Berta Britz, MSW, Certified Peer Specialist, Creating Increased Connections, Resources for Human Development

Berta Britz is a courageous, thoughtful and compassionate leader of the recovery movement in Montgomery County, Pa. She provides mentoring and fellowship to those who have been discriminated against and stigmatized because of their mental health conditions. Her most outstanding leadership role has been in developing an initiative to help people who, like her, “hear voices”: she has changed lives through her ministry, Hearing Voices and Healing, supported by Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends; and she advocated for and helped initiate mental health system training in this approach. She facilitates Hearing Voices Network peer support groups and is a founding member of the Montgomery County Hearing Voices Network. She also developed and coordinates an internship for certified peer specialists (CPSs), and has mentored more than 25 CPSs, many of whom had been repeatedly refused employment opportunities and some who did not feel themselves to be ready for work; more than half are now employed.