02/09/2026
We are looking for board members.
Are you interested in mental health recovery and wellness?
We are a 501c3 offering peer support groups and one on kne support.
If interested send your enquiry to dsmdove@outlook.com.
Article in papers years ago.
Pathways to hope group.
"NEW ALBANY — It is not therapy. It is not psychology. It is not treatment.
It is peer recovery. It is people with similar mental illnesses and substance abuse backgrounds working together to overcome their challenges.
Nancy Garner started the group Pathways to Hope in August when she received a grant from the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction in Indiana. Pathways to Hope is a peer recovery group aimed to help and encourage those with mental illness.
“It’s peers walking with peers, giving hope through support,” she said.
Garner understands the importance of positive thinking and encourages her group participants to talk about their abilities as opposed to their inabilities, their wellness not their illness.
“This is not treatment or therapy,” Garner said. “This is peers. I talk for a while, then it’s someone else’s turn. We don’t talk about our illness. We talk about our wellness.”
Garner is a Certified Recovery Specialist. Her own mental illness brought her to the place where she is able to use her lived experience to help others.
“I checked myself into Wellstone,” Garner said. “While I was there, I told my story to another patient, and my psychiatrist told me it helped her.”
Her psychiatrist at LifeSpring encouraged her to become a CRS in 2011, and she has been piloting peer recovery groups in Southern Indiana as a result.
At first her groups were mobile, however, Garner’s organization is now leasing a room at 1200 Bono Road in New Albany, where her group meets Tuesday noon to 2 p.m. and Thursday 6 to 8 p.m. Meetings are free to the public.
“I’ve done a lot in my life, but this is the best thing,” Garner said. “I’m helping. I’m walking with others.”
During her sessions, nobody gives advice. Each person talks about what has helped them overcome an aspect of their illness in hopes that others will be encouraged to look for ways to overcome their personal barriers.
One of her group attendees, Billy Bruederle, said this is the best peer support in New Albany.
“There’s not a lot of people to consider a peer,” Bruederle said. “In group, we can work on our inner strength with people that relate. You can’t find that anywhere.”
DuWaine Shanks is another member that has benefited from the group.
“I didn’t talk before, but now I can talk,” Shanks said. “Nancy helped me write a book to help other people. It’s called ‘Rose of Hope.’ Hope is what I’m hanging onto to overcome my illness and fit into society. Nancy has helped.”
The idea of the group is to ultimately have a peer recovery board composed of people with personal experience helping others facing similar challenges, however, the group has a commitment mandate. Garner needs six people in order to be reimbursed the money from the grant. She needs eight people to complete her program to sustain it.
Her group is operating at a loss and will cease operation in July unless she is able to grow her group to make enough profit to continue.
“We have no support,” Garner said. “We are alone. It’s hard to let people know we are here, but this group is so important. We need people to know we are here and the service is free.”
One member has completed the program — Karla Chambliss. She said Garner helped her get through the barriers she was facing.
“She helped me restart and mend the brokenness and see that I was a person still,” Chambliss said.
Pathways to Hope helped Chambliss see the whole picture instead of only what was in front of her.
“We have to have support for each other,” Chambliss said. “This is such an asset to the community and I am thankful.”
