Information Session for March Kings County Chapter of the SSNS

Please note that there will be the information session on Wednesday evening the 16^th of March at the Lions Club Hall on River Street in Kentville. There will be a presentation by Wayne Schram of the Healthy Minds Comedy Troupe.

Self Help Group Meeting Announcement

This is a meeting announcement for the Self Help Group for family and friends of those with psychosis and/or
depression.

The Self-Help Group will meet at Beacon House on Monday March 7^th at 7.00 pm. Beacon House is at 150 Exhibition Street in Kentville, which is behind or at the rear of the Professional Bldg which fronts on Exhibition Street. You get there on the first left after Cornwallis St. OR coming up the hill toward the Valley Regional Hospital you turn right, or east at Fidelis Residence, and then another right 20 meters on a right to their parking lot. We will be meeting in the board room which is on the right as you enter Beacon House.

Recovery and the Spiritual Life

What I am about to share with you is my own personal experience.  It need not be yours.  I just want to share it with my readers with the hope that it just might help someone.  My spiritual life is one of the main ingredients of my recovery from my schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, addiction, and alcoholism.  It is not the only thing responsible for my recovery.  There are many different aspects to my recovery.  For the purpose of this article I just want to share the spiritual part of my recovery.

I personally believe that one of the reasons for my recovery is God's Divine Providence and Intervention.  He is the only reason I have survived mental illness and addiction.  According to the laws of science I should be dead a hundred times over.  All the accidental overdoses and the thoughts of committing suicide.  I remember one experience when I was in the hospital I tried to jump out the fourth floor window four or five times.  There were three security guards watching me.  When I was halfway out the window they had to grab me and pull me back in the window.

There were many times when I overdosed on drugs, not on purpose, I was just trying to get high.  During one period of my active addiction there was an ambulance or the police at my house three or four times a week because of drug overdoses.  Many of those times  I was very close to death.  I remember one time I woke up in the V.G. Hospital in Halifax.  Just as I was waking up the Doctor came in shaking his head saying "I don't understand it, I don't understand it"  

I said, "Doc what don't you understand?"  

The Doctor replied, "young man you should be dead right now.  You had enough drugs in your system to kill five people. I don't understand how come you are still alive." 

If that isn't God's Divine Providence and Intervention I don't know what is.  All because of God I am still here and by His miracle I am living in and enjoying recovery to the fullest.  I am fully human and fully alive.  I make mistakes and sometimes say and do things that I shouldn't but by God's love, compassion, grace, and mercy I am living a spiritual life to the best of my ability.

I truly believe in God and totally depend on Him for my recovery.  After over 20 years of pain, suffering, torture, and torment God saw to it that the Doctors finally found the right medication.  My psychosis in is total remission.  I am overcoming the negative symptoms of my schizophrenia.  I am slowly overcoming and getting control of my obsessive compulsive disorder.  I have now been clean and sober for 11 years as of December 6, 2010.

It isn't just the medication that is responsible for my recovery.  While I was living on the Beacon Unit (a rehabilitation program) I was receiving psycho-social treatments for my schizophrenia as well.  I was also greatly helped with my addiction problems by one of the nurses that worked on the Beacon Unit, who happened to work in addictions for over 20 years.  We talked for many hours about my thoughts, feelings, and cravings for drugs and alcohol.  She helped me to work some of the 12 steps that originated with Alcoholics Anonymous.  I also attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous as well.  I do not attend those groups at the present moment though, but I still try to work the 12 steps to the best of my ability.

While living on the Beacon Unit the best thing that could ever happen to me happened.  I met my wife.  I believe that Kim was God sent.  I personally believe that God is the one that arranged for us to meet, fall in love, and get married.  As of September 1, 2010 we have been married for nine years.  She also played a big role in my recovery from my concurrent disorders.  I believe that if it wasn't for Kim I would not be where I am right now in my recovery.

I have been truly blessed by God and His Divine Providence and Intervention.  In order to keep and maintain my recovery I try to carry on a personal relationship with God to the best of my ability.  I talk to God through prayer and I let God talk to me through meditation.  I do my best to keep in touch with the God of my own understanding.  I truly believe that "with God all things are possible." and "without God nothing is possible."

