Jade Pelton talks about how the emerging profession of Peer Support Specialist is providing hope and support to those recovering from addiction and mental health challenges.

Jade is a Peer Recovery Specialist at Northpoint Health and Wellness located in North Minneapolis, MN. She has been a Specialist for over a year now and was trained at Minnesota Recovery Connection a small grassroots Recovery Community Organization. She volunteered there doing Telephone recovery support for many months as well as starting a peer led meeting with a co-worker and helping out at the annual walk fundraiser. She previously volunteered for a year co-facilitating a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) connections group and has attended NAMI conferences to stay abreast of the issues that face her community. She is in active long term recovery and finds this line of work not only rewarding but crucial to her recovery. Her powerful story speaks of the struggle of overcoming a life full of trauma and coming through it by using the experience of it to help others through their own.

Jade has a wonderful sense of humor and is gifted in reaching people with her spoken word or prose. She is also a mixed media artist meaning that she is not just talented in one art form but several and she hopes to start her own small business selling this art in order to save for her dream of starting a large non-profit that truly caters to individuals with co-occurring disorders.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Warmly,
Caroline

Show links are below. Click here to download a PDF of these show notes, including a complete list of questions, answers, and links to this interview.

LINKS

Jade’s email: allpathways2recovery@gmail.com

Faces and Voices of Recovery Website: https://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/

Peer Bridger Project/Model Information: https://www.nyaprs.org/peer-bridger/

Healthcare Reform Information: http://peersforprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/20130313_peer_support_and_the_affordable_care_act_3713.pdf

SAMHSA Publication about peer support: http://www.naadac.org/assets/1959/samsha_2012_expert_panel_meeting_report_-_equipping_behavioral_health.pdf

Jade’s Artwork Website: http://polishedjade55418.wordpress.com

NWI Members can find a bonus interview of Jade at NationalWellness.org/BonusPodcasts