Autumn 2019
Countering Distorted Perceptions Across the Country
by Jennifer Brown
This past May, the Anti-Stigma Project once again traveled across the country to help folks involved in the behavioral health system address the issue of stigma and its impact on recovery. This time, the specific focus was tackling the stigma faced by peer support specialists in the workplace.
The consultation was almost a year in the making. Over the course of many months, I had been in conversations with Ruth Hollman, Executive Director of SHARE!, a dynamic, well-respected, and groundbreaking peer run program in Los Angeles, California. According to their website, their mission is “to help people in Los Angeles pursue personal growth and change. SHARE! empowers people to change their own lives and provides them a loving, safe, non-judgmental place where they can find community, information and support.” Their 20 plus year history is rich with innovative programming, including a collaborative housing program, which has housed more than 5,000 mental health consumers in Los Angeles for a price tag under $1 million, which is an extraordinary feat.
They operate two self-help centers, one in Culver City and one in downtown Los Angeles; a Recovery Retreat program; and Volunteer-to-Job internships, which earned the Outstanding Program Award in 2013 from the Los Angeles County Mental Health Commission. SHARE! often partners with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH), which is the largest county mental health department in the country. In fact, in March 2005, SHARE! became the first ever peer-run contractor with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.
Another of their signature programs is the “ SHARE! Advanced Peer Specialist Certification” which they launched in 2016, a comprehensive training program aimed at teaching “its pioneering methods to people all over the country, resulting in a better trained workforce for SHARE! and other organizations.” SHARE! received a large contract to work on employing peer support specialists in provider organizations around Los Angeles and wanted tools and strategies to help with combating the stigma, prejudice and discrimination often faced by peer support specialists in the workplace.
We know that peer recovery specialists play a vital role in the behavioral health system, but stigma often creates significant barriers for them. For example, interdisciplinary stigma among staff may lead to being seen as “less than” other employees, cause their credibility to be questioned, and result in being relegated to menial tasks, sometimes as a result of unclear job expectations and roles. Much work is needed for organizations to create truly welcoming environments for peers and clarify expectations and alleviate confusion.
SHARE! embarked on bringing a series of four major trainings, including ours, to peers and supervisors over the course of many months, in an effort to assist with this. They enlisted the help of Dr. Jessica Wolf, a researcher and Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale Department of Psychiatry. She was on-site for the workshops we facilitated and we look forward to the results of her research later this year!
My partner for this project was Casey Saylor, Anti-Stigma Project workgroup member, facilitator, and social media specialist. She traveled with me in May to sunny California to conduct a series of intensive workshops in four separate areas of Los Angeles.
Libby Hartigan, SHARE’s Director of Training and Quality Assurance, met us every morning at their main headquarters in Culver City, a large and bustling beehive of activity. People were engaged, friendly, and it was striking to see the range and scope of their offerings. As an organization, they host more then 140 meetings weekly, with more than 5000 people attending. Topics range from areas such as childhood abuse, self-esteem, depression, substance use disorders, etc. One of the other things that struck us at the headquarters building was how tall the doors were! It turns out that the building used to be a sports rehabilitation center for the Los Angeles Lakers, so then it all made sense!
Over the course of four days, nearly 100 people participated in intensive Anti-Stigma workshops, as we implemented our version of the proven strategy of education and contact as a stigma reduction tool.
They also became allies in our Distorted Perceptions public education campaign, and took 150 kits of Distorted Perceptions materials to disseminate to their communities throughout Los Angeles County.
The conversation in the workshops was vivid, engaging, supportive, and enlightening. In the true spirit of reciprocal education, we both learned a tremendous amount, and the feedback from the workshop participants echoed those sentiments as well. We both felt honored to be part of this work. Casey commented that “It was so great to see what SHARE! is doing with their peer-led programming. They work really hard to empower peers to take control of their own wellness, to give them as many resources as they can to eliminate barriers along the way, and to genuinely celebrate successes.”
I was impressed at their recognition at what a true barrier stigma can be in people’s lives and the system in general, and their willingness to tackle difficult conversations as we brainstormed about strategies to move things forward. We look forward to hearing how their peer workforce continues to thrive and grow!