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Faces of CMHA: Paul Pakeman, Peer Navigator Cambridge Memorial Hospital

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I wanted to help people through their recovery. Recovery as a therapeutic medium, wellness based focus, allowing people to see themselves through a different lens – that they are more than their illness. The Peer role adds value to that recovery, enhancing the recovery principles.

1. What is involved in your role?

The focus of my peer navigator role at the Cambridge Memorial hospital is on inpatient and day patient mental health care. When people are admitted to the hospital, they receive an inpatient package with information about the peer navigator role; there is also a peer navigator board with information about my role and peer support groups.

I am part of a multi-disciplinary team, which includes an Occupational Therapist, a Recreational Therapist, a Social Worker, and a Peer Worker. We are all involved in the grand rounds that take place once a week and go over all patient’s needs with clinical staff. We also have a short huddle each day to go over patients and go through what the needs are.

I co-facilitate groups the inpatient unit looking at things like naming emotions, and distress tolerance. I also run a Wellness and Recovery Peer group with a recreation therapist. I touch base with people during groups, introduces myself as someone with lived experience and someone who has experienced recovery. During the morning Quad Walk on the unit I talk to folks on a one on one basis as a way to further introduce elements of my lived experience, as well as, to inquire and listen to their stories. The conversations I have focus on strength and agency based building.

Recently, I have been engaging with the medical students, fourth year residents, who come through on rounds. I give them information on recovery values and how this can apply to family practice and psychiatry. They also receive a resource listing and are introduced to what the Peer Navigator role entails. In addition, I get to learn from them what they are learning in school and I get to share with them the patient experience around stigma, medications and treatment and how this applies to the value of choices from a public system perspective.

My role also finds me in Day Hospital, there I co-facilitate groups on the faith and spirituality; Discharge Planning and an off- site day hospital group at Self Help entitled “Who’s Driving the Bus”( Focus on self-agency, recovery values and strength based practices”). As well, I set individual appointments for peer support.

2. Why did you become involved in the mental health field?

Some 20 years ago I was looking for work. I was an unemployed father of two who was recently separated for a year prior. I say an ad in the employment office for a job in the Shelter for homeless men. They were looking for a counsellor and it paid well. I did a follow up call and found out the director of counselling services was a friend I lost track of over the years. He scheduled me for an interview. I did not get the job but was offered a position within a 10 bed unit for homeless men with psychiatric and substance use issues housed at the shelter. I took the job. That was my formal start in the mental health field. At this job I was introduced to Recovery values and practices. At that time the notion of recovery oriented practices was just beginning to surface. The notion of professional Peer support was not on the radar at that time.

3. What motivated you to work in peer support?

I wanted to help people through their recovery. Recovery as a therapeutic medium, wellness based focus, allowing people to see themselves through a different lens – that they are more than their illness. The Peer role adds value to that recovery, enhancing the recovery principles.

4. Have you always worked in mental health?

I have always worked in the mental health system and it has given me a good understanding of how the system of care works. I started working as a counsellor at a men’s shelter. I then became the Director of a unit of a homeless shelter for men with mental health issues, they used the therapeutic theme of recovery, and I understood recovery on a personal level. I then started working on the Mobile crisis team for the region before it became Here 24/7. About 4 years ago, I started as a peer navigator in my current role at Cambridge Memorial. It is relatively new having peer support in a clinical setting and I have enjoyed the challenge.

5. How do you support people in your role?

I support people by bringing my own personal experience with mental health services to a clinical setting. I help humanize their experience in an environment that can seem cold. I share my own experience with clinical staff so they can better understand the psyche of the individual. This information can affect the direction of treatment. I find that clients open up to peers sometimes in a different way than clinical staff. They feel understood, less isolated and more connected.

6. What are you proud of during your time in your role?

I developed a 12-week curriculum for a day hospital off-site group at CMHA Self Help Centre in Galt. I am proud that through this, people discover that they are not their illness; they learn a more about the recovery perspective, and how what they do matters when focusing on their strengths. The group is a good transition for people leaving day hospital. Some people miss the structure of day hospital and fear relapsing. The group is a resource for people to feel heard, included and understood by giving them a community resource they can lean on after day hospital. It also helps people become comfortable walking through the self-help door for other groups. I am also proud to offering one to one peer consultations to day hospital participants. I do less informal peer support on the in-patient unit. It is important for me to spread out the recovery and peer role throughout mental health services at the hospital. I also encouraged staff members involved in mental health to receive full day training on recovery, and I am proud that the hospital made this a paid learning opportunity. I am on a Quality and Operations committee at the hospital for mental health. This is a decision making body for mental health services offered at the hospital. I am honoured that I have been able to give talks to hospital’s inpatient nursing staff on recovery and peer support. I was also on a team to get a family advisory committee started, and sit on an accreditation committee looking at meeting the targets for recovery oriented care. I am also proud of doing Day Hospital groups on Nutrition and it’s connection to mental health. Finally, the chief librarian of the hospital asked me to put on a presentation on Nutrition’s Role in Mental Health Recovery a hospital wide talk.
This presentation was videotaped and sits on the hospital’s internal learning platform. This was well attended.

If you are in crisis or wish to discuss whether CMHA has the right service for you, call Here 24/7: 1-844-437-3247 (HERE 247).

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Follow the ‘Faces of CMHA’ series for a glimpse into the lives of the people who spend each day at the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington working to inspire and support people to achieve the quality of life they desire. Join our team, click here to view current employment opportunities at CMHA WW.

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