Karen Kangas: Director of Recovery and Family Affairs
For Karen Kangas, Ed.D, the Behavioral Health Network’s Director of Recovery and Family Affairs, hope is the best tool you can give to a person battling addiction and mental illness.
She speaks from experience. Kangas is in recovery herself and has spent the past 25 years advocating for individuals with mental health and substance abuse disorders and sharing her story of recovery.
Kangas had a comfortable career as an elementary school principal before mental illness and addiction took hold. She lost her job in education, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and became addicted to alcohol which she says she used for self-medication. It was a low point for Kangas, and she knew she needed help to get her life back on track.
While spending time in rehabilitation in Colorado, she had an epiphany.
“The doctor told me I’d never work again. I said ‘no’. The time is now. I absolutely decided that I was going to start sharing my story and fighting for the rights of people [with mental health and substance abuse issues].”
– Karen Kangas
Kangas says it was the influence of the many people she met in treatment that helped her arrive at that life-changing decision.
“The people who influenced me the most were people who had similar experiences. They said to me, ‘you can work again,’ ‘you can have a life.’ That’s the message I have for people today,” Kangas says.
While back in Connecticut visiting family, Kangas saw an ad in the Hartford Courant for an agency seeking, “a person with a history of mental illness.” She applied for the position at Fairfield Hills, the former state psychiatric hospital in Newtown, and began her career in recovery. Over the years, she served in various roles at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DHMAS), most recently as DMHAS Director of Recovery Affairs and a member of the Commissioner’s Executive Leadership Team before her retirement in 2006. After retirement, Kangas served as the executive director for Advocacy Unlimited where she developed the Recovery University curriculum to teach others in recovery to become peer support specialists. In her role with the Behavioral Health Network, Kangas will use her experience to assess Behavioral Health Network programs and services to ensure they are recovery-focused.
Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network President and former DMHAS Commissioner Pat Rehmer says Kangas is a proven leader in the recovery field and a tireless advocate for those with mental health and substance use disorders.
Rehmer says there is a need to have more people in active recovery, like Kangas, working in behavioral health.
“People in recovery see things through a different lens and, because of their success, are able to bring a significant amount of hope to people with substance abuse and mental health disorders. Through them, clients see that they can be employed and have very productive lives during recovery,” Rehmer says.
Kangas says she wants to make sure that people in recovery have a strong voice when it comes to care.