Community Listening Forum Toolkit: Make Your Voice Heard!
This step-by-step guide includes everthing you need to host a succesful Community Listening Forum. Learn more...
Recovery Advocacy Toolkit: Making Our Voices Count
includes media outreach templates, event organizing “how-to” materials and many other resources. Learn more…
|
eNewsletter - December 3, 2009
The History of the Mental Health Consumer Movement
The History of the Mental Health Consumer Movement is the topic for a free December 17, 2009 teleconference sponsored by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s ADS Center. The teleconference explores the mental health consumer movement’s history; challenges that have been faced and how they were addressed and sets the stage for strengthening support for systemic change.
What does the mental health consumer movement have in common with other civil rights movements? How have mental health consumers and our society at large benefited from the pioneering advocacy of early mental health rights activists? What work remains to be done?
To help consumers, the general public, and the media explore these questions, SAMHSA’s ADS Center (Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health) invites you to a free teleconference training entitled “The History of the Mental Health Consumer Movement.”
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (Eastern Time)
To register, please click here.
Overview: What is the mental health consumer movement? Why is it important to understand its origins? Coinciding with the emergence of other civil rights movements, the consumer movement arose from the need to advocate for changes in the way society viewed and treated people with mental health problems. Early pioneers of the movement overcame multiple barriers and challenges to establish a powerful voice with an enduring message of self-determination and inclusion. Despite the enormous successes of the consumer movement over the last several decades that include a complete re-orientation of the mental health system around the concept of recovery, negative perceptions and attitudes about people with mental health problems are still prevalent. Further, many people are not aware of the impact of the movement on contemporary attitudes or the full range of capabilities offered by people with mental health problems.
Discussing the accomplishments of the consumer movement can provide inspiration and hope for consumers and others and spark public awareness of the benefits of social inclusion.
Over the past 40 years, the national mental health consumer movement has achieved remarkable successes: the growth of rights protection organizations; the establishment of consumer affairs offices in a majority of States; and the recognition of the value of peer-provided services and formalized positions for peers in service-delivery systems. But much remains to be done, including expanding the support and funding for recovery-oriented systems of care and consumer-operated services; increasing opportunities for self-directed care; and ensuring access to and availability of housing, employment, and educational opportunities to guarantee social inclusion for people with mental health problems.
This teleconference will provide a context to help consumers and others understand the origins of the movement, the challenges that members of the movement have encountered and overcome, and the societal advances gained through effective advocacy. This movement set the stage for efforts to support individuals in their personal recovery and to strengthen support for continued systemic change.
Goals: This training will provide:
- a framework for understanding the origins and importance of the consumer movement, including the role of the arts and social inclusion’s connection to history;
- information about the challenges and obstacles the consumer movement has encountered and how they have been, and continue to be, overcome; and
- an understanding of the movement’s accomplishments and next steps.
Submit Your Questions: We invite you to submit questions in advance of the teleconference. Please submit your questions by e-mail. Please note that sending a question does not guarantee that it will be addressed directly during the teleconference. We will provide the speakers' contact information so that you may contact them directly for a response or for additional information.
You also will have an opportunity to ask questions after the speaker presentations. Speakers will answer as many questions as possible during the question and answer session. Please note that if you provide your name and organization at the time you ask your question, we may use it during the call. Anonymous questions may be submitted.
Training sponsor: This teleconference is sponsored by SAMHSA’s ADS Center ( Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health), a project of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). CMHS is a center within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The session is free to all participants. For information about SAMHSA’s ADS Center, explore here.
Background Sources: If you are interested in learning more about the mental health consumer movement, the following sources may be of interest:
- Consumer/Survivor History Project
- Emerging New Practices in Organized Peer Support
- Overview of Consumer and Family Movements