Conflict Resolution

Often we disagree with one another. It’s a given.  My life experiences are different than yours. Sometimes the issue is mundane like how you load the dishwasher, and let’s be clear if I put the soap in and close the door I have the right to rearrange it first.

Our Coalition does a Capacity Assessment every year and this statement ranked lowest: The Coalition effectively addresses and resolves issues.  50% agree with the statement, 4.55% think we do it really well and 4.55% think we don’t.  Another 40.91% don’t know if we do or not.  It hasn’t been their experience to be involved in a conflict with the Coalition. The score slipped just under 4 making it a medium priority at 3.92. To be clear that 4.55% is one person out of 22.

I have some questions:

1.       What is the issue? Can you define it for me?

2.       What is your experience with this issue?

3.       Is this a personal, agency, community or a coalition issue?

4.       As a coalition do we have the authority to resolve it?

5.       How does a coalition effect change anyway?

If you find yourself in disagreement with the Fairbanks Reentry Coalition I invite you to start with me. You might find that a resolution is only a conversation away.  In four short months as the Coordinator I have been able to resolve a few issues.  Some things may not change because this is a grant funded program with its own boundaries, rules and conditions. But by the time we finish talking you will know why we do the things the way we do and if resolution is possible. Change is possible!

At times my self-talk is negative; I can’t see a way forward. When I thoughtfully express it to a trusted peer or mentor they can reframe it helping me find hope.  A few months ago we did another survey and our members listed the strengths that they bring to the table and the most common strength listed was conflict resolution. I am hopeful that a year from now this assessment will reveal our coalition is great at addressing and resolving issues.

WRAP

This week WRAP® comes to the Fairbanks Reentry Coalition from the Alaska Peer Support Consortium[i]. Seven individuals will sit at the coalition office once a week for the next five weeks and learn to use WRAP® in their own process of recovery.  It is the first step of our newly formed Peer Support Work Group.  

WRAP® is . . .

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan® or WRAP® is a self-designed prevention and wellness process that anyone can use to get well, stay well and make their life the way they want it to be. It was developed in 1997 by a group of people who were searching for ways to overcome their own mental health issues and move on to fulfilling their life dreams and goals.  It is now used extensively by people in all kinds of circumstances, and by health care and mental health systems all over the world to address all kinds of physical, mental health and life issues.

WRAP® has been studied extensively in rigorous research projects and is listed in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.[ii]

Whenever we sit together at the table we are strengthened. We know that recovery happens in the shared life of relationships. If dysfunctional relationships can sabotage our recovery, then functional relationships should enhance our recovery. Isn’t that what we want for our returning citizens? A place at the wellness table.

[i] https://www.akpeersupport.org/

[ii] http://mentalhealthrecovery.com/wrap-is/

The Dance of Collaboration

I am exploring the thought of coalition building as learning to dance in step with each other.  I spent the wee hours of the morning one day last week dreaming of the community dancing together welcoming home men and women who completed their sentence.  I have an idea that it was the combination of a movie I watched where the prince was teaching a young woman to ball room dance and the film by the Alaska Mental Health Trust, Inside Out, Leaving Prison Behind.  It reminded me that we are all learning to dance. The best possible to way to learn is from someone who already knows how, a good leader. Dancing together requires a shared vision and a passion for what we are doing together.

In my office each day I am listening to good leaders, people who have been doing the work of reentry longer than me, which isn’t hard as I started in April this year. Each day is a discovery and I follow the lead given by my new instructors. Last week I learned from five people who sat around my table as the new Peer Support Work Group.  All I can tell you is that I believe the honesty and vulnerability of this work group will most likely change everything. They are the hope for a human connection in reentry. Their stories of struggle, mental illness, addiction, homelessness, and incarceration are intertwined with successes and redemption that will change our thinking about reentry.  Their advocacy and desire for change are the inspiration our community needs.  We can empower them by training and job creation as we explore the idea of Forensic Peer Support Specialists.  What if this group of talented men and women were able to get paid to meet reentering citizens at the gate and help them navigate the first days in our community after potentially years of incarceration? What if sober, supportive housing was readily available for a year or two for every returning citizen who was ready for a change?

Take a moment and watch Inside Out again and imagine yourself being greeted by the staff at Haven House and your family. Would that kind of welcome make our community safer and stronger?

Peer Support Work Group

Peer Support is the newest work group being formed as part of the Fairbanks Reentry Coalition. Peer support is the process of people who have personal lived experience with mental illness or mental illness with co-occurring substance abuse disorder giving their peers encouragement, hope and understanding to support their recovery.

