Event flyer (PDF - 550KB)HHS & FDA invite all Veterans and People with Disabilities, who are
interested in the many Federal positions we have available at any of our 12
Operating Divisions here at HHS, these positions are located throughout
the country. To register and participate in our LIVE Virtual Hiring Event on
Thursday November 3, 2011 Please see the attached link for additional event information including how to register.
All participants in the Virtual Hiring Event will have an opportunity to not only apply to the open positions at FDA & HHS, but have their resume forwarded to all 9000+ selecting managers throughout HHS and its 12 Operating Divisions.
We are holding 3 LIVE presentations at 9:00 am, 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm
EST. We will be discussing working at HHS & FDA, Training on the updated version of USAJOBS, Determining job qualifications, How to apply using USAJOBS and Application Manager, and Detailed Information on the federal positions we are looking to fill and much more.
Please distribute this information to Veterans and/or People with Disabilities looking for employment.
The Virtual Hiring Event is 508 compliant and CC. We look forward to your participation.
Subject: Free 40 hour Recovery Peer specialist Training
CFBHN is sponsoring a recovery peer specialist training for peers who would like to mentor other adult peers with mental illnesson June 13-17, 2011 in New Port Richey and June 20-24, 2011 in Sarasota. The only requirement is that the person has a mental illness that they are comfortable disclosing and that they have an interest in either volunteering or working as a peer specialist. We are giving preference to consumers who live in the 11 counties of the suncoast region: collier, lee, charlotte, desoto, Hendry/glades, Sarasota, manatee, Pinellas, pasco and Hillsborough. If the classes are not filled with consumers from the 11 counties we will allow peers from other counties to attend . The classes have a 15 person maximum so you will need to register early. You can go on the www.floridapeernetwork.org website to register. The training is free but they do register directly with Florida Peer Network. This 40 hour training is accepted by the Florida Certification Board as part of the process to become a certified recovery peer specialist. Thanks, Susan
Susan Lang, MPH, OT/L, CRPS
Consumer/Family Affairs Director
Central Florida Behavioral Health Network
Meetings, Events & Opportunities Around Florida and the Nation
In the March issue of the Florida peer networks newsletter I found this little article that I wanted to share with every one.
Florida Among States With Highest Risk For Homelessness
A majority— 31 of 50 states and the District of Columbia— has had increases in their homeless counts. The largest increase was in Louisiana, where the homeless population doubled, according to the recently published report, Homelessness in America.
The report investigates the changes in homelessness across the country. Three states—Florida, California and Nevada —“have been disproportionately impacted by the recent housing crisis,” the report said. The three states have multiple risk factors. These are high rates of homelessness and high levels of unemployment, foreclosure, housing cost burden, lack of insurance, and doubling up. Florida, California and Nevada share another distinction: Over 80 percent of households below the federal poverty line in Florida, Nevada, and California spend more than 50 percent of income on rent.
The data show that 28 of 50 states had increases in prisoner releases from 2007 to 2008, with Florida’s increasing by 30 percent. In the course of a year, the estimated odds of experiencing homelessness for a released prisoner are 1 in 11.
Nationwide, researchers found the largest percentage of increase was in the number of family households, which increased by over four percent or 3,000 households. “While most people experiencing homelessness are sheltered, nearly 4 in 10 were living on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation,” said the research report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Homelessness Research Institute. “These findings project a disquieting picture of what depressed wages, stagnant unemployment, unrelenting housing cost burden, and the lagging pace of the economic recovery could bring about: increases in homelessness and heightened risk of homelessness for more and more Americans.” The report suggested various strategies states could adopt for reducing homelessness.
Florida’s certified Child Welfare Case Managers (CWCM) and Recovery Peer Specialists (CRPS) must renew their credentials by October 31, 2010.
I just spoke to Jordon, at the Florida Certification Board and she told me the renew date has been extended till Tuesday, November 30th. Jordan said they have sent letter to all the Child Welfare Case Managers (CWCM) and Recovery Peer Specialists (CRPS). Yet, if were like me and did not get a letter ( I moved and forgot to update my info) you should contact them ASAP and re-new. Payments can be made over the phone with a VISA or Master Card. My fee was only $50.00 for CRPS and I did not have profe my CU’s. You may want to call and make sure you don’t need to do anything more then pay a little fee.
1st Renewal Approaches for Child Welfare Case Managers and Mental Health Peers
Certification is a mark of professional competency that indicates that the certified:
• Has met minimum education, training, and professional experience standards.
• Has passed a rigorous testing process.
• Maintains a current knowledge base by completing annual continuing education units (CEUs).
