Adventures in Mental Health Recovery

By Charles M. Sakai, USA, Ret.

 

  Startling news:  We have reason to believe that the Veterans Administration (VA) is beginning to turn over a new leaf in its dealings with veterans with PTSD and other mental disorders!

 

  During the 4-day workweek after Labor Day, approximately 35 VA employees and volunteers from all over Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah were offered the DBSA peer specialist training program at the VA Clinic in Colorado Springs.  As consumers, we are in an excellent position to connect with other veterans suffering from PTSD and other traumas.  The training is expensive, so it was gratifying to hear numerous compliments from the people who participated in the program.  Students praised it for raising awareness, teaching new skills, and generating enthusiasm for the concept of using our psychiatric, life, and military experiences to help other veterans.  Peer specialists do not supplant the important work performed by psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists, but rather function as paraprofessionals who serve as their eyes and ears and enhance the quality of service being provided to the patient.

 

  On Tuesday, the 9th of September, about a dozen veteran clients and volunteers were invited to an event at the Penrose House adjacent to the Bro^admoor Hotel,  “Mental Health Recovery:  A Journey of Hope.”  The keynote speaker was Dr. Fred Frese, who had a remarkable story to tell.  Like John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind,” he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Doctors told him that he was doomed to be institutionalized for the rest of his life and could forget about pursuing a full and productive career.  Since then he has been quite successful in his efforts to prove them wrong.  According to a short biography of Dr. Frese, “For 15 years, he served as director of psychology for the Western Reserve Psychiatric Hospital in Sagamore Hills, Ohio, the system where he had once been a patient.  Once, he was hired into a management position at a major corporation without even being asked for his health history. Another time, an administrator recommended him for a job over the objections of people who questioned whether someone with psychiatric problems should work in the mental-health system. Discrimination like that remains a serious problem for mentally ill people even

 

DBSA Colorado Springs

in partnership with

Switzer Counseling Center,

University of the Rockies

Is offering

Free Depression Screening

in English and Spanish

 

also:   Bipolar, Anxiety and PTSD

One Day Only, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

National Depression Screening Day®

4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  at:

 

555 E. Pikes Peak Ave. at Colorado Ave.

 

For more information contact:

DBSA Colorado Springs

825 East Pikes Peak Ave, Suite 301

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

 

Ph.  (719) 477-1515   DBSAColoradoSprings.org