Unsung Heroes: A Celebration in Honor of Emerging Peer Voice

Russell D. Pierce

Unsung Heroes Speech

We believe that recovery is the ever unfolding process

of generating to the fullest human potential in

community life

Director, Office of Recovery and Empowerment

November 19, 2014

Department of Mental Health

As we prepare to celebrate, let whatever burdens we

carry be lifted up in awe of each other, recognizing that

good has been added unto us by our peers, friends and

colleague and that together we advance in a multitude of

way and in many voices, the aspirations of a movement

that is as dynamic as ever and that can be something

more than a loose agglomeration of disparate and

competing interests—or another set of grievances,

though legitimate, among the aggrieved classes.

But this a time to gather, a time to rid ourselves of

ridicule and protest, even at this critical moment in the

World and certainly here in the Commonwealth, the

cradle of liberty, but I would be remiss if I did not at

least, as the ancients of old did, recognize that though

we celebrate, we ought not avert our eyes to troubles in

the ‘here and now’ to which the congregant, you thus

can say, Aman.

I am just so honored, so very thrilled to be here with you

all—y’all today, as they say in the vernacular of my

hometown and neighborhood. So much happened to me

and to all of us, I can imagine back in the day. Back then

we did not call ourselves anything other than our names

and took great offense if anyone in our posse referred to

us, our mothers and friends in any disparaging ways

through voce, gesture or image display.

But before I go with the uses and misuses of language in

our own times, in our own movement, let me first thank

you for this opportunity to speak and thank my

colleagues and friends in the Recovery Office, Sian,

Robert and Steve, who collectively have given me

strength in their knowledge of this complicated mental

health system in our Commonwealth and the broader

peer movement.

As a historian and philosopher I firmly believe that the

past reflected in the present moment allows us to

surmount whatever challenge come our way as well as

ennobling our spirits and rekindling our own sense of

autonomy and agency. This is done, yes through self-

determination—will and talents recognized afresh in a

system that once consigned us primarily to patient-status

to one that is evolving to recognizing that we are full,

unique and integrated human beings who can can with

our experiential knowledge contribute not only to the

peer role in the system now as it is is constituted, but

across the entirety of the community.

This is my hope for the office, to instill and infuse a

hopeful theory that posits that no matter how we

identify or choose not to identify we can add value to

innumerable roles in community life, demonstrating

prowess in arts, that enlightens all humanity;

contributing to technology and business innovation that

spurs growth and humane competition and leadership

that is built on the very core values that we hold most

endearingly mutuality, purpose, community and a

healthy respect, respect in relationship to one another,

that is at the core of this meaning of peer as it is

especially used currently in our movement.

A cornerstone of my work id to influence as best I can

DMH policy, planning and design of services—indeed it

was a primary reason that brought me here, not to be a

place-holder, but as I have written and spoken

elsewhere, but perhaps not directly to you. A concern of

all here is—and let’s get serious about this money, cash

so essential to recovery which means a quality of life in

community that takes us significantly beyond the poverty

line and the working poor. Another concern is the

excitable embrace of behavioral health integration

without the fullest appreciation that there is a dearth of

a boy of evidence to support it, given the nature of

clinical training and the biases against those who exhibit

behaviors that are oftentimes grounds for bias and

mistreatment in clinical settings. Add to that many peers

just do not prefer to share information with all, all health

providers even those who demonstrate warmness and

easy hand-offs in co-located offices. Perhaps the

potential is great, but we ought to be aware of the

roadblocks a and it is my responsibility to give credence

to these realties, while recognizing the changes in

regulatory language as significant, it is only but a small

beginning. Policy holders must understand why they

support even peer specialists in the workplace;

demonstrate current knowledge on effective supervision,

promotion; awarding effort and performance in a non-

discriminatory way; appropriate feedback and

opportunities for exposure.

This is hard work and I have been fortunate enough to

work with national stakeholders in the workforce; and I

am convinced through such meetings that employment

in the next 10-20 years will be more than mere

recruitment and identification of a significant labor pool.

