By Tory Masters, CPS, CPRP
As a dedicated 30-year attendee, peer group facilitator, facilitator trainer, and board member of MDSG NY, it was a bitter-sweet decision to move with my husband full-time to Southampton, Long Island 8 years ago. Though I am very involved in helping manage the organization from afar, I miss volunteering regularly at our sites at both Beth Israel and St. Luke’s Roo- select Hospitals (both now renamed Mount Si- nai). I miss the camaraderie, the energy, and the intimacy of joining individuals every week. Just as peers once helped me, even save me, I need to do the same for others.
My research of local peer-led mental health support groups in my area discovered that the need for peer support on the east end of Long Island was not being met. “Build it, they will come!”
In 2016 I met with Robert Chaloner, the Chief Administrative Officer of Stonybrook/ Southampton Hospital who told me that mental health support was a priority and provided me with space and resources I needed to get started. The East End Mood Disorder Support Group (EEMDSG) was launched.
Over the last four years, we have steadily grown. The local mental health community has embraced us. New facilitators are being identified and trained. And I again can bring my decades of experience, my certifications as a trained Peer Specialist and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner to the hands-on work of peer support. That’s the reward.