Promoting Economic Empowerment & Recovery through Peer Support

Oscar Jimenez-Solomon, MPH, Research Scientist & Research Coordinator, NYS Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence, NYS Psychiatric Institute

Peggy Swarbrick, PhD, FAOTA, Wellness Institute Director, Collaborative Support Programs of NJ, Associate Professor, Rutgers University

Poverty and dependency are barriers to the recovery and rehabilitation of people seeking mental health recovery. Clinicians, peer providers, consumers, families, and community services must work together to help individuals achieve financial stability and wellness.

This talk presents lessons of the Collaborative Support Programs of NJ (CSP-NJ) in providing financial services for people in mental health recovery and examples of asset-building services available in many communities. It also describes key components of a peer-facilitated economic empowerment intervention being developed by the NYSPI Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence in partnership with the Wellness Institute at CSP-NJ, the Mental Health Peer Connection (Buffalo, NY), Baltic Street (Brooklyn, NY) and other organizations providing peer and asset-building services, such as the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), the United Way of Buffalo and Western NY, and the National Disability Institute.

For more information about the Peer Supported Economic Empowerment (PSEE) project, please contact Oscar Jimenez-Solomon at: jsolomo@nyspi.columbia.edu.

 For more information about CSP-NJ's financial services and Word Wellness Newsletter, please contact Peggy Swarbrick at: pswarbrick@cspnj.org

For more information on the Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence please go to  http://nyculturalcompetence.org/