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Mental Health Programs

About CMHS

CMHS National Advisory Council
Subcommittee on Consumer/Survivor Issues

Appendix C: Action Items, Issues and Recommendations

Action items for CMHS

• Provide better coordination of federally-funded consumer/survivor activities. In particular, promote coordination among the technical assistance centers and among the MHSIP user groups.
• Provide honoraria for consumer/survivors who present at meetings and/or attend in an official capacity.
• Ensure that a CMHS staff member who speaks on behalf of CMHS is accompanied by a consumer/survivor who can present the consumer/survivor point of view.
• Develop a list of site-related accommodations that will enable consumers/survivors to attend meetings affecting them. Explore the use of assistive technology.
• Ensure that requirements stipulated in RFPs reflect the concerns of consumer/survivors/, such as the use of "People First" language and consumer/survivor involvement.
• Encourage the identification of resilience in consumers/survivors by offering opportunities for personal testimony.
• Offer a consumer/survivor technical assistance center on the Internet.
• Ensure that Federal funds are available only to programs in which participation is voluntary.
• Ensure that consumers/survivors are treated with respect by CMHS staff.

Identification of Under-served Populations and Advocacy Issues

• Enhance efforts directed to suicide prevention.
• Target programs to children with mental illness.
• Ensure that persons entering mental hospitals have access to a handbook describing their legal rights. Such handbooks must be developed for each state. Post the handbooks on the Internet and work with accrediting agencies to ensure compliance by hospitals.
• Ensure that persons entering mental hospitals are competent to understand their legal rights by reading those rights 72 hours after admittance.
• Increase funding for technical assistance centers to ensure that basic information about legal rights, medication, advocacy groups, and other topics is available.

Issues and Recommendations for Long-Range Exploration

• Develop methods of creating a "consumer/survivor wing" to the mental health professions. Consumer/survivors/survivors have no access to Federal or State funds that could assist them to receive training in those professions, but their presence is needed to ensure a consumer/survivor voice.
• Establish a national reporting system on the use of ETC. Only a small number of states currently require reporting, so accurate information concerning the extent of ECT is unavailable.
• Explore issues related to the aging of persons with mental illness. Consider the impact of age-related medical problems in combination with mental illness.
• Find methods of involving younger people with mental illness in the movement. Their experience with the mental health system is different from that of the consumer/survivors who founded the movement. Often, younger consumer/survivors have not been institutionalized.
• Develop opportunities to demonstrate to members of the general public that consumer/survivors can function well. Encourage disclosure about problems with mental illness. Determine the number of people who live productively with mental illness. Methodologies developed by the World Health Organization for the study of chronic diseases might be useful.
• Encourage the use of "People First" language and of the word "discrimination" when describing prejudicial activities and attitudes towards people with mental illness. Discrimination links the consumer/survivor movement with broader civil rights struggles.
• Explore ways of examining the treatment of persons with mental illness in the military. The Veterans Administration is considering related issues.
• Develop creative ways of disseminating information. Groups vary in terms of their self-help behaviors. The faith community, for example, may be the only means of reaching some people with mental illness.
• Ensure that inclusion of consumer/survivors/survivors is genuine in all programs and activities that affect them. Work with accrediting agencies to establish standards for consumer/survivor inclusion and involvement.
• Prepare a critical reading of the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health from the consumer/survivor perspective.
• Find effective methods of collaborating with other groups to promote issues affecting consumer/survivors/survivors.
• Examine issues related to employment for persons with mental illness. Such issues include the impact of the Ticket to Work legislation, supported employment, the effectiveness of state vocational rehabilitation programs, and parity.
• Develop standards for designating "model programs." Establish a system whereby such programs can receive a seal of approval.

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