Vol. 3 Issue 2

                 Consumers:  Two Wins,               
No Losses in State Budget Battles

For two years in a row, the mental health community has been absolutely victorious in its efforts to secure funding for key initiatives having to do with the care of mental health consumers.  MHANJ believes that the most powerful force influencing those victories is the participation and involvement of consumers, themselves.  By visiting and contacting legislators, by rallying in Trenton, and by testifying at our own Consumer Budget Forum on May 6th in Trenton, we presented the most important view of all, that of consumers, on issues only we can intimately comprehend: 

·          This year, we were worried that Medicaid would institute a co-pay for prescription drugs, and we prevented that by revealing the very fragile financial situations for consumers in the community, in  boarding homes, in partial programs, even those on SSI and SSDI living in their own homes.  We know that it’s bad public policy to balance the budget on people as vulnerable as our peers and succeeded in relaying that message to legislators and the Governor. 

·          This year, we were worried that Medicaid would institute a co-pay for prescription services like those included in Redirection II, and this year we continued to convince elected and appointed officials that putting more money into the community system is ultimately the most successful and recovery-oriented public policy. 

·          This year, we were worried that Medicaid would institute a co-pay for prescription mental health system.  We see the wisdom of protecting kids and offering mental health services to them and testified with courage and honesty about the necessary funding and programs to do that.  In this case, we were pivotal in convincing the legislature that spending $37 million for Children’s Behavioral Health and $125 million for the Child Welfare Reform Plan is excellent and wise public policy. 

·          This year, we were worried that Medicaid would institute a co-pay for prescription.   For some of us, our decision to become consumer-providers in the mental health system has been the cornerstone in our own recovery, however, like all community care workers, we need to make enough money to survive.  This year, consumers in New Jersey were able to help our legislators see why it’s so  important to offer a competitive, fair cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 4% to community care           providers and to incorporate that into New Jersey’s public policy and public spending plan.

Consumers have accepted the responsibility not only for their own recovery, but also for leadership of the advocacy required to fund the programs and initiatives that lead us there.  Our advocacy has taken many forms: traveling to Trenton regularly, using email and the Internet to network, using MHANJ Government Affairs resources to learn the skills required for public policy and advocacy, and holding each other up when the rigor of advocacy is too difficult.  We have a long way to go, but our record so far is excellent (2 for 2), and our willingness to break down the stigma and speak out will lead us all to healthy, meaningful independent lives. 

Stay cool!  Stay healthy!  Stay involved!

          The Next Battle:  Our Survival in the Community     
               "Olmstead " Planning

In the coming year, you’ll hear a lot of mental health advocates talking about “Olmstead” planning, and you’ll have unprecedented opportunities to get involved with it.  “Olmstead” refers to a case heard by our federal Supreme Court in which the rights of two consumers to leave a state hospital to recover in the community were upheld.  The case originated in Georgia, where the plaintiffs (the consumers) won a court battle that said they were guaranteed the right to recover “in the least restrictive setting” by the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1994. 

From the point of view of mental health advocates, the case was landmark for a few reasons: 

1.   It’s unusual for consumers to prevail in court and unheard of that the federal Supreme Court would agree to hear the case in the first place. 

2.   2.  We (they) won. 

3.  The court mandated that every state in the union design an “Olmstead Plan”, so that public mental health systems were taking necessary steps—in both policy and spending—to ensure that consumers could recover in the community with the supports necessary to do just that. 

Here in New Jersey, our Governor has put together a statewide Olmstead Task Force whose charge is to create a realistic, creative, and effective Olmstead Plan. Recently, our Commissioner of Human Services, Jim Davy, has energized the task force and offered consumer advocates a clear opportunity to actively participate in the plan and help design the community supports based on what we know really works. This task force has identified three key areas where we need input from you:  1)housing, 2)employment, and 3)long-term care.

The Commissioner is calling for our input by September, so the Consumer Advocacy Partnership will be organizing regional focus groups to gather specific information and ideas from you. Once we present the plan to the Commissioner, we’ll be advocating for the financial resources to cover the costs of our ideas and recommendations. 