As the ‘differently abled’ become assimilated or more

appropriately brought into the employment market,

sophisticated managers and organizations will have to

refocus and re-shape their very cultures—ridding

themselves of toxic influences, because as reported in

some media, workers in a new era, and the ‘differently

abled’ today and in the future will bring so much more

added perspective, orientation, skills and perspective

that adds to the bottm line, but will insist that the

organization that once excluded them re-invent itself to

fit around them, no longer are the ‘differently abled’ like

us satisfied o draw a paycheck where we merely

tolerated, accepted without comparable compensation,

and not celebrated, because I must tell you, and I think

convincingly in this technological and skill-based, and

information-globally-networked world, talent and ideas

are moveable.

Those of you who have creatively used your ‘lived

experience’ will realized a new realization that if you are

not valued in terms understood in this economy, you will

be elsewhere. I just know it. Skills like writing and

discourse and relationship are essential to progress and

positioning organization to the next level of relevance

and excellence.

Whether as a volunteer, where once can learn valuable

leaderships skills, training and facilitation—and

negotiating cultural differences, these opportunities to

learn in an organization that suits your interests will

speak volumes when you hit the pavement—indeed the

job, position, role, or power and influence will gravitate

to you—and you will know when it comes, you will be in

your zone, at your zenith but still growing, and the

accolades will flow in abundance.

I am telling you the truth here—volunteer and commit

to something that even may not be your passion, it might

become your passion, your ticket to a foreign land, as it

was for me when I represented the United States as

Delegate to a World Congress on Mental Health. By

strategically volunteering you increase your access to

people, cultures and ideas so necessary for advancement

and over time, with time and talent and wisdom and

work committed to a deserving cause you become

strengthened in your own recovery stories and

strengthen those of your peers.

By the strength of your own example and work, you will

realize voice, power and influence or if you prefer simple

satisfaction knowing that you are as the pastor said,

somebody.

But we have not come to this juncture and reward

without sacrifice and legitimate discontent and protest—

and as my dear mother said, who has since departed, we

need wait for Heaven and Eternal Witness to enjoy our

lives down here. We did not come this far to fail;

instead we soldier on as we must, as heroes and heroines

alike, knowing full well that advances in our cause can

dissipate if we are not faithful witness to the past,

honoring the memory, if not those who have gone

before us. Names likt Chamberlin, Gardner Cares, Fricks,

McKinney, Delman, Romeo, del Vecchcio, Von Tosh,

come immediately to mind for me—others for you. The

point here is not to recall these trailblazers, including the

Commonwealth’s own Dorothea Dix and Clifford Beers,

but to be aware that history bestows a reward as well as

an obligation on each of us – and that to me means that

we must all remember to ‘carry as we climb’.

Stand, yes. Please stand, head-upward. Be, oh, so proud,

without hubris.

But we stand in relation, in relationship with one another

and it here that we have our significance and value, not

alone, for that is not how we arrived—and hopefully not

how will depart this place, this event, this Earth.

This is crucial, but subject to forgetfulness as we become

integrated into systems that once consigned us to the

role of care recipient. I know it feels good, almost

wonderful when top-heavy administrators look upon you

as ‘unique’ and so very special, and you almost begin to

believe that you were never a part of something that

gave you this new-found opportunity and organizational

esteem, such as sitting on the executive team leadership

team, advisory council member, advocate, certified peer,

bridger, navigator. But I tell you necessarily we are

doomed to fail in our valiant effort to reform and

transform a system if we choose, yes it is a volitional act

to be cheap with one another, unappreciative of others

and just plain old unwelcoming.

I am going to proclaim something here, presuming there

is meaning in our convening. I want to say as respectfully

as I can, but sharply:

I cannot stand cheap people, those individuals who have

what to an ethical commitment to parsimony—cheap in

extending praise when it surely due, cheap in extending

the hand in friendship and sharing ‘the good news’ cheap

in manner of style, comportment and manner.

