The Person Centered Planning Conference

9/28/06

Consumers in Michigan just had our best week in recent memory, the Person Centered Planning Conference and the Recovery Council, all in one week. I feel the highlight of the Person Centered Planning conference was the presentation given by Ms Ann Forts. Ms. Forts has Downs Syndrome (which she refers to as UP syndrome) and travels over 20.000 miles a year spreading the message of hope and recovery. Ms. Forts has far too many credentials to list here, including an appointment to a National committee by then President Bill Clinton so I suggest you go to her web site: www.anniefortsupfund.org. As the entire system of treatment moves toward transformation, consumers like Annie will be more common place as opposed to rare and at the rate things are progressing, recovery shall soon be taken for granted for anyone entering the system.

The Michigan Department of Community Health Recovery Council is a committee of majority consumers from across the State and we meet about every three months and make decisions regarding the direction of treatment and recovery in the State. I am not certain I am at liberty to reveal what we met about on Friday but suffice it to say it is vital to every consumer in the system. The thing about the Recovery Council is that as little as two years ago, the idea of consumers being involved in the decision making process regarding the direction of treatment, was a mere dream. Today, through the Recovery Council, our thoughts and suggestions are being heard and are being implemented. Years ago many of us put our dreams away; we gave up hope of ever being listened to. This is a new day and time and it is now safe to pull those dreams off the shelf, dust them off, and make them reality. There are far too many folks who believe in us and they are working hard on our behalf, so we must do our part by believing in ourselves.

Under the Governor's new initiative, there are thousands of folks coming out of the criminal justice system and back into the community. I have always been an advocate for this: as opposed to making the justice system adapt to the mentally ill our efforts should be directed towards keeping the sick out of the jails in the first place. Those being released were imprisoned because of substance abuse related offenses, mental illness or both, and would fare better in community-based treatment. Whether they thrive of fail depends largely on how well they are received by whatever community they return to. Directed by Jocelyn Fitzpatrick, Corrections to Work is a group of folks dedicated to seeing to it that these 'Returning Citizens' are welcomed with open arms back into the community. On November 1st Corrections to Work will be hosting a fundraiser at the Charles H. Wright Museum and Ms. Fitzpatrick has asked the Recovery Band to bring our message of recovery to their event. To be honest we are proud to be able to give what was so freely given to us, HOPE.

The thing about Peer Support is that it is more than just a concept, to us it is a way of living. It does not require a specific, time, place, or setting for it to happen. In the van on our way to the Person Centered Planning conference, Andria Jackson (you may remember her from Empowerment Day) told us how since she was a child she not only wanted to sing with a band, but also how she had promised her Grandmother that she would one day do just that. During that trip, Ms Jackson became the newest member of "Recovery" and the band gets to be a part of making another persons dreams come true. This is Peer Support and what we do as Peer Supporters is that no matter what we are into, Office Management, Sports, the Arts, Technology/Computers, Farming/Animal Husbandry, or Cars, we find consumers who are into what we are. We open our Peer Support manuals and our hearts and are pleasantly surprised at how quickly we both begin to grow. And then we go in search of others needing to renew their faith and trust in the system.

Yes, the Freedom Train has left the station and the cost of a ticket to ride is self-esteem and belief in humanity. Consumers are willing to go back into the darkness to save another consumer; we know our way around and how to find the light. After all, having been there before we are more than qualified to help others navigate their way through recovery. When soldiers return to battle to save those left behind he/she is called a war hero and receive medals. When consumers go back into the fray to help others, they are called Peer Supporters and are golden. So as the train of system transformation picks up steam we will be seeing more consumers like Ann Forts traveling the Nation spreading the message of hope. More Recovery Councils where consumers are making decisions on our future, and most certainly, greater recovery outcomes. During these uncertain times this much is guaranteed: with everyone, Physician, Case managers, Consumers, Providers, ETC, working towards one goal, we have little choice but recovery.

Gerald Butler

CPSS

Tags: PCP, Conference, Recovery

Michigan Recovery Council, Part Two

September 21, 2007:

There was continuing discussion of the role PSS can play during access, and the impact that it has on the hope of persons in distress.

Jenneth Carpenter from HSRI gave a presentation of Recovery and the Federal Transformation grants process.

There are two groups of measures:

• Individual surveys
• Measures of organizational support of recovery

This reflects the idea that there are two dimensions of recovery:

• Supporting one's mental health
• Addressing environmental barriers

10 fundemental components:

• Self Direction
• Person-centered
• Empowerment
• Holistic
• Non-linear
• Strengths based
• Peer support
• Respect
• Responsibility
• One more I didn't catch

Recovery is a process composed of non-linear stages and recovery is self-defined.

