Alan Lunt was a staunch advocate of services for not only himself, but others who were in various phases of their recovery. As Alan was beginning his recovery journey, he was looking at ways to give back to the system and to make mental health services more person centered. He was also one of the pioneers in NJ as he was part of the first group of people hired as peer specialists. First at MHA Union on their Peer Outreach Support Team (POST) and then at the MHA Morris POST where he and the other POST workers received job coaching. He provided services that were always person centered and respectful of people’s rights. He also wasn’t afraid to let the non-peer staff know they were crossing boundaries or were being coercive. He left the POST teams to work on Bridgeway PACT teams.

Alan was brought into the Rutgers University Greystone Project by Dr. Peter Basto to do some training with the staff about recovery. He had been hospitalized at GPPH and shared with staff what worked and what didn’t and then shared his recovery story of working full-time and obtaining a MS degree in Psych Rehab. The staff were amazed as some remembered him. He was never afraid to share his story and to educate people that recovery is possible.

Alan also presented in classes where he would talk about being a peer specialist, providing person centered care, his recovery journey, and not looking at people as labels of their diagnoses but as people first. He also helped Dr. Basto develop some ethical scenarios about PACT for the Case Management class.

Alan always had good ideas about changing the system and wanting to make things better for people who have mental health conditions. That was one of the reasons he wanted to get involved with NJPRA, where he served on the Board of Directors, so that he would have a bigger advocacy voice. He also started to get a couple of articles published about recovery, which he was very proud of, and also doing workshops at conferences. He really wanted to spread the word that recovery is possible. He tirelessly promoted the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program at Rutgers to broaden understanding and knowledge about recovery.

NJPRA celebrates Alan’s years of dedication to the field of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and working in advocacy with The Alan Lunt Consumer Advocate Award. The Lunt Award is given to a person in recovery. This person must show outstanding advocacy efforts in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation for people in recovery, families and/or services for people in recovery. All recipients should be either individual/advocate members or part of an organizational member of NJPRA.