NAMI Ask the Expert: Ask Us About Money – Building Financial Wellness to Enhance Recovery

Thursday, September 28, 2023, 4:00pm – 5:30 PM Eastern Time

Financial challenges can have widespread effects — creating emotional distress and anxiety, limiting social interactions, and negatively impacting physical activity and sleep. Additionally, financial challenges impact feelings of purpose, meaning, and the ability to maintain our connection to self, others, and nature. So many factors impact our ability to manage money. Many have been told that it is unrealistic to plan financial wellness goals and they are stigmatized and discouraged by their experiences of financial struggles, leading to hopelessness. Financial education and financial literacy support can help people develop skills and learn about what they can do to get out of this seemingly unmanageable financial burden.

Learn about “Building Financial Wellness,” a peer- developed program that empowers people to increase their sense of control over their personal finances, develop the knowledge they need to better manage the financial resources they have, and use tools to improve their overall financial situation. Learn how this program helps people come together to learn and share experiences to reframe self-defeating narratives. Hear inspirational testimonies from people who have developed and benefited from the program. Additionally, learn how and where to access and share the building financial wellness curriculum to build hope and empowerment.

Our Experts

Nerissa Jones, Community Wellness Center Manager, New Dimensions
Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSPNJ) 
Nerissa Jones is the New Dimensions, Community Wellness Center Manager, in Salem County, New Jersey. Jones has worked at CSPNJ for 18 years and completed the CSPNJ Peer Support Specialist training in 2020 and CRSP 2015. She completed the Building Financial Wellness program in 2021.

Adam Chrone, Community Wellness Manager, Park Avenue
Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSPNJ) 
Adam Chrone is the Park Avenue Community Wellness Center Manager in Plainfield, New Jersey. Chrone has been working at the CWC in roles including mentor and resource specialist. Chrone participated in the CSPNJ Peer Support Specialist training and Building Financial Wellness program in 2022.

George H. Brice Jr., Program Development Specialist
Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSPNJ) 
George H. Brice Jr., MSW, is a part-time program development specialist at CSPNJ. George has worked for many years in a variety of roles including coordinator of a peer recovery and wellness education program, wellness coach, wellness trainer, and supported education and employment specialist. George worked 10 years as a faculty member at Rutgers University. George earned an associate degree in criminal justice/psychology at Burlington County College and both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work at Rutgers University-Camden.

Peggy Swarbrick, Ph.D., FAOTA , Wellness Institute Director
Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSPNJ) 
Swarbrick has worked for over 25 years at CSPNJ, where she developed the strengths-based eight-dimensional wellness model to promote recovery from mental health and substance use. She is known for collaborating with the peer community and family groups to identify and address social determinants that are barriers to recovery and wellness. Peggy is also a professor at The Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and Associate Director of the Center of Alcohol Abuse and Substance Use Studies.