Connecticut DMHAS Learning Series: Building Bridges from Isolation to Community

Overview of Recovery
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

This workshop starts with a fundamental belief that people living with behavioral health conditions can and do recover, and deserve opportunities to build lives not defined by those conditions.

Additionally, Recovery is defined as a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.

This workshop explores the process in which an individual engages in their recovery journey and our role of supporting them, using the four stages of recovery of hope, empowerment, self-responsibility, and meaningful roles as guides.

Overview of Psychosocial Rehabilitation
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Psychosocial rehabilitation promotes recovery, full community integration, and improved quality of life for persons who have been diagnosed with any mental health condition that seriously impairs their ability to lead meaningful lives.

Psychosocial rehabilitation services are collaborative, person directed, and individualized. These services are an essential element of the health care and human services spectrum and should be evidence-based. They focus on helping individuals develop skills and access resources needed to increase their capacity to be successful and satisfied in the living, working, learning, and social environments of their choice.

Person Centered Language
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

The language we use conveys our perceptions, values, and expectations. This workshop provides an opportunity to explore the language we use in our work and opportunities to incorporate more a more person-centered perspective.

Active Listening
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Listening for the story, instead of just to solve a problem is key to building helping relationships. This workshop explores improving our skills as effective listeners through lecture and class activities.

Principle Guided Decision Making
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Decision making involves more than following policies and procedures. This workshop explores the factors that are part of our decision making when the situation isn’t so clear, and how our decision making process can help build open and honest relationships with those we serve.
 

The Role of Culture in Recovery
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Being sensitive to and incorporating one’s culture, as they define it, is important to our understanding of the needs of the people we serve. Doing so helps impacts our effectiveness in helping our people improve their lives.

Building a Life through Employment and other Meaningful Roles
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Having Meaningful Roles is one of the four basic foundations of Recovery. Being engaged in employment makes a significant contribution to increasing self-esteem and efficacy, improved integration into the community, and a higher perception of quality of life. This workshop explores how we can support and assist those we serve in building roles in their lives from employment to anything that brings meaning, pleasure, joy, and identity beyond that of a client in a mental health system.
 

Harm Reduction
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Harm Reduction, though originally developed in the substance use field, mirrors the principles of psychosocial rehabilitation. This workshop will illustrate how using harm reduction in the delivery of services is not only empowering to staff but provides a more meaningful opportunity to engage people as they walk and define their recovery journey. The workshop will challenge many macro assumptions about mental health, substance use, and other behaviors and provide direct service staff with an intervention crosswalk that is more person centered than the one shoe fits all approach that permeates our field.

A Broad View of Crisis
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Crisis is defined as an emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person’s life. This workshop explores this definition and takes a broader look at what are termed as crisis situations and our reactions to them. It provides a Recovery perspective and offers some suggestions for handling “crisis” situations.

Situational Awareness
(09:30 AM - 12:30 PM)
Pacific Time (GMT-8)

Being aware of our surroundings as well as understanding our own responsibility for our safety are key elements in gaining confidence when working field-based situations. This training explores what makes us feel safe and provides suggestions and options to improve our feeling of personal safety.