I am living in recovery, living a life of meaning and purpose, I am a productive member of society, and most of all I am happily married.  All because of one person.  God.

SSNS Kings County Chapter Fund Raiser

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Dessert party with music, comedy, and a silent auction.

Friday April 1st, 2011, April Fools Day

Kentville Fire Hall, Main Street, Kentville

Silent Auction to start at 6:30 pm

Followed by music with Rachel MacLean

And laughter with the Healthy Minds Comedy Troupe

Tickets $10.00

If someone would like to purchase a ticket and attend this wonderful night of entertainment

send me an e-mail and we will work something out.  You can obtain my e-mail address by clicking on my profile on the side bar of this blog. You will have to scroll down a ways.

From Recovery to Discovery Peer Support Group Meetings

From Recovery to Discovery Peer Support Group Meetings

Every Thursday Evening

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

The Hub

2nd Floor, 1673 Barrington Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

The From Recovery to Discovery Peer Support Group is open to anyone affected by mental illness, either directly or indirectly.

FREE!

This Thursday, February 17^th, 2011

An Interactive Presentation on The Beacon Program: Promoting Recovery through Psychosocial Rehabilitation

The Beacon Program is a community-based psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) program for individuals who are struggling with mental illness.  Located in the Annapolis Valley, it is a voluntary program which empowers individuals to make choices, gain skills, and find a more satisfying life in the community with the greatest amount of independence possible.

The program is ideally suited to young adults who have the potential to live independently, return to work or school, and expand their social network.  Through PSR, individuals will be working closely with staff to develop individualized growth and recovery plans, and to identify personal goals in these areas.

The Beacon Program has a multidisciplinary team that includes psychiatry, an occupational therapist, social worker, psychologist, psychosocial rehabilitation workers, nurses, and consultation with nutritional and environmental services.

While attending the Beacon Program, individuals may choose to live at Beacon House, a beautiful new Kentville residence built in 2009 that is a home away from home.  Residents of Beacon House have their own bedroom which they can decorate and make their own.  There are also common spaces like a computer room, a lounge/ TV room, a kitchen/deck, and a formal meeting area. There is a full bathroom, washer & dryer, and even a clothesline!  There is also ample space outdoors to shoot hoops, throw a Frisbee, skateboard, sit in the sun, barbeque, garden, etc.

Presenters:

Ms. Valerie Davis, BSW, MSW

Ms. Valerie Davis is a manager with Mental Health and Addiction Services, Annapolis Valley Health.   Her current responsibilities include Community Supports and Rehabilitation, Health Promotion, and Crisis Response Services. 

Ms. Davis’ studies in social work began at Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she completed a BSW.  She earned a MSW form Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.  She began her career 30 years ago working in mental health in rural Newfoundland. Since then, she has worked in both clinical and management roles in community-based primary care and mental health services in the Ottawa-Carleton municipality.   Valerie and her family relocated to the Annapolis Valley in the summer of 2004.

Ms. Betty Swanburg, RN

Ms. Betty Swanburg is a registered nurse who has worked for Annapolis Valley Health for the past 27 years.  Prior to moving to the Annapolis Valley, Betty worked in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and St. John’s, Newfoundland.  Over the years she has worked in different nursing fields, most recently in mental health.  Ms. Swanburg has completed a postgraduate psychiatric nursing course, a suicide risk assessment course, and the psychosocial rehabilitation course offered by the Registered Nurses Professional Development Centre.  She is a member of the Canadian Nurses Association.

Ms. Swanburg started working as an in-patient psychiatric mental health nurse in 2003, then, in 2007, she held a one-year term position as a community mental health nurse at the Middleton Mental Health Clinic.  In February 2010, Ms. Swanburg transferred to the Beacon Program where she holds the position of Care Coordinator, and she is involved with the both the Early Psychosis Team and the Illness Team.

The From Recovery to Discovery Peer Support Group is organized as a partnership between the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia and the Healthy Minds Cooperative.