The first VA peer support conference was held November 1-3, 2005 in Memphis , Tennessee. This page will be updated with photos and other information from the conference. Feel free to post a message on the message board regarding your experiences at the conference.
Moe Armstrong’s Memories of Memphis Conference
We came from across,
the United States
Veterans, staff, researchers
VA
Veterans Administration
Looking for the way
To help
Looking for the way
To set up
Peer support
Veteran with Veteran
Veterans with VA
VA with Veterans
How can we be with,
people
Who we have known,
for a long time
Hear their pain
Keep their secrets
Get them help
How can we
Get help ourselves
How can we
Get off the streets
Get off the booze
Through the centuries
Stories of veterans
Is not a pretty one
How can we make beauty
Out of our lives
How can help each other
How can we get help
We are tired old soldiers
Some of us in this room
and at this conference
Had known each other
For a long time
All of us had known the VA
For a long long time
Forty years I have been,
with the VA
Ups and Downs
Clarity and psychosis
This week in November
We are all together
In Memphis
We have come together
For one reason
Learn how to share our hope,
strength, tell the truth
Figure out our weakness
Define ourselves in the present
Keep moving toward the future
How can we fit into a system
Where we were recipients
Now, we can help others
Where will that strength come from
To help others
We are here in Memphis
From across the United States
The same country
We served to protect
We are now working to help
Through mental illness, addictions,
alcoholism, and anger
We ended up on the streets
Disoriented and destroyed
From mental illness
Fighting our way back
Is the new battle
Which never ends
We are in Memphis to learn
We are in Memphis to meet
Each other
And meet a new generation of care givers
People who understand mental illness,
the mental health system
And people who understand and know,
the people in the mental health system
Knowing those of us with mental illness so well
We will have a new role
New generation of care givers
Coming back into the system
As workers
Won?t be easy
We haven?t worked for years
I was a spare change artist
On the streets
Standing out in the cold and rain
Singing and dancing for money
Now, I am going to work with other people
Who are in offices
Who never squabbled over food
Who never were so cold
I am going to work with other people
Who sat on the other side of the desk
From me
Now, I am going to work
In the same office where I went for help
Now, I am going to help others
The way that I was helped
We are in Memphis
Learning how to help
Learning how to continue to get help
We are the national conference
VA peer support
How can we learn from each other
Talking in the conference room
Talking in the hall way
Situations arise
Group facilitator uses dope
Group facilitator gets angry
Walks off
How do we recruit more people
There seems to be a way
To go out and do outreach
From the current support meetings
Find members who attend
Who can facilitate
How do we train people
Learn by doing
On going supervision and education
And
Have veterans sharing experiences
Formal and informal time together
What has worked in different sites
Some places tied into
Community supports centers
Some veterans have been connected
To community mental health
Some veterans have been part
VA Volunteer Services
Some veterans have strict rules
Some veterans are flexible
We went to Memphis to meet
We went to Memphis to learn
There is a spirit ignited
Veteran helping veteran
Veteran helping our system
Getting stronger
Getting our system stronger
We are all becoming stronger
Here in
Memphis
Riverboat town
Where cotton bales
Were once loaded on those river boats
We are learning to carry our load
We are learning to work together
We are learning to help each other
We are regaining a piece of our humanity