Save the Date: February Intentional Peer Support Training
It looks like we are going to be able to have a presentation on
Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time and I want to alert you so you can save the date. IPS is foundational for properly operating Peer Respites and is very compatible with Soteria.
“As peer support in mental health proliferates, we must be mindful of our intention: social change. It is not about developing more effective services, but rather about creating dialogues that have influence on all of our understandings, conversations, and relationships.” – Shery Mead, Founder of IPS
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. It provides a powerful framework for creating relationships where both people learn and grow together. IPS is used across the world in community, peer support, and human services settings, and is a tool for community development with broad appeal to people from all walks of life.
Why IPS? Peers come together around shared experiences and often a desire to change lives. But without a new framework to build upon, people frequently re-enact “help” based on what was done to them. IPS offers a foundation for doing something different. We come from a history of grassroots alternatives that focus on building relationships that are mutual, explorative, and conscious of power.
In this three hour online overview participants will learn about the history of IPS as well as the tasks and principles of this transformational framework. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and have interactive discussions with the facilitators and other participants.
This training is being sponsored by the Summit and participants will not be charged.
One of our goals has been to produce "crisply edited videos" from the Summit and I was recently able to put together a four video playlist
totaling just eleven minutes, titled
, The Basics. If you click on "
Play All" the videos will go from one to the other. I not so humbly think it is a good, or at least a good enough, brief description of why we need Peer Respites and Soteria Houses, what the key principles are for approaches that work, and to give a good sense of what Peer Respites and Soteria Houses are like. This playlist can be used for educational and advocacy purposes. The first video is
Why We Need Different Approaches (1:32) and is a rebranded PsychRights video that has over 5,600 views. I did this because I felt there needed to be a set up to make the second video,
Why Aren't We Using the Most Effective Treatments,(1:46), understandable to people who are brand new to the issues. The third video,
Kitchens Not Treatment Rooms (2:35), and the fourth,
How Afiya House Helped Me (5:17), have previously been announced and I think give a sense of what they are about. Please feel free to give me feedback, even if you think they are horrible.
Future Updates. It turns out there is a lot going on with people moving on starting Peer Respites and Soteria Houses and I hope to compile and report on this progress in our next newsletter. If you are working on opening a Peer Respite or Soteria House, please let me know and of your progress.
Financial Support. Finally, if the spirit moves you, you can donate to the Summit through MindFreedom International's
Donation Page and selecting Peer Respite/Soteria Summit from the drop down menu where it says Preferred campaign or program.
Until next time . . .
