ABOUT US

To view a 7 minute presentation about the Mental Health Association in New Jersey,
please click the arrow in the center of the screen.

Mission
The Mental Health Association in New Jersey strives for mental health for children and adults through advocacy, education, training, and services.

Vision
The vision of the MHANJ is a statewide community in which people with mental illnesses can achieve full potential, free from stigma and other barriers to care and recovery.

Values

• Mental health is essential to the development and realization of every person's full potential.


• Justice demands that everyone, regardless of mental or physical disability, has the rights and responsibilities full participation in society.


• Sufficient resources need to be available for a complete range of community mental health and support services, public education and preventive interventions.


• People with mental illnesses can recover and live healthy and productive lives.


• Children and adults should have access to a full array of high quality, community-based, integrated mental health services, regardless of their ability to pay.


• Mental health treatments should be offered on par with other treatments for other illnesses.


• Those with mental illness, and their parents and families are unique and essential participants in providing advocacy, services, education and training.


• The promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental, emotional and social problems is the responsibility of every institution in the community.


• The MHANJ values partnerships and sees public and private sector participation as essential to community mental health.

MHANJ Board of Trustees

John D. Woods, Chairman

Victoria Brown, MSW, LCSW Vice Chair
Social Services Manager
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway

Martin Tuohy, Vice Chair/Secretary
President
2eTechnology Group

Charles Weston, Treasurer

Jacqueline R. Ardito President JRA Consulting Group, LLC The Honorable C. Louis Bassano Kathy S. Collins Executive Director Monmouth Cares Care Managment Organization Jeff Doherty Regional Business Director, East Ortho-McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Harold B. Garwin, Esq. Past Chair Executive Director Community Health Law Project Sofia Heftler Owner Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management Natalie Herron Account Manager, Recruitment & Diversity The New York Times Daniel Katz Principal Dan Katz & Associates Advertizing and Marketing Consultants Kathy Krepcio Executive Director John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Robert A. Meyers, FACHE Director of Operations Zufall Health Center William P. Murray Executive Vice President, Public Affairs MWW Group Sally Robinson, MFA Outpatient Program Specialist Preferred Behavioral Health Services Robert Robles, III Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management Nicholas Ruggiero, Esq. North Jersey Regional Disability Program Navigator One-Stop Career Center Irwin Schwartz, CPA Partner (retired) J.H. Cohn LLP Anna H. VanderSchraaf, M.D. Psychiatrist Bill Waldman, MSW Lecturer & Executive in Residence Rutgers School of Social Work Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

The Story of Our Symbol: The Mental Health Bell
"Cast from shackles which bound them, this bell shall ring out hope for the mentally ill and victory over mental illness." —Inscription on Mental Health Bell

During the early days of mental health treatment, asylums often restrained people who had mental illnesses with iron chains and shackles around their ankles and wrists. With better understanding and treatments, this cruel practice eventually stopped.

In the early 1950s, Mental Health America issued a call to asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles. On April 13, 1956, at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Md., Mental Health America melted down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope: the Mental Health Bell.

Now the symbol of Mental Health America and its affiliates, the 300-pound Bell serves as a powerful reminder that the invisible chains of misunderstanding and discrimination continue to bind people with mental illnesses. Today, the Mental Health Bell rings out hope for improving mental health and achieving victory over mental illnesses.

Over the years, national mental health leaders and other prominent individuals have rung the Bell to mark the continued progress in the fight for victory over mental illnesses.

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