DANIELLE DONALDSON: Welcome to Peer Into Recovery, a podcast with a focus on the profession of peer support. For more information about how to subscribe, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us. I am your host, Danielle Donaldson. In this episode, I’m going to be speaking with Carla Heath about her work as Lead Regional Peer Recovery Specialist Coordinator for Region 4. Carla has 15 years of experience in the Peer Support field developing, providing, and overseeing peer services. Her experience and skills acquired in serving as a co-founder and executive director of a non-profit center, combined with her work at community service boards, gives her a unique perspective regarding peer and recovery oriented services. She is a Peer Recovery Specialist Trainer, a Certified Personal Medicine Coach Trainer, an ECPR Trainer, an Ethics Facilitator, a Mentorship Trainer, and a WRAP Facilitator Trainer. She has conducted numerous workshops at conferences and has given keynote addresses. Carla’s story has been told in the book Fire Walkers, as well as in articles in Richmond Style Weekly and the Chesterfield Observer. She was honored to be part of a segment on ABC News regarding recovery from mental health challenges. Hi Carla, welcome, and thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?

CARLA HEATH: I’m doing fine. Thank you, Danielle.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: And thank you for coming on the podcast today to talk about your work as a Regional Peer Recovery Specialist Coordinator. I’m excited to learn more about what you do in that position. So let’s get to it. I know you’ve been working as a Peer Support Professional for a long time. So could you just share with the audience what inspired you to go from Peer to Peer Recovery Specialist?

CARLA HEATH: Yes. I had had an eight-month episode where I was out of touch with reality. I had kind of recovered from that, but I felt like my life was kind of like at a dead end. I was asked to tell my story at a NAMI family to family meeting. And during that process, I realized how far I had come in my recovery. And the facilitator of that group said I should be working with my peers. I had never heard of a peer before. I’d never heard that word. So I went home and I did a search on peer trainings and I found out about KELT and that really changed my life. And it was meeting other people who were open about their stories and seeing what they were doing that I kind of began to dream again about what was possible for me. And I always felt like what I went through was for a reason. So that’s kind of what inspired me to get involved in Peer Support because of the difference it made in my life.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah. And I think that’s a very common kind of connection for a lot of peer specialists because I can very relate to that story. I had a similar experience where I had never really heard of peer support. But once you hear about it and you realize what a difference it made in your own life, it really inspires you to go on and try to help others as well. So just for those who don’t know what CELT is, would you explain what that is?

CARLA HEATH: The Consumer Empowerment Leadership Training. And I went to what was one of the first CELT classes from what I understand. It was the launch of CELT. And it helped people identify needs and how to address them. That was one of the things that happened at that training. It was probably some time ago, so I can’t remember what else was included in that training. But that’s what really stuck with me, is identifying needs and formulating a plan to address them. And we actually did that in that class.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So, how soon after you attended, CELT, did you go on to… So, I know that you were instrumental in the creation of Friends for Recovery. Was CELT something that led you to that, or how did you get involved with that?

CARLA HEATH: Yes. That’s the need I identified with. There wasn’t any support out there for people that had my particular diagnosis. So, I wanted a group that anybody could attend that had experienced mental health challenges, regardless of whether they had a diagnosis or not. So, what I did, I found out about a few other things. I found out about the WRAP, Wellness Recovery Action Plan, and I found out about VOCAL. And I started volunteering at VOCAL. And then I took a RAP group, and the facilitator there had been gathering a list of people’s names who wanted to attend a support group. So, I guess it was a few months after I had finished WRAP. I met with a few of my peers, and we started Friends for Recovery, the support group. And we got a small grant for $1,000, and we met for two years as a support group every other Friday.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, that’s pretty amazing, though, to have a support group grow into a full-blown peer run center.

CARLA HEATH: Yeah, it was a really special time when that happened. It was a really special time for me.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, and it’s just kind of a… I don’t know the words I’m looking for here, but the fact that Friends for Recovery is still out there, helping people, that it’s still in existence, I think is also super special as well.

CARLA HEATH: Yes.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So you now work as a Regional Coordinator for Region 4. What does that work look like? One of the things we’re trying to highlight on this podcast is all the different ways that people can act as a Peer Support Provider, all the different roles that they can play. So what is your role look like now as Regional Coordinator?

CARLA HEATH: Well, six years ago, I started in this position. And we started by gathering data on the Peer Workforce in our region. And then we were assisting people with achieving their PRS certification status. And we would also bring Peer Recovery Specialists and Supervisors together for educational sessions and team building activities. We would host an annual Collaborations Recovery Conference. And pre-COVID, we had 400 attendees at that conference. We look forward to when we can have a large conference again. And the Collaborations Recovery Conference is peers receiving services, peer recovery specialists and clinicians. And I was a part of the second annual conference and have been a part of it ever since. It’s a part of my job to host the work group that puts that conference on one. There’s some other things we do. We offer guidance to CSB leadership regarding peer services. And we started out doing the peer recovery specialist training and the WRAP training. I’ve trained 50 peer recovery specialists since I’ve been on this job. So that was our start six years ago. But now we have expanded significantly. So now we offer the other trainings you had mentioned in the introduction, the certified personal medicine coaching, the ACPR, the ethics and the mentorship training.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So do you work primarily with peer recovery specialists and I guess clinicians as well within the Community Services Boards in Region 4, or do you work with community agencies as well? What does that look like?