And I know you understand what I mean: some are

made cheap by success, privilege and education. I am

talking about the type of cheapness that I have witness

among wannabes and those who think they have

‘arrived’ and even those who are deemed managers,

supervisors and directors. I tell you I have seen it all—

and it is so very displeasing, unhopeful, unbecoming and

unwholesome.

To be thus, impairs your functioning over time, does not

build capacity and will mark you for sure by those that

matter as a turn-coat, gutless and in the end ineffective

as a leader—certainly not the heroine or hero we

celebrate today, those whose examples builds upon

relationship, trust and authentic caring, one who

preaches the word ‘justice’ embodies it in deed, rhetoric

and association, while perhaps professing no creed,

belief, other than that what can be witnessed.

I would not be too incorrect if I said all of us were

brought into this house, this movement because we

were befriended or invited by someone else, who saw in

us a possibility, a gift to contribute to something beyond

ourselves. In my own case, I volunteered, worked in

hospitals, set on boards without pay—but there was an

advantage to this, and I believe we have all learned that

we must, as the saying goes ‘take advantage of our

disadvantages’ even if we are plentiful in knowledge or

have access to riches, assets and personal strengths. I

have learned that struggle, either in care settings,

emergency rooms, homeless shelters, and detention

centers and jails—and yes I have been there—maybe for

short duration, but long enough to say as my grandma

Ethel would said ‘enough is enough and too much is too

much’

I have learned enough, experienced enough and

observed so much through analytics, to simply express

with exhaustion, how much more do I need to know to

understand. I think my grandfather, Slim, I can see him

now, ‘If I had to entertain the all the objections of a given

proposal, nothing good would happen.’

The mind and shall I say those who play mind games for

the art of it, I suspect, often lose sight that the purpose

of knowledge and wisdom is to apply it to a given

situation to effectuation human betterment and justice,

not as a mere exercise in scholasticism or command

through the aegis of beguilement. Not only is it

confusing; it in the end is not artful, useful or purposeful,

other than a preachment, a sounding off, irrelevant.

And yet the purpose of history and critical inquiry is to be

relevant in the lives of people, especially when we

celebrate heroes and support causes that give us

definition and strength. Our cause is a part of a much

larger civil rights agenda, a human rights agenda, part of

The Universal Declaration of Rights—and certainly

extending far back into the writings on Natural Law, and

meaning for me personally that people have rights

beyond what legal processes deem necessary, cede or

even recognize. While we celebrate the chamions and

victors among us today, let us recognize thall victories

are but small wonders as many battles are marathons,

not sprints, that all progress is perhaps time-bound as

are we, unless we are prophets, and that measurable

gains are subject to reversal—meaning for me, that

progress is nevr assured o matter how close to the goal

line or the end-zone, one cannot celebrate victory for

certain until someone else has finished second, and even

then it is important to wear victory with grace, as

another competition will ensue, another issue brought

before an adoring—and it is fitting that everyone have an

opportunity to shine, as you have.

As every day is a reason to celebrate the dawn and salute

the creation anew and our role in it, today is also a time

to reflect on how far we have come, but to recognize in

our number that there is still a ‘fierce urgency’ to carry

the torch of progress forward in tandem with others who

are still unfree, unemployed, unhopeful, warded-off from

public view—and most, alarmingly, public consideration.

I have learned a few things, and while not believing that

my experience represents any typf universal truth,

subject to randomized trial, let me just saying something

that the internal or intelligible essence of which cannot

be denied—a certain practical knowledge, or common

sense: 1) to withhold counsel, useful critique—2) to

withhold moreover respect, recognition, favor, regard—

or a simple compliment—and: 3) to withhold the

adoption of grace and style even among those for whom

dishonor is consistent with notions of fair play, to

withhold these things says something about you—about

your behavior and ultimately your chances for success

where these values, that we too profess, ring untrue.

