Advocacy
“As if your place in the world mattered
and the world could
neither speak nor hear the fullness of
its own bitter and beautiful cry
without the deep well
of your body resonating in the echo.”
-David Whyte
Yarrow Collective strives to advance community-based, peer-to-peer alternatives that can exist alongside more conventional mental health and substance use care.
We know that many people, such as youth and young adults, LGBTQ+ identified individuals, and BIPOC may be less likely to engage in traditional behavioral health services for a variety of reasons. We also know that conventional approaches to extreme distress, such as hospitalization or involuntary treatment, can be traumatizing for many people. Our healing and recovery journeys are entirely our own. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and no single path toward healing that works for everyone.
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At Yarrow Collective, we advocate for meaningful options in diverse community settings for people to connect, belong, and be supported through their distress and suffering by/for/with others who have shared lived experience.
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One such alternative on the Yarrow Collective wish list is non-clinical peer respite.
What is Peer Respite?
A peer respite is a voluntary, short-term, overnight option in a homelike environment that provides community-based, non-clinical crisis support to help people find new understanding and ways to move forward.
Rather than calling the police or going to a hospital, peer respites provide another option.
Peer respites are staffed and operated by people with psychiatric histories or who have experienced trauma and/or extreme states, or compassionate empathic laypersons. Peer respites are based on the concept of "being with" people through crisis and extreme distress, rather than further isolating or pathologizing people or forcing unwanted treatments onto them. Finally, peer respites center the idea that healing, recovery, personal growth, and meaning-making are possible for all of us.
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Learn More about Peer Respites Here or Click the Image Below to Download our Info Sheet on Peer Respites
