Recommendations to the Center for Mental Health Services
An entire ocean separates European consumer-run initiatives from the American mental health community. To breach this gap, the Center for Mental Health Services has sponsored several international initiatives including scholarships for consumers to attend the biannual World Federation for Mental Health Congress. This type of activity, coupled with the increasing use of the internet, generates more information exchange among consumers worldwide. Yet the need remains for increased interchange between cultures. Below, are several recommendations to the Center for Mental Health Services for how further to encourage the American advocacy community to learn from the European experience:
To fully understand the details and real life operations of Europe’s innovative programs, it is necessary for student and teacher to interact face to face. Consequently, my first recommendation is for CMHS to facilitate an international forum for innovative programs so that American and European consumer advocates may share their knowledge with each other. Such a forum could be independent of other activities or could be integrated into already established national conferences and meetings.
Secondly, CMHS may also wish to consider sponsoring an exchange program so that consumers can experience European initiatives first-hand. Such a program could even be fashioned as a train-the-trainers program with participants returning to the United States with the responsibility of presenting their experiences and knowledge throughout a particular region.
Thirdly, another approach to breaching the gap between Europe and the United States would be to sponsor the translation and distribution of selected books authored by European consumer advocates.
A final recommendation entails focusing specifically on the potential to learn from Iceland’s experiences in coping with proliferating genetic research. CMHS may wish to consider monitoring in greater detail these rapid developments in Iceland’s genetic research industry. Dialoguing more frequently with consumer advocates in Reykjavik and monitoring their activities could benefit consumer advocates worldwide.
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