There are several factors that are leading to the development of this work group.

First of all, there is a position on the ACT/ICM Team being explored by the Fairbanks Housing and Homeless Coalition called a Certified Peer Support Specialist.  At this time there is not a local/state certification process or formalized training for peer support. This will be a paid position that is billable for the agency employing the Peer Support Specialist.  We will be advocates for this certification.

Secondly, for reentry we are adding a requirement of involvement with the justice system. While becoming a Certified Peer Support Specialist may require a clear background check we know that there is a place for peer support from those with the lived experience of reentry.  How we navigate this issue will be a focus of our work group.

Finally, the need is apparent, our returning citizens need peers who can help them learn to ride the bus, find the offices for needed services, learn to budget and model recovery.  In my mind they represent a hand of compassion to navigate the confusion, loss and grief that are part of recovery from mental illness, substance use disorder and incarceration.

There are a few places in Fairbanks that model peer support for us, the recovery community with groups like AA, NA, Oxford House and NAMI Fairbanks with their Peer 2 Peer program.  The Alaska Peer Support Consortium and The Criminal Justice System Transformation Project plan to support the use of Forensic Peer Support and its concepts to support a system for the successful reentry of Alaskans with behavioral health challenges.  Our work group will follow the work of these local programs and statewide initiatives.

Our first meeting is this week; contact me if you would like to get involved.  My email is reentry@iacnvl.org.

“It’s important that we share our experiences with other people. Your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.  When you tell your story, you free yourself and give other people permission to acknowledge their own story.” –Iyanla Vanzant

Change Agents

I have been listening to Ear Hustle SQ for a few weeks now getting caught up on seasons one and two so that I am ready for the beginning of season three.  I feel like it is part of my reentry education.  Last week I was deeply impacted by the story of Sara and LA about sex trafficking.  The episode was “Dirty Water[i]” and the implication is that children caught up in the life have no choice never being given clean water. You should listen to the work of restoration that Sara does for victims of trafficking.  Really listen to the words used that validate the victim, the hope that comes from telling the truth, “I was a child, it was not my choice”, and the message of forgiveness.  I was touched at her ability to confront LA in a respectful way and challenge his way of thinking. This work of restoration seems too rare.

As a result of this conversation my hope for peer support specialists in reentry has been solidified. I have spent a few minutes on the site of IamSJK[ii] and her bio reveals a strong desire to use her experiences to be a change agent. “Helping people pull through their trauma is healing.”  What if our experiences of healing challenged us to bring healing to others? Sara references a favorite book of mine written by Viktor Frankl called “Man’s Search for Meaning”  Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who survived his imprisonment in the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.  Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way[iii].”

I am imagining a community where every person who desires to bring life change is supported in their efforts, turning pain into purpose; giving the reentrant the keys to a new life of their own imagining. If you are reading this and you’d like to become a peer support specialist we could use your advocacy to make it happen.

[i] https://www.earhustlesq.com/listen/2018/3/28/dirty-water

[ii] http://www.iamsjk.org/

[iii] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/viktor_e_frankl_131417

Ignite!

Book Review:  IGNITE: Getting Your Community Coalition “Fired Up” for Change by Frances Dunn Butterfoss

Several years ago I had the privilege to attend Coalitions 101 in my role with the Fairbanks Wellness Coalition.  I got my first copy of Ignite as a participant.  It’s an honor to be on the FWC steering committee in my role as Reentry Coalition Coordinator. As I started in my new position I was gifted another copy of the book.  It was a timely reminder on the role of coalitions.  “Coalitions have the power to catalyze a spark of an idea about how our communities could be healthier.”

What does it mean to build a coalition around the idea of creating a safer, stronger community by giving returning citizens keys that lead to stable housing, meaningful work, transportation, cultural connections and access to health care?  It means that we gather the agencies and people together to bring their resources, ideas and dreams to the table. The coalition is not a funder, nor an agency, we are a connector. Members of our community that are returning from serving their sentence are the beneficiaries.  In particular, we identify the barriers to services by listening. Finding an employer isn’t impossible, but without transportation getting to work can be a challenge. This brings up a transportation gap from 7:45pm on Saturday until Monday morning there is no public transit for those using the bus. Taking this one goal of increasing bus hours we can effect change that not only helps our reentrants but anyone relying on public transportation.  In cooperation with the Fairbanks North Star Borough we can advocate for a goal on their Priority Plan to increase the hours of operation. Our voice joins other voices calling for change and fans the flames.

By myself I might recognize barriers and gaps in services but alone I am powerless to bring about change.  Together we can identify the strategies that will reduce the barriers, fill in the gaps and fan the flame of change.  Butterfoss shows us how to build the fire and then sustain it in this practical step by step manual.

