Peer employment training

I’m back from training!
Over the past three weeks I attended two trainings: one, to be a peer specialist supervisor; two, the certification training to become a certified peer specialist. (Yes, I sort of did them backwards.)
The certification training in particular was wonderful. Two weeks, back-to-back, Monday through Friday. Class was from 9 AM to 5 [...]

Medical model vs. recovery model

A lot of people ask me what the difference is between a medical model of treatment for mental illness and a recovery model.
You want to know what that difference is, in a nutshell?
The medical model treats me like a disease; the recovery model treats me like a person.

Intake appointments

I dislike intake appointments. They make me feel worse when they’re over than I did beforehand.
The last intake appointment I had was with my new psychiatrist. She was very kind, professional, validating, and not at all shaming. She is a lovely psychiatrist.
But she’s not perfect.
And the intake form she used was not perfect, either.
Here’s the [...]