Letter from PRA Chair, Dori Hutchinson

As the month of September comes to a close, so does the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Wellness Month, the public health call to action that urges all of us to attend to our wellness and the wellness of the people we serve in our programs. Optimal wellness is something we all, with and without disabilities, aspire to have. Optimal wellness is a state of being, culturally and developmentally defined and directed, that we all struggle and strive toward from the time we are young, to the time we are old. Our wellness is multidimensional, but when we feel “well,” it can fuel our sense of hope, our sense of value, our persistence to work towards our life goals, and it can strengthen our resiliency to life’s daily struggles.

Just this past week, I had the opportunity to listen to Mary Blake from SAMHSA discuss the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study that has shown that extremely strong associations exist between childhood trauma and later-life mental health struggles, substance use, and many diseases that deplete wellbeing. Childhood experiences of mental illness, parental mental health and substance abuse, and toxic stress such as domestic violence and crushing poverty, have a critical impact on a child’s development because these experiences negatively impact their social, emotional, and cognitive wellness. Many children survive these toxic and chronic events by developing maladaptive behaviors that are often unhealthy in the long term. Many of these children are labeled early on and begin their long journey moving from one system to the next, often growing up to face adult diseases, disability, and social problems.

However, this research also teaches us that if children have just one person with whom they can develop a strong, caring, and positive relationship, they can overcome many of these negative risks. The power of a caring relationship can protect and promote wellbeing! The growing research documents that children who have mental health needs and live with adverse experiences, can develop resiliency and thrive in their roles, in their families, and in their communities if they have access to caring adults, safe housing, skills, resources, and integrated care.

The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services and SAMHSA recently released a report (2013) indicating that children with mental health needs who had intensive wrap around services that were implemented in the community, and included essential skills and peer services for parents and youth, led to significant benefits such as an average of $40,000/child/year reduction in cost of care, increased school attendance and performance, a 40% increase in positive behaviors and emotional wellbeing, positive increase in clinical outcomes, increased attendance at work for the caregiver, decreased involvement with law enforcement, and a decrease in suicide attempts. These outcomes provide the foundation for children and families who are living with serious behavioral health challenges, to develop resiliency and thrive in their communities with wellness.

In response to the research over the last several decades that the numbers of children and families with mental health needs are growing and going unmet, and that the behavioral workforce lacks the core competencies to promote the wellness and safety of children, the PRA Academy of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Recovery has developed a training in Developing Resiliency and Valued Roles for Children and Families. This three day, 20 hour training offers providers working with children and families the opportunity to enhance and improve their provider skills to help these children and families thrive in their roles and communities. Topics include values of wellness, resiliency and multiculturalism, ethics of working with children and families, childhood development and resiliency, and childhood mental illnesses.

These children and their families matter. As providers of psychiatric rehabilitation, we have an opportunity to help change the trajectory of these children so when they grow up, they are not transitioning into the transition aged youth system and then the adult system of care, but rather, they are thriving in their lives with wellness. If you are interested in learning more about the training, please feel free to email me at dorih (at) bu (dot) edu or contact Cindy Moore on PRA’s staff at cmoore@psychrehabassociation.org.

Wellness is more than one month a year and it is a lifelong process!  Be well.