Mental Health Advocacy & Activism

Rev. Randy P. Orso has a long history of public mental health advocacy and activism.  From his early days assisting in reporting Dr. Antonio Deguzman, formerly employed by Pembroke Hospital to Union Health Insurance clinicians regarding Dr. Deguzman's grotesque abuses of children in his care, to his even earlier reporting of clergy sex abuse by Rev. Philip McConville and his friends like, Rev. John Stankiewicz, SSE, Society of Saint Edmund in the Roman Catholic Church to Cardinal-Archbishop Humberto Sousa Medeiros, of Boston at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Green Harbor, Marshfield, Massachusetts and social workers at Gov. Edward Winslow Elementary School when he was just a child.  This trauma-informed advocacy has played a role in his advocacy for the abused and marginalized.  

​

In young adulthood he stood up at a Diversity Rally at Saint Michael's College and spoke out against stigma against the mentally ill on campus in 1997.   He also spoke out for the need of language sensitivity training for faculty and staff at Saint Michael's College writing the Write Brain a language guide and best practices website for the intranet of SMCVAX. He shared religious LGBT accepting faith organizations on his web page of many multi-faith groups and was twice a delegate to the Vermont Conference of the Vermont Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Rutland, Vermont 1997 and 1998. 

​

Randy P. Orso was the webmaster for the Student Association 1999 and the Ally Group, the Gay-Straight Alliance of Saint Michael's College, 1997-1998. 

​

Later in life, 1999, he was educated in Meditation practices by Prof. LaFargue of UMASS Boston's Asian Religion course.  This technique was used by Rev. Orso to maintain his well-being. 

 

He began his leadership training at M-POWER's Leadership Academy while still in group therapy and a year later was made a Peer Educator in Vinfen's Peer Educators Project, Each One, Reach One, Teach One at both South Bay Mental Health, Vinfen, and Pembroke Pines Group Home.  He was elected to the Board of Directors of M-POWER.org and The Transformation Center and worked on advocating for bringing the Peer Specialist and Recovery Learning Centers model of recovery to Massachusetts. He spoke at conference on Peer Education is the Day Treatment Milieu, and wrote articles for the Voices for Change Newsletter and spoke as a speaker for the NAMI-Mass In Our Own Voice Speaker Bureau to hospitals, police academies, and social worker classes.   He also ran support groups with NAMI-Plymouth's NAMI-CARES peer-led support groups at the Independence Mall in Kingston, MA.  He was an on-call day treatment co-ordinator at South Bay Mental Health fulfilling a substitute group therapist role.

​

Since moving to Pennsylvania, Rev. Orso has spoken at a Suicide Prevention Walk, and other mental health gatherings associated with Wayne Counties rehabilitation and behavioral health community.  He was co-chair of the Community Support Programs of  and the Northeast Region of Pennsylvania and a panelist for a training offered by the same. He has done past work as a warmine operator and a satisfaction survey interviewer for the Advocacy Alliance.

​

He sits on the advisory board of the local department of mental health in Wayne County.   He has taken trainings in suicide prevention, trauma informed care, mental health first aid, and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) at Coursera on the Opioid Crisis, and in Positive Psychology and on The Addicted Brain.

​

Coursera MOOCs

​

Impacting the Opioid Crisis: Prevention, Education, and Practice for Non-Prescribing Providers

https://www.coursera.org/learn/opioid/

​

Positive Psychology

https://www.coursera.org/learn/positive-psychology

​

Buddhism and Modern Psychology

https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation?

​

The Addicted Brain

The Addicted Brain | Coursera

​

​

​

​

​