From Our Readers: Priorities for national reform, writes Ron Manderscheid
Ron Manderscheid, PhD, Executive Director, of NACBHDD writes about "Implementing Service Improvements for Adults with Serious Mental Illness" On November 12 and 13, I served as convener and host for a major national meeting in Washington, D.C., designed to identify, build consensus, and prioritize needed improvements in services for adults with serious mental illness. The meeting, "National Action Meeting on Fostering System Reform for Adults with Serious Mental Illness", was convened because National Health Reform will provide a unique opportunity...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, reform | Comments (0)

News: Advocacy loses a pioneer: Gwill York Newman, 1932-2010
After her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Gwill Newman became a fierce advocate as well as donor for research about the brain. . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, research, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

Consider This: Peer counselors support consumers in emergency rooms
. . .a service innovation
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, emergency room, Esmin Green, hospitals, peer services | Comments (0)

News: Eve Oliphant, Cal. activist, died in Calif.
Eve Oliphant, pioneer of family support and advocacy, died in northern Cal. two weeks shy of her 90th birthday. She had been ill with leukemia. Oliphant is a subject of the recently released PBS documentary. . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, California, NAMI, obituary, schizophrenia | Comments (1)

News: Rosalynn Carter active during mental health month
Since 1949, May has traditionally been set aside for "Mental Health Month" a time when advocates, book publishers, and not-for-profits are slotted into news coverage. This year bring attention to the publication of a new book by one of the nation's most respected and admired advocates for long over-due reform of mental health services, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Mrs. Carter has spent nearly 50 years as a spokesperson, and she is now touring. . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, stigma | Comments (0)

News: PBS airs documentary during Mental Illness Awareness month

News: Death of Harriet Shetler, NAMI founder

News: Judge scolds NY: adult homes unacceptable
A New York judge ruled that adult homes are unacceptable when it comes to finding the least restrictive housing for people with a mental illness. Within four years all current residents must be afforded a placement . . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, housing, legal | Comments (0)

News: Patrick Kennedy explains decision not to seek re-election

Did You Know: The first conference sponsored by consumer/survivors was held in 1972.
Click here to download a pdf of The History of the Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Movement....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers | Comments (0)

News: Death of Judi Chamberlin, consumer activist and author

News: Clubhouses spared in Mass.

News: Anti-stigma campaign draws millions

News: Congratulations David Oaks
David Oaks, founder of Mind Freedom International, was named one of Utne Reader's 50 visionaries changing the world. . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, recovery | Comments (0)

News: Depression screening during Mental Illness Awareness Week

Did You Know: Mental Illness Awareness week was first proclaimed by Pres. George Bush 20 years ago.
Read the proclamation signed 20 years ago, Sep. 29, 1989. This year Mental Illness Awareness week will be observed Oct. 4-11....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy | Comments (0)

Consider This: Thought parity was a done deal?
. . .Think again
Full Story | Topics: addiction, advocacy, drug use, insurance, mental health, mental illness, parity, politics, reform | Comments (3)

Consider This: Court to New York: stop segregating mentally ill residents
. . .addressing wrongs
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, courts, housing, legal, services | Comments (2)

News: The loss of Sen. Edward Kennedy
Sadness crosses the nation mourning the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009), passionate advocate for education, racial harmony, and for reforming labor and health laws. Kennedy's lifetime commitment. . .
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, insurance, politics | Comments (0)

Consider This: Global mental health
. . .urgent needs
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, mental health | Comments (0)

News: Death with dignity: the National Consumer Memorial

News: Recovery works, says Clifford W. Beers honoree

News: Personal narratives of recovery and activism
Three engaging, powerful, personal narratives about managing with a mental illness are available. In the May-June issue of Health Affairs, television news personality Jane Pauley discusses her bipolar disorder, diagnosed when she was 50. And Fred Frese, former president of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and a psychologist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1966, calls for mental health professionals to come out of the closet. His remarks are also available in a webcam of the Health Affairs conference....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, bipolar disorder, depression, hospitals, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

Book Reviews: My Son's Name Was Fred, by Gwill Linderme York Newman

News: SAMHSA site invites opinions on health reform
SAMHSA, (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), an agency within the department of Health and Human Services, set up a website inviting contributions "to gain insight into the options that would help ensure these services are met in local community environments through health system reform." Most of the statements posted to date have come from nonprofit advocacy, service or professional organizations with a sprinkling of comments from individuals. Links for those wishing to participate are apparent....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, reform | Comments (0)