CARLA HEATH: Okay, I primarily work for the CSB system. So I work with the peer specialists and clinicians there. But we also partner with our community members. If we have openings and trainings, we will offer them to some of our community members. And community members are a big part of our planning for the conference. So we do partner with, we do have community partners that are peer organizations.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So is most of your day-to-day actually just holding these trainings and workshops? Or are there other things that you do to fill your time?

CARLA HEATH: Yes, it varies. I will get a lot of emails from CSB leadership asking questions about peer services. They’ll want to know maybe like who’s billing for peer support across Virginia, or where can they find a peer supporter who is a veteran. So I’ll kind of link them together. They’ll want to know things like, is there another experienced peer working in a certain department that a peer from their department can talk to? So we kind of connect people across the region and across the state. We are also developing the Peer Academy and Internship Program. And that is going to be launched in January. We have people go through all of the trainings over a six month period, or until they get their 500 hours. I’m sorry, seven people, one at each CSB. And we have paid internship positions. So one intern will be placed at each of the CSBs in Region IV. And we’ll offer guidance and supervision to the peer specialist and do all the coordinating of the internship at the individual CSB.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Oh, that sounds like an excellent program. Is this a pilot or is this already been piloted?

CARLA HEATH: It’s a pilot. I’m really excited about it. We expect it to continue every year. It was part of the STEP VA funding for building peer services. And we also are doing family support partners as well. So we’re working on helping develop the family support partner workforce and supporting the CSBs and the family support partners.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, that sounds like an, I mean, that’s a much needed program. So I’m excited to see that take off.

CARLA HEATH: Yeah, I’m really excited. We currently have 76 peer recovery specialists in Region 4 with at least eight more openings for jobs across the region. And so the peer workforce is really growing rapidly, I feel, in Region 4.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, well, that’s great that you guys are building supports for that. You know, it’s such a new profession and we’re still trying to work out some kinks. So it sounds like this is one step in that trajectory, I guess.

CARLA HEATH: Yeah, and we’ve tried to make it a collaborative process with the peers and their supervisors. So we used to host quarterly meetings with peers and their supervisors, as I said. And that’s what helped us develop some things to get us started, like our vision and values for the region.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So just to shift a little bit, because I know you’ve got a lot of broad experience in the peer support field here in Virginia. And so I know you’ve worked in a peer run center and you’ve worked at a CSB. How does your current work differ from offering one-to-one peer support?

CARLA HEATH: We don’t do direct support with individuals, but I do call on my previous experience to help me mentor peer recovery specialists. In this job, we do more program development, like the mentorship program and the peer academy. And we really try to support the peers who are on the ground doing the work.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: And I can relate to that since I do similar work myself. But I think it’s important for people out there that might be interested in the profession to know that even if one-on-one peer support isn’t really what you’re best suited to, that there’s other ways to provide peer support, even if it’s not direct one-on-one. So, I appreciate you creating the programs and helping provide resources and connections for people.

CARLA HEATH: Yeah, and it also creates a career ladder for peer specialists that they can advance to becoming a coordinator. It’s my hope that at the CSBs that they’ll begin to have lead peer specialists at each CSB who we can coordinate our services with.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, and that’s an important topic, I think, is creating that career ladder because, like we’ve talked about, it’s relatively new profession, so to speak, and those are some of the things that we’ll have to develop over time. But I’ve always been a big, strong proponent of doing the work ourselves. So I love it when I see peer support specialists developing programs for peer support specialists.

CARLA HEATH: Oh yeah, it’s really exciting. And they’re also having other coordinator positions across the state now, which is exciting. Other areas are getting coordinators.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, on that note, let me ask you, are there any particular challenges you’ve faced as a regional coordinator? I imagine people that will be filling these roles could benefit from your experience.

CARLA HEATH: Yeah, people are busy and that is a challenge. It’s a challenge keeping up with the database because peers, they’ll hire new peers or peers may change jobs. So that’s always kind of fluctuating a little bit. And also finding a time when peer specialists and supervisors can get together has been a challenge. Because we talk to the peer specialist on a pretty regular basis and they are busy on their jobs. They are definitely doing a lot of meaningful work and have very busy days.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, it’s always hard when you’re trying to herd cats, I guess, you know. And like you said, everybody’s got a busy schedule. So finding that one day in time where everybody has a free, you know, some free time is always difficult. Is there any challenges, you know? I live in Southwest Virginia. So this state can be, you know, we can be scattered pretty far between. Is there any challenges just with the logistics of being spread out?

