Why Utilize My Service As A Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist (MHPS)?

The title, “Mental Health Peer Specialist (MHPS)” or “Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS)” or “Recovery Support Specialist (RSS)” or “Peer Support”, can sometimes be used interchangeably, but may be a fairly unfamiliar term for the reader, as it was for me when I came to understand who and what a MHPS does.  A MHPS works in the mental health field and those with the aforementioned titles are starting to gain some traction as a value addition to the healthcare field in general.  One situation I would like to help change is ‘when‘ you first encounter a Certified Peer Support Specialist, either in a mental health or substance abuse capacity or both, is not after the fallout of a crisis. I believe Certified Peer Support Specialists can have and take a more assertive role in preventative care in the healthcare space because of our unique ability to forge trusting relationships with our ‘peer(s)’ (a fellow sufferer who is currently in need of comfort and support) because we have actually been in similar shoes and can relate to or translate what they may be currently experiencing. I will briefly describe in my own words what it means to me to be a MHPS.  In addition, I will also provide you a conventional definition for what a MHPS is and further describe below what are some of the benefits for you working with me as your MHPS.

I see a “Mental Health Peer Specialist” as a person who is self-determining.  They work in service of peers dealing with mental health challenges by building relationships and hope based partly on the fact that the “Mental Health Peer Specialist” communicates to the peer that they too struggle with a mental health diagnosis themselves, but the MHPS has found a fairly effective means to cope and function well post diagnosis (this we refer to by the term recovery/healing).  First, a MHPS works together with a peer to demonstrate that recovery/healing is possible and encourage them to make their journey towards recovery/healing.  Secondly, a MHPS can work alongside a peer to navigate difficult and distressing life situations preferably before a crisis, but also during and after, if a crisis has occurred.   Finally, we can assist peers to navigate this complex healthcare system to get their needs met and if the services are not available to help develop their skills on how to advocate for themselves.

The conventional definition of a “Mental Health Peer Specialist” is Peer Support Specialists are people with lived experience who have been through situations similar to those they support. They have been successful in recovery and have firsthand knowledge of the healing process. They can provide aid in addiction, mental health conditions, medical conditions, and disabilities.

Below are some of the benefits of working with me as your MHPS:

• I have a lived experience with mental health conditions of depression and PTSD.  Thus, when engaging with me 1-on-1, you are provided with a great opportunity to unburden and unpack some of the difficulties or struggles you are dealing with without judgment.  A MHPS will work alongside you to help you recover your life either for the first time or even better than you remember it to have been in your past experience.
• If cost is a barrier to getting the mental health services you require, to utilize my service will be much cheaper than a therapist, or with future funding perhaps even free.  Although a MHPS is not a licensed therapist, we do offer an alternative and potentially liberating space for you to open up and talk about what is distressing you and our remediation to those types of situations is in providing snippets of our recovery story and experience of what actually helped turn things around for us for the better
• You can obtain wisdom from a MHPS of what a framework for a mental health recovery and therapeutic method might look like and this knowledge could assist you in developing your own model and method of technique(s) that help you in the recovery/healing process
• You would become tapped into the network and available resources that I have acquired over my own journey in recovery
• You gain a competent, compassionate, and empathetic supporter in a much needed support system
• Through use of a MHPS’ experience and insight, if heeded, it could potentially fast-track your recovery/healing process and prevent you from going through some of the traps (errant thinking of I can do this on my own, isolation) and pitfalls (hospitalization(s), jail, loss or damaged relationships, unemployment, homelessness) that we have already been through; thus, potentially saving you tons of frustration and wasted time and energy that could have been used more productively
• Allows you to actually gauge someone in recovery and could serve as a contrast to what your life could look like should you choose a path of recovery
• Not having a team of supporters in your life like a MHPS, therapist, psychiatrist, support group(s), friends and family, or community organizations could lead you to you doing some unrepairable harm to yourself, which sometimes cannot be reversed
• Can result in an increase in energy enhancing activities that you enjoy and help you function on a daily basis at a level you expect yourself to be capable of
• Can bring a deep sense of feeling and being connected with someone who has potentially experienced a similar reality of where you are coming from.  In turn, you can experience less of that feeling that you are all alone in what you are facing
• You might free up some space to laugh and be in good cheer
• You might hear a snippet of a story shared by me that shifts your perspective; thus, potentially opening for you a door to new and different possibilities
• You get one more person who will check in with you just because
• I will share with you tools from my coping toolbox that I have used situationally with great success to help re-empower me to be the best version of myself in spite experiencing depression and PTSD symptoms. 
• We can discover the coping skill(s) which help you through distressing situations that arise which you put you in the driving seat of your recovery/healing process
• I take a compassionate approach to myself and if you work to develop this approach as well through self-practice, I believe you’ll have considerable more of the desired results you aspire to achieve for yourself
• Not only will other people recognize the positive transformation in you as a person, but you will see it and know how that transformation came about because we will notate our journey’s challenges and triumphs as we go along listing what led to our personal success overcoming our mental health challenges
• You will gain mastery of your condition and circumstances knowing you do have control over your life
• Will lead to you valuing and taking care of yourself and your environment in a manner that reflects highly of you
• You will be attuned to engage in doing thoughtful and meaningful deeds that impacts not only you but other peoples lives

