Serving an Underserved Population: Peer Support, Disability, and Mental Health
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people who have disabilities are nearly 5 times as likely to experience mental illness as people without disabilities. Between 25-40% of all people who have disabilities also have a mental illness. Peer support specialists are already equipped to intervene when a peer shows signs of a mental health condition and help the peers and families cope with a mental health diagnosis and to live successfully with a mental health condition. However, persons with disabilities face additional challenges to both recovery and the services of peer support.
In this free 60-minute webinar we will:
- Discuss the interaction of intellectual/developmental, physical, and/or sensory disability and mental health conditions.
- Attempt to better understand the lived experience of disability and its impact on recovery and reintegration.
- Explore the unique challenges to service, access, and utilization among persons with mental health conditions and other disabilities.
- Learn how to adjust typical peer support strategies to effectively serve persons with mental health conditions and other disabilities.
Meet the Speaker
Amy Wright, MSW, has worked with Mental Health America of the Heartland in the Kansas City area for more than two years. She started out as a wellness and support advocate, working at EITAS, a developmental disability provider in the Kansas City metro region, with people who have a dual diagnosis of intellectual/developmental disability and mental illness. Currently, she is the manager of advocacy and recovery services at Mental Health America of the Heartland. Wright has been active on several area committees and organizations, including the mobility advisory committee through the mid-America regional council in the Kansas City metro region. Additionally, Wright has sensory disabilities and lived experience with mental illness.