Action needed on Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act

This alert includes:


Dear Friend,

We need your help.

We have a very exciting opportunity: Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are introducing the Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act, which addresses the critically important role that peer-support services can play in recovery from mental illness.

This legislation would authorize a grant program to foster the development of mental health consumer-run services. (See the attached draft of the bill below.) It will be introduced in tandem with the Medicaid Intensive Community Mental Health Treatment Act, which would provide states with the option of covering intensive community mental health treatment under
Medicaid. Although it is not as significant to the consumer/survivor movement as the Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act is, it is still a good bill.

These bills are sponsored by Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-PA) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). It is significant that Jim Greenwood is a Republican and a ranking member of the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, where this bill will be sent. The more co-sponsors the bill has, the greater the likelihood that this proposal will be taken up and favorably considered.

This is the beginning of the legislative process, and it will take all of us pulling together and making this our top priority to achieve our goal. 

We are writing to encourage you to contact your Congressional Representative by mail or e-mail (or both) to urge them to sign on as a co-sponsor. You can also alert them that they will be receiving (if this has not already occurred) a "Dear Colleague" letter, from representatives Greenwood and Kaptur, making the same request. Also attached are some "talking points" about the importance of this legislation, which you can use in your letter. (Please contact us if you do not know who your U.S. Representative is.)

If any of you are represented by members of the Republican leadership - particularly Hastert (IL), DeLay (TX), Armey (TX), Watts (OK), Cox (CA), Davis (VA), Pryce (OH), Ballenger (NC), Barton (TX), Blunt (MO), Callahan (AL), Calvert (CA), Camp (MI), Cubin (WY), Dreier (CA), Latham (IA), Linder (GA), McHugh (NY), Moran (KS), Regula (OH), Sweeney (NY), Young (AK), Gilman (NY), Kerns (IN), and Tiahrt (KS) - these people would be particularly significant sponsors. In addition, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Health Subcommittee in particular would also be significant. But it's also important simply to get as many sponsors as possible, whoever they are.

Time is short, so please contact your representative today!

If you have any questions, please call Susan Rogers, Director of Special Projects, Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 800-688-4226, ext. 288, or by e-mail at mailto:srogers@mhasp.org

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Joseph A. Rogers
President and CEO
Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania
__________________________________

Talking points re: suggested language for Greenwood-Kaptur bill

The proposed regional centers would foster the development of consumer-run services, which play a vital role in the continuum of care. These services fill the gaps in the traditional mental health system. Their hours of operation include hours when traditional services are closed. For example, consumer-run drop-in centers, which provide peer support and assistance with problems without professionals in attendance, are open not only during the day but in the evening and on weekends and holidays, when professional services are usually closed and when such support is most needed to counteract the isolation and loneliness people with mental illnesses often experience. Consumer-run services also go into places often unserved by traditional programs, such as into the streets; they make extensive use of volunteers and usually operate on a shoestring, making them extremely cost-effective; and they require little if any red tape, which often keeps people away from traditional mental health services. 

The importance of supporting and promoting such services is recognized by no less an authority than the Surgeon General, whose recently published report ("Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General") hails the contributions of consumer-run services. The Report notes that consumer organizations "have invigorated the fields of research as well as treatment and service delivery design" (p. 14). Later, the Report explains: "The rationale for consumer roles in service delivery is that consumer staff, clients, and the mental health system can benefit. Consumer staff are thought to gain meaningful work, to serve as role models for clients, and to enhance the sensitivity of the service system to the needs of people with mental disorders. Clients are thought to gain from being served by staff who are more empathic and more capable of engaging them in mental health services (Mowbray et al., 1996) (p. 290). 

The proposed regional centers would provide much-needed support to consumer-run services. In "Consumer/Survivor-Operated Self-Help Programs: A Technical Report: A Retrospective Review of the Mental Health
Consumer/Survivor Movement and 13 Federally Funded Consumer/Survivor-Operated Service Programs in the 1980s" (recently published by the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as Volume I in its Consumer Information Series), the authors noted that "[a]pproximately 70% of the [consumer-run program] sites indicated that more training and technical assistance would have contributed to increased successes. . . . Participants revealed that they felt hindered by this lack of knowledge and that coordinated, comprehensive approaches to meeting technical assistance needs would have been of benefit" (p. 111).

