Retirement? What’s that?
For David Howe, it’s a time to share his extensive knowledge with staff, clients, and administrators at Connecticut Mental Health Center. At the invitation of CEO Michael J. Sernyak, MD, Howe arrived this spring as a part-time consultant and lecturer in the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
“I am overjoyed that David Howe has embraced our mission and joined our team,” said Dr. Sernyak. “He is incredibly skilled at making recovery real within systems of care. As we step up our efforts to embrace recovery-oriented, trauma-informed care, he will be a huge asset.”
So far, Howe has facilitated several events: trainings on empathy and compassion in the workplace (with his collaborator Joe Brummer from Community Mediation); panel discussions for residents, fellows, and post-docs featuring people in recovery; and multiple conversations on the fourth floor inpatient unit to get to know the staff and brainstorm ways to improve their work environment.
Before his retirement, David Howe was Director of Programs & Services at Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH), the largest state-owned and operated mental health facility in Connecticut. (CVH, like CMHC, is a facility of the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services.)
As a mental health professional in Connecticut for over forty years, he has been one of the people at the forefront of transforming the state’s mental health system into one of the best, most progressive in the nation.
His passion: to actively engage people who receive services in their own care. At CMHC, he hopes to support the implementation of an extensive curriculum to help people in recovery participate more effectively in decisions about their care, including recovery goals and treatment planning.
He calls CMHC “fertile ground” for this approach because the Center has already taken many steps to include people in recovery in service delivery.
In addition, with Dr. Sernyak and other staff members, Howe is working on ways to empower people who receive and deliver services—including clients, mental health workers, social workers, nurses, etc.—to participate in CMHC’s educational mission. CMHC is a major training site of the Yale Department of Psychiatry; every year, medical residents, psychology interns, fellows in public psychiatry and forensic psychiatry, research scientists, and others come here for intensive education and field experience. Howe’s vision is that all trainees will have opportunities to learn from CMHC clients and from longtime clinical staff members who carry out the day-to-day, moment-to-moment work of caring for clients.
“I’m thrilled to be at CMHC,” says Howe. “It’s a wonderful place. I’m delighted to be able to continue my work in transforming mental health and addiction systems of care, and I appreciate the warm welcome of everyone at CMHC.”