News: Mental health clinics stay open in Chicago
The persistence of citizen groups, a mayor willing to negotiate, and a boost from the federal stimulus package add up to keeping four city-run mental health clinics open in Chicago, writes Chi*Town Daily News....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs | Comments (0)

News: NAMI under Grassley microscope
Bloomberg News reported yesterday that Sen. Charles Grassley expanded his inquiry about drug company influence and asked the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) about its funding. The Beltway nonprofit representing families with a mental illness has been the subject of previous articles about ties to pharmaceutical companies. The annual reports prominently list companies (not amounts). Disclosure is not the biggest issue it faces as much as the influence of these companies on its policies....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, family, pharmaceutical | Comments (2)

Consider This: Lobby lawmakers, Patrick Kennedy tells advocates
. . . ask for mental health reform
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, policy, recovery, reform, research, Veterans Affairs | Comments (0)

News: NAMI scores states
The nation's adult mental health system is a mess, according to a report released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. (NAMI) which released its scorecard.Each of the 50 states were examined on 82 targets such as evidence-based practices or the promotion of consumer-run programs. These were among the benchmarks established by the 2003 New Freedom Commission. No state received the highest grade of "A" for its overall work and the advocacy organization also assessed the strengths and "urgent needs"...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, mental health, reform, states | Comments (0)

From Our Readers: Mental health advocate attends health summit
Friends: It was my privilege to be at the White House this afternoon for the President's Health Summit. The President opened the Summit by talking about the Report on Health Care Community Discussions that was distributed to participants and then introducing a firefighter/EMT from Indiana who talked about his experiences dealing with so many people with inadequate or no health coverage. Following the opening session with the President, the Summit moved to five breakout sessions. I can only speak to...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, policy, reform | Comments (0)

Did You Know: Clifford W. Beers founded Mental Health America 100 years ago.
Read more about the origins of the nation's oldest mental health advocacy organization (originally called National Committee for Mental Hygiene)....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, reform | Comments (0)

News: New York trial on adult homes
Do adult homes for New York's residents with a mental illness needlessly segregate residents? Or simply because they are not a hospital, are they integrated in the community? This is part of the question that will be answered in U.S District Court. The lawsuit charges many of the privately operated adult homes lack supportive services. In 2003 New York Times reporter Clifford J. Levy called them "psychiatric flophouses." A lawsuit was brought that year by advocates including the Bazelon Center...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, housing, legal | Comments (0)

Consider This: Celebrities, stigma, and re-runs
. . .an update
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, emergency room, press, stigma | Comments (1)

Interviews: Q & A with Ron Manderscheid: agenda for reform


Dr. Ron Manderscheid, a national leader in policy and research about mental health and substance use care, discusses goal of the Whole Health Campaign with MIWatch.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, politics, recovery, reform | Comments (0)

News: Activisits push beds through London
Dressed as patients and orderlies, British activists campaigned for mental health reform while pushing beds through the streets of London on Oct. 10th, World Mental Health Day. They pointed to a 20-fold increase in prescribing antipsychotic medication between 2002 and 2007, and want expanded access to psychological therapies....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, medication, mental health, reform, therapies | Comments (0)

Commentary: Helping college students: PADs on campus
When college students need help because of a mental illness, schools often don't know where to turn. Helping college students: PADs on campus could offer an answer. Dean Anna Scheyett and Adrienne Rooks (School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) explain how psychiatric advance directives can enlist students, faculty and administrators.
Full Story | Topics: advance directives, advocacy, colleges, legal, recovery, stigma, students | Comments (0)

Commentary: Helping college students: PADs on campus
When college students need help because of a mental illness, schools often don't know where to turn. Helping college students: PADs on campus could offer an answer. Dean Anna Scheyett and Adrienne Rooks (School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) explain how psychiatric advance directives can enlist students, faculty and administrators.
Full Story | Topics: advance directives, advocacy, colleges, legal, recovery, stigma, students | Comments (0)

News: Rally planned for parity
With the air going out of this year's Congress, and the fate of parity insurance less certain despite bipartisan and bicameral support, 250 groups are planning a morning rally on Sept. 17.Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) are scheduled to speak. Sponsors hope the 10-year battle to end insurance discrimination for many will be achieved before the retirement of Sen. Pete Dominici (R-NM) who has been long associated with insurance reform....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, Congress, insurance, parity, politics | Comments (0)

