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Applications for the March 2020 period closed as of Jan. 24. Bookmark this page for our next sessions. Click for application form. Do you know someone who has a lived mental health experience and would be an excellent candidate for the Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) profession? Beginning Monday, Jan. 6, through Friday, Jan. 24, the […]

At the Walnut West branch of the Free Library, several stereotypes were addressed as a crowd of just over a dozen people gathered to discuss the importance of mental health issues in the LGBTQ community, including the increased risk of suicide. The session promoted collaboration between those in attendance and the presenters. It also served […]

Will Little walked on stage wearing an orange jumpsuit, hands held behind his back, head faced down. As he told his story of life in and out of prison, he unzipped, revealing another layer of clothes underneath the orange. “I did 10 years in the penitentiary. Anger, frustration, hurt, pain, guilt, then I decided to […]

Philadelphia’s own Sister Mary Scullion, who knows as much about fighting homelessness as anyone, wasn’t surprised by a recent finding that 76% of people living on the street in Los Angeles also live with serious mental illness, addiction, or other conditions. Scullion, the cofounder of Philly’s Project HOME, estimates that about 90% of the 1,000 people living on the […]

DBHIDS’ Andrea October, Clinical Project Manager for Health Promotions, appeared on Fox 29’s “Good Day Philadelphia” during Suicide Prevention Week to discuss the importance of self-care for those “doing the counseling” in the wake of the widely reported suicide of Penn’s director of counseling. Click to view the report and interview.

A unique basketball league is reaching out to homeless residents in Philadelphia to help them make life changing plays off the court, making a lot of progress in just a few months. “I just wanted to get to do a little exercise, lose some weight, and just have fun. That’s all I wanted to do, […]

This basketball game began with a bucket, right off the tipoff, and then a matching bucket, and another bucket. Finally, somebody missed. Every Wednesday this summer, in a little gym just off a courtyard in the back of the historic Church of the Advocate at Diamond and Gratz Streets in North Philadelphia, there’s a men’s […]

PHILADELPHIA — The Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) today announced that Joan Erney will retire as chief executive officer of its Community Behavioral Health (CBH) division effective ‪December 31, 2019. Behavioral Health Commissioner David T. Jones said CBH’s chief operating officer, Donna Bailey, has been named interim CEO of CBH effective […]