BRIDGES and Mental Health Recovery Ramona Taylor, M.A., CMPS BRIDGES Program Director, Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri
Two Parts to This Presentation: • Part One: The Pitch • Part Two: The Product
Part One: the Pitch
Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri and BRIDGES will offer you… The gift of a peer-to-peer, consumer-run mental health recovery program of educational classes and support groups, thanks to the generosity of the Missouri Department of Mental Health
BRIDGES B uilding R ecovery of I ndividual D reams and G oals through E ducation and S upport
What Is BRIDGES? • BRIDGES is a peer-to-peer, consumer-driven program that promotes mental health recovery through Classes Support Groups
BRIDGES: A Brief History • Originally developed by the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association (TMHCA), the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Tennessee (NAMI-TN), and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Sites include ADAPT and SLPRC in St. Louis, BJC in Farmington, Ozark Center in Joplin, and ReDiscover in KC and Lee’s Summit and others.
BRIDGES in Missouri Exclusively available in Missouri through Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri. Phone: 1-800-359-5695 (toll-free) Fax: 1-314-773-5930 E-Mail: BRIDGES@mha-em.org
BRIDGES Crossings Classes Designed for consumers receiving services in the community • Ten sessions • Two hours per session • One session per week
Crossings Course Topics, Part One • Class 1: The Foundation of BRIDGES • Class 2: Mood Disorders • Class 3: Psychotic Disorders • Class 4: Anxiety and Further Disorders: Personality, Eating, Attention, Dissociative Identity, Dual Recovery (Students’ Choice) • Class 5: Helpful Support
Crossings Class Topics, Part Two • Class 6: Medications and the Brain • Class 7: Problem Management • Class 8: Communication • Class 9: Spirituality and Mental Health, Self- Injury, Criminal Justice (Students’ Choice) • Class 10: Advocacy, Evaluation, and Certification
Successful Crossings Students (80 Percent Attendance or Better) • Receive a Certificate of Completion • May apply for training and employment as BRIDGES Crossings or Footsteps teachers or support group facilitators (if courses are successfully completed)
BRIDGES Footsteps Classes Designed for consumers receiving services in hospitals and residential treatment facilities • Five weeks • One session per week • One hour per session
BRIDGES Footsteps Course Topics • Workshop 1: Introduction, Recovery, Support • Workshop 2: Diagnoses, Part 1: Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder • Workshop 3: Diagnoses, Part 2: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Personality Disorders • Workshop 4: Treatment, Medications, the Treatment Team • Workshop 5: Crisis Planning, Advocacy, Wrap- up
Successful Footsteps Students (80 Percent Attendance or Better) • Receive a Certificate of Completion • May apply for training and employment as a Footsteps teacher (or Crossings teacher or support group facilitator if courses are successfully completed)
BRIDGES Support Groups • One year (renewable) • Once a week (or more, if host agency wishes) • One to two hours per session
BRIDGES Support Group Topics Different topics, always these themes: • Survival • Strength • Sanity Every story is a gift.
Interested Support Group Members • May apply for training and employment as Support Group Facilitators or Crossings or Footsteps Teachers (if courses are successfully completed)
What Are the Gifts for Agencies? • All materials, food, trained Teachers and Facilitators, labor, and program supervision provided exclusively by the BRIDGES program as administered by Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri. • More self-aware and self-advocating consumers, more informed about their diagnoses and self-care strategies
What Are the Gifts for Attendees? 1. Voluntary attendance 2. Confidentiality 3. Peer companionship and support
What Are the Gifts for Attendees? 4. Shared recovery/strength stories 5. Medical, diagnostic, and treatment information (as lived by consumers) 6. Reduction/elimination of shame
What Are the Gifts for Attendees? 7. THEY ARE NOT ALONE!
Part Two: the Product
Before We Begin Teachers have manuals from which they read aloud. The manuals contain teaching hints, script prompts, and other material students do not utilize. Students have student manuals from which the Teachers (and students) read aloud. For today, you have handouts from Chapter 4.
Before We Begin Please refer to the Class 4 handouts. We will read aloud from them today.
Class 4 in Brief • Anxiety and Further Disorders
Class 4, Handout #1 PANIC DISORDER Panic Disorder is diagnosed when a person has had more than one panic attack, and at least one month where he/she is very worried about having another one. A panic attack is a short period of intense fear in which four or more of the following symptoms happen suddenly.
Symptoms of Panic Disorder #1 • Pounding heart • Sweating • Trembling or shaking • Feeling of “I can’t breathe” • Feeling of choking • Chest pain • Nausea or abdominal distress
Symptoms of Panic Disorder #2 • Feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed or faint • Feeling of unreality or being detached from oneself • Fear of losing control or of going crazy • Fear of dying • Numbness or tingling • Chills or hot flashes
Class 4, Handout #1 GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can’t help but worry even if things appear to be going fine. A person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder would have three or more of the following symptoms.
Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder • Restlessness • Easily tired • Difficulty concentrating • Irritability • Muscle tension • Sleep disturbance This kind of worry and tension goes on for at least six months. Many have struggled with it as long as they can remember.
Class 4, Handout #2 OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER The person suffers from obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions (thoughts) Compulsions (actions)
Obsessions (Thoughts) • Thoughts, impulses or images that won’t go away, and upset the person. Thought: being unable to stop thinking about germs or dirt Impulse: person feels the need to wash hands constantly. Image: person sees mental pictures of bad things that might happen if dirt and germs are not controlled. • The thoughts are not just overwhelming worries about real-life problems.
Obsessions (Thoughts) • The person tries to ignore these thoughts or take actions to keep bad things from happening because of the thoughts. • The person knows that these are his/her own thoughts (not from any outside source).
Compulsions (Actions) • Actions the person does over and over, sometimes according to rigid rules. Example: hand washing, putting things in order and checking things • Thoughts, such as praying, counting or repeating words silently that the person feels he or she has to do because of the obsession.
Compulsions (Actions) The actions and thoughts are supposed to help the person feel better or prevent some dreaded event, but these actions and thoughts either will not do anything for what they are supposed to prevent, or are much more than is necessary.
Compulsions (Actions) • At some point, the person has recognized that the obsessions or compulsions are extreme or unreasonable. • The person is really upset by the obsessions or compulsions. They take up more than an hour per day, or get in the way of daily activities, work or being with other people.
Class 4, Handout #3 POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER • The person has experienced or witnessed an event or ongoing situation in which the person feared for his/her life. The person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder • The traumatic event is experienced over and over again, through memories, dreams, flashbacks or things that remind him/her of the traumatic event. The person may have a panic attack when reminded of the event.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder • The person avoids the trauma by avoiding certain thoughts, feelings, situations or people. The person may be unable to recall the trauma. The person may no longer be interested in activities that used to be important. The person may feel separate from others, may be emotionally numb and may feel a sense of having no future.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder • The person may experience sleep problems, irritability, concentration problems, may startle easily and may always be on guard.
The BRIDGES Motto: I can be All I can be But, if it is going to be It is up to me. You are not alone!
What Is the Gift? For agencies: A peer-to-peer support program proven to be effective in improving “participants’ self- perceived recovery and hopefulness” in two studies (University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation, and SAMHSA)
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