Board Spotlight: Rochelle Honey-Arcement

Rochelle Honey-Arcement is our current Board President. She works at the Crisis Center as the Coordinator for the Mobile Crisis Outreach Program. She also continues to work at The Montessori Children’s Garden in the morning each day before she goes to the Crisis Center. She has been teaching preschool since she was 16 years old. Rochelle has two Master’s Degrees, one in Social Work and one in Health and Disability Rights. Her current passions lie in crisis intervention, including suicide prevention, and in trauma informed care practices, including how to decrease the effects of trauma on providers. She facilitates the STOP Secondary Trauma of Providers Support Group for providers to process and support one another to decrease the negative effects of trauma.

When Rochelle initially joined the board, it was as the client representative on the board, as Rochelle was a client of Successful Living at the time. Rochelle has worked hard at her recovery and has overcome many barriers while becoming a professional in the mental health field. She believes that her perspective, as an academic and professional with lived experience gives her insight that is helpful in her work and the training that she presents at work and in the community. Rochelle works to decrease the stigma towards mental illness in many ways, one of which is by facilitating Iowa’s only Hearing Voices Support Group, a support group where people who are often diagnosed with psychosis can come to talk about their experiences in a safe environment, support one another, and learn about ways to cope with their experiences. Another way that Rochelle works to decrease stigma is by employing Peer Support Specialists on the Mobile Crisis Team. She recognizes the power of lived experience when working with individuals with mental health concerns.