What I Learned From Producing Wellness Solutions 1.0

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Photo courtesty of michaelwm25 http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelwm25/2290592572/sizes/l/in/photostream/The Hope Concept Wellness Center + HOPE Project just held our first national conference in the City of Freedom (Philadelphia) much to everybody’s and to our amazement.

Here is some of what I learned from producing Wellness Solutions 1.0 Uncensored Innovation, September 4-5, 2012:

1) We didn’t accept pharma support.  To finance a national conference, you need corporate sponsorship.  You need money. That THCWC+HP didn’t accept pharmaceutical dollars to fund an expensive venue is our way of walking our talk, walking the line, put our money where our mouth is.  Thank you to all of our kind sponsors.  We had five (5) who are exceptional, responsible, philanthropic, deeply loyal and whose professional integrity are champions who saw to it that we succeeded.

2) We created successful partnerships.  We had all the major players in mental health in the United States who provide and support peer services, medication optimization, harm reduction and hope.  Thank you to our partners’ unflinching presence and help.

3) Robert Whitaker.  Anatomy of An Epidemic.  Bob’s work is the cornerstone of a very real revolution and stands as the spinal backbone of Wellness Solutions 1.0 Uncensored Innovation, September 4-5, 2012.  While my original intent was to hallmark Will Hall’s work and while he graciously accepted, he was travelling and couldn’t attend.

4) We gave opportunity to dialogue to begin face to face. We created an intimate, warm environment for the consumer, the peer, the Certified Peer Specialist… to have immediate and first-hand access to the movers and shakers in the United States.

5) We offered hope center stage, up front.  Nothing less worked and nothing else did work.

6) Dr. John Nash and Alicia Nash, with Sarah Jones Nelson, from Princeton University attended on Wednesday to support and outreach this coming week-end’s symposium on caregiving, “A Beautiful Partnership”:  September 14-16, 2012 in Austin Texas’s University of Texas at Austin’s AT&T Executive Educational Conference Center.

7) National Peer Certification. MHASP’s Nicole Darr and NAOPS/Recover Resources goddess Rita Cronise, are Co-Chairs of the Task Force which formed out of WS 1.0.

8) Digital media and national partnership driven creative Enewsletter, Edistribution lists was our entire promotional and marketing campaign.

9) Thank you SAMHSA’s Carlton Speight and Wilma Townsend.  There was a LOT of talk about what’s going on with c/s/x scholarship to attend national educational conference opportunities, like ours.  While I listened to much of it, I’m more grateful to Carlton and Wilma for their work to go to bat for us.  Sending frequent emails and keeping Texas Peer Leadership abreast of the quagmire in funding was difficult, but necessary.

10) Integrity.  Kindness.  Need I say more?

11)  A special thank you to Lena Caballero.  Steve Harrington.  Susan Rogers.  Thomas Weitzell.  Stacey Campbell.  Gareth Fenley.  David Carroll.  Chas Schlaepfer.  Our line-up featured our friends:

  • Peter Ashenden
  • Susan Bergeson
  • Gayle Bluebird, RN
  • Bill Boyer
  • Magdalena Caballero-Phillips
  • Gina Calhoun
  • Nicole Darr
  • Rhonda Dennis
  • Karen Dinardo
  • Matthew Federici
  • Gareth Fenley
  • Daniel Fisher, MD, PhD
  • Lisa Goodale
  • Steve Harrington
  • Saya Krebs
  • Lyn Legere, MS, CPRP, CPS
  • Kim MacDonald-Wilson
  • Ron Manderscheid
  • Robert Martin
  • Jim McCormack
  • Tom O’Hara
  • Joseph Rogers
  • Harvey Rosenthal
  • Mark Salzer, PhD
  • Cheryl S. Sharp, MSW, ALWF
  • Peggy Swarbrick, PhD, OT, CPRP
  • Laura Van Tosh
  • Franzswa Watson, B.A.
  • Gitane Williams

The Hope Concept Wellness Center + HOPE Project is a Texas Whole Health & Wellness Solutions Corporation and Nonprofit organization which is 100% peer-led, consumer/survivor/ex-patient operated.  The HOPE Project, a 501c3, is our Nonprofit Arm for Public and Private Services, for American public/private foundation initiatives.

We save lives.

The Hope Concept Wellness Center + The HOPE Project provides:

  • Texas Certified Peer Specialists Peer Services and Peer Supports/Services in a 1:1 & Group Transforming Environment
  • Consumer Operated Services
  • Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) (R) with WRAP PAL (R) Peer Supports  for adult populations
  • Training classes are now being offered throughout the State of Texas and the United States
  • DFW METROPLEX PEER LEADERSHIP
  • TCHWC+THP Team Leadership with Subject Matter Expertise
  • Digital Creative Health Promotion and Mental Health Marketing Campaign
  • National and Texas Conference Opportunities
  • Community Inclusion
  • Community and Personal Navigation

For more information:  www.thehopeconcept.com or call us at 1.817.263.HOPE.

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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