME Employment Listings--

• Alliance Behavioral Health Care Jobs                     
• Cardinal Innovations Jobs                                             
• Centerpoint Human Services Jobs                          
• Coastal Care NC Jobs                                                       
• East Carolina Behavioral Health Jobs                      
• Eastpoint Jobs                                                                    
• Mecklink Jobs                                                                    
• Partners Behavioral Health Jobs                               
• Sandhills Center Jobs-                                                     
• Smoky Mountain Center Jobs                               

--Private Provider Listings--

• RHA NC Jobs                                                                           
• Monarch NC Jobs                                                          
• The ARC of NC Jobs                                                         
• Port Human Services Jobs
  
• Easter Seals UCP NC Jobs                                                                           

 This listing of sites is far from being exhaustive but it can be a launching point for you to begin "spreading your wings" as you look to "make your mark" in the Peer Movement here in NC.