I am convinced that when we hold the beauty that is

indwelled in us by either traditions, the spirit of Nature’s

God, we are engaged in a side show—a shadow of

movement, whose rainbow of colors though among

today is but temporary and will fade, but I know I have

been there, our colorful smile and photo-ops are just in

favor of satisfying a type of ethnic, gender or racial

particularism, thought to be fitting on such occasions.

Such behaviors as thus described are not only more

insulting that disfavor—discrimination and prejudice as

we say today, but such attitudes like cheap in all things

encompassing character and our values of trust,

relatedness and community, can be mock either because

those with whom we work are not, not transparent, not

honest, but as I said, with no apology, cheap, ungenerous

in those things that have been given abundantly through

nature, cultivation.

Moreover, to be very practical about and to paint a word

picture: Those who cannot attend to their gardens,

careful to water the plants; those who cannot attend to

the soil or the crops, and who want a bountiful harvest

without effort to plowing up the ground; and those who

do not attend to the careful arrangement of flowers and

such things, are not suited either for leadership in the

home—office or affairs of state. It is my understanding

again from reading people, history and observing that

the future favors those who have actually done the work

in the field before they have reached the mountain top.

Some of you in this room are poised for such leaderships

as this, to be able as creative protesters who challenged

conventions in music, religion and justice, had some

singular qualities—they knew how to attend not only to

their congregations, but espoused hopefulness and belief

through their own example. Quite correctly, they

understood the value of articulation, reading and writing

and even policy—but more importantly than that, they

new the importance of style—style in address, dress,

speech, associations—and style as a symbol, but oh, so

graceful, yes, as a form of agitation. As Dr. king said, our

protest, must not be a violent one, but one with dignity,

a creative claim that is not just a catalogue of complaint,

but a claim on our very government and institutions that

goes to our most cherished values, codified in our

Founding Charter.

But this my friends suggest style as a tool—a tool by

which we msut shame again, those for whom respect for

others and the visitation of hostility either in the work

place, at home or the wider community, is but a by-

product of misunderstand, unintentional bias—perhaps,

but to me plain old meanness—cheap, the lack of

generosity in a civil society, where relationship allow us

all to cohere as equals.

Never underestimate the truth of style as a safeguard

against the worst kind of oppression. In my own journey

that continues today, I have found style as a means for

greater respect, reward and opportunity.

We are bound, I think by the blessings of nature and

creation to extend our reach, our advocacy and our

philanthropy, which can be our dimes and cents, our

work and our spirit, much like the missionary and the

builder of time, repairing the wounds of those who have

valiantly fought, comforting those who are sick, because

as Scripture informs us, ‘there go I, also’

So we carry own, enlisting newer voices, employing

newer images and words, all for the optimization of a

movement that has matured and evolved but still

relevant—and as long as our cause and ideas remain

relevant, we will all have something to contribute,

careful in acknowledging differences, yet comfortable

with what unites us—a cultivation of a robust peer work

force, an appreciation for an inclusive and dynamic policy

agenda, a willingness to share with the wider community

our hopefulness with a psychiatry that is hoping-

inspiring, not hope-sapping; and human enough to share

with one another our authentic selves, in moments of

distress and moments of great joy.

When we model these attribute to each other, we

project value across the life span, across lines of

difference and hopefully understanding among those

whose hearts can be uplifted by our soul renderings in

art, dance, leadership, enterprise and love. At age 54,

there is one thing that I have learned—and it has taken

awhile, and that is the primacy of human contact,

connection, for survival—the real need for friendship,

indispensable in personal well-being as well as career.

I think as peers and leaders we understand that---and for

many, this value, is a result of experience, and while not

directly related to age, there is something about getting

older, if you allow, and that is the search for meaning,

comity, all results of discernment, sometimes lost on the

very young, as it was for me. But as the great Maya

Angelou said, ‘now that I know more, I can do a bit

better’

Let us all toil, if we must, endeavor to do better in all

things essential to mutual progress

And discrimination and prejudice and just plain old

disfavor amounts to an insult on the human personality,

like race, it too is an assault on difference, an affront, a

form of harassment or put-down because it too robs all

of us meaning, dignity and opportunity. But it is that

very opportunity that we celebrate with much more

expectancy today, celebrating the hero that is indwelled

like the spirit in all of us.

