Saturday, July 08, 2006

To the Editor of Bipolar Magazine

The following letter has just been sent, and hopefully will be published by the excellent "BP magazine":

Thanks so very much for your wonderful magazine dedicated to providing information and hope.

I've not seen any mention (or links on your RESOUCES page) to the PROCOVERY movement. Kathleen Crowley created the concept of Procovery.

"The Missouri Department of Mental Health (MDMH) announced on March 25, 2005 that it is adopting a Procovery treatment philosophy and rolling out through Missouri's service delivery system over the next three to five years." (Quotation from procovery.com - a press release is available from that site.)

In just 15 months, there have been hundreds of Procovery facilitators trained in Missouri. There are now over 100 active circles across the state of Missouri.
People with a disorder, their support persons, and professional staff all can participate in Procovery circles.

The word Procovery means "attaining a productive and fulfilling life regardless of the level of health assumed attainable (vs. recovery, returning to a prior state of health)"*. The principles and strategies of the model of Procovery define a forward-focused, hope-centered, and practical approach for finding healing and building life with serious and chronic illnesses, injuries and trauma.

As someone who was fortunate enough to be trained as a facilitator 15 months ago, I've started two circles. One is at a Residential Care Facility with 38 residents. The circle there is completely voluntary, and we have about 1/4 of the community active and "Procovering" on a weekly basis.
I'm also starting two Procovery circles for homeless people at two downtown churches that have programs for the homeless. Procovery has been so very life giving for me, and I've seen many friends "blossom" because of the support and positive structure of the circles.

For more information, just visit
http://www.procovery.com/

or my blog "Procovery - and Friends" at
http://shcrt.blogspot.com/

* Quotation from The Power of Procovery in Healing Mental Illness: Just Start Anywhere, by Kathleen Crowley (c) Copyright 2000.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am the Homeless Case Management Coordinator/Trainer for a non-profit in KC, MO and I was wondering where these churches doing procovery circles are located- what city- and if they are in KC are they open procovery circles for homeless as I have been trained to facilitate procovery circles and plan to start one in August at a homeless shelter in Independence, MO -so was interested in getting connected with someone else doing them with those experiencing homelessness. Thanks