The transformation Grants are designed for 5 years of re-fabricating the infrastructure of mental health system to include recovery as a primary paradigm. 9 grants have been given to states, with Michigan not being one of them. States were slower to start-up, and that detailed and actionable transformation plans was more challenging than they thought. The States are planning a wide range of activities.

Lunchtime!!

Michigan Recovery Council Meeting

Part One:

Two issues of immediate import:

• The measurement tool (Q45) pilot is going forward, despite Council concerns. The Council will go forward with looking for a better measurement tool. There will be a discussion meeting on the outcomes measurement process on October 25 at Constitution Hall
  
• There is a proposed Behavior Modification Policy for mental health services. There will be a feedback teleconference on September 25 at 4 pm. The policy uses a Behavior Modification Committee concept, but does not actually rule out any behavior modification technique if it goes through the BM Committee, and, sometimes, a DCH review.

Heather Visingardi talked about the role of Peer Support Specialists in Access and in the various providers. Heather said that the PSS service code can't be used for services until a person centered plan is created. Heather believes that the other activities that PSS do before the PCP is created should be validated by a code that supports the activities as an actual encounter that involves an essential service. DCH will be assessing the impact of PSS in hospitals and access centers using a grant.

End of Part One

Medicaid drug rule may hurt recipients

WASHINGTON — An obscure provision slipped into a $120 billion Iraq spending bill in May threatens to leave some poor and disabled Medicaid recipients without prescription drugs in October.

In a case of unintended consequences, Congress inserted a rule cracking down on Medicaid fraud that requires that all non-electronic prescriptions for Medicaid patients be written on tamper-resistant paper.

The rule was devised as a way to raise nearly $150 million over five years for public hospitals, the amount that Medicaid fraud costs the federal government.

New Book "Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry"

Today, the first big box of this eagerly-awaited book arrived from
the printer at our USA office. Now you can have your copy.

Sixty-one authors from five continents address questions such as:

** What helps me if I go mad? How can I find trustworthy help for a
relative or a friend in need?

** How can I protect myself from coercive treatment? As a family
member or friend, how can I help?

** What should I do if I can no longer bear to work in the mental
health field?

** What are the alternatives to psychiatry, how can I get involved
in creating alternatives?

** Assuming psychiatry would be abolished, what do you propose instead?

Shipping starts on Monday! You may now order this brand new book from
MindFreedom which serves as the USA branch office for the publisher.

Today, 14 September 2007 is "World Hearing Voices Day"!

Support humane alternatives for people who hear distressing or
overwhelming voices, sounds, etc. Hearing Voices Network USA is now a
sponsor group of MindFreedom International.

The International Network for Training Education and Research into
Hearing Voices (INTERVOICE) announced:

"2007 marks the 20th year of achievement since the hearing voices
movement took its first step, when in 1987, Dutch voice hearer Patsy
Hage challenged Marius Romme, her psychiatrist, with her criticism of
his clinical approach to her voices. She pointed out that rather than
using voices only in order to make an illness diagnosis it would be
more useful if he helped her learn to cope with the experience. He
listened, acted and the rest is history. From this beginning
INTERVOICE, has grown into an international network with 14
participating countries."

Registration Now Open for Training Teleconference:

The SAMHSA Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma Associated With Mental Illness invites you to register now for a free teleconference training titled, "Countering Internalized Stigma among People with Mental Illnesses."

• Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
• Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Eastern Time)
• http://www.stopstigma.samhsa.gov/teleconferences.htm
  

Please pass this invitation along to interested friends and colleagues. Please note: Registration for this teleconference will close at 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on Monday, September 24, 2007.

The will email the telephone number for the training teleconference to all registered participants on Tuesday, September 25, 2007.

Training Summary
Stigma surrounding mental illnesses comes from many sources. Public stigma is a result of the general population's misconceptions about mental illnesses. Internalized stigma - the belief that you are weak or damaged because of your own illness - occurs when individuals assimilate social stereotypes about themselves as persons with serious mental illnesses.

Internalized stigma, like public stigma, negatively affects the lives of people with mental illnesses and hinders the recovery process. Internalized stigma can sometimes be the most difficult kind of stigma to fight. It may cause people to stop their treatment, isolate themselves from loved ones, or give up on things they want to do.

