AOT (Kendra's Law in NY, Laura's Law in CA, etc.) has provided consumers with a less restrictive alternative to inpatient commitment and incarceration. Research shows 81% of consumers in AOT say it helped them get well and stay well. Independent research shows it helps the mentally ill by reducing homelessness (74%); suicide attempts (55%); and substance abuse (48%); Keeps the public safer by reducing physical harm to others (47%) and property destruction (43%) and saves money by reducing hospitalization (77%); arrests (83%); and incarceration (87%). It also has a positive effect on the treatment system, saves money, and delivers care to the most severely ill whom voluntary treatments and peer support have not worked for.

The Recovery Learning Communities (RLCs) are a new approach to Peer Support that focus on values and belief in trauma-informed care, genuine human relationships, mutuality, respect, resiliency, the probability of recovery and the power of community itself. RLCs facilitate community connections between people who identify as having lived experience with psychiatric diagnoses, extreme states and/or trauma, as well as with the broader community. They operate on the fundamental belief that we are all human beings, each one of us sometimes needing support and all of us benefiting from choices, understanding, compassion and the opportunity to learn from one another. Individuals who seek support through an RLC do not simply get assigned to a 'peer worker,' but rather become a part of a regional community where they can meet others with similar experiences, seek advocacy, get and give support, access wellness opportunities like yoga and acupuncture, take classes and so much more! For more information, visit www.westernmassrlc.org, www.centralmassrlc.org, www.metrosubrlc.org or www.metrobostonrlc.org.

In states where Assisted Outpatient Treatment is on the books, but is not implemented enough, it is
important to know that Court ordered Outpatient treatment is the other option to keep people safe by
giving probate judges the authority to order treatment. Any person or family member can petition
the court via a downloadable affidavit as to the condition of a loved one to effect this treatment by
whatever measure necessary. Ohio is now working on this important change and along with that
prove the enormous amounts of money saved by jail diversion and saving lives. Perhaps state
NAMI affiliates can help accomplish this through soliciting endorsements from their constituencies.

I beleive that the integration of peer support as a professional service has had a profound impact on the medical community. It has been the single most effective vehicle that has allowed the voice of the consumer of services to be heard at the planning level. Peer support has catapulted the recovery movement into mainstream psychiatry by challenging the system to place the voice of the consumer ahead of the desires of the treatment team. Peer support will ensure that the consumer remains at the center of recovery oriented care by continuing to place the health and wellbeing of the consumer first.

Polls like this - while well intended - essentially put up for sale words like 'recovery' and 'wellness' and do the same for how we regard what qualifies as progress. Unfortunately, a lot of the 'buyers' with the most purchasing power do NOT hold the values of the recovery movement or the broader community in mind. Something is getting lost here in this process. These polls are leading to popularity contests, political battles and what amounts to a reality-TV-style voting free-for-all. This is not what we want or need, and it doesn't lead us toward dialogue or any sort of common good. Please stop these polls and let's find a real way to have some of these conversations. Vote for this if you want to see a real, human process be prioritized for real, human issues. Now, THAT would be progress.

Intentional Peer Support (IPS), is a revolutionary, peer-driven, dialogic, community building approach to mental health wellness, recovery, growth and development that was conceived, developed and pioneered by Shery Mead. Intentional Peer Support serves as the gold-standard for peer-driven alternatives to traditional mental health treatment paradigms grounded in the medical model. In IPS, peers come together as responsible adults who are seeking to learn, grow, heal and change through mutual, collaborative relationships that create new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing. IPS teaches us to harness the power of our peer relationships in purposeful ways that foster connection, mutuality, learning and growth. Instead of seeing each other as sick or ill, we look for how each of us has come to make sense of our experiences in the ways we have. We help each other re-examine old beliefs that have kept us stuck, look at things from new angles, and create new possibilities for being and acting in the world. IPS teaches us to do all of this through the power of our peer relationships!

Shery started working on this approach nearly two decades ago, before the relevance of creating healthy dialogue between peers - and healthy peer communities in which to have them - were even a blip on the radar of anyone else in the peer mental health movement. She became the director of a peer center in New Hampshire and then grew it into becoming one of the first peer-run respite centers (hospital alternatives) in the world. After that, Shery partnered with New Zealand human rights activist Chris Hansen, and proceeded to spearhead a worldwide network of peers and peer-run organizations committed to the principles and practice of Intentional Peer Support. Thank you Shery!

Efforts to support families of children and youth with mental health disorders have been instrumental in assisting families and youth to find their voice and more effectively engage in the system of care transformation efforts across the country. Families and youth no longer feel isolated. They can engage with other families going through the same thing and together find hope and recovery. The Federation of Families has done an amazing job in uniting and educating and inspiring family members and youth across the country.

SAMHSA/CMHS funded Statewide Family Networks help to identify and connect families and family organizations across a state. Through these linkages family and youth voice is strengthened to affect positive change.

In Montgomery County Pennsylvania over 200 people have been trained in approaching hearing voices as an experience that can be understood and worked with in an affirming, recovery oriented way. Hearing Voices Groups have been established for peer support and empowerment. There is a goal of developing a hearing voices network in Montgomery County Pennsylvania that could spawn a statewide network to support voice hearers in thier quest for liberation and recovery and spread education and acceptance in the wider community. Training for voicehearers and their allies seems to be a valuable step as we recognize approaches to living with voices that have recovery roots that look through a lens of acceptance. The Hearing Voices Movement can support we voice hearers in finding our voices and creating lives of meaning and purpose. The mental health community can help promote our liberation and recovery instead of maintaining dependence and hopelessness. There is no one absolute approach or conceptual framework for working wiwth voice hearers, but the approaches of the past have contributed to our isolation, stigma, and neglect. This new Movement is the most hopeful step in my 44 years of hearing voices and receiving ineffective, though well-meaning treatment. Montgomery County Pennsylvania, Portland, Oregon, western Massachusetts , and several other regions deserve credit for opening and spreading this liberation and recovery orientation to working and living with hearing voices.

Berta Britz, Creating Increased Connections berta.britz@rhd.org