The Healthy Hearts, Healthy Recovery series highlights the impacts of heart disease among people with behavioral health conditions and offers practical guidance for support group leaders. Individuals with serious mental illness are 20-40 percent more likely to die from heart disease than those without mental illness. This series aims to educate and equip support group leaders with knowledge and tools to better support their members in making heart-healthy choices. 

Resources 

The series is composed of the following two resources: 

  • Healthy Hearts, Healthy Recovery Toolkit: This toolkit, developed by SAMHSA’s Program to Achieve Wellness, is intended for use in peer support groups for people with behavioral health conditions who may experience an elevated risk of heart disease. The free toolkit contains the following: 
    • Two support group session outlines 
    • Trainer notes for the person leading the support group 
    • A shared story from a person with lived experience 
    • A participant handout to help engage group members with the material 
    • An infographic outlining key messages 
    • A resource list

The outlined group sessions are designed to be informative and interactive, with conversation starters, worksheets, and short presentations. Participants will leave sessions better informed on how heart disease may affect their health and what they can do to reduce their risk. 

  • Healthy Hearts, Healthy Recovery Webinar: This resource is a webinar recording presented by SAMHSA’s Program to Achieve Wellness. The presentation introduces the Healthy Hearts, Healthy Recovery Toolkit, designed for support group leaders who work with people in recovery from behavioral health conditions. The webinar, presented by Sue Bergeson and Karen Moosvi, PhD, discusses the elevated risk of heart disease in individuals with serious mental illness and demonstrates how the toolkit can be utilized to mitigate these risks. 

Citation 

Program to Achieve Wellness. (2018). Healthy hearts, healthy recovery. https://www.prainc.com/resource-library/ 

This resource was first shared in 2018.  

(PDF Toolkit, 1 MB; YouTube Presentation)