My name is Tricia Cutright and I have been at LIFTT as a Peer Mentor since 2019. Peer mentors provide education, recreation, and support opportunities to individuals. The peer mentor may challenge the mentee with new ideas and encourage the mentee to move beyond the most comfortable things. Most peer mentors are picked for their sensibility, confidence, social skills, and reliability. Currently, I am training with Larry Ketchem to become an Independent Living (IL) specialist. He is blind and I am his reader.
I am a person with invisible disabilities. I have PTSD, Bipolar Disorder 1, and Schizoaffective Disorder Bipolar type. These disabilities are challenging because most people do not understand Mental Health disabilities. I decided to share this information with you on this blog to encourage those who deal with invisible disabilities and let them know that we can live independently. I hope with my work through LIFTT and Mental Health Advocacy I can bring awareness to this issue.
Because of my disabilities, I became involved in the Butte-Silver Bow Mental Health Local Advisory Council in 2016. I was a part of the committee that worked with Montana’s Peer Network to bring the Certified Peer support pilot program to work with Butte’s police department and Mental Health providers.
I moved back to Billings in 2018 and contacted the local Mental Health Advisory Board to continue my involvement with Mental Health Advocacy. I met the board chair who happened to work at LIFTT. He got to know me and interviewed me for the Peer Mentor program. I have been involved with the council now known as the Yellowstone County Behavioral Health Local Advisory Council and LIFTT ever since.
I have an extensive background in Computers, and I hope to someday complete my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I only need 5 classes to finish but funding is currently my roadblock. While I am not able at this time to work in the demanding field of technology, I am able to use the skills that I learned in previous work experience to help support staff at LIFTT. I love helping people and making their life easier.
I crochet hats for the homeless and paint pictures for my own enjoyment.
I would encourage anyone with a disability across our service area who wants to help people to please consider becoming a Peer Mentor at LIFTT and we will be able to work together for the advancement of the independent living cause.
About Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT): LIFTT is a Montana 501(c)3 corporation organized as a Center for Independent Living (CIL). With team members based in Billings, and Glendive, LIFTT provides people with disabilities with programs and services that help empower them to break down the physical, bureaucratic, and cultural barriers that prevent them from being fully independent participants in their lives and communities throughout 18 counties in southeastern and southcentral Montana: Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Stillwater, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. For more information, please visit liftt.org or download our mobile app on Apple or Google Play.