The FCB mails annual renewal invoices approximately 60 and 30 days prior to the renewal deadline. Invoices
for the October renewal period will be mailed in August and September. The invoice will indicate the annual
renewal fee AND whether or not the individual must submit to a CEU audit. If the invoice says “AUDIT: Yes”, the
certified individual must submit the invoice payment amount and CEU compliance documentation. If the invoice
says “AUDIT: No”, the certified individual only needs to submit the invoice payment amount; CEU documentation
should be retained for a minimum of 3 years in case of further audit or ethical investigation.
The FCB accepts CEUs from:
• an FCB-approved provider
• a state or national licensing board approved provider
• Florida Department of Children and Families events
• coursework completed at an accredited college or university
Your credential is an important mark of professionalism: don’t let it lapse! Renew as soon as you receive your
notice!
Here is how you can Contact Florida Certification Board
In 2007 Patrick Hedry (former E.D. of the Florida Peer Network), Mark Engelhardt, M.S., A.C.S.W. of USF Faculty - Department of Mental Health Law and Policy published a book called Common Threads Stories of Survival & Recovery From Mental Illness.
It has had wide exposure here in Florida and was sold from a few different website. You can also get a free copy of the book in PDF file. I want to pass this link on to you and encourage you to read it.http://www.samhcorp.org/publications/common_threads.pdf
Word is that Mark might write a new book and feature all new peers and their recovery stories. It that happens I’ll let you know when and who you should send them too.
Oh, I want to remind you that next month, May 2009 is Mental Health Awareness month. There are a few events going on. The biggest local is the Mental Health Humors Project Cartoon-a-thon. This years focus is on Mental Health Hero’s check it out.
I found the following story of Rose Delaney in the book Common Threads post on the book publishers website.
Rose Delaney is a remarkable woman. After years of isolation and long-term
hospitalization she found her way back to a life filled with possibilities. She is a leader
in the f ght for quality mental health services for consumers throughout the state. Rose
continues to live in Lehigh Acres and work with the Compeer program with NAMI,
and she is a proud participant in the Florida Self-Directed Care program.
Rose identifies many of the same common threads for recovery that our other storytellers
have. She particularly emphasizes the importance of peer support and the value of
educating yourself about your illness. She is a wonderful example of the power of helping
others.
I knew from childhood that there was something wrong with me; at least I felt
that way. I was always so serious. I always had to make sure, even when I was little,
that everyone else was okay or happy. Th roughout my childhood, I remember
hearing my parents say to other people that I was this perfect child. “We take
her places and she is so quiet and well behaved” was a common phrase. So I just
thought that was it, I was a quiet, well-behaved little girl. Meanwhile, I felt so sad
inside and didn’t know how to express this to anyone.
When I started junior high school, I began having horrible panic attacks. I would
fear when I got home from school that there wouldn’t be anyone there and I
would be all alone. It didn’t matter that this never happened; I was just scared it
would. So I started to skip school. I would sneak back in the house and stay there
all day. Eventually, the school notified my parents. They brought me to the school
counselor. I told them of my fear, and they just said it was the anxiety of starting
junior high. Inside, I was just desperate for someone to listen to me. I knew there
was something else going on.
High school was horrible. No one realized there was something deeply wrong
with me. I think that made it worse for me. I just continued to try to hide it from
myself and everyone else. I felt as if I had to live up to the perfect child my parents
saw me as. I didn’t want to cause them any problems, so I would keep everything
inside. I had suicidal thoughts back then but never acted on them. I was very, very
depressed, yet my parents still just thought this was my personality, quiet and well
behaved.
Eventually, I got married. I think I went for someone who I thought would take
care of me. I didn’t think about his character and how he would treat me, just
that he would take care of me. I didn’t fi nd out until the day we went to get our
marriage license that he had been married twice before.
At first I was told I couldn’t have children, so it was a surprise when I became
pregnant. I had a very rough pregnancy. I was bedridden from my fourth month.
Th is was very stressful for me because I was alone in the house all day. After I had
the baby, the stress continued. My daughter was premature and had to stay in the
hospital for a month. I just continued to keep everything bottled up inside. The
first time I saw a psychiatrist was after the birth of my daughter; I was 22.
My husband came home one day when my daughter was about a year old. I was
sitting in the corner on the floor just sobbing. I couldn’t take care of the baby or
anything. The doctor suggested I see a psychiatrist. This was my first experience
with a psychiatrist, who said what I was going through was normal. I just had a
baby; back then, they called it “the baby blues.” “You’ll get over it and everything
will be fine,” the psychiatrist said. I wanted to scream at this doctor, “Everything is
not going to be fine! It’s not fine!” My depression really progressed from there, and
I really only just existed. I did what I had to do to take care of my daughter and be
a wife.
My first manic episode was in my mid to late 20s. I went on a major spending
spree. I bought for myself and everyone else. I don’t mean fi ve dollar things either.
