Breathe YOU MATTER Magazine Winter 2024 Special Edition

Disclaimer: Breathe YOU MATTER Magazine is a magazine created to help provide help, resources, and to be a platform for people to share their journey, voices, and exeriences with the hope of encouraging advocacy, recovery, healing, and problem solving issues and barriers we face in behavioral health systems and access to care. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Breathe YOU MATTER Magazine, advertisers, or community partners. However it is a place to freely and openly share life. Every Voice Matters!

Dear Readers,

Letter From Editor

gwenschrank@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read and get valuable information created by peers and for peers Breathe YOU MATTER Magazine was created in 2020 to be a place where people could get the much-needed resources, information, and helpful tips to help them heal, recover, save lives, and reduce stigma. We also created it to be a place where people with lived mental health, substance use, and people who have suffered from a traumatic event can share their story of recovery, hope and encouragement

This Special Edition was created to provide information about who we are as Peers, our support systems and networks, peer programs, training, and challenges we face to continue to grow and increase programs

Schrank’s Clubhouse a Community Based Peer Support Organization began six months after I got out of the mental hospital I had to self-advocate and created a program that I needed and invited my peers into the organization with me so that we could work together on our recovery journey. We’ve been open four years, have served and worked with hundreds of peers, house transitional age youth, publish a resource magazine to help others, and is currently in the process of partnering with other organizations to help Peer Organizations find ways to become sustainable, organizational ready, and technology ready

Unfortunately, our government systems are wanting to put more funding into housing We support those without homes too We all need each other The upcoming vote want to reallocate mental health dollars and move to housing dollars In this issue you will read about why some Californians are against that proposition Please read through this issue to see the good work, opportunities, and decide for yourself what you think the best options are for improving the mental health, substance abuse, and housing crisis that we face today All three issues are very different and we as a community can use our voices to start problem solving them differently There is no one size fits all We need multiple funding streams to assist with each one separately

I would personally like to make a call to action and invite you to join us as we continue to Advocate for Peer Support Movement Together we believe that we can find a way

Gwen Schrank

A Long Road Home: A Vet

Fights For Care

“The VA just wanted to hand me a mountain of pills. That was their answer,” says Ziggy, an Army vet who did two Iraq tours as a combat medic with the 101st Airborne.

Ziggy survived 21 IED blasts while deployed. Back home, he struggled with PTS and brain injuries. After experiencing seizures, he reached out to the VA for help but was offered appointments months away. Feeling abandoned by the system meant to care for vets, Ziggy began a personal journey of healing and advocacy.

The road was not easy. After connecting with a community neurologist and starting meds, Ziggy had a serious setback around Christmas 2021. As he experienced a seizure, he was falling to the ground. Ziggy’s 16-year-old nephew Alex caught him just before hitting his head, likely saving his life.

The event left Ziggy partially paralyzed on his right side. VA doctors focused on managing expectations rather than ambitious recovery goals. But Ziggy was determined to walk again. Though skeptical at first, he found a supportive physical therapy team.

“I had to let go. It wasn’t for me to control, it was for me to participate,” he shares. With dedication and openness to new approaches, Ziggy regained mobility. Now Ziggy advocates for fellow vets too. Deeply troubled by VA care gaps, he launched Operation Sick Call to spotlight needed health policy reforms.

“We won’t be abused. We won’t be sidelined,” he declares.

Operation Sick Care also offers peer support and services to help veterans and families live unbroken. Ziggy sounds a rallying cry for public involvement in the mission.

He says vets ``fought for America and came home...That was our payment.” Now Ziggy fights for true healthcare and wellbeing for those who served. It’s the next battle. And this warrior is still in the fight!

“Because of peer support I am alive!”

—Melodie “When I saw that other people recovered, it gave me hope that I could too.”

—Corinna

“Peer support allowed me to feel ‘normal.’”

—Jean

WHAT IS PEER SUPPORT?

Peer support encompasses a range of activities and interactions between people who share similar experiences of being diagnosed with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, or both. This mutuality—often called “peerness”—between a peer support worker and person in or seeking recovery promotes connection and inspires hope.

