By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
After being homeless and battling both mental illness and substance abuse, Art Summers is trying to give back to others who have struggled by using peer support.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Peer-to-Peer is a free, eight-session educational program for adults with mental health conditions who are looking to better understand themselves and their recovery.
NAMI is an alliance of more than 600 local affiliates, including one in Hays, who work in communities to raise awareness about mental illness and provide support and education.
Taught by trained leaders with lived experience, Peer to Peer includes activities, discussions and informative videos. However, as with all NAMI programs, it does not include recommendations for treatment approaches.
The course will help attendees:
• Set a vision and goals for the future
• Partner with health care providers
• Develop confidence for making decisions
• Practice relaxation and stress reduction tools
• Share your story
• Strengthen relationships
• Enhance communication skills
• Learn about mental health treatment options
Summers is one of three new Certified Peer to Peer Teachers trained this fall in Western Kansas. The other educators are Brenna Hernandez and Wiyanna Burge.
Summers had a rocky beginning in life, living with a mom who also struggled with mental illness. When Summers was a boy, his mother set fire to their home, and Art ended up in foster care.
Substance abuse also started early in Art's life. Art remembers taking his first drink when he was 3 and was drinking regularly by the time he was a teenager.
Trying to find help is difficult for someone who has a dual diagnosis — someone who struggles with both mental illness and substance abuse. Many program won't take Summers for that reason.
After having multiple issue with law and being in and out of rehab, Summers landed in an Oxford House recovery program in Kansas. He took a job with NAMI working 10 hours a week in July. He was eventually hired by NAMI to work full time as program coordinator for Western Kansas.
"It has given me purpose," Summers said of his work with NAMI. "It has given me a canvas to paint on with people. I love helping people, and I love helping people realize that they do matter and they can recover and they can have a good life. ...
"Addicts can't keep what they have unless they give it away."
He said he hopes to use his experiences to benefit others.
"With three attempted suicides and divorces and just all that pain and tears — that stuff was just God using that to fertilize other people's fields and give them some hope," he said.
He self-medicated for years as means to deal with his mental illness and he knows many others do the same. He has reached out to others in recovery.
"It has helped me with a lot of people I've known in recovery, who wanted to get clean and sober and get their mental illness under control," he said.
Summers' girlfriend is also a NAMI Peer to Peer Teacher.
"Like me and my girlfriend like to say, 'We are here to set the captives free,'" he said. "We want to be instruments of NAMI to help people with their mental illness and their diagnosis and their families to live a prosperous life — a life worth living."
Summers is also working with Valley Hope in Norton to develop Peer to Peer classes for their program so the program's clients can do aftercare through NAMI.
The next NAMI Peer to Peer class for Western Kansas will be 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays for eight weeks, starting Thursday, Jan. 7.
You can find links to sign up for the class on Facebook at National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI- Hays. You can also find more about NAMI and where programs can be found elsewhere in Kansas and nationwide at nami.org.
NAMI-Hays also has a Connections group that meets in person and online from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on the first Monday of the month. Both those who have mental illness and family members are welcome. You can also find details on the this group on the NAMI-Hays Facebook page.
The third Wednesday of month, NAMI-Kansas offers a statewide online support group open to anyone. NAMI also offers a statewide support group for essential workers online on the third Monday of the month. Information on both of these groups can be found at namikansas.org.