Sharon Jenkins Tucker received the 2009 Mental Health America Clifford W. Beers Award. When getting up every day was hampered by depression, she slept in the back seat of her car rather than be hospitalized. Since 2004 she has been the executive director of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, using her experience about the process of recovery, and her training as a peer specialist, to create the Peer Support and Wellness Center run by employed certified peer specialists.
"Does recovery work?" some are asking as they discuss how much to invest in health reform. "I'm the evidence," she told a cheering, weeping, and star-studded crowd.
