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Hearing Voices Curriculum: Complete training and curriculum package

By Patricia Deegan, PhD

WHAT IS IT?

Hearing Voices That Are Distressing is a complete training/curriculum package in which participants use headphones for listening to a specially designed audiotape.  During this simulated experience of hearing voices, participants undertake a series of tasks including social interaction in the community, a psychiatric interview, cognitive testing, and an activities group in a mock day treatment program.  The simulation experience is followed by a debriefing and discussion period.  The curriculum also includes a one hour videotaped lecture.

WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS TRAINING?

This curriculum has been developed and piloted for a wide range of mental health professionals including: Inpatient/outpatient psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, social workers; psychologists; direct care workers in residential, day treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation programs; mental health administrators and policy makers; and academic faculty and students.

WHO CREATED IT?

Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and developed this curriculum as part of her work with the National Empowerment Center. She also publishes and lectures internationally on the topics of recovery and empowerment. Pat is a person with a psychiatric disability, who also has experience hearing voices that are distressing.

WHAT DOES THIS CURRICULUM INCLUDE?

This comprehensive package includes:

• A one hour video lecture featuring Dr. Patricia Deegan, exploring the literature and the experience of hearing distressing voices
• 40 copies of a CD that simulates the voice hearing experience
• Written Curriculum
• Instructor's Guide
• Bibliography

Up to 40 participants per training and it can be used over and over again!

An invaluable resource for staff and students!

Amy Long, NEC Educator/Trainer, conducts trainings in this curriculum by request. Call the National Empowerment Center at 800-769-3728

Supplemental activities available:

NEC has an adaptation of the simulation activities adapted by the Salt Lake City Police Department to be relevant to law enforcement officers who may encounter people who "hear voices.” To obtain a copy, call 800-769-3728

People can and do recover from severe emotional distress known as "mental illness".

This curriculum has been developed by Laurie Ahern and Dan Fisher MD, Ph.D. It includes a 34-page guide and a 90-minute video lecture on the PACE (Personal Assistance in Community Existence) curriculum, featuring information on the empowerment model of recovery, PACE/Recovery principles, and recovery research. This information is useful for administrators, consumers, families, advocates, and providers who want to transform their system to one based on a recovery culture.

Reference guide only - available in English, Spanish and Japanese.
Choose from DVD or VHS

Training for peer coaches, family members and providers.

"Recovery through Peer Support" is a curriculum for consumers in training to become peer coaches, for consumers wishing to further their own recovery, for family members, and those wanting to assist another person in their development as a whole human being while learning new skills for promoting recovery. The curriculum describes the evolution of peer support by mental health consumers, gives concrete suggestions of ways to facilitate recovery by using the 10 major principles of recovery developed by NEC, and contains interviews with peer coaches describing their experiences. Written by authors with decades of experience in peer support and consumer movement.

This curriculum is part of NEC's PACE/Recovery Program. The curriculum contains:

• 38-page manual
• Two, 1-hour videos or DVD's

"How does one work with people who are unmotivated"

This curriculum, organized into eight modules, will help consumer/survivors/ex-patients, staff, families and friends to provide more effective support and compassionate understanding for those diagnosed with mental illness who appear unmotivated.

Roy Starks, Director of Rehabilitation Services at Mental Health Corp. of Denver, Inc. wrote: “Both staff and members found the training materials invaluable. I have worked in the field of Psychiatric Rehabilitation for thirty years and found this training tape to be the most helpful I have ever seen...I recommend this training to anyone working in mental health."

Staff of the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare comments:

• "Pat is a powerful myth-buster!"
• "These tapes really challenge and overturn conventional ways of thinking about 'unmotivated' or 'low-functioning' consumers."
• "Pat makes it so clear that their are no cookie cutter approaches, and her emphasis on relationship is so important."
• "These training materials will really be useful in working with staff who are resistant to the role changes that are needed to move the system toward a recovery orientation."
• “There is so much authenticity in this material. It is a grounded and thoughtful presentation of the life experience of real people."

Included in this package are:

• Two videotaped lectures (available in DVD or VHS format)
• Training guide
• Supplemental material of suggested readings, and discussion questions
• Organized into eight modules