WHAT DOES A PEER SUPPORT

A peer support worker is someone with the lived experience of recovery from a mental health condition, substance use disorder, or both. They provide support to others experiencing similar challenges. They provide non-clinical, strengths-based support and are “experientially credentialed” by their own recovery journey (Davidson, et al., 1999). Peer support workers may be referred to by different names depending upon the setting in which they practice. Common titles include: peer specialists, peer recovery coaches, peer advocates, and peer recovery support specialists.

PEER SUPPORT WORKERS

inspire hope that people can and do recover; walk with people on their recovery journeys; dispel myths about what it means to have a mental health condition or substance use disorder; provide self-help education and link people to tools and resources; and support people in identifying their goals, hopes, and dreams, and creating a roadmap for getting there.

Peer support offers a level of acceptance, understanding, and validation not found in many other professional relationships (Mead & McNeil, 2006). By sharing their own lived experience and practical guidance, peer support workers help people to develop their own goals, create strategies for self-empowerment, and take concrete steps towards building fulfilling, selfdetermined lives for themselves.

SUPPORT WORKER DO?

Peer support workers can help break down barriers of experience and understanding, as well as power dynamics that may get in the way of working with other members of the treatment team. The peer support worker’s role is to assist people with finding and following their own recovery paths, without judgment, expectation, rules, or requirements.

Peer support workers practice in a range of settings, including peer-run organizations, recovery community centers, recovery residences, drug courts and other criminal justice settings, hospital emergency departments, child welfare agencies, homeless shelters, and behavioral health and primary care settings. In addition to providing the many types of assistance encompassed in the peer support role, they conduct a variety of outreach and engagement activities.

Peer support has been there for me no matter what, and now I am able to help others...

—Liza

THIS IS WHAT IS WORKING! HOW PEER SUPPORT HELPS! STATISTISCS

82% EXPERIENCE IMPROVED PHYSICAL HEALTH

70% EXPERIENCED IMPROVED HOUSING SITUATIONS

(Among members who report a need to improve their housing situation)

91% HELPED THEM PREVENT DRUG RELAPSE

(Among members in recovery from drug use)

97% INCREASED THEIR DESIRE TO BE IN RECOVERY

88% HELPED THEM PREVENT ALCOHOL RELAPSE

(Among members in recovery from drug use)

82% HELPED THEM STABALIZE MENTAL HEALTH

(Among members who report a need to stabalize their mental health)

IT IS THE UNDERSTANDING OF COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS THAT THESE NUMBERS WILL DECREASE DUE TO LACK OF FUNDING FOR PEER SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS IF PROP 1 PASSES.

We Mother the Mother

FROM CONCEPTION TO CONTRACTION

I have always been enchanted with all things baby. I thought my purpose in life was to help foster a sense of love and nurturing in all the children that were brought under my care. Then my perspective began to transform. I realized the best way to help these children, was to help their mothers. I believe every woman should be able to pursue her happiest, healthiest, authentic self. This vision clearly came to fruition during my first viable pregnancy.

I suffered from diagnosed perinatal depression at 17 weeks and undiagnosed perinatal OCD. My mental stability was questionable, to say the least. I was burdened by fears of being an inadequate mother, of damaging my child beyond repair, of not being nurturing enough, caring enough, loving enough. I was haunted by childhood trauma that I believed I had conquered. You know the saying “Out of sight, Out of mind”; that’s how I approached my pain. When it surfaced, I had a toolkit of practices that I reached into to bring me balance. Journaling, crafting, poetry, exercise, musical relief, and if all else failed a good acknowledgment of the suffering with a bath and a cry. But while I was pregnant, none of that worked. Postpartum, I was able to rid myself of the pressure of depression with the support of my loved ones, therapy, and self-care.

From that experience, and the subsequent reoccurrences of PMADs in my following pregnancies, I zeroed in on my real purpose. I linked passion, knowledge, and experience to found Flora, Femme, & Fauna. My perinatal health and wellness organization aims to validate, normalize, and destigmatize the role of motherhood. We serve the birthing community by offering personalized, unconditional support from a holistic perspective to women embarking on their perinatal journey. We Mother the Mother.

Shaden Hawley

EDUCATION SUMMIT 2024

STUDENT COMPETITION

Theme: Freedom to Choose your Future

Students have the opportunity to participate in submitting one of the following creative art mediums for a chance to win Scholarships, Prizes, and Medals.

ART SUBMISSION:

Art can be of any mediumPaint, digital (video/TikTok/ reel), pencil, fashion, poetry

ESSAY:

1-2 pages minimum, double-spaced, 12-point font addressing:

1) What would you like the reader to know about you?

