A New Resource for New Bedford’s Mental Health Recovery Community
Contributed By: Robert Rousseau, Director of Peer Recovery Services
Over the past five years, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, in partnership with a number of service providers, has established six state-wide Recovery Learning Communities, (RLC). The Southeastern Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community (SEMA RLC) consists of individuals living with a psychiatric disability in the greater Taunton area, reaching up the southeast coast of Massachusetts to Provincetown, including the islands. People with lived experience are the Recovery Learning Community. The particular physical venue that houses the services, programs, and events that a RLC offers is called a Resource Connection Center (RCC). The original and founding RCC for southeastern Massachusetts is located at 71 Main Street, Taunton, MA.
The current director of the SEMA RLC, Elizabeth Amaral, has taken the responsibility of expanding the RLC’s vision and mission by actively overseeing the opening of two “satellite” RCCs, the Brockton RCC, and the New Bedford RCC.
The Value of the Recovery Learning Community and its RCCs
The Mental Health Recovery Movement (also called the consumer movement or the psychiatric survivors’ movement) coined an important phrase in the 1990s - “nothing about us without us.” Empowered by the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the organizational power and political clout of the physically disabled, people with mental illness challenged federal and state government to include them in the planning and implementation of mental health services. Thus, the phrase “nothing about us without us” came to fruition. The seeds planted by pioneer consumers during the past two decades of the recovery movement are now blooming. The Recovery Learning Community and its Resource Connection Centers are among its hardiest perennials.
A RCC is a peer-driven, peer-directed, and peer-run program funded by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and private sources. All employees of a RCC, as well as all program participants, are persons with lived experience. The Recovery Learning Community itself determines its curriculum, not the state or the service provider. In other words, RCCs are of the people, for the people, by the people.
A RCC is a gathering place for persons with lived experience of mental disorders to learn, teach, share, support, organize, plan, and strategize together about recovery principles, values, programs, and practices. Another insightful saying of the recovery community is “no one has it all together, but, together, we have it all.” Recovery does not happen in isolation. Recovery happens in community. For that reason, newly established RCCs schedule peer-recovery support groups as a first offering.
The New Bedford RCC and Fellowship Health Resources
From the very beginning, FHR’s peer specialists Ron Grillo, Stephanie Quinlan, and Lisa Boulanger (pictured above with President/CEO Joe Dziobek), along with persons served Karen S., Diane M., James R., Steven C., and Teresa J., have served on the New Bedford RCC’s start-up committee. Under the guidance of Elizabeth Amaral and Kristina Lomba of the Taunton RCC, the group defined an initial curriculum of circles and groups (listed below).
The venue for the New Bedford RCC is 324 County Street. There is parking both in the front and the back of the building. The building is situated in one of New Bedford’s most historic neighborhoods and there is ample parking. At the height of the Whaling Industry, many of the captains of the most successful whaling vessels built their “mansions” on County Street. All of us on the New Bedford RCC start-up committee are grateful to Community Counseling of Bristol County for procuring this welcoming and beautifully decorated space.
FHR is heavily invested in the Fall River-New Bedford-Wareham corridor. Hundreds of persons served, whether living in FHR owned residences or in the community, are now potential beneficiaries of the New Bedford RCC. The following curriculum is readily available: Monday, 11am-12noon, Yoga and Meditation; Monday, 3pm-4pm, Peer Support Circle; Tuesday, 4pm-5pm, Dual Recovery Group; and Wednesday, 10am-11am, Peer Support Circle. Additional curriculum will include: Knitting Circle; Plants, Flowers and Growth; Creative Arts; Diet and Fitness; and Computer Basics.
Poverty, loneliness, and boredom are three of the major existential factors that impede mental health recovery. A RCC addresses these factors head on. Membership to a RCC is free. Members form a community of friends, while nurturing an interest in a wide variety of fields of learning. FHR, through the mediation of its peer specialists, is committed to assisting all FHR persons served who want to participate in the New Bedford RCC.