I maxed out all of our credit cards, took all the money out of our checking and
savings, and left us with nothing. My husband didn’t know at first because I
always handled the finances. When I started coming out of the mania and into the
depression, I realized what I had done. Bills were coming in, there was nothing
in the bank, and I didn’t know what to do so I had to tell him. He was livid! He
didn’t think this was because of a mental illness or anything. He just thought I
was this horrible person to have spent all the money with no regard for how hard
he worked or anything. This was the beginning of the decline of the marriage. He
started seeing my best friend. Then one day, out of the blue, he told me he wanted
a divorce.
Once he left and I had to tell the family what was going on, they were very
supportive. They found me a place to live with my daughter. My daughter was 5
and it was hard on her. One day I received a call from school that she was upsetting
other children because she was telling them that her father died. Th e school
recommended she see a psychiatrist. When I would take her there, I would think to
myself that I was the one that needed to be seeing a doctor.
It was about a month after my husband left when I decided I just couldn’t take it
anymore and swallowed a bottle of pills. My parents had gone away and had taken
my daughter with them because they thought this would be good for me. My
brother, who was about 18 at the time, was the one who found me. I remember it
like it was yesterday. He was shaking me and screaming at me, “If you don’t tell me
what you took, I’ll kill you!” Now, years later I feel so bad for putting him in that
position. That was my first suicide attempt.
Within a year, I really went manic! I went through all that I had left. I had a job
as an office manager and was PTA president. The PTA needed to raise money, so
I thought the best way to do this was to raffle off a car. My position as an office
manager gave me check-writing privileges, and I chose to use those privileges to
purchase the car for the raffle. I never thought what I was doing was wrong. I
justified my actions. I figured since my boss was always donating money, this would
be like donating money to the school. I thought I wouldn’t have check-writing
privileges if I weren’t allowed to decide where to write the checks. During this time,
I never thought I was manic or realized anything could be wrong. Th en, of course,
I swung into the depression and realized what I had done. I went to my boss and
told him about the car. He didn’t take it too well. He pressed charges and I was
arrested.
By this time, I was suicidal and was placed on 24-hour suicide watch at the jail.
I had to wear paper clothes. Th e guard, who was male, told me to change into
them. I told him I wouldn’t until he walked away, not realizing they had the
mirrors. He walked away, and then I heard them laughing as I was changing. I was
mortified! I was detained until they sent me to a local private psychiatric facility a
few days later. I stayed in there for about 6 weeks, but the doctor felt I still needed
additional inpatient care. My insurance had lapsed out, so they took me back to
the community mental health center until a bed opened at G. Pierce Wood State
Psychiatric Hospital. This was in 1987.
I was frightened. When I was admitted to G. Pierce Wood, I was coherent enough
to realize what was going on. The hospital wasn’t in the best of conditions. On
arrival, I was taken to the Intake Ward. Most of the people on this ward were pretty
psychotic. People were fighting and screaming, and I just sat there wondering
how this place was supposed to help me. When I fi rst got there, I was kept pretty
heavily sedated, almost zombie like. My dad and my uncle would come up every
day to see me. They were very upset when they saw the condition I was in. They
set up an appointment for me to see a doctor. At first, the doctors said they had
to keep me sedated to get me stabilized. My father didn’t understand what they
meant by stabilized. He just thought I was drugged and that was it. To him, that
wasn’t stable. I became okay. I felt protected by two of the older staff members.
I think they saw that I wasn’t streetwise and didn’t know the “in’s” and “out’s” of
this type of facility, so they took me under their wings. Some of the other residents
didn’t feel so inclined and used to call me Princess. My parents would bring stuff
for me, and this bothered them. They would take the stuff that was brought to me
and lock it up and not give it to me when I asked for it. So I said something and
filed a complaint. The doctor wanted me to tell him who was doing this, but I was
frightened because I knew they would retaliate. The doctor kept assuring me that
nothing like that would happen. I told him that he wasn’t here at night and didn’t
know. Well, sure enough, something was said to the people who were hurting me.
Th at night, they humiliated me in front of everyone, saying, “The little princess
complained so now we can’t do this or that and it’s all her fault.” Of course, some of
the other patients there believed this, so it was pretty rough at first.
Eventually, I was transferred to another ward. I tried to make friends with the staff
once more because I was afraid that I was going to be mistreated again. The stuff
that went on there, I used to say I would write a book about it. Then I thought
people would just think I was psychotic if I did tell them some of the going-on.
People would think I was mentally ill and fabricating stories. This wasn’t the case,
though. Things that were happening there were not in my mind. Staff members
were having sex with clients. I was at this hospital for more than 3 years. Clients
were getting pregnant. Th ere was physical abuse. Verbal abuse was constant. Most
of the workers didn’t care. I don’t mean the nurses or employees who had degrees.
