Mental Health Client Action Network

Annual Peer Counselor Training

by Bonnie Schell

MHCAN’s Annual Peer Counselor Training begins on July 10, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  The 12 classes include skills from the Journey of Hope, the Center for Independent Living programs, and Cultural Competency material from the California Network of Mental Health Clients.  Registration is due by July 2. The training is useful for any mental health client who wants to get a paid or volunteer job in the mental health support field.  
[editor's note: Click here for more information on MHCAN.]

Peer Counseling and Mutual Support Groups have been the chief activity of consumer-run programs since the 1970’s.  Family support groups and all Anonymous Self-Help groups share many of the same values.

Everyone has an opportunity to speak, but is not required to speak, without interruption or advice.  In a consumer peer group, everyone knows what it’s like to try to have a quality life on little money, to be powerless in many treatment situations, to have done embarrassing things.  Members of the group make the effort to get someone to share who is shy or depressed or who is distracted by interior voices.  Group members can give feedback to someone with speeding speech on multiple subjects.  Group members can share their experiences with the positive and negative side effects of most medications.

Being in a peer support group helps individuals feel less isolated, a part of a community of people with  struggles and accomplishments.

Facilitators of support groups need special training in active listening, reflecting back, reading body language, problem solving, making “I” statements on what they see, feel, or hear.

What is shared in a support group is confidential.  No records or files or progress notes are kept.  For this reason, the client of traditional mental health services is sometimes apt to seek help with life problems before reaching a crisis “facing the wall” situation.  In some groups members phone one another and meet socially between meetings.  In the case of violent feelings, self-abuse or drastically unwise choices, members reflect back their fear to the person speaking or acting out and may say they feel that they need outside help.  If the individual is willing to seek help or get out of a destructive relationship, some group members may accompany the person to provide emotional support.

Support Groups mostly focus on the present, how individuals are managing their recovery and meeting personal goals.  The purpose is support, not therapy. As individuals talk, not only do they hear themselves, but the soundness of their decisions and thinking is reflected back to them by how others react. Ultimately only the person with a serious mental illness knows the meaning of mental illness and the correlates of “getting better.”

Group members soon discover the “Peer Principle,” that when you help others with attention, you help yourself.  Concrete help that may be asked for in a support group includes transportation, wake-up calls, support during anniversaries of family deaths and losses, finding a dentist or housing, moving, or reading over school assignments.

MHCAN currently has separate peer-led support groups for men and women, people with mood disorders, with schizophrenia, people interested in spiritual topics, in learning Spanish, in working a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan).

Opinions expressed in this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of NAMI Santa Cruz County, NAMI California or any affiliated organizations.  We attempt to present a balanced perspective on issues by presenting multiple viewpoints.

Copyright 2005 National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Santa Cruz County, All Rights Reserved.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (©) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml  If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.