WHAT IS IT WEDNESDAY — The Ken­tucky Con­sumer Conference

The con­sumer con­fer­ence is a gath­er­ing of indi­vid­u­als with men­tal ill­ness, Ken­tucky Peer Spe­cial­ists, con­sumer-oper­at­ed ser­vice cen­ter per­son­nel, and recov­ery-ori­ent­ed pro­fes­sion­als from across the Com­mon­wealth of Ken­tucky.  One of the pur­pos­es of the con­fer­ence is to con­nect indi­vid­u­als with men­tal ill­ness to oth­ers in the state who are expe­ri­enc­ing sim­i­lar things. Peer-to-peer rela­tion­ships and friend­ships have formed across the com­mon­wealth as a result of this event, and the con­fer­ence does a LOT to pre­vent iso­la­tion and wors­en­ing of severe, per­sis­tent men­tal ill­ness.  The con­fer­ence also con­tin­ues to show that recov­ery is pos­si­ble, and there is HOPE beyond a men­tal health crisis.

This year’s event is Fri­day May 22nd and reg­is­tra­tion is due before May 15th (or until max­i­mum capac­i­ty is reached).  The event has been held at the Clar­i­on Hotel in Lex­ing­ton for many years now, and that is the site again this year. Overnight accom­mo­da­tions for the con­fer­ence can be arranged with reg­is­tra­tion at a reduced rate. Fri­day’s lunch is included.

Over 300 atten­dees can be expect­ed.  There are a num­ber of work­shops offered annu­al­ly includ­ing ones on self-care, new med­ica­tions, new ther­a­pies, how to con­nect with oth­ers, and fun things like art projects, drum­ming, med­i­ta­tion, and Laugh­ter Yoga.

In 2014, the con­fer­ence estab­lished sep­a­rate work­shop tracks for Ken­tucky Peer Spe­cial­ists, for Con­sumer-Oper­at­ed Ser­vice Cen­ters, and (new for 2015) providers.  Mem­bers of the state com­mu­ni­ty at large and these var­i­ous pro­fes­sion­als are all going to be mix­ing and pro­mot­ing the con­cepts of recov­ery, hope, and connection.

For the past three years, Ken­tucky STARS and Bluegrass.org have spon­sored the con­fer­ence.  Ken­tucky STARS is a NAMI Lex­ing­ton pro­gram ded­i­cat­ed to tech­ni­cal sup­port and assis­tance for recov­ery-based pro­gram­ming across the com­mon­wealth. The con­nec­tions and rela­tion­ships made by Ken­tucky STARS help guide some of the work­shop offer­ings for peer spe­cial­ists, providers, and peer-oper­at­ed cen­ters as they are gen­er­al­ly in touch with what is need­ed in those areas. Bluegrass.org per­son­nel help with the logis­tics, the cost, and work­shop plan­ning in addi­tion to all the con­fer­ence-day vol­un­teers from their ded­i­cat­ed staff.

To reg­is­ter for this year’s con­fer­ence, see the brochure here: http://kystars.org/conference.html

To nom­i­nate a Ken­tucky Peer Spe­cial­ist for the Peer Excel­lence Awards, please go here: http://kystars.org/peer-excellence-awards.html

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