Matt Canuteson can truly relate to the people he works with. It’s one of the key things that makes him so good at his job.
Originally from South Bethlehem, Canuteson began drinking as a pre-teen and then eventually moved on to drugs. He dropped out of high school and was incarcerated several times, starting as a juvenile and continuing into his early 20s. He also faced several bouts of homelessness.
“It’s hard to say how I started,” said Canuteson. “I probably used as a result of depression and some struggles I was having at the time. Then as the addiction progresses, you have a lot of struggles that are the symptoms of depression, so it becomes a cycle.”
Canuteson, now 36, was adopted by white parents and grew up in Bethlehem. He said it was hard growing up not knowing how he fit in. Then, at around age 12, his parents divorced. It was around the same time he started using alcohol as a coping mechanism.
He spent years struggling with the addiction and mental illness before finally meeting up with a peer group that had faced similar struggles but was able to make changes.
“There were people who put the seed in my head that recovery was possible, but it was going to be a lifelong process,” he said.
He also began to notice his life wasn’t going anywhere.
“That was my main wake up call. … Everyone else was going to college,” said Canuteson. “Everyone else’s lives were moving along, and I realized I wouldn’t have the future of a life, a family, a home. I was going nowhere fast.”
It was then he made the decision to turn his life around.
He went back to college at the age of 23, and after graduating became the first youth coordinator for Families Together in New York State’s Center for Mental Health Services Systems of Care Grant. He is also married, with two children of his own.
In 2009, he was hired at Policy Research Associates in Delmar. The company helps with research and technical assistance for families and consumers in the behavioral health field. Canuteson personally helps those struggling with mental health, addiction and homelessness get treatment, obtain benefits and navigate the criminal justice system if needed.
“Matt is a young professional, but he’s accomplished a lot,” said Pamela Robbins, CEO of PRA. “From our angle, we’re lucky to have him because he brings a lived experience. It’s a key to incorporate that voice into the work we are doing.”
That’s why Robbins nominated Canuteson to receive a consumer/peer leadership Voice Award for his work as a national mental health advocate. The award is presented by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which honors individuals “who share their personal stories of recovery and work to reduce the discrimination and misperceptions associated with people with mental and/or substance use disorders.”
The Waterford resident will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 13, to collect the award.
“I nominated Matt because he is very well accomplished in this field and is outspoken on having experiences that enable him to relate to others having those same experience,” said Robbins.
Canuteson said he was grateful for the award, but it’s the work itself and his own ongoing recovery that drives his efforts to make sure it’s possible for everyone.
He said those with mental illness and addiction still face a lot of injustices, and that’s mainly because of the stigma and false perception that they are dangerous. That stigma makes it hard to hold down and keep a job, be productive in society and stay clear of the criminal justice system.
“Our portrayal in the media also doesn’t help,” Canuteson. “You’ll see headlines like, ‘Crazy man commits crime,’ but we don’t do that anymore to other groups that are disenfranchised like the gay or African American communities. It’s only these extremely rare cases that are used, but if we take that headline away, 99.9 percent of us aren’t violent.”
Canuteson said a better system is needed to encourage more people to help themselves through recovery. There are more ways communities could work to help people with these issues regain their lives, by providing more housing options, education and helping to cultivate healthy relationships.
He also said poverty is a major factor that leads to addiction and mental illness and harms the recovery process.
“If you’re someone who is struggling financially on a day-to-day basis, that’s going to be an uphill climb, even for someone not suffering from the added stresses of addiction and mental illness,” said Canuteson. “You have less access to everything from treatment to support.”
Canuteson said one of the good things about his job is being able to work with some of the best experts in the country and bring that back to a local level for people to access education and navigate the state benefits and criminal justice systems.
“I went through homelessness and incarceration, but now I think there was a purpose,” said Canuteson. “It provided me with unique professional knowledge that I’m now using to make a difference. I love my job, and I always thought it would be a dream with PRA and do what I now do.”