CARLA HEATH: Well, the good thing about COVID has been Zoom. And that we are starting to use Zoom. So, that has helped a lot as far as, I used to travel a lot to the different locations. And we go from, yeah, it is quite a range. We go from Amelia Farmville area, Powertan, Goochland, Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover. So, we cover in Petersburg area. So, we do cover a wide area. I used to enjoy, you know, traveling to the different CSBs and touching base with new peers, the specialists that are onboarded. But that has changed with COVID, and we are utilizing Zoom more.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: It is nice to see some more technology get into it, because, you know, that is one of the challenges I’ve noticed down here, is that in a rural area, travel is difficult sometimes. So, and not that getting on the internet can’t be just difficult sometimes. That is certainly the case as well. But I think having more technology enter into the profession is giving us some flexibility.

CARLA HEATH: That’s right. It is. Yes.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So, kind of on that note, I guess, you know, because you have been involved in the field for so long, you know, you’ve probably seen a lot of changes in the profession and how it’s been practiced. What do you see maybe for the profession in the future? How do you see it developing over time based on what you’ve seen so far?

CARLA HEATH: I see that the CSBs in our area are open to eventually having a lead peer. And I hope that will lead to having peers in every department, because I don’t know who would not benefit from peer support. It’s such an empowering and strengths based and connecting relationship or way of working with people. So, I feel like peers are needed in every department. And we need to have peer respite. I think that would really help with hospital diversion, which is an important issue. So, I hope that moving forward, we do see that developing in Virginia, and peers will be more involved in diverting people from the state hospital and other hospitals.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Can I ask you, I guess, back up just slightly? Again, for those that maybe are not yet working in the field but want to get involved, how do you imagine a lead peer specialist would work in an agency? What do you think that would look like?

CARLA HEATH: I think they would offer support and also form of all the peer specialists meeting together at that agency, individual agency, and looking at recovery-oriented services. I think that could be one of the lead peers’ roles. As well as working with our positions as regional coordinator in coordinating activities where we could work together to help build the peer workforce and build recovery-oriented systems of care.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: What type of experience would you think someone would need to serve in a role like that? Is it, do you think it’s just a matter of, you know, time? Or do you think that there’s particular trainings, if someone was interested in a role like that, that they could focus on?

CARLA HEATH: I think the trainings would be, it would be good for them to have all of the training, so they have an understanding and a knowledge of them and can encourage the peers at their agency to become trained. I think a Lead Peer, it would be good if they had some type of supervisory experience, or development in that area. I know we have the Recovery Leadership Academy, the state has launched once, but that would be a good place for a Lead Peer to receive more skills and guidance.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Do you know much about that? Is there anything you can share about just what that is, what the Peer Leadership Academy is?

CARLA HEATH: I went through the Recovery Leadership Academy, and you’re paired with a mentor, and you develop your own unique leadership plan. You also as a group develop a white paper on my group did one on peer respites. Okay. So it’s a really comprehensive leadership academy. You also meet and go over different typics like leadership style. You take an emotional intelligence quiz, and you get your own plan around that, as well as the emotional intelligence 2.0 book. They do the Meyers-Briggs Test, Personality Test, if you haven’t had that done. That’s interesting to see the results of that. So it’s a really comprehensive training. And I think a lead peer would benefit from going through that, because they would be stepping into a leadership role.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Do you know if that’s something that will be ongoing?

CARLA HEATH: It will be. I’m not sure when the next one is going to be, but someone could check with this DBHDS to find that out.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: And that’s the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services here in Virginia.

CARLA HEATH: That’s correct. You check with the Office of Recovery Services.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So you’ve shared a wealth of resources already, but do you have any recommendations or suggestions for people that would be interested in doing this type of work?

CARLA HEATH: Yes, I do. I’ve thought about this with the new positions coming out, and some of the things I did when we first got started, which was build a database. We did a survey to assess the needs in our area. We developed a vision and values, and those are in the CPRS booklet that I sent for you to share with this podcast. And develop a work plan based on your unique needs in that area, like Southwest Virginia would have different needs than we may have in Region 4. So establish relationships at your CSB with your Peer Recovery Specialist and Clinicians. Identify your Recovery Champions. Share success stories. Another thing we do in this position is attend community and stakeholder meetings. And lastly, there is so much to do in these positions. It requires a lot of focus and organizational skills. It’s like kind of like juggling. You’re always switching gears and working on different things in this position. So it’s really important to pace yourself and remember self-care also if you’re taking on one of these roles.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: And yes, and thank you for bringing up the resources that you emailed me. I will be including those in the show notes for this episode, so people will be able to access those. They’re really helpful, I think, and you did a great job with that.

CARLA HEATH: Thank you.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So do you have any final thoughts before we wrap this up?

CARLA HEATH: I don’t. Be sure to check out our YouTube link, though. We have a lot of that we’re sharing. You can see some past recovery events we’ve had on Zoom because of COVID and not being able to do the recovery conference. We wanted to have something, so check that out. And I really appreciate your time and you highlighting this position. Peer Support is a passion of mine, and it has been since I got started in this field that we see this field grow.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, it has changed so much in such a short period of time.

CARLA HEATH: Yes.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, thank you, Carla, for the work you do and for joining me today. And thank you for listening to the Peer Into Recovery podcast brought to you by the Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network and Mental Health America of Virginia. And if you like our show and would like to subscribe to the podcast, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. And please leave us a review on iTunes. Take good care of yourselves.