2) What are your goals for life after you turn 18?

PORTRAIT:

Design a portrait themed “Freedom to Choose your Future”

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 5, 2024 Call 559-302-3622 OR email: dreamteam@tcoe.org regarding submissions

Basic Facts About Prop. 1

Prop 1 is huge, expensive and destructive It would cost taxpayers more than $9 billion It also redirects the spending of at least $30 billion in mental health services money in its first 10 years, cutting existing mental health services that are working. Prop. 1 builds very little housing, despite being offered as a solution to homelessness.

● It’s huge. The bill runs over 180 pages, amending dozens of statutes and creating new law. Much of it was drafted in a rush in a secret ive, exclusionary legislative process. The potential for unintended consequences and litigation is enormous

● It’s expensive Prop 1’s bonds will cost at least $9.3 billion to pay back, according to the Legislative Analyst That means a new annual charge of $310 million out of every state budget for 30 years, reducing the money available for other priorities Prop 1 also reduces current funding for local mental health services, requiring counties to spend more money if they want to keep programs that they have. And Prop. 1 doubles state administrative costs for the Mental Health Services Act to an estimated $280 million per year.

● It’s destructive. Prop. 1 cuts services for people with mental illness. It’s a terrible irony, but an unavoidable reality First, Prop 1 chops 35% out of annual Mental Health Services Act money and dedicates it to other purposes Then, Prop 1 rigorously prescribes how counties must spend about half the remai ning money, leaving less for voluntary mental health services (Prop 1 seems to favor questionable forced-treatment concepts ) Finally, the balance of funds left over is put up for competition among mental health and other chronically under-funded services, such as substance abuse treatment.

The promise of Prop 1 is supposed to be to do new, big things to help solve homelessness It is promoted as if it costs nothing, and has no downside

In truth, Prop. 1 breaks promises made by the voters when they first passed the Mental Health Services Act in 2004. The idea then was to create permanent, dedicated funding for long-neglected mental health services, including prevention, early intervention, programs for youth, programs for struggling and under-served populations (including racially and ethnically diverse groups and LGBTQ people) The MHSA is a proven model, offering “anything it takes” to help individuals who need a range of services

Now, Prop. 1 would sharply reduce that funding, end its dedication to mental health programs and take a hatchet to dozens of programs across the state that cannot survive without MHSA funding. It orders counties to do more with less.

Supporters of Prop 1 act proud to have created a multi-billion-dollar program without new taxes It wasn’t magic They did it with pricey bonds and by raiding existing programs The true costs are incalculable: There is no way to tally all th at would be lost if Prop. 1 wins.

Californians Against Proposition 1

• prop1no com

PO Box 875, Lotus, CA 95651

• (530) 298-7995

• info@prop1no.com

We are creating an intentional community, built on dignity and restoration so our neighbors experiencing homelessness can finally settle, rest, and heal.

We Center our neighbors experiencing homelessness and shift mainstream cultural percetions by:

• Inviting the community at large into a relational lifestyle of service

• Creating a space for their growth and healing

• Encouraging others to give out of an abundance

• Creating educational learning experiences

• Increasing their visability

• Building the necessary organizational capacity and infrastucture

• Creating a tailor-made, sustainable community based on proven models

Audience:

pm

2:00 pm 2:45 pm

Speaker 1: McKinney Vento District

Liaisons: Lindsay Unified School

District- Healthy Start Family Resource Center ( Rural Communities)

2:45 pm 3:30 pm

Speaker 2: McKinney Vento District

Liaisons: Visalia Unified School

District- Family Community Services (City Communities)

3:30 pm 6:00 pm

Transition to Resources and Activities

● Appetizers and Refreshments

● Community Networking and Resource Booths

● Family Activities ( arts and crafts/ family spring photos)

● Health Screening

●

PEERS Presents

P.E.A.R.L.S

The Program to Encourage Active and Rewarding Lives

PEARLS is a free, communitybased treatment program designed to reduce depression in older adults/seniors (60+)

We use methods of problem solving treatment, social & physical activation, and increased pleasant activities.

You will have 1:1 sessions with trained PEARLS coaches in your home or at a community center!

To learn more about PEARLS, visit peersnet.org/pearls.

