Larry Fricks
Larry Fricks currently serves as the Director of the Appalachian Consulting Group and Vice President of Peer Services for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. For 13 years Larry was Georgia’s Director of the Office of Consumer Relations and Recovery in the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. He is a founder of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network that now has some 3,000 members, a founder of the Georgia Consumer Council, a founder of Georgia’s Peer Specialist Training and Certification and a founder of the Georgia Peer Support Institute. He served on the Planning Board for the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mental Health America and on the Advisory Board for The Carter Center Mental Health Journalism Fellowships.
Larry has a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and has won journalism awards from the Associated Press, the Georgia Press Association and Gannett Newspapers. He is the 1995 recipient of the Clifford W. Beers Award given annually by Mental Health America and the 2001 recipient of the American Association for World Health Award for significant contributions to improving community mental health. In 2004 he received the Recovery Award from International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services and in 2008 the Lifetime Achievement Voice Award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for the development and adoption of multiple innovative, recovery-oriented programs and services.
Larry’s recovery story and life’s work to support the recovery of others was published by HarperCollins in the New York Time’s best-selling book Strong at the Broken Places by Richard M. Cohen and was featured on the Today Show in 2008.