• Explore the different types of internalized stigma and factors that may lead to internalized stigma.
• Address how internalized stigma impacts the recovery process.
• Provide an overview of successful strategies that have been used to recognize and counter internalized stigma.

Send in Your Questions
We invite you to send in your questions related to internalized stigma in advance of the teleconference. Speakers will answer as many questions as possible during the teleconference. Please send your questions by e-mail to stopstigma@samhsa.hhs.gov. Please note that sending a question does not guarantee its inclusion in the teleconference. We will provide the speakers' contact information so that you may pursue your answer after the call. If you provide your name and organization at the time you ask your question, we may use it during the call. Anonymous questions also can be submitted

Training Sponsor
This teleconference is sponsored by the SAMHSA Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma (ADS Center), a project of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The session is free to all participants.

The Center Cannot Hold

In this engrossing memoir, Saks, a professor of law and psychiatry at the University of Southern California, demonstrates a novelist's skill of creating character, dialogue and suspense. From her extraordinary perspective as both expert and sufferer (diagnosis: Chronic paranoid schizophrenia with acute exacerbation; prognosis: Grave), Saks carries the reader from the early little quirks to the full blown falling apart, flying apart, exploding psychosis. Schizophrenia rolls in like a slow fog, as Saks shows, becoming imperceptibly thicker as time goes on.- Along the way to stability (treatment, not cure), Saks is treated with a pharmacopeia of drugs and by a chorus of therapists. In her jargon-free style, she describes the workings of the drugs (getting med-free, a constant motif) and the ideas of the therapists and physicians (psychologist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, cardiologist, endocrinologist). Her personal experience of a world in which she is both frightened and frightening is graphically drawn and leads directly to her advocacy of mental patients' civil rights as they confront compulsory medication, civil commitment, the abuse of restraints and the absurdities of the mental care system. She is a strong proponent of talk therapy (While medication had kept me alive, it had been psychoanalysis that helped me find a life worth living). This is heavy reading, but Saks's account will certainly stand out in its field.

Life is Golden

from Gerald Butler

9/9/07

The main reason I talk so much about the Band, has less to do with our playing gigs, than it does with the practice of Peer Support. For instance: Lamasa, (keyboard player) has always dreamed of playing in a band. I thought that by putting a band together, she would be happy. Because we are about Peer Support, there are times when at rehearsals we put our instruments down and just talk. Like many of us, Lamasa has had many people in her life who have made pledges of assistance with recovery, only to be let down. After a life of broken dreams it is only human nature to become leery of those offering help. There are dedicated folks working in the system, but if there is no trust, their efforts are for nothing and we do not do as well as we could in recovery. Consumers must learn to trust the system again.

As Peer Specialists it is our job; (in fact we are in the best position) to walk the path of recovery, side by side with other consumers. We are neither Case Managers nor Therapists; however we can help show others: 1) the role these people play in his/her life, 2) how best to utilize them in the recovery process. Another important task we do is provide consistency, without which there can be no trust. Having been in the same position as those we wish to help, we have an innate sense of the important issues (many of which seem minor), that play a huge role in another’s life. By practicing Peer Support in the band, I am encouraging Lamasa to again have trust in the system, and seek out those who believe in her ability to recover.

After ‘The Letter’ I went into a semi-depression and had no idea how to get right. It was so out of character for me that even I had no logical explanation. What mattered most was not what people thought about me, but how I felt about myself. My fire was out and I felt as though there was no one to re-light it, not even myself. It seems that when I was at my lowest point, out of the blue I got a letter from Dave Lalumia (Director/ Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards) telling me I am the recipient of the 2007 Partners in excellence Award. After I came down from the ceiling, it occurred to me, ‘This is system Transformation in the flesh’. They had more faith and trust in me, than I had in myself. If I, (with all my shortcomings) am deserving of such a prestigious honor, that means there are literally thousands of consumers across the State who merit just such tribute.

This is a whole new day and age in the treatment and recovery field and much depends on how well we work together. The biggest difference between today and the past is that we now have administrators who truly believe in our recovery. We must seek them out and put our trust in them. We must also believe in ourselves because without that belief the dedicated folks have nothing to work with. We must learn to forgive ourselves, and to keep moving on. It is not the mistakes we make but how well we recover from our slips. I envision the day when ‘Recovery’ will no longer be a rarity, but a given. There is no greater endeavor for mankind than when a bunch of folks toss their egos and differences aside and work as one to save others lives.

