Local man honored with lifetime achievement award for contributions to mental health recovery

A local man is being honored with a lifetime achievement award for his peer advocacy and support work in the mental health field.

“I’m only 60 years old, but I’ve done a lot. As they say, it’s not my first rodeo,” joked Waltham resident Howard Trachtman. 

Trachtman is set to receive the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health at the organization’s Annual Friend and Leader Award Dinner on May 21. He has also received a lifetime achievement award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and will receive a third lifetime achievement award in June from Kiva Centers.

“The lifetime achievement award is for someone who has committed decades of their lives to this work,” said Danna Mauch, president and CEO of MAMH. “Howard has, for decades, been a leader for people who live with [mental health conditions], not only in Massachusetts but across the country.”

A career as a peer

Trachtman is a certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner, a certified peer specialist and certified older adult peer specialist. Peers are mental health workers who have mental health diagnoses themselves, meaning that Trachtman has had his own journey through the mental health system.

“Peer services don’t replace traditional services. We’re supplementing them,” Trachtman said.

A peer might work on a helpline, run a support group or be a part of a client’s care team alongside the doctors and therapists. Peers have a lived perspective that can help them see someone’s situation more holistically.

Trachtman shared an example where a peer support worker encouraged a client’s wishes to return to work despite doctors saying it wasn’t possible. The client was interested in space, so the peer support worker went with the personto a planetarium to see what kinds of jobs were available. The client was able to start in a janitorial position at the planetarium, with hopes of getting more involved in the future.

“We’ve had doctors say that a patient isn’t going to go back to work and it’s like, how can you say that?” Trachtman said. “Doctors aren’t God.”

Founder, board member and author

Trachtman co-foundedMetro Boston Recovery Learning Community, which serves Waltham, as well as the Southeast Recovery Learning Community. Both provide out-patient peer-led community groups and classes for those who have faced a variety of hardships and mental health diagnoses. 

Trachtman also co-founded the NAMI Greater Boston Peer Support and Advocacy Network, which provides peer support and resources for the same demographic. Trachtman participates in the NAMIWalks Boston fundraiser. Participants walk a one-mile route to raise awareness and funds for mental health programs.

Trachtman has also sat on more than 17 leadership boards including the Disability Law Center Board of Directors, the Massachusetts State Mental Health Planning Council, the NAMI Massachusetts Board of Directors and the Edinburg Center Human Rights Committee. He is on the leadership board of MAMH, but Mauch said that that did not affect whether or not Trachtman was the recipient of the award. 

“We don’t typically set out to honor board members, but regardless of if he’s on our board or not, he’s the guy,” said Mauch.

Trachtman is the lead author of a chapter titled “From Within: A Consumer Perspective of Psychiatric Hospitals” in the “Textbook of Hospital Psychiatry,” as well as a chapter titled “Peer and Consumer Involvement in the Psychiatric Emergency Services” in the “Emergency Psychiatry: Principles and Practice” textbook.

The power of a peer-to-peer phone line

In addition to his more local work, Trachtman travels across the country, presenting on peer-run programs, managed care, entrepreneurship and something called a warmline. A warmline is different from a hotline due to the demographics of the people who respond to callers.

 “In order to be a true warmline, all of your staff that answer the phones need to be peers,” said Trachtman. 

Callers to the warmline don’t necessarily need to be in a mental health crisis. 

“We help people find resources and make connections,” said Trachtman, “But you could also call and say ‘I had a really good day today’ or ‘I’m lonely and I’m looking for someone to talk to.’” 

The warmline provides support and assistance with navigating the often-complicated mental health system. Trachtman recommends the Compass Helpline through NAMI Mass, which can be reached by email at compass@namimass.org and by phone at 617-704-6264.

From Buffalo to Waltham

Trachtman grew up in Buffalo, New York. His parents taught him math and reading skills at a young age. He graduated high school at 16 and began attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his dream school, in the fall of 1981. Things didn’t go quite to plan. 

“It was more work than I was used to and I did too many extracurricular activities,” Trachtman said. 

After three semesters, he left MIT in 1983 due to a mental health crisis. After a short stay at a hospital in Buffalo to support  his mental health, he attended the State University of New York at Buffalo before returning to the Boston area in 1984.

Trachtman first came to Waltham in 1985 as a client of the Metropolitan State Hospital and the Edinburg Center after becoming homeless upon his return to Boston. Trachtman decided to stay in the area because of its proximity to the services he used through the hospital. Eventually, Trachtman began attending night classes at Northeastern University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management information systems in 1994.

Ultimately, Trachtman took up mental health advocacy and peer support, putting him on the path to numerous accolades, including next month’s lifetime achievement award. Those interested in attending the award ceremony dinner can purchase tickets through the MAMH website.