To join PEARLS, fill out the form below to be contacted by a team member.

https://bit.ly/PEERSPEARLS

“We are who we serve”

info@peerwellnesscollective.org

TENANT SUPPORT PROGRAM (Oakland)

510-594-1951

Tenant Advocacy and Assistance

REACH OUT (Alameda County)

510-654-7813

Inspire hope through visits to board and care homes and mental health facilities

BESTNOW!

510-969-5450

Peer Support Specialist Certification Training

BERKELEY DROP-IN CENTER (Berkeley & Oakland)

510-653-3808

Mail, phone, lockers, food, groups, computers, etc.

REACHING ACROSS (Fremont)

510-745-9500

Wellness/Recovery Services

What Is It?

Neurodiversity Gifts is an online and in-person workshop that uses multi-disciplinary approaches to equip Participants with an insider’s framework on mental health from the peer perspective. It unpacks the paradigm-shift that mental health conditions can be gifts if we learn how to harness them.

Who Is It For?

with mental health conditions to empower them to understand and articulate themselves, unlocking their gifts.

Mental Health Providers as a profound cultural competency and diversity training so they can build deeper rapport and healing capacity with their clients.

Students and Educators as an enriching exposition of the dynamics of the human mind which can inspire them, improve their mental health, and allow them to connect with others deeply.

Opportunities to Partner

Equip your staff, clients, and loved ones with the workshop experience by purchasing Neurodiversity Gifts

Team up with us in training and creating workforce teams of the next generation of Peer Support Specialists. Neurodiversity Gifts is being studied by UCSD to begin the process of getting it approved as a treatment modality. Partner with us in ushering in this new, strengths-based approach to mental health.

Access revenue sharing with:

Our affiliate partnership agreement that offers you 15% of online sales

Teaming up to offer Neurodiversity Gifts as a cultural competency training to organizational staff and a recurring group in treatment facilities

A finder’s fee for in-person workshops and opportunities

A percentage of the grants you are able to obtain on behalf of Neurodiversity Gifts Learn

Facilitated by South African Josh, MA (bipolar 1) and brought to you by the National Empowerment Center, this experience uses immersive A.I. art, activities, videos, and group discussions to change how you see mental health forever. Graduates gain access to our online and virtual reality platform and community with the associated opportunities, as the Peer Support movement positions itself for this next wave.

Definitions of Neurodiversity, Judy Singer and the Autism Spectrum

Dr. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence model

An exploration of Neurodiverse geniuses and game-changers

Carl Jung’s model of the psyche

Higher Dimensional Christian perspective on mental health Japanese wisdom on Post-Traumatic Growth (Kintsugi) and meaning and purpose (Ikigai)

Shamanic perspective on mental health according to the South African Sangomas and Filipino Babaylan

Quantum Physics, Dr. David Bohm’s Implicate Order Ukuthwasa graduation activity

Neurodiversity Gifts has been offered at a well-respected treatment facility in Carlsbad, California, for the last two years with immense success! It is often the Participants’ all-time favorite group, and the therapists rave about it too! Individual online training (3

Licensed video package trainings (12 hours) which allows the curriculum to be run repeatedly for various groups, audiences, and purposes: $1200. We are offering a $200 off promotion until 2/29/24 with the Coupon Code EMPOWER

In-Person Workshops facilitated by South African Josh: Starting at $300

WHEN LIFE BECOMES TOO MUCH, ARE YOU READY?

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

BUILD A MODERN PEER RUN AGENCY

Peer Labs was created after hearing from so many many peer leaders, looking for answers on how to build a sustainable peer run organization We are here to help you lead, fundraise, and operate to increase your agency’s impact in your community.

BOOK YOUR LAB

Hello, my name is G.R. Zuniga

I am currently the Founder of Peer Labs and Director of Operations for Operation Sick Care I am also a certified peer specialist

Prior to these two roles I was a partner in a company I co-founded called ApptekGroup We helped small and medium sized business brand, market, sell, and operate in a modern business world

Before making the leap into being an entrepreneur, I spent two decades in business development, compliance, and marketing for some of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world. I have served clients such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac

I look forward to helping you and your organization become a sustainable peer organization!

G.R. Zuniga

CONGRATULATIONS!

Executive Director Brian Poth and Director of Development and Strategy Nick Vargas announced as recipients of the 2024 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award