Tags: Recovery, Gerald Butler

Hertfordshire Conference To Demystify Recovery From Mental Illness

A conference which will help to shape the future of mental health in the UK will be held at the University of Hertfordshire next week.

The University's Centre for Mental Health Recovery which is the first centre of its kind in a higher education institution, has joined forces with the Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a conference entitled From Here to Recovery Transforming the Journey which will be held at the University's Fielder Centre on 18 and 19 September.

The Trust is the first in Hertfordshire to achieve foundation status which means that local people will have more say in the future development of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the county.

Next Guest on MindFreedom Free Live Web Radio:

18-Year-Old Chrissy Perirsoul: Youth Voices for Choices in Mental
Health

This Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 4 pm ET just click on:

http://prncomm.net/

You are invited to tune in on the web LIVE to hear 18-year-old
Chrissy -- a psychiatric survivor activist -- describe her
experiences with conventional mental health care, and what she feels
would have been better. You can phone in live with your comments and
questions!

Moving Up

From Gerald Butler:

9/3/07

As most of you know as of August 15^th the Center for Medicaid issued a letter providing guidance and support to States in utilizing ‘Peer Support’. CMS is merely reinforcing something we have known since its inception: Peer Support works!! What is really cool is that Michigan is in a leadership position in this incredible, worldwide movement. Adding to this is the progress Michigan has made in the areas of Person Centered Planning, WRAP, and Integrated Dual Diagnosis, I feel that we at the forefront of ‘System Transformation’ nationally. In fact I recently received an e mail from someone in Alaska asking about Person Centered Planning in Michigan.

Governor Granholm and Janet Olszewski both believe in our ability to recover and are not only talking the talk but also walking the walk. The Michigan Department of Community Health, the Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards, Community Mental Health Services, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, C. M. H’s across the State, are just some of the folks fighting on our behalf, assuring that recovery is ours for the taking. I see it like this: ‘If all these folks believe in me, I owe it to myself and my brothers and sisters to do my best in recovery’. This requires I have something no one else can give me: I must accept the fact that no matter how much another person believes in me, I must believe in myself or both our efforts are for naught.

The Recovery band has been playing a lot of gigs in the community, and the responses have been huge! It’s a good feeling to be carrying the message of recovery into the community at large. The more we move around the community, the more folks are asking us about our origin, and we love talking about Peer Support. We have been meeting people and organizations in the community willing to help us, they just need to know that we can and we do recover. In our own small way we are addressing stigma, as we have seen people completely change their image of us by the end of the show. Personally, I hope that any time there is a seminar, conference, or training, that some person or group prominent in the community be asked to attend. It seems, the more the community knows about recovery, the less stigma there is.

I have always expounded on the dangers of going into dark places, yet with the letter I wrote a few weeks ago I did that same thing. Although Joel and I are friends again, I did damage to myself, some of which I will never recovery from. I lost a lot friends and respect because of my actions. Some of which I will get back, some never. The thing that has probably affected me the most was the amount of self respect I lost. So from now on when I say don’t do what I did, it has to do with my experiences. I wanted to be an example for consumers to emulate, however, if consumers wish to use me as an example of what not to do, that is good too. We are in the midst of historic transformation in the entire system of treatment and Michigan is leading the charge. I certainly hope to continue to be an integral part.

So as we move forward let us all keep in mind the importance of our individual contribution and keep in mind the words of Governor Granholm, ‘We are in this Together’.

Gerald Butler

The recovery band will be providing the music in a Public Service Announcement for Arise Detroit.

Madness Radio: Four (4) Different -- Very Different -- Radio

Here are four (4) MAD radio shows in both USA and Canada you may
listen to about changing the mental health system, all hosted by
MindFreedom members who are psychiatric survivors! All may be heard
on the web. Read more:

http://mindfreedom.org/kb/media-issues/madness-radio

or use: http://tinyurl.com/3d3da4

40 Years Later: You Can Lead MLK's Dream of the IAACM!

Forty years ago today, on 1 September 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. made an historic speech in front of a highly
appropriate audience.

MLK stood in front of the American Psychological Association's Annual
Meeting.

As he had for 12 years in many essays and speeches, MLK said he was
"proud" to be psychologically "maladjusted."

And as he did at least ten speeches, MLK passionately said that,
"Thus, it may well be that our world is in dire need of a new
organization, The International Association for the Advancement of
Creative Maladjustment."

The International Association for the Advancement of Creative
Maladjustment or IAACM apparently never formed.