Why are more technical assistance centers needed, beyond the three that already exist? Even though there are already three national technical assistance centers, most mental health policy is decided on the state level. In addition, each of the regions of the country has its own unique needs. While the three national consumer technical assistance centers (all of which are on the East Coast) are, because of their very nature, generalists, regional centers could specialize in the issues affecting their respective regions. It would therefore be better to have 10 regional centers, since they could become more closely involved in regional and statewide issues. (Think globally, act locally.)

In addition, the existence of additional technical assistance centers would allow each center to develop a subject specialty on an in-depth basis. These specialties might include consumer-run businesses, cultural competence, forensic issues, stigma, research, financing, etc. In other words, the regional centers would each serve a specific region, but each would also have an area of expertise on which it could provide technical assistance nationally.

Also, as the movement has grown more sophisticated, it would be more effective to be able to develop a more collaborative relationship with those who are receiving technical assistance, so that there could be more of an exchange. It is more difficult for the national consumer technical assistance centers to develop this kind of relationship. 

___________________________________________

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Health

Bilirakis (FL) CHAIRMAN
Stearns (FL)
Greenwood (PA)
Deal (GA)
Burr (NC)
Bilbray (CA)
Whitfield (KY)
Ganske (IA)
Norwood (GA)
Coburn (OK) VICE CHAIRMAN
Lazio (NY)
Cubin (WYO)
Shadegg (AZ)
Pickering (MS)
Bryant (TN)
Bliley (VA) EX-OFFICIO
Brown (OH)
Waxman (CA)
Pallone, Jr., (NJ)
Deutsch (FL)
Stupak (MI)
Green (TX)
Strickland (OH)
DeGette (CO)
Barrett (WI)
Capps (CA)
Hall (TX)
Towns (NY)
Eshoo (CA)
Dingell (MI (EX OFFICIO)

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce

Bilirakis (FL)
Barton (TX)
Stearns (FL)
Gillmor (OH)
Greenwood (PA)
Cox (CA)
Deal (GA)
Largent (OK)
Burr (NC)
Whitfield (KY)
Ganske (IA)
Norwood (GA)
Cubin (WY)
Shimkus (IL)
Wilson (NM)
Shadegg (AZ)
Pickering (MS)
Fossella (NY)
Blunt (MO)
Davis (VA)
Bryant (TN)
Ehrlich (MD)
Buyer (IN)
Radanovich (CA)
Bass (NH)
Pitts (PA)
Bono (CA)
Walden (OR)
Terry (NE)
Dingell (MI) (RANKING MEMBER)
Waxman (CA)
Markey (MA)
Hall (TX)
Boucher (VA)
Towns (NY)
Pallone (NJ)
Brown (OH)
Gordon (TN)
Deutsch (FL)
Rush (IL)
Eshoo(CA)
Stupak (MI)
Engel (NY)
Sawyer (OH)
Wynn (MD)
Green (TX)
McCarthy (MO)
Strickland (OH)
DeGette (CO)
Barrett (WI)
Luther (MN)
Capps (CA)
Doyle (PA)
John (LA)
Harman (CA)

____________________________________


SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE

(Date)

Dear (the name of your U.S. Representative):

I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor the Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act, which is soon to be introduced by Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-PA) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). You may have already received a letter (or you soon will receive such a letter) from Rep. Greenwood and Rep. Kaptur asking you to co-sponsor this bill and another bill they are introducing, the Medicaid Intensive Community Mental Health Treatment Act.

As one of your constituents who has been a recipient of mental health services, I am writing to add my voice to theirs.

As I have worked toward recovery, I have found the self-help and peer-support movement of people who have psychiatric disabilities extremely helpful. The Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act addresses the extremely vital role that peer-support services play in the recovery process. It would authorize a modest grant program to foster the development
of mental heath consumer-run services to help people handle and overcome mental illnesses by setting up 10 regional technical assistance centers that would aid in their development.

(Here you may want to add something about how peer-support services have personally contributed to your recovery.)

This is the first-ever legislation dealing specifically with the concept of self-help, a critical tool in the recovery of people who have mental illnesses. Please add your support to this growing recovery movement by becoming a co-sponsor of the Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Act.

Thank you very much. 

Sincerely,

(Your Name)
(Your Address)
(Your Phone Number)