"We envision a future when everyone
with a mental illness will recover"
-- New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003 --
Judi Chamberlin passed away on Saturday, January 16th
 Judi
changed many lives throughout the world with her passionate speaking and writing
to stand up for the rights of people who have been labeled with mental illness.
We will miss her. We feel blessed to have known and worked with Judi.
[Visit Judi's page]
Alternatives 2009 Health and Wellness Screening Report Available
Currently, Americans who have major mental illnesses die an average of
twenty-five 25 years earlier than the general population (NASMHPD, 2006 and
other sources). They experience the largest health disparity in the United
States. [Read more...] [Click
here to read the full report (PDF, 56KB, 6 pages)]
"This Emotional Life" Explores Resilience and Happiness
This 3-part PBS series, premiering January 4, opens a window into real lives,
exploring ways to improve our social relationships, cope with emotional issues,
and become more positive, resilient individuals. Hosted by Daniel Gilbert,
Harvard psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness. Partners
and contributors include the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA); Blue Star Families; the Depression and Bipolar Support
Alliance; Mental Health America; Mayo Clinic; the National Alliance on Mental
Illness; and University of Phoenix. Visit
www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife
to watch previews and learn more.
Health Care Reform: Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Health Care
Reform
Daniel Fisher and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter
at the
25th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy
held at The Carter Center in Atlanta Nov. 5-6, 2009.
More than 150 mental health advocates, policy-makers, practitioners,
educators, and researchers convened at the symposium to discuss “Health Care
Reform: Challenges and Opportunities for Behavioral Health Care Reform.” Dr.
Fisher presented on the topic of comparative effectiveness research in mental
health. He drew on personal lived experience as well as research carried out at
the NEC. He pointed out the importance of integrating persons' lived experience
into any research into recovery and wellbeing. He emphasized that participatory,
qualitative, action research is best suited to gathering evidence as to the most
effective means of assisting people to recover. For more information on the
symposium, please visit
www.cartercenter.org. [Click
here to watch the video] [Click
here to read more on comparative effective research in mental health]
New Report Surveys Consumer-Led Evaluation Teams
Consumer-run evaluation is essential to systems transformation; yet there is
a lack of information out there about how to do it effectively. This new report,
developed for NEC by Consumer Quality Initiatives, Inc. (CQI), surveys several
existing consumer-led evaluation teams in the US, identifies best practices in
consumer-run evaluation and provides recommendations for creating and sustaining
a consumer-led evaluation team.
Click here to read the full report (PDF, 221KB, 22 pages)
Anniversary of the Americans
With Disabilities Act, 2009
NEC Executive Director Daniel Fisher
Attends Presidential Signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, Commemoration of the 19th Anniversary of the ADA
On behalf of NEC, I want to congratulate the White House on its
terrific celebration of the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities. It was exciting to see the Obama administration
fulfill its campaign promise to join the international community in this
important area. President Obama's words regarding President Roosevelt were
insightful. He first said that FDR had done so much despite his disability and
added that perhaps he was able to do so much because of his disability. As a
person who has recovered from schizophrenia, become a psychiatrist, and was a
member of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health I feel, similarly, that my
disability has challenged me and many of my peers to find a deeper purpose in
life. Dan Fisher
To watch the remarks made by President Obama and Secretary of
State Clinton, click here
To read the official Proclamation signed by President Obama,
click here
July 30, 2009: The US Ambassador
to the UN officially signs the UN Disabilities Pact
NEW AT THE NEC WEBSITE:
"Engaged, Employed and Wrestling With Mental
Illness"
Inspiring recovery story of Anthony Sgarlato. "When
he was in his 40s, he started volunteering as a peer counselor at Baltic Street
A.E.H., a nonprofit group in Brooklyn that provides services to clients with
mental illness. It was a perfect match: He helped men and women whose battles he
knew well to get benefits or to find housing. He embraced the role of advocate,
traveling several times to Albany to lobby lawmakers for greater benefits for
mentally ill people. Mr. Sgarlato worked his way up, and now is the director of
self-help and advocacy at the center." [Click
here to read the full text of the N.Y. Times article]
Free Podcasts and Slides from Self-Determination
Summit Available
Learn more about self-determination in a time of
economic uncertainty, with an emphasis on person-directed recovery, peer-run
services, economic security, and transparency and accountability in behavioral
health care. Featuring presentations from Debbie Whittle, NEC TAC Director and
NEC Executive Director Daniel Fisher. To access the podcasts and slide
presentations,
click here.
