About Provider

Provider is offered for professionals and para-professionals working with those who live with severe mental illness. In this free course — which can be offered as a four-hour seminar or a five-week in-depth experience — individuals who live with mental illness, and family members of those individuals, share their subjective experiences with health care professionals, law enforcement and others on the front lines. They convey a realistic view of what it’s like to live with mental illness — a “lived experience” perspective that can improve providers’ understanding, empathy and effectiveness.

Three to five panelists teach the course. They include:

• at least one family member trained as Family-to-Family education program teacher;
• at least one consumer who is knowledgeable about their own mental illness, has a supportive relationship with their families, and is dedicated to the process of recovery;
• and a mental health professional who is also a family member or consumer.

To read more about Provider (formerly called Provider Education), and its effect on two local mental health professionals, click here.

Our next class

TBD. For more information, or to schedule a class, call 719.473.8477 or email Emily Brady, director of community engagement and initiatives.