Consumer Speakers Program Inspires Hope

A few months ago, The Hume Center's Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) initiated a Consumer Speakers Program. This program invites consumers of other local mental health, consumer empowerment, or county-run programs to visit with the participants of our PHP once a month as a Consumer Speaker. The speaker tells their story as someone with lived experienced of psychological suffering that has now found some amount of recovery and wellness. They also describe the program they are representing and how it impacted their life. This structure has allowed the PHP participants to not only find inspiration and hope from someone else's journey but also get connected to the agency the speaker is representing.

So far, speakers from Mental Health Consumer Concern (MHCC)'s Wellness and Recovery Center in Antioch, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)'s In Our Own Voice public education program, and the Contra Costa County Office of Consumer Empowerment's Wellness Recovery Education for Acceptance Choice and Hope (WREACH) Speaker's Bureau have visited the PHP to share their story. We appreciate the courage and honesty all of the Consumer Speakers have displayed as they have inspired the PHP participants with the full ups and downs of their stories. Many of the PHP participants have shared that these speakers have inspired a hope, renewed belief in themselves, or excitement over some opportunity that was presented in group. The Hume Center appreciates these consumers and partner agencies as we all work together to strengthen our community and prevent and reduce psychological suffering.

If you or your agency are interested in being a Consumer Speaker, please call me at our Concord Office at 925.825.1793. My extension is 358.

By: Chris Celio, PsyD
Acting Department Manager, Contra Costa Behavioral Health Treatment Programs
October, 2013

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