Santa Clara resident Brittany G. was diagnosed with type 1 bipolar disorder at age 19 and has had multiple hospitalizations. She has suffered homelessness and has a traumatic brain injury due to a bicycle accident in 2012.
Now Brittany has found a way to help herself while helping others who live with mental health conditions. Through the Community Peer Program administered by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Santa Clara County (NAMI-SCC), she works as a peer connector, a mentor who has navigated his or her own mental health journey. Participants connect through weekly phone calls and in person check-ins. The program lasts up to four months.
“Now I get to help people,” Brittany says. “By me just being myself, I am able to make such an impact.
“My knee-jerk reaction when I heard about it was, I want to do that,” says Brittany, adding that she wishes she’d had a peer connector. “There are so many points in my journey and my recovery that I would have benefited from someone else with a lived experience. I was just so alone.”
Still, she says, being a mentor is “definitely helping my own recovery. There’s a reciprocity. It’s a truly wonderful, one-of-a-kind program.”
The program has served 680 community members since 2017. It is self-referral only, and any person living with mental illness in Santa Clara County can apply to receive a peer connector.
“Our peer connectors have experienced their own major mental illnesses but have achieved a substantial degree of personal wellbeing and stability,” says Rovina Nimbalkar, executive director of NAMI- SCC. “The focus of our program is to help the individuals develop independent thinking and find the confidence to shape their future.”
The program is funded by grants from El Camino Healthcare District and other private foundation grants. NAMI-SCC has an annual NAMIWalks Silicon Valley to fundraise for its programs.
“Before this program became available, our participants tell us that they were in a revolving cycle of hospitalizations,” says Nimbalkar. “Due to the intensity of their symptoms and medication side effects, many of them were not able to engage fully in their treatment by communicating with their treatment team or able to attend support groups or educate themselves by taking education classes.
“This (program) helps them feel more engaged in their own recovery,” she adds.
Participants are asked to set goals, practice self-care techniques and become more independent. Peer connectors share resources, promote self-advocacy and present options for growth. They do not fix, save, give advice or “set a participant straight” in their time together, according to Nimbalkar.
Becoming involved with the peer connector program lets participants know they’re not alone, she says, and that what they’re experiencing is normal.
South Bay resident Kristy K. was paired with Brittany in August 2024. Kristy struggles with dyslexia and has experienced homelessness. She grew up in a Japanese immigrant family and has several relatives with severe PTSD that stems from World War II.
In addition, Kristy suffers from chronic pain due to several injuries, one of which derailed a promising ice skating career. Disability compounded her mental health struggles, says Kristy.
“I felt very ashamed to call, terrified,” says Kristy, adding that she thought, “I’m better off dead than asking for this kind of help. I’m a disgrace.”
Kristy finally sought help from Disability Support Services at De Anza College in Cupertino, which led to her calling NAMI’s helpline. They encouraged Kristy to sign up for the Community Peer Program and eventually paired her with Brittany.
“Talking to her gave me so much confidence,” says Kristy. “We could relate on so many different levels (by my) hearing her experience and different traumas and struggles.”
Peer connectors can become role models that inspire the participants, says Nimbalkar. For some of them, the mentorship is their first job since their own hospitalizations, she adds.
Brittany has been stable for several years. She received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and should finish an AA at Mission College in psychology later in 2025.
“Speaking with Brittany was really great,” says Kristy. “She let me explain myself. I was very scared, and Brittany just made me feel very safe. She gave me so much understanding. She made me feel special.”
Because of the Community Peer Program, says Kristy, “I can find the resources I need to live a quality life.”