Comparative-Effectiveness Advocates Vow Better
Outcomes Will Follow
The additional research on treatment options will not be able to meet its
stated aim of improving mental health care treatment outcomes, however, unless
it includes a range of options, maintain some mental health experts. For
psychiatrist Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., those options should include
patient-centered care and the use of “patient peers” in treatment. [Click
here to read the article]
Mental health: Out of the cuckoo's nest
 A
radical US advocate for psychiatric patients' rights brings to the UK his
first-hand message that a diagnosis of mental illness is not a life sentence
"Dan Fisher, a prominent psychiatrist who is advising the Obama administration
on mental health issues, has been on a personal mission for two decades to
change the way wider society understands and reacts to mental illness. An
advocate of the "recovery model" – which posits that a diagnosis of mental
illness is not for life, and that people can recover completely – Fisher is an
outspoken and controversial figure in the US, campaigning vigorously for the
rights of people diagnosed with a mental illness." [Click
to read the full article]
National Mental Health Advocates Join Hogg Foundation's Advisory Council
AUSTIN, Texas Renowned mental health experts and consumer advocates Dr.
Daniel Fisher and LaVerne Miller, Esq., have been appointed to the National
Advisory Council of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
The 10-member council advises foundation staff on strategic direction and
potential funding initiatives. Council members have Texas-based or national
expertise in mental health, consumer advocacy, philanthropy and other fields
related to the foundation's mission of promoting the mental health of all
Texans. [Read More...]
Intervoice Letter to Parents of Children who Hear Voices
Open letter to Oprah Winfrey in response to her program
about “The 7-Year-Old Schizophrenic”
Dear Oprah
We are writing this letter in response to your program about “The 7-Year-Old
Schizophrenic”. This concerned Jani, a child who hears voices, and was broadcast
on the 6th October 2009.
We do so in the hope we can provide a more hopeful and positive alternative
to the generally pessimistic picture offered by the members of the mental health
community featured in the program, and in the accompanying article on your
website. [Read more...]
Are you Depressed, or Just Human? By Dr. Andrew Weil
Many cultures find the American insistence on constant cheerfulness and pasted-on smiles disturbing and unnatural. Occasional, situational sadness is not pathology -- it is part and parcel of the human condition, and may offer an impetus to explore a new, more fulfilling path.
Read more at:
www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/are-you-depressed-or-just_b_307734.html
Judge in NYC rules that 4300 mental health consumers are unduly segregated
in adult psychiatric homes
New York State discriminated against thousands of mentally ill people in New
York City by leaving them in privately run adult homes, which effectively
replaced state-run psychiatric hospitals more than a generation ago but turned
out to be little more than institutions themselves, a federal judge ruled on
Tuesday. [Click to read full
article]
New Review of 20 studies shows that being labeled with mental illness does
not increase the risk of violence
Click to view - Schizophrenia and Violence: Systematic Review and
Meta-Analysis [PDF, 15 Pages, 944KB]
Psychiatric peer review touted: Care termed a low-cost, effective
alternative
People with psychiatric illness get better care from other people with a
psychiatric history than from traditional doctors and psychologists in a
traditional medical setting, according to Daniel B. Fisher. [Click
to read full article]
Consumer-Directed Medicaid Services more Effective than
Professionally-Directed Services
The above SAMHSA funded study by Ce Shen, Ph.D. and others published in
the November 2008 Psychiatric Services found that self-directed care
works well for persons with mental illnesses. [Read
more...]
New research study finds unlocked, mental health consumer-managed, crisis residential program produce better
results than locked, inpatient psychiatric facilities
For adults with severe psychiatric problems, consumer-managed residential
programs may be the way to go, a new study suggests.
Title of Study: A Randomized Trial of a Mental Health
Consumer-Managed Alternative to Civil Commitment for Acute Psychiatric Crisis. [Click
for more]
How Consumers STEP UP to Design a Truly Recovery-based Mental Health System
Click to view Dan Fisher's article published in National Council Magazine
Reducing Seclusion and Restraint:
Reducing the use of seclusion and restraint: A NASMHPD priority
Click to view a Risk Management Guide (pdf, 35 pages, 246KB)
The National Empowerment Center is funded in part by:
 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Center for Mental Health Services
www.samhsa.gov
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