Welcome!

ATTENTION!

The next WRAP Facilitator Training will be held in Richmond on October 20-24, 2008. Applications are available on this page down below.

All REACH-trained WRAP facilitators:

We are planning a 3-day Reunion and refresher workshop for September 19-21 at Camp Hanover in Hanover county. Save these dates!

Also for WRAP Facilitators: Would you like to become an advanced-level WRAP Trainer? Please contact us at REACH.

Learn more about these positions at: www.vocalvirginia.org/Jobs.htm  

REACH
Recovery Education and Creative Healing

Welcome! The REACH program seeks to educate peers on how to better take care of themselves. REACH provides education and training on recovery and wellness for adults with mental illness. We provide skills for monitoring symptoms, decreasing the severity and frequency of symptoms, and improving the quality of life. We foster cooperation and understanding between service providers and consumers. REACH is an important part of Virginia’s mental health care system, a system based on endless possibilities for recovery.

The purpose of REACH is to advance the principles of mental health recovery to consumers and providers. Wellness management is a vital piece of the recovery picture for individuals with mental illness.

We promote WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) developed by Mary Ellen Copeland, as a wellness practice that encourages self determination and self advocacy. 

REACH is a program of VOCAL (Virginia Organization for Consumers Asserting Leadership), which is dedicated to developing a diverse statewide coalition of consumers, providing a voice for individual empowerment, and fostering a consumer-driven mental health system.

It is also crucial that providers understand and support these principles because a system of care that supports recovery can only happen when there is a partnership between service providers and consumers.

Since its inception in 2004, REACH has trained over 70 WRAP facilitators from all over the Commonwealth who are now leading WRAP groups in their communities.

John Otenasek is the REACH Program Director and is available to travel and present on recovery topics and wellness tools. The office is in Harrisonburg and serves the entire Commonwealth.

REACH is available:

For presentations on recovery and WRAP for staff development, Clubhouses, conferences, seminars, board meetings, etc.

To provide WRAP training and assistance and support in starting WRAP groups

For consultation on implementing recovery-based principles in your organization

This program provides free technical assistance to consumer mental health programs throughout Virginia. Training and consultation are offered to drop-in centers, employment programs, warm lines, and consumer groups interested in starting new programs.

Visit: vocalsupportcenter.org

Funding for this program is provided by the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, and the Mental Health Block Grant.