Not to sound demeaning, but the other workers weren’t educated and were just
there for their check and that was it. Th e night staff in particular would come in
and just eat and watch TV. To have gotten better there had to take shear willpower
because you knew for certain that you weren’t getting any help from the staff .
93
Common Threads — Stories of Survival & Recovery From Mental Illness
Racheal Todd is on the board of directors of the Florida peer Network. She is listed as the “Ex-Officio”. That just might be a type. I think they “Executive Officer”. Since the FPN is made up of persons living with mental health disorders it leads me to wonder what this beautify girls is suffering with? It’s true the outside of us often does not reveal the inner person. So, what ever her diagnosis is, I just glad to see her at the FPN.
Todd is an Alumni of the class of 2009 University of Central Florida. Not on is she a UCF Graduate she the current Miss Florida America. In this video segment below Rachael reflects on her experiences at UCF.
Here she Miss Florida, Rachael Todd, Training at SSP to get in Great Shape for the Miss America Pageant.
“Rachael is very concerned about the issue of homelessness and frequently speaks to groups regarding this growing problem. Several years ago Rachael’s mother founded the HOPE Foundation in Oviedo, Florida, an agency that provides Housing, Outreach, Prevention and Education for the homeless. Rachael found her passion through working with the HOPE Foundation and is committed to changing the way Americans view and deal with the issue of Homelessness. In August 2009, she served as a delegate to the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington D.C. She has associated with the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Alliance to End Homelessness and is committed to increasing awareness about their missions and solutions in this challenging, yet possible, endeavor. “
Executive Director Krissy Todd, HOPE Foundation is the third board member from the right.
This Video helps to answer a few questions I personally had.
Now that the Florida Peer Network has Rose Delaney, the new Executive Directorthings are picking up over there.
Here are the new board:
Board of Directors
Cindy Johnston President
Jim Winarski Vice President
Linda Rayner Secretary
Al Merren
Amy Peloquin
Diann Mayo
Michael Demers
Adam O’Connor
Ellen Peppler
Carolyn Wilson
Clint Rayner Ex-Officio
Rachael Todd Ex-Officio
Adam R. O’Connor
Clint Rayner
James Winarski
I’ll post the other FPN boardmember when I get their pic.
Hot Of the Press:
Florida Peer Network, Inc.
Attention: Contact Your Legislators!
Members, please help the Florida Peer Network get the word to the legislators (use the link before to find legislators in the House Health Care Appropriations Committee) and tell them how devastating these cuts will be to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Contact them by email or phone. Let your voices be heard, what you have to say is important. Please contact others to make calls and send emails.
The Florida Peer Network would like to “Pay It Forward” with the help of Disney. Disney is offering a free ticket for volunteering for one of their volunteer organizations. We are hoping our members will help us get some tickets for foster children in the park area. What we would like you to do is go online to www.disneyparks.com and sign up to volunteer for a day. All you need to do is put in the zip code where you live and they will give you a list of what is available to do. Once you volunteer you will be given a certificate from Disney for a free pass to the park. We are hoping you will “Pay It Forward” and donate it to our cause. If you have any questions please send me an email at info@floridapeernetwork.org or call 850-274-1288.
Thank You,
Rose Delaney, Exec. Director
DSM-5: The Future of Psychiatric Diagnosis
David Kupfer, M.D., chair of the DSM-5 Task Force, which is in charge of the DSM revision process, noted that draft changes to the DSM will be posted on the DSM-5 Web site in January 2010.
Comments will be accepted for two months and reviewed by the relevant DSM-5 Work Groups in each diagnostic category. Field trials for testing proposed changes will be conducted in three phases. For information about the revision process and to make comments visit www.DSM5.org.
The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose physician members specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses, including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at www.psych.org and www.healthyminds.org.
Florida Peer Network Hires Rose Delaney as Executive Director. She replaces Patrick Hendry who move on to MHA (Mental Health America). Delaney is a Mental Health Care Professional and is a welcome addition the FPN
Board of Directors
Cindy Johnston President
John Massolio Treasurer
Jim Winarski Vice President
Linda Rayner Secretary
Al Merren
Amy Peloquin
Diann Mayo
Michael Demers
Adam O’Connor
Ellen Peppler
Carolyn Wilson
Clint Rayner
Mission Statement
The Florida Peer Network, Inc. is an independent organization of and for persons with psychiatric disabilities and co-occuring disorders. Our mission is to promote recovery, quality of life, advocacy, education, mutual support, peer directed services, and participation in mental health policy design for consumers throughout the state of Florida. More About the Florida Peer Network
I’ll post the other FPN boardmember when I get their pic.