Hello Human Family Members,

Wanna help start the world's first BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) specific peer respite?

Wanna help get a second Trans and Queer-specific peer respite started in Massachusetts?

What’s a peer respite? 

A Peer respite is a homelike, non-coercive environment, that is operated by trained people who’ve also experienced life-disrupting challenges or mental health concerns, where someone can stay for up to two weeks to avoid a hospital or other more invasive environments.

And they work!

I’ve been hospitalized many times in my adult life and was able to go to a peer respite twice. I felt so comfortable and safe that I cried for the first time in years and left feeling stable and renewed...a stark contrast to my experiences with inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations.

We need peer respites. We need peer respites that are BIPOC and Trans and Queer-specific. 

Bill H.2231/S.1383, “An Act Establishing Peer Respites Throughout the Commonwealth”, would establish at least one peer respite in every county in Massachusetts, as well as the world’s first BIPOC-specific peer respite and a second Trans and Queer-specific peer respite.

It appears the bill is seen favorably by the legislature and likely to be enacted, but we need your support to ensure that it passes!!

If you live in Massachusetts, just email and/or call your local state representative HERE and the chairs of the committee below.

If you don’t live in Massachusetts you can contact the chairs of the committee listed below. 

Senate Health Care Financing Committee

Chair           – Sen Cindy F. Friedman  – Cindy.Friedman@masenate.gov
Vice Chair  – Sen J. Cronin                    – John.Cronin@masenate.gov

Sharing any personal experience you or people you know have had of the positive impact of peer respites has the most impact.

Here are some talking points about peer respites:

• Life-changing and life-saving
• Patient autonomy promotes healing
• Helps people break the cycle of ERs to hospitals to discharge and back
• Cost-saving for both patients and taxpayers in the short and (particularly) long-term
• Shown to reduce visits to psychiatric hospitals and emergency rooms by connecting them to community resources
• Can play a key role in diverting people from ER beds and connecting them to the community
• A growing body of evidence proves they work (Afiya House has gained international recognition by WHO as an exemplary model of non-coercive, alternative crisis treatment)
• Are already supported by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
 Services Administration (SAMHSA)