Book Review: A Court of Refuge

I finished reading A Court of Refuge, Stories from the Bench of America’s First Mental Health Court, by Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren, with a resounding YES! These past few weeks I have been learning about therapeutic courts for a variety of situations and find that the humanity and authenticity of such courts is compelling.  Judge Lerner-Wren’s compassionate voice tells the stories of some of the most vulnerable people in our society who need help not punishment.

I found myself thinking about my college years and sitting in court as a nursing student in 1977 for the commitment hearing of a man suffering from delusions as they weighed whether or not he was a danger to himself or others. I remember the frustration of his family as they realized that he would not be helped that day by the court even though he was clearly in a mental health crisis and unable to admit himself for mental health care.  After working a semester in a state mental hospital as their clients were being discharged to community based mental health services, I began to recognize the gait of the mentally ill homeless on the streets of Chicago.

The end result of this transition that began in 1965 is that 559,000 beds in state hospitals decreased to only 69,000 by 1995.  Homeless and prison populations soared and studies show that more than 10% of those incarcerated are known to suffer from severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression. Prisons did not improve the plight of the mentally ill; instead they traumatize men and women who need treatment in a therapeutic setting.  The author carefully weaves into her story the policies and statistics that reveal her communities investment in restoring lives in a court of refuge.  One astonishing statistic is that an estimated 85% of incarcerated women have experienced sexual or physical abuse as a child or adolescent.  According to SAMSHA, "trauma informed criminal justice responses can help avoid re-traumatizing individuals. This increases safety for all, decreases the chance of an individual returning to criminal behavior, and supports the recovery of justice-involved women and men with serious mental illness.”

I will end with this quote “…mental health courts provide valuable lessons and insights into recovery and the power of community, human connections, and ways to leverage social networks and alliances to provide supports to fill gaps.  These bold efforts, however, also highlight the need for our nation’s policy makers to “turn the page” of centuries of stigma and discrimination and advance mental health reforms from a public health perspective.” 

Life or Death!

Sometimes a statistic just startles you.  In Washington State, a study revealed that “mortality rates are much higher immediately after released prisoners leave prison than before or afterward. In the first two weeks after release, the mortality rate is 49 deaths per 100,000 person-weeks, falling quickly to 17 deaths per 100,000 person-weeks in the subsequent two-week period. This mortality rate immediately following release is much higher than the mortality rate of the incarcerated population, which is only 4 deaths per 100,000 person-weeks.” [i]  The author goes on to say that ¾ of these are drug overdoses.  Because of decreased use of opioids in prison, the addict develops intolerance to the drug. Even a dose similar to pre-incarceration could be fatal.

In an English national study, prison-based opioid substitution therapy was associated with a 75% reduction in all-cause mortality and an 85% reduction in fatal drug-related poisoning in the first month after release.[ii]  How important it is to have a warm hand off to a local opioid substitution therapy program when the individual returns home.

Many times due to the hindrances of having valid ID, transportation, civilian clothing, access to Medicaid and health care the returning citizen faces barriers to the care that they require.  With reentry case management these barriers can begin to be addressed before the prisoner is released.  Sober housing for the returning citizen allows them transition safely rather than being homeless or potentially returning to an unsupported or toxic living environment.

One way the issue of addiction is being addressed is through diversion programs or a Therapeutic Court like the Fairbanks Wellness Court offering drug and alcohol treatment for those individuals who plead no contest or admit guilt for a felony drug or alcohol conviction.  Fairbanks Wellness Court currently has 27 participants and room for three more in an intensive two year program.

In 2017, 820 men and women returned home to Fairbanks, Alaska from incarceration after completing their sentences.  Those with felony records and a few with misdemeanors who had the most risk of recidivism were offered case management services 30 days before release to continue for 6 months after release.  Fairbanks Reentry Case Management Program caseload is 40 returning citizens, this is a voluntary program introduced in our state prisons.  Other agencies offer varying degrees of case management services for their program participants, including the Fairbanks Rescue Mission, Restore, Inc., Interior Aids Association, Interior Center for Non-Violent Living and soon, No Limits/Prosperity House.  

Fairbanks Reentry Coalition is bringing together these agencies and others to address the barriers and gaps in services.  Our meetings are held the first Thursday of the month, the next one is August 2 at 10am at the City Hall Council Chambers in Fairbanks.

[i] https://www.brookings.edu/research/twelve-facts-about-incarceration-and-prisoner-reentry/

[ii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28160345