Mental Health Association of Northwestern PA

The Advocates Voice

In these essays, Brian Patrick Mclaughlin MS/CPS addresses important issues affecting the mental health community and recommends specific improvements.

Brian is a 1987 Graduate for Gannon University Graduate Counseling Program located in Erie Pa. Further he is 2006 Graduate of Pennsylvania’s Certified Peer Specialist Initative. Brian has been a member of Pi Gamma Mu-The International Honor Society in Social Science, and Psi Chi-The National Honor Society in Psychology since 1985.

Brian was diagnosed with serious mental illness 17 years ago. His present diagnosis is Bi-Polar 1 disorder.

He has worked in the public mental health system most of his adult life. For the past 11 years Brian has served as a mental health advocate employed by Erie County’s Public Mental Health System. Today, he is Director of Advocacy and Recovery for the Counties new MH BSU, Erie County Care Management.

Presently, Brian is on the Board of the Mental Health Association of Northwestern PA.

Brian can be reached by email: bmclauglin@eccaremgt.org.

Never: "Never, Never, Never, Give Up!" - a lesson learned from a child.
Suicide: Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Suicide has become epidemic. This course of action by advocate Brain McLaughlin, suggests immediate action, if you or someone around you is at risk.
Little Green Apples: Once one gives all they have, what more can be asked or expected of them?
The Nature of Depression: Clinical depression can occur absent an external catalyst or event.
Great Expectations: Far too many consumers are not living or even seeking their highest potential.
Being A Peer Specialist: The Part That No One Told You: Peers are caught off guard when they encounter stigma and discrimination from a most unlikely source: other Mental Health Professionals.
The Engine of Recovery: Recovery components are both intellectual and economic.
Recovery and the Great Pyramid of Egypt: A person’s basic human needs must be met first before that individual can move upward toward recovery.
Man Bites Dog: Alcohol, whether it be beer, wine, or hard liquor, acts to further deepen depression.
Recovery: Dreams Delayed But Not Forgotten: Recovery comes in small steps. The smallest step towards your dreams brings you closer to recovery.
The funny thing about miracles... by Brian McLaughlin: Being spared from mental illness was not the real miracle. The real miracle was to be found in the mental illness itself, and the resulting struggle towards recovery. Most academics can only imagine the wonders I had discovered.
Pennsylvania's Peer Specialist Initiative: An Idea Whose Time Has Come!: Supports assert that mental health consumers are naturally qualified to become healers and supporters of their peers living with serious mental illness. By Brian McLaughlin.
To Thy Known Self Be True: Clearly, the hardest part about being a person with a serious mental illness is being true to your self. By Brian McLaughlin.