Introduction to Your Mental Health Peer Specialist

My name is Owanzer (pronounced O-wan-zer) Stafford and I became a Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist (MHPS) on 8/11/2022 and for the past year, I’ve been working in this field full-time.  I previously worked in the role of a Peer Navigator at the Harris County Sheriff Office (HCSO) by way of The Harris Center, but then I transitioned to providing services as an independent contractor. 

I am a native New Orleanian where I was born and raised in a 2 parent household with 4 siblings in the suburban area of Gentilly.  I graduated from Redeemer High School where I lettered with academic honors and in sports football and baseball.  I would briefly attend college at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA and play 1 year of collegiate football and initially major in nursing.  After 1 year, I would transfer to Grambling University for 1 year and switch to a major in Criminal Justice.  Later, I would exit Grambling University because of difficulty adjusting to solely an academic life without sports.  I would not pursue any type of scholastic and/or career advancement for 1 year where I would begin to experience unawares, to what is was called at that time, initial glimpses of the mental health condition I now know as “Depression”. This condition would ultimately foreshadow and color aspects of my life to come. 

In 2006, on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, I would move to Houston seeking job opportunities in the Information Technology (IT) field.  I would land a job in Houston and start my IT career in Houston Municipal Courts.  I would work in that environment for almost 2 years.  I would transition from there to work at CenterPoint Energy.  I would work in this environment for nearly 13 years and exit unceremoniously as a Sr. Programmer Analyst.  A tumultuous company project, coupled with new and unfamiliar relationship dynamics and challenges, would reignite depressive symptoms which had been dormant and absent of the need of any medicated and/or psychotherapy treatment for going on 12 years. The consequences of being caught off guard without medication and/or psychotherapy or support groups in place were detrimental to my life. 

From the end of 2019 thru the beginning of 2022, I would not formally work so that I could take time to heal and recover. I would take that time to reevaluate, take stock of, and understand my condition, circumstances, and weaknesses as much of what was in my power to do so.  I would survey the landscape for treatments and explore and discover, my own and those of others, remedies that could assist me in healing from the devastating effects of depression and the surrounding self and public stigma and discrimination of having a mental health challenge and seeking/receiving treatment for it, especially in a corporate environment. 

On my exit from my career in IT, what I experienced there would be the grounds which would eventually lead me into the, then unknown to me, field of Certified Peer Support Specialist, particularly a Mental Health Peer Specialist (MHPS).  The Mental Health Peer Specialist certification I received bespeaks the following:

1. I took and passed a formal training
2. I acknowledge having a lived experience with a mental illness
3. I am in a stage of recovery that has not required intensive mental health treatment for more than 1 year
4. I am comfortable sharing my story with others

Now, I serve the function of modeling character and consciousness re-building through integrity, respect, accountability, responsibility, problem-solving, and planning. In addition, I use my secondary self-education in finance, investment, and technology to illuminate and assist others in the integration into the 21^st century.

Cost of Service

Schedule Your Engagement

Scheduling is simple. On my Calendly.com link below, schedule a time you would like to engage online: https://calendly.com/inthepursuitofwellness/40min

Thanks in advance, I look forward to working and walking with you on your recovery journey. I wish you well!

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis at this time, on a phone, dial 988 for immediate assistance.