Westminster, MA – June 24, 2011 – A three-day retreat hosted by the Massachusetts Leadership Academy (MLA) from the Transformation Center in Roxbury, MA has launched an ongoing movement of consumers who will study the possibilities of making mental health services and programs more accessible to all social groups across the state. Supported with funds provided by the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP), the retreat, held in late May, allowed for the inauguration of the leading committee in this movement, TAPS (the Taskforce on Accessible Peer Support). Funded by a grant from the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), TAPS is the first taskforce of its kind in the country.
Director of Peer Recovery Services at Fellowship Health Resources, Inc., Robert Rousseau, was appointed as a representative in TAPS for Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and the Islands. As a former consumer of the services offered by Fellowship Health Resources, Inc. (FHR), Rousseau became a peer leader in recovery. Cape Cod and the Islands is just one of the nine regions where FHR offers its mental health and substance abuse treatment services along the east coast.
“There are certain aspects of peer-directed support groups that become the building blocks in recovery,” Rousseau says. “Peer leaders at FHR help create conditions for physical and emotional safety, allow consumers to model healthy relationships, develop healthy coping strategies, and demonstrate respect. Anyone seeking this type of support should have the same opportunities, regardless of the background or social differences that they possess.”
By working together, TAPS aims to identify barriers to accessibility in mental health care and will make suggestions on how to create more accessible services and programs. Representatives from the deaf and hard of hearing community, the blind community, the wheelchair-bound community, Hispanic, Asian, Portuguese-speaking, and the Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, Transgendered and Questioning community are just some of the social groups that are represented by members in the taskforce. All of these groups share past experiences of difficulties that they have faced while trying to access mental health services and programs; the MLA hopes that the TAPS committee finds solutions to diversifying the mental healthcare system.
“There’s a level of diversity that’s required for peer support groups to be truly accessible. The retreat in May was in three languages: English, Spanish, and American Sign Language,” Rousseau says. “This demonstrates the commitment to cultural competency to the participants. Invitations to attend the retreat and upcoming meetings are very inclusive of all social groups so that the programs are culturally competent.”
As a model of a totally peer-run and peer-directed organization, Rousseau explains how the TAPS’ launching site, the Transformation Center at 98 Magazine Street, in Roxbury, MA, operates. MLA serves as the educational arm of the organization, which is made up of a diverse staff helping anyone with psychiatric diseases gain access and participate in recovery programs. The Transformation Center and MLA serve as models for the diversity necessary to exist as an accessible mental health care program. The site has already trained over 400 employees, and 240 of those are currently employed in the state’s mental health care system.
Although Rousseau comes from a background at FHR, he says that all the members are working toward creating the same type of mental health support system. “There are six characteristics of accessible peer support,” Rousseau says. “Peer leaders at all organizations need to be prepared, welcoming, encouraging, supportive, engaged, and connected.”
TAPS will continue monthly meetings this summer to strategize how accessible peer support can become more universal within mental health recovery programs. “The findings of TAPS have the potential to inform and influence both state and federal policy,” Rousseau says. “I feel honored to be a part of this pioneered effort.”