Howard D. Trachtman, BS, CPS, CPRP

Howard D. Trachtman, BS, CPS, CPRP

Mr. Trachtman is a Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner and a Certified Peer Specialist. He chairs the NAMI Advisory Committee on Restraint & Seclusion. He has personally experienced restraint and seclusion and had a friend die in restraints.

He maintains www.restraintfreeworld.org/; serves on the leadership team of the Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community and the Southeast Recovery Learning Community. He is a champion of alternatives to hospitalization and maintains a directory of peer support lines at www.warmline.org, where people can also sign up for yahoogroup on warmlines and/or peer-run respites.

Mr. Trachtman is a co-founder of the Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community and the NAMI Greater Boston Consumer Advocacy Network. He was a research associate for Consumer Quality Initiatives. CQI is a consumer-led organization that facilitates consumer evaluations of behavioral health programs and providers, and advises the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, independent provider agencies, and peer-led organizations in consumer-directed and recovery-based program planning, quality improvement, and evaluation. CQI informs state policymakers of the needs and ideas of mental health consumers with the goal of strengthening the role of consumers in their advisory councils and committees. He has also been President of the Metro-Suburban DMH Area Board; a co-chair of the Massachusetts Protection and Advocacy Council (PAIMI) and the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership's consumer advisory council. Mr. Trachtman has also served on the DMH consumer advisory council, the Chaverim Shel Shalom advisory council, the board of PLAN of Massachusetts, and as co-chair of the DMH Wellness Initiative.

Mr. Trachtman received his bachelor's degree in Business Administration/ Management Information Systems from Northeastern University in 1994. He has been honored with the JVS All-star award, Edinburg Center Shining Star award, a Commissioner's award in Recovery & Rehabilitation award from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH), and the 2003 NAMI-MASS Consumer of the Year award.