Child Abuse and Mental Health Survivors Information - Issue #101
Is peer support one of our solutions for mental healthcare?
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I was listening to People I Mostly Admire podcast earlier this week. The host, Steven Levitt, was interviewing a former lead at Google’s Innovation Lab, Obi Felton, about that, and her latest project, which is creating peer support opportunities for youth.
Why peer support?
So Flourish Labs in some way was an evolution out of that X project that I was working on when I realized that there’s this massive gap between the number of people who need care and the number of mental health professionals who can provide it to them. If you look at just the U. S., there are about 58 million adults who have a mental health diagnosis today. And it’s actually more than half of them that get no care at all. Sometimes it’s stigma that people don’t seek care. Sometimes it’s that you can’t afford it or your insurance doesn’t cover it. Sometimes, it’s that you can’t find a therapist that’s a good match for you. And that’s because there’s only 600,000 counselors in total and we would need more than double of those. And when you look at the way that we train counselors to become a licensed therapist in this country, you have to do a master’s degree and then you have to do many, many hours of supervised work before you even get your license. So I looked at many different ways of: how could you provide care in a scalable way that doesn’t rely on just training more therapists? I came back to peer support: What if we train people who have experience of mental health challenges to support other people? And it turns out it’s an evidence-based treatment. So I read lots and lots of studies that over and over showed that peer support works.
She’s right. We will not suddenly find another 600,000 therapists. We have to find alternative options. If studies show peer support can offer some part of those options, and it works, why not? It’ll take more than one organization focused on it, but perhaps it’s time for many of our organizations to look at how to implement a peer training program, and for governments and insurance companies to do what is needed to support them.
What do you think? Have you been in a peer support program? Did it help? Would you try it if one was available? You can listen or read more about the science in the link above.
New from the Blogs
When Mental Health Struggles Spread Through the Family
The parents trying to navigate the maze of mental healthcare while also trying to work to help pay for the care that winds up not being covered and be there for their other children as well. It's a lot. All of that stress isn't good for anyone's health, mental and physical. Imagine trying to support a child with getting mental healthcare while also needing your own care, or dealing with illnesses.
This brings to mind this older post from Healthy Place - With Mental Illness in the Family, You Don't Get Lasagna
That's depression. That empty feeling that nothing matters and the inability to feel anything because it doesn't matter. But, it's hard to express that. It's difficult to come up with a header image that displays that when we talk about depression.
Shared from Elsewhere
Social media can be a rough place, but we can make it worthwhile - Social Media: Keep it Positive - Spreading Joy and Uplifting Others
Parents, you might want to read this one - Talking about mental health at home: What do you wish your parents knew?
How To Explain Anxiety To Someone You Love - On the flip side, if you know anyone dealing with anxiety, go ahead and read it and learn for yourself.
From the Archives
Sharing – How My Childhood Trauma Affects Seemingly ‘Simple’ Choices
Sometimes, I can do it even though it makes me uncomfortable, sometimes I can’t.
Is that a result of trauma, or am I just paranoid? Or both?
Does Childhood Trauma Disrupt Our Storytelling Abilities?
This is only one way where not being able to tell a story in a coherent, effective, way hurts survivors. It blocks us from legal proceedings, as I said before, and it blocks us from being understood by those closest to us quite often. So, if you really want to connect with others, and maybe get better healthcare, learn to tell stories. That’s how the world communicates. But, if you’re confronted with someone who is struggling to tell a coherent story, consider what kind of trauma they may be dealing with, and have a little patience.
Daisy Coleman Found Her Voice, But Her Struggle Didn’t Stop
She did not get her justice from the court system, quite the opposite. But, she did something else that many assume is a sign of “being healed”, she found her voice. She told her story, she had a movie made where she could speak her truth to the whole world. Surely, that is healed, right?
As we now know, that probably wasn’t the case. I assume that many people who watched that documentary went on to become fans of Daisy, admiring her for having the courage to tell her story, happy for her that she was able to overcome, but that had nothing to do with the reality of what surviving actually is.
Thanks for reading. If you find this newsletter informative and helpful to you, spread the word. That’s the best way you can say thank you for the effort I put in each week.