AU's Mental Health System Transformation Activities

In support of Connecticut's Mental Health System Transformation, Advocacy Unlimited is involved in several activities to help move Connecticut's mental health system transformation forward and to facilitate the participation of persons in recovery in the process.

This section of AU's website is to keep visitors up-to-date on these activities and to allow consumers to be involved through direct participation in the various projects or by providing opinions and feedback.

• C-RECS Project -- Promoting and facilitating the employment of persons in recovery.
  
  As part of Connecticut's Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant (MHT-SIG), the Connecticut Recovery Employment Consultation Service (C-RECS) has been created to establish a consumer-driven initiative to promote consumer employment and mental health system transformation. One of the primary goals of the initiative is to increase employment of persons in recovery from diverse cultural backgrounds at all levels of the mental health workforce. While employment of persons in recovery in all sectors of the economy is critically important, this initiative focuses exclusively on employment in the behavioral health workforce.
  
  A grant from the state of Connecticut was awarded to Focus on Recovery-United (FOR-U) to implement and manage the C-RECS initiative. A key objective of C-RECS was to create and manage a job recruitment and placement service that includes an on-line job bank. Advocacy Unlimited, Inc., as a consultant to FOR-U, developed the original crecs.org website, an online job search and candidate recruitment website designed to enable and facilitate recruitment of persons in recovery into the behavioral healthcare workforce.
  
  To register with the C-RECS Project, or to learn more and/or search the current listing of behavioral healthcare jobs, visit www.crecs.org (opens in a new browser window).
  
  

  ---

  
  
• QuIC Initiative -- Ensuring that consumers/youth/families play a central role in the development of a recovery and resiliency oriented system of mental health care.
  
  The Quality Improvement Collaborative (QuIC) is dedicated to the principle that consumer, youth, and family member involvement is a powerful way to make mental health services effective and responsive to their needs. The QuIC consists of approximately 500 consumers, youth, and family members (CYF) who have contributed to new efforts funded by the Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant to improve Connecticut's mental health services across the lifespan. A statewide Central Coordinating Council (CCC) of approximately 50 CYF members provided CYF leadership for the project.
  
  Formed in 2008, QuIC was a collaboration with the state Regional Mental Health Boards, Favor Inc., NAMI-CT, and Advocacy Unlimited, Inc. The QuIC project's mission was to design an assessment system to evaluate the state's mental health service delivery models and programs. The assessment system was to incorporate the knowledge and experience of consumers, youth, and their families.
  
  The QuIC initiative resulted from Connecticut's multi-year Mental Health Transformation Initiative. It responded to the local and national movement toward a recovery and resiliency oriented system of mental health care driven by the goals of consumers/youth/families.
  
  Consumers/Youth/Family Members were called upon to join QuIC in bringing about a fundamental change in Connecticut's mental health system and to help ensure that the care offered continues to incorporate the best practices available that support recovery, resiliency, and a meaningful life in the community.
  
  The QuIC Mission
  
  “To ensure that consumers/youth/families play a central role in the development
  of a recovery and resiliency oriented system of mental health care.”
  
  During mid-2008, AU and the other partners participated in the operational planning and setup of this collaborative. A kick-off inauguration was held September 15, 2008 with 270 attendees. A second meeting led by Dr. Larry Davidson and Priscilla Ridgeway was held with over 300 attendees. Procedures were established for developing and assessing standards. An application process was developed for recruiting consumers, youth, and family members to become participants in QuIC's Central Coordinating Council. Most recently, a QuIC Summit was held to herald the results and accomplishments of the initiative.
  
  For complete and updated info about QuIC, visit the new QuIC CT website.
  
  

  ---

  
  
• Trauma-Informed Care -- A new framework for healing and recovery
  
  Violence, abuse, neglect, disaster, war, and other emotionally destructive experiences create trauma and these experiences know no boundaries with regard to age, race, ethnicity, economics, gender, geography, or sexual orientation.
  