Keep your ears open about Olmstead Planning and help us take advantage of this tremendous advocacy opportunity.  Here’s how:

• Start thinking about what’s worked for you and your peers, especially in terms of supportive housing, supported employment and supports that have kept you out of the hospital.

• Think about consumers who are still in state hospitals and what they’ll need when they’re discharged.

• Read MHANJ’s Cutting Edge on a monthly basis, check our website, and respond to emails from our Government Affairs department.  

• Look for leadership in other consumers and encourage them to hook into the Consumer Advocacy Partnership.  We need your viewpoint!

• Get registered to vote, learn the issues and get to the polls in November!  This year the MHANJ will be publishing the mental health platforms of all the candidates to help you decide whose leadership you want.  Vote and help other vote!  This is key to our strategy.  While other Americans care to disinterested to vote, let's get mental health on the public agenda!

     Losing Your Civil Rights:  Involuntary Commitment    

In recent months, MHANJ has learned that legislators are hearing from some advocates in the community who support “involuntary outpatient commitment” and are asking these legislators to draft and pass legislation enacting it.  What will this mean to you? 

Involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) is a practice that allows authorities to insist that you accept treatment in the community for your mental illness – even if you don’t believe the treatment will benefit you. 

IOC is similar to being involuntarily committed to a hospital in that the law would allow authorities to commit you against your will.  IOC is different from inpatient commitment in that you would be forced to accept treatments in the community, such as taking medications or attending programs. 

People who support IOC have talked with New Jersey’s legislators recently, attempting to influence them to pass IOC legislation.  However, MHANJ is concerned that these legislators have not yet heard from people who actually have mental illness—consumers—about whether IOC is effective and useful. 

MHANJ is opposed to involuntary outpatient commitment and is taking active steps to educate legislators about the reasons for our policy:

•       Recovery from mental illness hardly ever happens as a result of force.  When consumers choose to  embark on paths toward recovery, that decision is more influential in our recovery than most other  factors. 
   

•       Adults with mental illness have the right to decide on the type of treatment they believe will benefit them.  And they have the right to refuse treatment they believe will not benefit them.  These are basic civil rights that we still have, even though we have mental illness.  We maintain those rights unless we’ve been committed to inpatient hospital units.
   

•        New Jersey simply does not have the money to pay for the administrative
         and legal costs of implementing IOC.  And if we did, consumers would prefer to
         purchase true rehabilitative, quality mental health services, such as supportive
         housing, supportive employment, case management, jail diversion, respite
         care and peer support.  If New Jersey had more recovery-oriented services,
         most consumers would avail themselves of them.

Where do you stand on this issue?  Have you ever been forced to accept any type of treatment and then found it did not benefit you?  Have you ever had the opposite experience, where you admitted later that the treatment helped you?  Was force necessary? 

Would you have preferred a different treatment?  Would you have preferred to choose your treatment yourself?  Would you have preferred to have designated another trusted person to all decisions about your care when you’re decompensating?    

What do you do when you feel yourself starting to decompensate?  What do you need at those times?  Is it available to you? 

In the upcoming months, MHANJ and the Consumer Advocacy Partnership need to learn your answers to these questions as we prepare to educate our legislators about the consumer perspective on this issue—the perspective they haven’t yet heard. 

Please share your views and consider visiting legislators with us.  As always, your input is the most critical.
 

   Tobacco Use      

Almost half of all of the tobacco consumed in the United States is by people who have a mental health disorder.  Conversely, smoking is the number one cause of premature death among people with chronic mental illnesses— with rates even higher than deaths due to suicide or symptoms related to their illnesses. 

As MHANJ designs policy about this issue, we’d very much appreciate your thoughts: 

1. How long have you smoked?

2. Why did you start?

3. Do you want to stop

4. Do you believe you can?

5. Should NJ fund programs designed to help people with mental illness stop
   smoking? 

Send your thoughts to Marie Verna, Director of Consumer Advocacy, MHANJ, 121 N. Broad Street, Second Floor, Trenton, NJ  08608, 609-656-0110 (phone), 609-656-8078 (fax), mverna@mhanj.org.