Pat Tal
Executive Director
ALC Region I Peer Support Centers

Hello and welcome.

I have been the Executive Director of The Alternative Life Center since its beginning in July of 1998. The center began through a Mary Ellen Copeland training that I was participating in. After the training, the group as a whole with the facilitors guiding hand, and with support from the Division of Behavioral Health in Concord, decided that we should have a peer support center in the Conway area. A lot of work went into getting the center off the ground. When the time came to hire an Executive Director, I was asked to apply for the job. I had no experience in the mental health field except with my own private struggles. After a grueling interview process some how, I was hired. We started with the center in Conway and then two years later the Wolfeboro center came into the fold. An effort by the state to consolidate the Peer Support Centers began in 2005, so the Berlin, Colebrook and Littleton center came under our nonprofit 501C3 status. That is the history of the beginning of the center and here is a little history about me.

I was born in New York City MANY moons ago. When I was ten years old, my father's business brought us to Maine. My high schools years were spent in a very “Hippy” school in Lenox, Mass. This was a very special school. At this school there were children from all different walks of life, wealthy, poor, African American, white, etc......... Whether you were rich, poor, black or white wasn't important. It was who you were as a person that was important. It was quite a Utopian place. It was a bit of a rude awakening when I went out in the “Real World'.

The 1967 war in Israel brought about a curiosity into my heritage. I soon decided that I needed to visit the Holy Land. I worked in New York City saved the money and hopped on a plane to Israel. I went to Israel, met my husband to be, married and had three children. We lived on a kibbutz in Israel for around 15 years. A kibbutz is a communal life where we work together so that we all prosper together and move forward.

Looking back on my past, I can see how my life experiences have enabled me to be successful in my work in peer support. Bringing our communities together in our Peer Support centers was a great challenge at the beginning. I can without a doubt state that all of our centers in Northern New Hampshire have that bond of community. Our members work together, supporting one another so we can all move forward in our recovery.

Life can be difficult. Some of us have been dealt a harder hand of cards then others. We all come from different walks of life with different views of how we perceive things. We, in Peer Support, have a common ground. We have “been there”. Our trials in our own eyes may be greater or minuscule compared to other members of our centers. This is not important. What is important is that members are using the tools that they have learned at our centers to take care of themselves and to move forward in their recovery. The important thing to remember is that you are not alone in your struggles and there is HOPE at the end of the tunnel.

Janine Lapete
Asst. Director
ALC Region I Peer Support Centers

I have been working at The ALC North for over 6 years now. When I first started working for the ALC, I worked at the center on the weekends. I have worked my way up from being a weekend floor staff person, to becoming the full time assistant director. Back when I started, there was only one site. Over the years, Peer support has grown and we now have 5 centers in the North Country as well as having the North Country Warmline.

Most of my life I have felt different from “others” never feeling as if I “fit in”. The minute I walked into the peer support center, I instantly felt like I fit in and that I was understood and not judged. When I had my second bout with my major mental illness back in 1990, I was told that all I would do was exist and “this is as good as it would get for me”

I never knew who I was, what type of things I liked, or was even good at. I always tried to be what I thought others wanted me to be, as I didn't feel strong enough with my own beliefs or interests. When I started working in peer support I was given a purpose and shown that I didn't have to just exist. I learned the importance of risk taking and not always just “playing it safe”. I took the chance of taking on a new job, something unfamiliar; that had the possibility of not working out. During my journey with having a mental illness I have been on a self discovery path. I have learned that I am a very creative person who is also very expressive.

I learned to have hope and to see that all things are possible. I have also learned to show people that they can have hope and that recovering from having a major mental illness is possible. I have learned that my having a mental illness may be a part of who I am, but that this does not define who I am. I am a person first, who may struggle from time to time but a person who has learned tools and skills that I can use when I am having a hard time to get through these difficult times. I have close support systems who I have learned to trust and share with them what I am like when I am having a hard time, what I need to do on a daily basis to keep myself well. I share with them my early warning signs so that when I am having a hard time they will know the signs perhaps even before I do and what type of things that are helpful and not helpful for me to do. This takes a great deal of trust developing support systems. I have found that it is really important for me when I am in a good place as when I am struggling, I may not be so forthright.

I try to educate others the importance of having hope and to believe in ourselves. One of the most important things that I tell all of my staff is: “We don't model that we have everything together”. “We model that when we are having a hard time we do what we need to do to take care of ourselves”.

I personally feel that as staff we need to lead by example.