Sharon Jenkins Tucker awarded 2009 Clifford Beers Award
Sharon Jenkins Tucker, Executive Director of GMHCN, awarded 2009 Clifford Beers
Award at the 100th Anniversary Mental Health America Gala in Washington D.C.
Each year only one person in the country is selected for this honor. The Clifford W. Beers Award, the highest
award offered by Mental Health America, is bestowed on a “mental health consumer whose service and leadership
best emulate the example set by founder Clifford W. Beers, to improve conditions for and attitudes
toward people with mental health conditions.” It has been presented annually since 1976. Each year,
more and more people with mental illness are seeking out the care and supports they need. Beers’ legacy is
evident in the growth and development of the mental health consumer movement, where individuals become
active decision makers for their own care and advocacy. Georgia has not had a Clifford Beers Award recipient
since Larry Fricks won the honor in 1995.
As Executive Director of GMHCN, Sherry Jenkins Tucker helped secure two SAMHSA/CMHS Statewide Consumer
Networking Grants to serve a network of over 3000 members and 35 employees. With the help of Charles
Willis, whom she recruited, thousands of consumers have been trained in WRAP and peer-supported whole
health and wellness. GMHCN has worked with DMHDDAD and Appalachian Consulting Group (ACG) to train
and certify more than 500 (Medicaid Billable) Certified Peer Specialists. With Sherry’s support, Georgia received
a $221,000 Transformation Transfer Initiative Grant from the National Association of State Mental Health Program
Directors (NASMHPD) to transform its trained peer workforce to promote holistic recovery and increase life
expectancy. Thanks to funding from DMHDDAD and the work of GMHCN’s Peer Workforce, Sherry and her team
are responsible for bringing the innovative, peer run Peer Support and Wellness Center to Decatur, developing a
peer mentoring program for consumers from every regional hospital area, recruiting 70 consumers each year to
work as PERMES surveyors to evaluate consumers’ satisfaction with state mental health and addictive disease
services, and expanding Double Trouble in Recovery from 5 to 63 meetings across Georgia. Recently GMHCN
partnered with ACG and the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine to conduct a study of consumers
using the Relaxation Response to counter stress and metabolic factors leading to early death.
Sherry fully believes that every person can recover from mental illness. Like Clifford Beers, her life has had ups
and downs. Like him, she has kept working and has not let circumstances get her down. Sherry formerly served
as a Behavioral Health Advocate for Legal Aid of West Virginia, and directed the West Virginia Office of Consumer
Affairs. She has a master’s degree in counseling, and is a Certified Peer Specialist. She is an internationally
recognized WRAP facilitator, and has trained hundreds of people from as far away as Australia and New
Zealand. She has been a staunch advocate for consumer choice, increased community based services, peer
support, employment, civil rights protection and reducing stigma. Through hard work and vision, her efforts and
advocacy have resulted in many people embracing recovery and leading fuller, more meaningful lives.
Pipeline
Spring 2009
