Director of Peer Recovery Services Bob Rousseau brings new leadership ideas to FHR in Massachusetts
Philadelphia, PA – August 8, 2011 - Subsequent to his attendance at the first international Wrap Around the World Conference, FHR Director of Peer Recovery Services and certified WRAP group facilitator, Bob Rousseau, will incorporate Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) leadership aspects into three Massachusetts regions this fall. “The Conference, held at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel on August 1-3, offered workshops on how to create a WRAP for persons with serious trauma experiences, for persons who struggle with loneliness and isolation, and for persons in recovery from chemical dependency,” Rousseau says.
New leadership plans involving WRAP include offering a group WRAP to regional directors, team leaders, and lead clinicians in southeastern Massachusetts. “I had the opportunity to share with Mary Ellen Copeland, the originator of WRAP, my plan to facilitate a WRAP for the leadership and clinical staff of FHR,” Rousseau says. “She has a nephew working in New Bedford and said she is eager to see how WRAP for leadership and clinicians works out.”
At the conference, Rousseau and over 300 other WRAP participants gave Copeland a five-minute standing ovation as she finished her keynote speech. “I cannot believe it has been fifteen years since my friends and I, who were living with psychiatric challenges, gathered together in Vermont and began to put together the essential elements of WRAP,” Copeland said. “Since then, WRAP has become evidence-based practice and a recovery program used by thousands of people around the world.”
“The 15 values and ethics of WRAP create WRAP’s phenomenal success. These values and ethics need to be honored and protected as state agencies and mental health service providers incorporate WRAP into clubhouses, group homes, respite programs, and day programs,” says Matthew Federici, the executive director of the Copeland Center.
FHR collaborated with the Community Counseling of Bristol County (CCBC) to offer the first group WRAP for persons living with psychiatric challenges at the Recovery Learning Community in Taunton, MA. The MASSWRAP allowed Rousseau and Director of the Recovery Learning Community Elizabeth Amaral to become the first certified WRAP group facilitators in southeastern Massachusetts. Amaral and Rousseau will continue their collaboration with a 10-week WRAP course for persons served by FHR in the New Bedford Region.
“FHR President/CEO Joe Dziobek will be one of the participants in this fall’s WRAP for leadership and clinicians,” Rousseau says. “The values and ethics of WRAP harmonize beautifully with the five key concepts of FHR’s own PRISMMODEL.”
FHR will be among the very first service providers across the nation to make WRAP available to upper level leadership and clinical staff members. “When this WRAP is complete, both mental health professionals and persons served will have common experiential language with which they can discuss health, wellness, and recovery,” Rousseau says. “This is a giant step forward in creating a transformed mental health system that is wellness-centered and recovery-oriented.”
For more information about WRAP, contact Bob Rousseau at 774-634-7976.