By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, May 26, 2003 - 4:42 pm: Edit Post |
Richard Weingarten was a Peace Corps volunteer in Northeast Brazil. Since 1997, he's spent my vacations traveling and working in Brazil as an Outside Consultant on mental health projects with colleagues in Rio and Sao Paulo.
Richard Weingarten was a Peace Corps volunteer in Northeast Brazil. Since 1997, he's spent my vacations traveling and working in Brazil as an Outside Consultant on mental health projects with colleagues in Rio and Sao Paulo.
Brazil's Mental Health Adventure
Richard Weingarten
Brief Reports
My Brazilian Connection
This is an account of my trips to Brazil in 2001 where I worked on a series of mental health projects with Brazilian colleagues. I first got interested in Brazil after I graduated from college when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Northeast Brazil (Bahia state). After I got out of the Peace Corps I moved to Rio de Janeiro and went to work for United Press International (UPI) in their Rio bureau. I was UPI foreign news correspondent for a year and a half. Those years in Brazil were probably the happiest years of my life.
Later on, after I became ill in the U.S., my Brazilian connection played an important role in my recovery. Raised in a Victorian family in a small town in the Midwest, and schooled in a traditional boarding school for boys and then at an all men's college, Brazil's lively Latino culture served as a healthy antidote for my tendency to be reserved and often depressed. My contact with Brazilians and Brazilian culture always beckoned me on. I maintained contact with my friends in Brazil and they stuck by me through my illness years. What seemed like my emotional and intellectual "excess" to me, was easily accepted by my Brazilian friends. I felt much more myself interacting with Brazilians and connected to a larger sense of self I developed in Brazil. I traveled to Brazil at every opportunity and made friends with Brazilians I met in the States. I initiated Portuguese classes at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1990s and then was invited to teach Brazilian culture to undergraduates. These appointments and my own resilience moved me past one depression and a dysthymia condition and into the wider community. I regained my confidence as a teacher, a role I had before and during the years of my illness. From this position, I organized a club for Brazilian students studying in the Cleveland area. After this teaching stint, I felt ready to pursue full time employment and began a job search that would eventually land me in New Haven at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.
Since 1997, I've spent my vacations traveling and working in Brazil as an Outside Consultant on mental health projects with colleagues in Rio and Sao Paulo. In my travels I've been befriended and supported by adherents of a social movement, not unlike the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, that has struggled for many years to close Brazil's long-term psychiatric hospitals, create community-based services and expand the rights of mental patients.
Now I see my Brazilian connection as part of my ongoing recovery. I see myself as having the opportunity to be a link between the mental health worlds of the U.S. and Brazil. I believe the two countries have much to offer each other when it comes to mental health.
Please address correspondence to Mr. Weingarten, M.A., CPRP, Director of Consumer Initiatives and Education, at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06519. Tel: (203) 974-7622. Fax: (203) 974-7178. E-mail:
Richard.Weingarten@po.state.ct.us
Return to Winter 2002
By BarbaraCT (pc-24-151-114-132.newt1.ct.charter.com - 24.151.114.132) on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 11:05 am: Edit Post |
If anyone knows of a needy,single, widowed,divorced woman ?
from Brazil please relay this information.
Someone you know,
may be in need of FREE room and Board in our CT home in exchange for housekeeping and babysitting.
This arrangement would allow for this woman to work another flexible 40 hour wk during the weekdays (job) to earn her own salary as she wishes.
We have a comfortable Au-Pair suite in our home that is very private, new and clean.
We need a respectful, appreciative lady who needs a helping hand and in exchange we can receive some help with out Large overwhelming home and family.
We have had a few women over the past several years .all have worked well.
But the brazilian lady we had a few years back was the hardest worker, most appreciative and a take charge type person with no problems working hard for us.
This is a great opportunity for someone with family near Danbury CT, as we are 30 mins to danbury..
Barb