Peers With Passion and Purpose

We each experience the world differently. Our perceptions, perspectives, and thoughts are processed differently as our brain interacts with our senses, past experiences, and the surrounding environment. For this very reason, it is difficult to imagine how a mental illness can affect everyday life. Too often, we take for granted the ability to make a grocery store trip, walk across campus, or share a laugh with someone in the checkout line. For some who have experienced a mental illness, these daily tasks can stand in the way of accomplishing goals and experiencing life to the fullest. With support from Horizon’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams, we are able to change this narrative!

The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Program bridges the life-skills gap for individuals that live with severe and persistent mental illness by providing longterm needed treatment, rehabilitation, and support services to clients directly in their community. This evidence-based program is made extraordinary by the inspiring successes achieved by our clients with the support of interdisciplinary teams including Peer Recovery Specialists who have dedicated their professional careers to helping their peers experience life to the fullest, despite their illness.

Pictured above, Erin Sandidge and Lakila Davis, WRAP Facilitators and Peer Recovery Support Specialists at Horizon.

“My favorite part of my role is sharing my experiences with my clients” expressed Lakila Davis, ACT team member at Horizon Behavioral Health, “because it helps them to feel comfortable talking to me. By engaging with our clients directly in the communities where they live, we help them feel more comfortable with themselves and being around others by giving them insight into their illness.” After receiving supportive services from Horizon’s ACT program, Lakila was able to return to college to finish her bachelor’s degree in 2016 and is now pursuing her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. Today, Lakila is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist at Horizon, a Certified Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Facilitator and a shining example reminding us all that “a diagnosis does not define you who you are and that recovery is possible!”

The ACT Program expanded in July, and is serving 76 clients in Bedford County and the City of Lynchburg with two multi-disciplinary, community-based teams. We recognize our exceptional teams for their commitment to our clients resulting in nearly 100 individuals in fiscal year 2021 benefiting from the program this year.