CONSUMER AFFAIRS BULLETIN
Volume 4, No. 1 Spring 1999

CMHS Launces First National People of Color Consumer/Survivor Summit

CMHS sponsored the first ever "People of Color Consumer/Survivor Summit," in Washington, D.C., last fall. This group of about 30 representative mental health consumers/survivors from across the nation joined together to clearly articulate the need for their own voice to speak to the key issues and needs of mental health consumers/survivors who are people of color. It was a meeting that had evolved over several years of CMHS-sponsored teleconferences, chance meetings and caucuses convened at the annual mental health consumer/survivor conferences, entitled "Alternatives." At all of these meetings the impact of health care reform, notably through managed care initiatives, had been identified as a significant concern. This encompasses such issues as: meaningful participation in the design, delivery and evaluation of mental health systems; access to culturally-competent services of high quality; rights protections; peer-operated services; the provision of essential community-based services such as housing and employment; and others.

The group with the apt facilitation of Arthur Evans, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and director of managed care for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, addressed such questions as 1) What are the barriers to recovery from mental illness for people of color within managed care systems; 2) what are the opportunities that managed care brings, and 3) specifically, what are the issues people of color who are mental health consumers/survivors are faced with in overcoming these barriers and in realizing these opportunities?

The meeting offered a firm opportunity for consumers/survivors of color to work together to assess, to identify and to address the needs of the community. A summary of the meetings proceedings will be available through SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information Center on the Internet at mentalhealth.samhsa.gov or by telephone at 1-800-789-2647.

*Please note that the terms consumer/survivor and people of color are the terms used at the Summit. We recognize and respect that others may identify themselves otherwise.

Consumer Affairs Bulletin
Volume 4, No. 1, Spring 1999