August 4, 2022

 

 

Our Website has launched!!!   https://www.peerrespite-soteria.org/  I can't thank our gifted and hard-working website designer, Maddi Mathon, enough.  I am sure you will agree with me that it looks terrific and has a wealth of information.  It will evolve over time, including having a Blog feature.  The existing page so generously provided by the National Empowerment Center, created and maintained by the fabulous Judene Shelley, is re-created at 2021 Summit.  There is also a Resources section by category here.  Additions will be made as we go along.  We have a Contact Us page where people can send us a message, sign up for this Newsletter or for our Circles.  We also have a Calendar for people to see upcoming events.  With great thanks to Colleen Donaldson, our website even has a glossary, where terms such as "being with" and the "medical model," are described.  In short, we have our own domain and a very professional, modern website, thanks to the marvelous Maddi Mathon.

 

Second "Crisply Edited" Video?   Our second edited video, How Afiya House Helped Me, features Cindy Marty Hadge who is just so impressive.  I hope you watch this five minute video and if you think it worthy, share it around.  It would also be great if you subscribed to the Summit's YouTube Channel if for no other reason than to show other people there is interest in our videos.  The first "crisply edited video," is the 2 minute, 12 second, Kitchens Not Treatment Rooms, which can also be shared.  The full 3-hour videos of the five Summit days last October are also there, but we are going to have edited versions of them and I think we should wait for them before sharing.  The live Summit days were terrific, but it is way better to have edited videos.  People tend not to watch entire videos, even short ones, so it is good to edit them in a way to keep people (without losing the important content).  That we don't have more videos done already is on me and I need to convene another Videos Circle meeting soon.  I hope to increase the pace soon.

 

Mentoring.  The Mentoring Circle is our most active with 79 members, eleven active mentoring efforts underway, and regularly scheduled monthly meetings.  The mentoring requests are mostly in the early stages of getting Peer Respites and Soteria-Houses going and we don't expect all to come to fruition.  We are doing our best to help get them going and I am sure there will be successes.    Requests for assistance can be made through our Mentoring Request Form.

 

Media Attention.  A couple of days ago, an interview of me by Awais Aftab, MD., was published in Psychiatric Times, as part of his Conversations in Critical Psychiatry series.  I mentioned the Summit a couple of times and we have had a few people join this mailing list since then, which I attribute to the article. 

Circles.  You can ask to join an individual Circle by going to its Google Group or join multiple Circles.

 

  

 

We now have 789 members of this e-mail list and there is an archive of past newsletters.  

 

Take care,