Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, Inc.

12/27/2023

In the news!

What causes anxiety? What can those who experience it intensely and persistently do to ease their burden? Anxious Nation, a documentary that played in five theaters across the state this fall in a series of special events organized by NAMI-VT, proposes the same answer to both questions. The answer i...

12/26/2023

In the news!

“Music is good for your mental health.” That’s what the lead singer of the sextet Cozy told the crowd that had gathered at Hard’ack Recreation Area in St. Albans for the festival known as Afterglow. It was early afternoon on a sunny fall Saturday, and as attendees continued to eat, drink, an...

12/25/2023

celebrates YOU!

12/24/2023

Today and every day, we honor you and your story. You are not alone in our community of psychiatric survivors. We stand proud of you. We wish you and yours a hopeful holiday and new year.

12/24/2023

It's ! What did you do today to stay well?

12/23/2023

In the news! https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/state-to-resurrect-middlesex-residence/

The Vermont Department for Children and Families has plans to develop five new youth facilities to replace Essex’s Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, which shuttered in 2020 amid a dwindling inmate population and reports of abuse by staff. One of them will reuse a pair of linked FEMA trailer...

12/22/2023

https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/mental-health-conference-features-psychiatric-survivors/

Under the title “Reshaping Mental Health Systems Through Integration,” the Vermont Department of Mental Health held its first annual conference since the COVID-19 pandemic at the Killington Grand Hotel on Oct. 19. Self-identified psychiatric survivors jointly or independently led at least five o...

12/21/2023

In the news! https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/integration-council-wraps-up/

Vermont’s Mental Health Integration Council held its last meeting in September. It will submit its final recommendations to lawmakers in January. The state legislature created the Council in 2020 to help incorporate “mental health into a holistic health care system.” Flooding in July postponed...

12/15/2023

Hot off the press! https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/clients-celebrate-direct-support-professionals/

Vermont Care Partners, Green Mountain Self-Advocates, and the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council gathered on the State House lawn to honor Vermont’s direct support professionals on Sept. 12. DSPs assist people with developmental, intellectual, and psychiatric disabilities. A trade associat...

12/14/2023

Hot off the press! https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/peers-meet-montpelierites-in-crisis/

For several years, Vermont’s hospitals have reported increases in emergency department visits for mental health. Downtown Montpelier has a new option for people in distress who need help immediately. At Washington County Mental Health Services’ Access Hub, that help arrives first in the form of ...

12/13/2023

Hot off the press! https://vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org/judge-advises-limiting-competency-restoration/

In Montpelier, Judge Steven Leifman of Florida keynoted what the Vermont Judiciary Commission on Mental Health and the Courts called its first annual summit. Leifman’s speech described how Miami-Dade County’s decision to prioritize mental health treatment for low-level criminal defendants, rathe...

12/13/2023

Almost everything in our culture attempts to convince us that mental health is a personal responsibility, a performance we owe to society, not the result of a society where we take care of each other.