Pat Risser – Long Bio

Pat Risser is an award-winning trainer, facilitator, speaker, author and consultant. He has been a human rights activist and mental health advocate for over thirty years. His lived experience includes work as an Intensive Case Manager, work as a therapist on a locked, acute inpatient unit, and over ten years as a “mental patient.” He developed over 60 self-help, peer support groups, built and directed a statewide consumer network and directed a patients’ rights/advocacy/self-help program. His emphasis is training on trauma issues, recovery, self-determination and on employing people with lived experience as part of the behavioral health workforce. He and his work has been recognized with the prestigious Clifford Beers Award from the National Mental Health Association in 2005, the National Association of Case Management XCEL Award as Case Manager of the Year in 2000, a SAMHSA HOPE Award in 2008, a SAMHSA Voice Award in 2011 and the NARPA Rae Unzicker Advocacy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014. Pat served on the Board of Directors of NARPA (National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy) and the Board of Directors for Witness Justice (Help and Healing for Victims of Violence) and is currently on Ohio’s P&A Board. He has also served on the National Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) National Advisory Council.