Free Audiobook: When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home

For a limited time, the audiobook of Paula Caplan’s When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans, which introduces a novel approach to supporting veterans who have experienced trauma, is available to download for free. Click here to download the book. Below is the book synopsis:

Traumatized veterans are often diagnosed as suffering from a psychiatric disorder and prescribed a regimen of psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs. But why, asks psychologist Paula J. Caplan in this impassioned book, is it a mental illness to be devastated by war or other intolerable experiences such as military sexual assault? What is a mentally healthy response to death, destruction, and moral horror? In When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home, Caplan argues that the standard treatment of therapy and drugs is often actually harmful. It adds to veterans’ burdens by making them believe wrongly that they should have “gotten over it”; it isolates them behind the closed doors of the therapist’s office; and it makes them rely on often harmful drugs. Caplan proposes an alternative: that we welcome veterans back into our communities and listen to their stories, one-on-one. This would begin a long overdue national discussion about the realities of war, and it would start the healing process for our returning veterans.

NEC’s Dan Fisher Interviewed on the We R H.O.P.E. Radio Show

NEC’s Executive Director Dan Fisher was interviewed by host Sean Perry on the We R. Hope Radio Show on Thursday, June 13th on the VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel. Dr. Fisher discussed his own personal journey of recovery, as well as the NEC, Emotional CPR, and the upcoming Alternatives Conference. To listen to the interview, click here.

Upcoming Emotional CPR Facilitator Training in The Netherlands

The National Empowerment Center and The Living Museum are proud to be bringing this international training to The Netherlands. To register, click here.

Updated Hearing Voices Curriculum Now Available!

Originally developed by Dr. Pat Deegan, the NEC Hearing Voices Curriculum now includes updates developed by Dr. Dan Fisher, Oryx Cohen, and Digital Eyes Film.  In addition to the original simulation exercises, the updates include a new DVD featuring one of the co-founders of the Hearing Voices Network, Dr. Marius Romme, as well as testimony from voice hearers themselves.  The updated curriculum includes new discussion questions that will help participants better understand how they can support voice hearers after the training.

For more information about the curriculum click here.

Learn more about the updated Hearing Voices Curriculum in the video below.

Veterinarians Find Emotional CPR Helpful

The University of Tennessee Veterinary Social Work program is now training students in Emotional CPR. The program sees Emotional CPR as helpful in many ways, both to the veterinarians and their clients. Veterinarians have a high stress and emotionally difficult job as detailed in this recent article that highlights the elevated suicide rates among veterinarians. The bond between pets and owners is like family, and veterinarians have to support not only the pet, but also their owners. Animal lovers themselves, veterinarians see a lot of sickness and death and often end up in the role of grief counselor when pets die. Emotional CPR is not only helping veterinarians connect with their clients’ emotions, but it is also helping them to connect with their own emotions and support each other around this difficult work.

Archive Now Available!
Recovery Dialogues: An Avenue for Culture Change in Psychiatric Hospitals

Also available as a PDF [1.5MB, 33 pages]

Description:

Mental health peer leaders are partnering with hospitals through Recovery Dialogues in an attempt to shift the culture and enhance recovery. Specifically, this webinar features the National Empowerment Center’s work with the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health over the past few years.

Participants learn about:

The basics of Recovery Dialogues and how they were implemented at the hospital including challenges, successes, and tips for doing the same in your state. The webinar was interactive and included audience participation, as we would like the webinar to serve as an example of an online Recovery Dialogue in action.

We encouraged both people with lived experience and professionals to register for this important webinar.

Moderator:

Oryx Cohen, COO, National Empowerment Center

Presenters:

Dan Fisher, CEO of the National Empowerment Center

David de Voursney, Chief of the Community Support Programs Branch – CMHS / SAMHSA

Valerie Comerford, Director of Recovery DMH, Central Massachusetts Area

Jacqueline DuCharme, COO, Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital

Patrick Whalen, Peer Specialist, Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital

Sponsored in part by SAMHSA

Webinar Archive Now Available!
Self-Direction through Personalized Budgeting

This webinar occurred on February 27th.

Webinar Recording [Requires Adobe Connect (free)] PowerPoint Slides (PDF, 36 pages)

Description:

Self-direction is a model for organizing supports in which the participant manages an individual budget to purchase for a variety of services and goods used to facilitate their recovery journey.

This webinar starts with an introduction to Self Directed Care (SDC), including a brief history and the places that are testing it out. There are three perspectives shared:

Bevin Croft, MPP, PhD – Research Associate at the Human Services Research Institute. The research that has been done, preliminary results here and in England. Future directions in research and funding for research.

Julie Schnepp – has participated in the Consumer Recovery Investment Fund Self Directed Care Program for the last seven years. During this time she has become a Certified Peer Specialist with additional training in working with youth and young adults, older adults, forensics, LGBTQA+ and more.

Pam Werner – Manager with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of Recovery Oriented Systems of Care.

Measuring the Promise: A Compendium of Recovery Measures

One of a series of materials produced by the Evaluation [email protected] This compendium provides a resource of current recovery and recovery-related instruments for adult mental health system stakeholders to use in research and evaluation particularly towards the end of identifying evidence-based practices. [Click to view Measuring the Promise (PDF – 7,917KB, 254 pages)]