RHD’s United Peers profiled in The Review: ‘We tear down stigmas’
May 15, 2018
Montgomery Media’s Roxborough Review featured RHD’s United Peers, a recovery center for people with mental health or co-occuring disorders that was created and staffed by individuals in recovery in a story titled “United Peers in East Falls aids recovery through peer-led support.”
United Peers has workshops and groups to address various health and wellness-related topics such as anger management, effective communication, social skill building and meal prep and cooking. United Peers focuses heavily on arts and crafts, and there are many creative activities offered, like painting with a purpose, art for healing and communication through art.
“It’s a place where they enhance their recovery,” Director Sheila Hall-Prioleau said, adding that United Peers offers a “family setting.”
A lot of the participants don’t have families and have experienced personal trauma. The center provides a place where people can come as often as they wish and encounter a supportive, family environment.
There is also a support group for those hearing voices. The group is the first of its kind in Philadelphia, and it provides a safe environment where people can discuss this common human experience without fear of being judged.
“We tear down stigmas,” Hall-Prioleau said. “Everybody’s a human being here.”
United Peers assists persons in recovery from mental health challenges as they work to live as independently as possible through the provision of training and assistance with the skills of community living and by serving as an integrating source for a person’s recovery: