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WINTER 2009
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Featured Articles

» The Tattered Tapestry

: "If her family’s love and care alone could have saved Kara, she would be alive today."

» Mental Health Empowerment Project Twentieth Annual Peer Network Gathering

: "People have learned how to chop off the heads of the leaders---so leadership must be diversified!"

» The Twenty-Sixth Annual NYAPRS Convention

: "...no standard of excellence is beyond our reach!"

» View All Winter 2009 Articles

The Tattered Tapestry

A Family’s Search for Peace With Bipolar Disorder

Kara Smith & Kevin Smith & Tom Smith

On Monday, January 13, 2003, a twenty-six-year old pregnant woman with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, committed suicide. Her name was Kara Smith. This book is a record of a family’s nine-year battle to keep Kara safe and preserve the independence that Kara needed.
Tapestry is a narrative with three voices: Kara’s father, Tom Smith, Kara’s twin brother Kevin Smith, and from Kara in the posthumous publication of Kara’s writings. This book takes the reader through the unwinding threads that lead to Kara’s irrevocable act.
Tom Smith’s narration dominates... (Click Here to Read More)

Mental Health Empowerment Project Twentieth Annual Peer Network Gathering

A Keynote Address by Vanessa Jackson LCSW

Paul Chipkin, Senior Peer Advocate, Staten Island Peer Advocacy Center

“I am unapologetically an angry black woman! Why aren’t you angry?
We want a queen! We want a queen! Kill the queen! Kill the queen!
You just need to discharge your rage so that you don’t destroy the person next to you, trying a different strategy!
People have learned how to chop off the heads of the leaders, so leadership must be diversified! There are all sorts of people out there doing things that we never hear about! What are your passions? What is your neighbor living for?
What happened to you? How does it affect you now? What do you need to heal? Though still wounded, what... (Click Here to Read More)

The Twenty-Sixth Annual NYAPRS Convention

A personal perspective

Paul Chipkin, Senior Peer Advocate, Staten Island Peer Advocacy Center

One needn’t look deeply at the offerings of the 26th annual NYAPRS convention, held at the Nevele Hotel, in Ellenville, NY, to know that there was enough of quality, to serve all appetites. There was so very much fun, rewarding and enlightening, so much richness to reap great satisfaction, from whatever one’s perspective. In the few days was ample opportunity to create one’s own personal “magic carpet-ride.” This is the story of what I found most meaningful---of course, I’m telling my own experience...a hundred different tales are ready to be recounted, thanks to the New York Association of... (Click Here to Read More)