Consider This: Hats off to Dems
. . .for opening the closet door
Full Story | Topics: addiction, advocacy, mental health, politics, recovery, reform | Comments (0)

News: Wellness caucus in Denver a political first
With a good percentage of the 84 million who suffer from a mental illness or addictive disorders unable to get equal, early and appropriate treatment, or programs designed for recovery, the Whole Health Campaign (WHC) has been striving to make sure political candidates understand these concerns belong to discussions about health care reform. At next week's Democratic Convention in Denver, the WHC, a coalition of 70 organizations, will host a "wellness room," a significant achievement for focusing delegate attention...
Full Story | Topics: addiction, advocacy, politics, recovery | Comments (0)

News: Diversion programs in San Francisco
Informed police intervention and specialty courts for people with a psychiatric diagnosis are now shaping programs in forty California jurisdictions. KQED radio host Michael Krasny dedicated an hour-long program introducing how these innovations aimed to promote treatment and safety work in San Francisco. His four guests included an advocate, a judge, a police officer, and a consumer who teaches them all about his life including his experience with schizophrenia. Police Officer Greg Sancire, a trained psychologist, described training programs where...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers, courts, diversion programs, police | Comments (0)

News: Forum addresses police training in New York
New Yorkers want to know why their city does not have an adequate training program for police to respond to a psychiatric emergency. An open forum took place in which family, experts and authors discussed changes they would like to see.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, diversion programs, family, police, reform | Comments (1)

MIWatch webcasts: Harvey Rosenthal, panelist, AHCJ conference
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of NYAPRS, addresses journalists at the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, DC, March 28, 2008....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, recovery, treatment programs, violence | Comments (5)

Commentary: Let's stop saying "Mental Illness"

"After more than three decades of doing this work," writes David Oaks, executive director of MindFreedom International, "I have found that we need to find some simple victories. Changing our own language is something that we still have control over. I want to emphasize, as I say in this essay, that my suggestion is not about political correctness or linguistic perfection, which are impossible goals.

My suggestion is that we can take a small step toward our principles by finding more inclusive ways of describing those formerly called "mentally ill."

Add a comment and join in this discussion.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, DSM-V, patient rights, stigma | Comments (8)

Commentary: Meeting family needs: Alameda County's new program

A new program will offer flexible help for families in northern California. Rebecca Woolis, author of When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness, describes the service she helped design to meet diverse cultural and ethnic needs.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, family, treatment programs | Comments (0)

Consider This: Northern Illinois University
Events at Northern Illinois University remind us that complex problems need complex answers.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, colleges, policy, stigma | Comments (0)

News: Consumer activists want voice in Virginia
Consumer activists are working vigorously to redirect Virginia lawmakers’ emphasis on involuntary commitment at the expense of community-based resources, reports the Washington Post....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers, legal | Comments (0)

Consider This: Mental illness and public safety: let's tell the truth
by Phyllis Vine

As measures to protect public safety with gun laws move through state houses, too often the word "dangerous" is being used to modify "mental illness." Do laudable efforts to halt violence belong on the shoulders of people with a mental illness? Isn't it time we started to wrestle with the truth?
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, Congress, Kendras Law, stigma, testimony | Comments (2)

Consider This: Mental illness and public safety: let's tell the truth
by Phyllis Vine

As measures to protect public safety with gun laws move through state houses, too often the word "dangerous" is being used to modify "mental illness." Do laudable efforts to halt violence belong on the shoulders of people with a mental illness? Isn't it time we started to wrestle with the truth?
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, Congress, Kendras Law, stigma, testimony | Comments (2)

Interviews: Q & A with Bill Emmet: Mandating health reform
by Phyllis Vine
A coalition of advocates launched the Whole Health Campaign to remind presidential hopefuls that health reform is incomplete without including mental health and substance abuse in the calculus. In a conversation with MIWatch, Bill Emmet discusses this necessity.


Full Story | Topics: addiction, advocacy, parity | Comments (0)

Consider This: This campaign misfired
by Phyllis Vine

The Child Study Center withdraws "Ransom Notes."


Full Story | Topics: ADHD, advocacy, children, depression, eating disorders, OCD, stigma | Comments (0)

Consider This: Florida calls for end of trans-institutionalization
by Phyllis Vine


A bold report to Florida's governor recommends sweeping changes to address failures in the criminal justice and mental health system. “Transforming Florida’s Mental Health System" can guide significant reform.


Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, courts, diversion programs, housing, human rights | Comments (1)

Consider This: . . .from the APHA, Nov. 5-7
by Phyllis Vine
The American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington, DC, has a number of events discussing a range of issues from Monday's session on empowering consumers in mental health treatments to disaster preparedness, school based reforms. Read summaries of selected sessions, including Dr. Ron Manderscheid's presentation about PTSD and returning vets.


Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers, disaster, military, PTSD, research, stigma, suicide, workplace | Comments (0)

Book Reviews: "Shunned," by Graham Thornicroft
reviewed by Jean Arnold
Anti-stigma activist Jean Arnold reviews a new book about bias and the author's suggestions for how to address it.

Full Story | Topics: advocacy, stigma | Comments (0)

Commentary: A Personal Journey Wearing Three Hats: family, doctor and research director
by Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH
Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Lisa Dixon, is also a family member and a researcher. In "A personal journey wearing three hats" she writes about how her work has been informed by these roles while evaluating programs for families and consumers in the recovery process.

Full Story | Topics: advocacy, family, recovery, research, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

Commentary: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness in Schools
By Janet Susin
After her son was hospitalized with a mental illness, a Long Island school teacher learned there was nothing in the standard curriculum to help other students understand psychiatric disorders. Read about Janet Susin's campaign to change this and design Breaking The Silence.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, education, stigma | Comments (0)

News: Quick response to question about NICS
PoynterOnline, July 11, 2007 Al Tompkins, a writer for the online journalism site Poynter, invited reader feedback to a story about the National Instant Background Checks System (NICS): "What would opponents fear would happen if the names of potential gun buyers who are mentally ill were reported to the FBI?" Jean Arnold from the National Stigma Clearinghouse told him, laying out facts and figures which Tompkins posted. Arnold's (longer) original is also available....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, stigma | Comments (0)

News: New Jersey supports family programs
Star Ledger, July 6, 2007 New Jersey spends nearly $4 million for state wide, six-week courses in family education. Participation has doubled to 6,000 people in one year, addressing topics such as medication management (including side effects), community resources and strategies to prevent relapse....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy | Comments (0)

Commentary: Get Busy Living: A Fountain House Project at Manhattan Psychiatric Center
by Tom Malamud
Despite an image of shuttered hospital doors and deinstitutionalized patients after the 1970s, state hospitals still account for the care and treatment of more than 30,000 people. Many of them are buried in a deep sense of hopelessness, which is compounded by neglect from having been forgotten. Yet, with help, interest, and inspiration, they might gain hope, look to the future and plan for their post-hospital life.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, recovery | Comments (2)

Links: Issues / Advocacy
Action oriented non-profit groups with a national base promoting recovery, equity and social justice.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, consumers, Medicaid, Medicare, policy, recovery, Zyprexa | Comments (0)

Links: Find Help
New visitors will find useful resources for narrowing a search or for general information. Updated 11.02.07.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, children, depression, DSM-V, family, FDA, Medicaid, Medicare, medication, PTSD | Comments (0)

News: Active Minds started from loss and pain
NYTimes, April 25, 2007 Since 2000, when Alison Malmon, learned of her brother’s suicide, the organization she began at the University of Pennsylvania, Active Minds, has grown to 65 campuses. Today they have a Washington, D.C. office, a staff, and a new grant for outreach....
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, students | Comments (0)

Commentary: Succeed like Seabiscuit: the promise of a New York job training program
by Tom Malamud
People with mental illness are often under-employed despite their huge potential. New York City's Fountain House developed an employment program to guarantee that, like the race horse it's named after, Seabiscuit, members not only get to the starting gate, but they finish as winners.
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, community programs, recovery, workplace | Comments (0)

News: VW pulls jumper ad
Bowing to pressure from advocacy groups, Volkswagen America pulled its controversial “Jumper” ad showing a man ready to leap from a rooftop because of the the price of (other) cars. While the New York Post said the ad aimed for the “funnybone,” the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN) termed it “exploiting the tragic plight of someone suffering from mental illness.” SPAN commended VW for turning this around quickly in response to criticism from advocates. According to Adweek, which also commended...
Full Story | Topics: advocacy, stigma, suicide | Comments (0)