About Us

Contact Us

Phone: 209.313.4511
Email: [email protected]
Address: Peer Employment Learning Center
4085 Colts Way, San Diego, CA 92115

Who we are

Crestwood Recovery Resilience Solutions has brought together a dedicated, dynamic and compassionate team of professionals with lived experience who bring their vast array of expertise of serving, mentoring, coaching, and training people who receive behavioral health services. Our team’s lived experience gives us the credential of “having been there” and our ITE (I’m The Evidence), that recovery and resilience are real.

What we do

We consult with organizations and systems nationally and internationally to support them in optimizing recovery and resilience learning strategies. We provide an internationally recognized, nationally certified, and competency-based peer support training program. Our peer support training program has also been adopted as the national peer support training program in Singapore and it is an approved California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist Certification Training provider. We also collaborate with federal, state, and county partners, including various peer run organizations and integrated health organizations across the United States.

We believe…

  • Recovery is the expectation, not the exception.
  • The fundamental way to move recovery forward and optimize recovery outcomes is to employ peer support specialists throughout an organization.
  • When peer support specialists contribute genuine peer support services within an integrated team, then recovery outcomes will be optimized.
  • Behavioral health services are not merely treating mental health issues and/or addiction challenges but is mostly about supporting and empowering people to live happy, healthy, and meaningful lives as contributors in their communities.
  • Not only can people recover, but also organizations and systems can recover.
  • Just as it is often true about personal recovery, organizational recovery is an ongoing process.
  • Hope, personal power, recovery relationships, recovery culture, and meaning and purpose are fundamental paths for both personal and organizational recovery.
  • Sustainability practices keep recovery alive and build resilience while strengthening continued recovery outcomes.

“Chris Martin was amazing, his ability to maintain the attention of participants through the various mediums, as well as his ability to make everyone feel valued was exceptional.”

– Student – D.C., Fresno County, CA

Our Team

Patty Blum, Ph.D, C.P.R.P.
As Crestwood Behavioral Health’s Executive Vice President/Chief Strategy Officer, Patty Blum’s responsibilities include formalizing and leading Crestwood’s strategic planning processes, establishing and implementing long-term and short-term goals, objectives, and expected benchmarks and outcomes. In leading Crestwood’s inclusive strategic plan, she collaborates with campuses, operations leadership teams, and executives to advance the well-being of the people we serve, our employees, programs, and the sustainability of Crestwood’s initiatives and projects. Patty has been with Crestwood since 1980 and has created the template for Crestwood’s model of care and continues to lead the growth and expansion of our services. She is also proud to be a founding member of CIBHS’ Mental Health and Spirituality Initiative.

James Ritchie
James Ritchie serves as the Director of Operations for Crestwood Recovery Resilience Solutions. He has earned a Ph.D. in the field of cognitive linguistics and has more than 25 years of experience as an educator, including as a college instructor, and as a certified trainer/instructor/facilitator in several areas, including suicide intervention, non-violent crisis intervention, Mental Health First Aid and Wellness Recovery Action Plan Seminar. James’ professional experience includes developing college course curricula, drafting Student Learning Outcomes for course accreditation, leveraging adult learning principles, and utilizing the Instructor-Lead/Participant-Centered approach to facilitation.

Chris Martin
Chris Martin is an international trainer and curriculum designer who has more than 30 years of experience as an adult educator, enabling him to design and develop effective learning programs for adult learners. Chris’s personal and professional experience brings a depth of “having been there” in both his training materials and delivery. His human enrichment materials have been used in organizations all over the world, including the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, and Brazil. Chris presently serves as the Director of Learning and Performance for Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc.

Theresa Sorensen
Theresa Sorensen serves as a Director of Learning and Performance II at Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc. Having more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field and as an adult educator and developer of course curricula, she supports adult learners in both classroom and online platforms. She started working with Crestwood in 2014 and has previous experience in the field, working for Catholic Healthcare West in the early 2000s after earning her degree from California State University, Sacramento. Theresa is privileged to have the opportunity to work with Crestwood and our affiliates to support recovery and resilience, bringing attention and intention to the vital work of supporting people as they journey toward fulfilling their hopes and dreams.