  Advocacy Unlimited is a trauma-informed care agency. AU staff have been treated for trauma and are very sensitive to their own needs as well as the needs of others. AU has been developing partnerships outside of the agency to begin the process of building trust and shared values. Many AU graduates and members, along with the Executive Director, have been represented in the Trauma Advisory Committee. All consumer and public information is trauma sensitive. Many of our graduate advocates have been involved in trauma treatment since the inception of Connecticut's Trauma Initiative. AU has been involved in the selection of treatment models, and has been part of the Implementation Workgroup, a subcommittee of the Trauma Advisory Committee. All of our Advocacy Education Course training classes discuss and are mindful of:
  
     a.) the effects of traumatic stress on body, mind, and spirit;
     b.) the relationship of trauma to other behavioral health disorders;
     c.) myths, misconceptions, and common questions about treatment and recovery;
     d.) the personal impact, professional responsibilities, and cultural and gender
  issues involved in counseling trauma survivors.
  
  As a DMHAS funded agency, AU members are called upon often to serve on trauma-informed care teams, and are very active in speaking to Connecticut legislators and the commissioner of DMHAS to assure that trauma-informed care treatment is available.
  
  Resources
  Many extremely helpful trauma-informed care and trauma related resources, including sources of help for both victims and providers, are available online.
  

  On AU's website:

  • See Connecticut Trauma Info and Help for links to several sources of help.

  Other resources:

  • National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC) -- CMHS's technical assistance center dedicated to building awareness of trauma-informed care and promoting the implementation of trauma-informed practices in programs and services;

  • Witness Justice -- Help and healing for victims of violence.

  For service providers:

  • TrainingForums.org -- a joint venture between the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and Witness Justice providing relevant, timely training and discussion to the domestic violence victim service provider community.

  • Trauma-Informed Ethics - Promoting Hope and Embracing Healing -- Commander Wanda Finch, Public Health Advisor, Center for Mental Health Services' National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC) and Steve Harrington, Executive Director of the National Association of Peer Specialist (NAOPS), are hosting this web-based forum on the development of trauma-informed ethics, in partnership with Witness Justice, the National Association of Peer Specialists, and the US Department of Justice's Office of Violence Against Women. This forum is designed as an interactive tool for discussion and learning amongst a virtual community on how ethical standards similar to the Hippocratic Oath can be used to integrate a trauma-informed approach across systems. Areas for discussion include the ways trauma-informed ethics provides a vehicle for sustaining health care reform across systems that promotes wellness and is responsive to the needs of trauma survivors and that can be applied to any setting, system and level of practice.

   “Trauma-Informed” on Facebook
  NCTIC has also facilitated a Facebook Group called “Trauma-Informed”  to promote dialog around trauma-informed care and to foster the sharing of knowledge and resources through this social marketing network. Trauma-Informed is a network of impassioned consumers, survivors, and other experts and professionals sharing thoughts and practices to revolutionize human and mental health services through trauma-informed change. Visit Trauma-Informed (Privacy Type: Open - All content is public).

  ---

  
  
• The Transformation Forum is easy to use:
  

  • The main page of the Forum lists all topics currently posted.
  • Simply click on the topic you are interested in, and you will be taken to the ongoing discussion for that topic. All replies are conveniently grouped together so you don't have to link back and forth between each individual reply.
  • You can begin a new topic in the "Post a new topic" section below the current list of topics.
  • HTML and Spam are not allowed. Posts containing HTML or Spam will be blocked.
  Transformation Forum -- A forum for consumers and family members to discuss and participate in AU's Transformation activities.
  
  
  Feedback welcome!  Your participation and involvement is important. We want to gather your thoughts, ideas, and feedback about AU's transformation activities and also provide an opportunity for you to participate.
  
  AU has posted three topics (the three activities above) to start the discussion. You can reply to these topics, or start a new topic pertaining to mental health transformation.
  
  Visit the Transformation Forum to begin participating!