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Maine Resilience
program sprung from psychologist’s novel
(April 2008
Issue)
Some of the most resilient people are that way because they have
needed to be to function in this world. That is the message behind
Maine Resilience, a program designed to teach resilience in workshops
across the state of Maine.
Founded by Ronald Breazale, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and
executive director of Portland's Psychological and Educational Services,
Maine Resilience sprung from a fictional novel he had written about
a doctor who must cope with his disability on a cross-country run
from the authorities after he is mistakenly accused of being involved
in a domestic act of terrorism. After positive reviews from colleagues
and recommendations to use the book to teach resilience in the face
of natural disasters, personal tragedies or acts of terrorism, Breazale,
who is a past-president of the Maine Psychological Association and
has served on the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological
Association, set about creating a companion guide and recruiting
people with disabilities to work with him to offer workshops to
groups including first responders, the elderly and schools.
He spoke with New England Psychologist's Catherine Robertson
Souter about his work and how an action-adventure novel became a
vehicle to teach some important lessons both about resilience and
about the role that people with disabilities can play in saving
others.
Q: How did Maine Resilience get its start?
A: It's the old community psychology, that's what this project
really is.
After I had written the book, a colleague said, 'this is a book
about resilience' and suggested that I write a guide and maybe do
some training using the book. I had no intention of writing a self
help book. It's a novel, but it has been turned into a self-help
book in terms of how it's being used.
Many of the characters in the novel have some form of disability
so the novel has a focus on this issue although it was not written
about disability or about resilience.
I talked with the executive director of Alpha One, which is an
independent living center, an advocacy group for people living with
disabilities, a very active voice for persons with disabilities
in Maine. We talked about it and thought it would be a good idea
to combine the resiliency training with what they are doing. One
of the things that persons with disabilities know about is resilience
because they have had to learn resilience just to get along day-to-day.
We decided that they could be trained as coaches to work with me
to present the workshops. Other people have since joined as co-trainers
and coaches.
Q: Who are the audiences for your workshops?
A: We did one for college RA's, there were several workshops
for elderly housing units in Portland and we had workshops open
to the public this past summer. Alpha just received a contract from
Cumberland County through a grant from Homeland Security to do five
more this year with first responders. There is no funding for this,
so it is delivered on a fee-for-service basis through Alpha One.
Q: What does the workshop offer?
A: The workshop is about preparedness, being resilient in
any situation: personal crisis, loss of a job, death of a spouse
or child, a divorce, dealing with an ice storm or in the aftermath
of a terrorist attack.
We are using story telling and using the book. They read the book
in advance and we use the guide in the workshop. The guide has a
synopsis of each chapter and asks specific questions about the characters
in the story and how they exhibited resilience or not and how they
could have done it differently.
It is a six-hour program. The first four hours focus on skills
and in the last two hours, we do a combination of small and large
groups and get people to look at how you can apply this to situations
you encounter in terms of your family, your work.
Q: How do the co-trainers help?
A: Co-trainers facilitate small groups - and in some cases,
they tell their own stories of how they've dealt with situations
in their lives as it relates to their disability. It is really their
project and I am working with them, serving as the primary trainer
in the workshops but the goal is to have the co-trainers able to
run the workshops.
The program can also be used to serve as a base for developing
a peer support or peer coaching program within law enforcement or
fire and rescue. Those groups often don't do a lot of taking care
of themselves and tend not to use employee assistance programs.
When they can do peer support or peer coaching within a police department,
they increase the utilization.
Q: Are other groups using the book in this way?
A: It really hasn't been marketed that way as of yet. But,
with the experience that we are having here and with the other materials
that have been added to it, I'm going to reprint it and incorporate
the workbook, "Duct Tape Isn't Enough," as an appendix to make it
into a piece that can be a training packet rather than just a novel.
That's a whole different way of marketing things of turning it into
more of a self-help book.
There are other markets for it. I didn't set out to write a book
about resilience, it just sort of evolved as we've been doing this.
Initially, it was something I wanted to write for myself. Now I
have more of an investment from putting time and energy into it
and also seeing how it has been helpful in getting people to look
at some of these issues. Part of it is repositioning how people
view people with a disability in terms of beginning to see them
as an asset in some ways. That's one of nice things about the Homeland
Security folks being willing to fund this. Instead of seeing persons
with a disability as a liability that they have to worry so much
about in terms of how are we going to take care of these folks and
deal with them in an emergency, they may be able to see people with
disabilities as having something to offer other people.
Q: You also have a disability: you were born without
a left hand. That obviously affects your work.
A: This is an important issue to me and it has been throughout
my entire life and it has affected what I do in terms of practice
and in terms of some of my focus. I do have a personal investment.
Q: Do you work with a lot of people with disabilities?
A: I have over the years. It's probably 15-20 percent of
what I do. It's never been the main piece; my practice is more of
a general practice. I've always seen folks on Maine-Care or Medicaid
because it's sort of a moral issue and most of the folks who have
a disability unfortunately often are on MaineCare or Medicaid.
Q: How is it a moral issue?
A: So many colleagues have abandoned Medicaid or MaineCare
and refuse to see persons in those programs because they don't pay
as well. Currently, MaineCare pays about one third of my rate and
there are so many hassles involved with the way the state has handled
the program. But I have always had a problem with psychologists
who made choices based on which insurance card you have in your
pocket.
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