Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Cathie Campbell, assistant director of Mental Health PEER Connection (MHPC), and I'm your host Ernie Churchwell. Welcome back to the program, Cathie.
Thank you for having me, Ernie.
It's our pleasure. For anyone that caught last week's program, Cathie was talking about a number of the many peer support groups that MHPC has around and about and think that all the remains are about nine groups that fall under the umbrella of Addict 2 Addict, Family 2 Family, or as they prefer to say, A2A, F2F.
Could you mention the names and dates and times of these groups?
Well, first we have our Book Club, which is “Co-Dependence No More!” and that runs every Friday at noon.
We have “Hope Heals Family”, which is a SMART Recovery group that is held Tuesdays from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
We have “Healing Families” and that is another SMART Recovery group that is the first and third Tuesdays from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
We have “Allies 2 Advocacy”, which is another SMART Recovery, Thursdays, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
We have our “Wellness for All Peer 2 Peer” that is every first and third Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
We have our “Family 2 Family Grandparents” group. One of them runs in the east side from the first and third Wednesday, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. and the other one is on the West side and it runs the second and fourth Monday from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
In addition to that, we also will have two F2F family forums. One is for "Grief & Loss” and that that runs every third Monday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
And the other one is our “Significant Other Family Forum” and that runs every third Friday, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. For those who wish to inquire more about these support groups, you can call our A2A, F2F warm line at 716-836-2627. It's an answering service.
You can leave a message stating that you're inquiring about support groups offered by our A2A, F2F staff. I'd like to note that some of these are held in our city and other support groups are held out in the rural areas of Western New York and beyond.
Anyone who wants to inquire about recovery coaching services or family support services can also call our warm line. Again, that's 716-836-2627.
Well, that's a lot of groups to keep track of.
If someone wants to look into detailed information on them, is there a way that they could go to our website and look these up?
I do know that we asked that everything get posted to all social media for Western New York independent living when the most recent copies were updated that you would have to ask Community Engagement.
Well, as the person that posts the Facebook posting for the agency, I can say that the full listing was made available within the last month so and it included some groups that are brand new like the grandparents group. So that's certainly something to talk about. And just a quick word when you say that they're SMART Recovery Groups, that's an alternative to the traditional type of group for people with usage disorders, right?
Absolutely. And SMART Recovery, it's not like NA or AA. You have alternatives to the pathways to recovery nowadays. So, for individuals also dealing with mental health issues or other forms of addictive behavior such as gambling and other. It's endless.
We're totally out of time. You've already given the phone number a couple of times, so thanks so much for being with us, Cathie.
Thank you. Have a good day.
You too. You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Cathie Campbell, assistant director of MHPC. And I've been your host, Ernie Churchwell.