Keith Bauduin

I graduated from Sand Diego City College with an Associates Degree in Behavioral Science in Alcohol and Other Drug Studies. Once I passed my stated exam, which was before I graduated I went to work for Veterans Village of San Diego in 2012. After one year with them I went to work at St.Vincent de Paul Village in San Diego as an Addiction Counselor in 2013, then was asked after one year to be trained as a Peer Support Specialist. In 2015 I passed an Interview with the Veterans Administration Medical Center and was hired as a Peer Specialist at the Detroit VA Medical Center. I currently work with the HUDVASH Homeless Program in the Mental Health section. My role within the VA is to talk with veterans about their Mental Health and Addiction issues to see if they would like to have a much better life (if they so choose). As a Peer Specialist with the VA we provide them the information and contacts to move forward in their lives. As a counselor we can't tell them what they need to do but only how to do it. As a Peer Specialist we use our life experiences in both out own Mental Health and Addiction issues we have worked through. We show that even though we had a very hard life both in the Military and Civilian life, we have been able to use the techniques and tools we learned by going to certain groups and classes within the VA and also in the community. We use NAMI as one of our larger foundations to help us understand and know how our Mental Health condition has played a major part in our life. They teach you how to understand what you are going through and bring you together with others who suffer with conditions and to not listen to the Stigma in the world that Mental Health is a contagious disease.