wellness

On April 27, 2013, members of the community and PEERS staff joined forces to share stories of recovery and bless the new Peace and Wellness Garden at the first annual Day of Unity. Hear from those involved how the garden, which is located at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, plays an important role in the maintenance of wellness.

California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, the chief author of the Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63) in 2004, recounts his own journey of working on mental health legislation and predicts what the next few years will bring for the mental health consumer movement. Listen to why he believes that mental health was and is one of the great under-attended-to issues in modern society.

Get a recap on the highlights of the Youth Keynote at the WRAP Around the World Conference in Oakland. Watch a skit with Canadian and American youth, listen to an original WRAP rap by BJ Phillips, and hear remarks by PEERS TAY Manager Letty Elenes on her first experience with WRAP and what prompted her to become a facilitator. Lauren Ostrom, High School WRAP Project Coordinator for Alberta Health Care Services, reflects on the success of WRAP on teenagers in Canada.

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic, discusses the effects of psychiatric medication his keynote address at the second international WRAP Around the World Conference in Oakland, CA. He talks about the emergence of the medical model paradigm of care in the 1980s, increased spending on psychiatric pharmaceuticals, and the research on whether medication is ultimately helpful or harmful to those who take it.

Paolo del Vecchio, Director of the Center for Mental Health Services at SAMHSA, speaks about the importance of WRAP and his own journey of recovery at the second international WRAP Around the World Conference in Oakland, CA. He recalls his decision to go from working outside the mental health system to working within it to promote positive change. Del Vecchio also discusses two timely mental health policy issues resulting from the Affordable Care Act and the Sandy Hook tragedy.