Letter from the PRF Chair

Greetings PRA/PRF members and allies! 

As we start a new year, we can look back on all we have accomplished in 2015 and all we have to look forward to in 2016. As always, we are a community that maintains hope and compassion, often in the face of great personal and community tragedy. I believe that this is an important time—more than ever—to remind ourselves of our strengths and the resolve we all bring to our work in psychiatric rehabilitation. 

2015 has brought challenges to our community, but it has also been a year with great advances. While our communities have faced violence and protests, they also have persevered. PRA & PRF have been central in the call to better understand and diminish obstacles to promoting recovery. Whether it is community violence perpetrated with firearms or austere cuts to local, state and federal mental health systems, PRA & PRF has been a leader in identifying ways that psychiatric rehabilitation can affect positive changes and demonstrating the value and impact of a skilled, trained workforce. 

Our efforts have included advocacy for more funding of mental health services, constructive feedback on major legislative proposals, in both the House and Senate, and further development of our children’s certificate program to ensure psychiatric rehabilitation providers and programs can support the recovery needs of perhaps our most vulnerable citizens. I do not know of a more giving and committed workforce than all of you.  

For 2016, I am energized to continue our mission and to expand the reach of PRA & PRF wherever recovery is possible. I look forward to joining all of you at our Recovery Workforce Summit in Boston, hosted by our colleagues at MassPRA. As a workforce, you give of yourselves each and every day to help change the lives of so many. 

Have safe, happy and sensational 2016!

Lisa Razzano, PhD, CPRP