Copeland Center Summit

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED

If the 'W' in WRAP matters to you; if you want to live to be 102 years old; come explore the wellness in WRAP with Gina Calhoun and Scott Heller.

    The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) 2006 study found that those of us with mental health challenges die decades earlier than the general population!  When I (Gina Calhoun) heard about this study, I began taking a serious look at my health.  At the time, I was a pack a day smoker and lived on cheese curls and diet soda.  I was also on an amazing recovery journey.  I had my own two-bedroom townhouse, a full time job and loved getting out of bed in the morning to jump into the adventure of the day.

I didn't want to be a statistic. In fact, I wanted to defy the norm of the so-called normal folks and live to be 102 years old.  And I was willing to take personal responsibility for reaching my new self-identified goal. BUT HOW??? Becoming a nonsmoker and eating a healthier diet was hard work and even harder to maintain over a lifetime.  Two resources came quickly to mind: WRAP and all the common Wellness Tools that Mary Ellen Copeland discovered from her initial studies.

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan was my introduction to the possibility of recovery and continues to keep the move in my recovery groove as I journey forward.  Could it also be a planned way to take action and recover my wellness?  

Yes!  Today, I am a nonsmoker because of WRAP and my diet consists of fruits, yummy vegetables, fish, and even a few cheese curls.  Am I at my optimal health? No.  Do I have a few setbacks? Yes.  Yet with hope, personal responsibility, continuous education and support- I am (as Mary Ellen would say in regards to self-advocacy) 'Going for it with courage, persistence and determination.'  And I am healthier today than I was 5 years ago.

In this workshop, we will explore WRAP as a self-help tool for people moving toward a healthier lifestyle.  Each person will have the opportunity to create a personal vision of wellness and investigate options and choices to move towards this vision.  We will also identify external events, circumstances and influences that cause us to stray from our wellness goals and action plans to get back on track.  In addition, we will become aware of early warning signs; indicators that things are not going as well as we want and of course, action plans to overcome these internal obstacles.

What makes this approach unique from other wellness plans is that YOU the person writing the plan are the owner and director of your personal journey toward the endless possibilities of health.

By the end of this workshop people will be able to:
1.    Explore the recovery of a healthy lifestyle through the key principles of hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy and support.
2.    Create a personal wellness mission and vision statement.
3.    Understand how to develop a Wellness Recovery Action Plan to move toward a self-identified health goal.