I do want to take a brief moment or two just to highlight

a few things I am most proud about our work. We have

increased exponentially our targeted outreach to the

entirety of the community, with academic institutions,

hospitals, community groups and arts and advocacy

groups; involving ourselves in the DMH hiring processes,

promoting a relational work culture; channeling our

recovery stories across the Commonwealth and within

the RLC system; contributing to research, data collection

and analysis and measurement of program satisfaction

and effectiveness; increasing national exposure to

leaders in our field, including our federal partners at

SAMHSA; collaborating with allied groups to in

Schizophrenia Anonymous; creative recovery champions

who dynamically explore the complex intersection of

justice, mental health and addictions, all pertinent to

effectuating a system of holistic care and well being. As I

reflect back on this year, the successes have been

phenomenal, to include work on DMH ethics, drug

courts, police officer training and weaving young people

into our office dynamic and addressing issues throughout

and across the life span in regard to older adults. Not

only that we have conferred and consulted on veterans

issues, peer issues at an invitational summit and our eyes

are fixed upon an upcoming policy academy on recovery

through the lens of smoking cessation

I am also most happy to report that I will begin a new

endeavor to write more targeted pieces in journals and

magazines, the first of which will appear this winter in

the Grinnell College Alumni Magazine which has a global

reach and will address succinctly our movement, its

impacts on societal attitudes, and the increasing role of

technology in our age as a point for creative engagement

of the young and the old, the house-bound and the

isolated. I am so excited about our progress as the office

is for the first time ordered or centered around three

area of focus and concentration: targeted outreach,

education and policy.

It is my hope that through successful performance in

these target areas and given the scope of the DMH

mission and vision we will have impacts across the

system and throughout the community. It is my fervent

hope, that those who are now known to us and each

other as peers, many of whom have availed themselves

of our training curricula will graduate, if they choose,

from this very system that silenced their voice, and enter

other venues where their minted skills and talents will

also contribute to organizational vibrancy and shed even

more proof that we are more than an illness, more than

a drain on the public treasury, but in fact contributors

not just to the bottom line in business settings, but

agents of positive uplift and modeling that will go a long

way toward building more inclusive communities.

This is why I elect to be part of this movement, not an

illness as no one in my view, chooses to be ill or regard

himself thusly and nor should we; we must not Quite

frankly I do not know what a ‘chemical imbalance’ is and

I am not untutored, and I am too unlearned I supposed

to understand the complexities of genetics and

neuroscience—so I take some ancient wisdom and that is

to describe yourself by what you understand to be true,

and for me that is a person, perhaps a peer, but more

importantly, one who has voice and the opportunity to

alter a system where those like me, were in the words of

Rousseau, locked in chains, whether chemical or physical,

those whose “care” was not volitional or self-willed, but

reflected societal trending that disregarded the equal

human dignity that is indwelled in us as a matter of

right, of justice not biology. As shapers, heroic shapers

of our own life course, we must use language that is

forward-looking, while not dismissive of the architecture

of meaning historically pertinent, but explanatory only in

the sense that it marks a necessary point of departure,

especially as we will all hopefully embrace a humanity

that recognizes us all for our unique contribution to

community ,citizenship and opportunity. And let me

say, as a type of prognosticator, I see a ‘new

consciousness’ indeed where those once consigned to

devalued social roles, are or will fast become the new

entrepreneurs, leaders and as such funders, as our

experience with both systems and life will feed an

organization’s need for new insight to challenging

problems.

Such has been my experience in the Commonwealth—

and yours too. This is a reason to celebrate the wealth

therefore that is our experience, its realization in

community life, and to honor the qualities that make us

all heroes and heroines.