Parity bills at Critical point

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law <bazelon@mail.democracyinaction.org> wrote:
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:32:19 -0500 (EST)
From: Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law <bazelon@mail.democracyinaction.org>
To: stants201@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Action Alert: It's Time for Parity

Help Make Mental Health Parity a Reality!
You and other advocates across the country did good work! Broad support for
ending health-care discrimination helped pave the way for this year's unanimous
Senate passage of S. 558 and approval by three committees of H.R. 1424, the
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Equity Addiction Act of 2007. (See the Bazelon
Center's latest Mental Health Policy Reporter for a side-by-side chart).
However, few legislative days remain. Lawmakers need your support to enact
meaningful mental health parity legislation this year. The message is clear.
Without delay, Congress must assign priority to mental health parity that
will help millions of Americans.
Fuel the momentum. Phone or email your Senators and Representative today.
Go to congress.org and enter the name or the house and your state to find your
lawmaker's phone number. If you can't phone and must use email, click on
the link to the member's own website and email through the link there (outside
emails are often ignored!).
Please keep the heat on and demand enactment of a strong parity bill this year.

------------------------------

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Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
1101 15th Street, NW, Suite 1212
Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-467-5730
Fax: 202-223-0409
Email: webmaster@bazelon.org

Tamiflu Warning To Include Psychiatric Effects Could Be Due To Flu

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Pediatric Advisory Committee recommended to the agency yesterday, Tuesday 27th November, that makers of the flu drug Tamiflu be urged to change the drug's warning label to include the fact that the psychiatric symptoms experienced by children on the drug could be caused by having the flu.

.....

According to a report in WebMD, the FDA panel's vote was 8 to 6, and reflected the agency's uncertainty about whether the drug or the condition led to nearly 600 reported psychiatric incidents worldwide, most of them in Japan, since the drug was introduced. The incidents, of which 20 per cent were in the US, included self-harming behaviour, delirium and suicide attempts. 25 of them were fatal, with 3 of the deaths being in the US.

The drug's warning label was changed last year following reports of psychiatric symptoms in patients taking the drug. But the panel is not asking for the warnings to be removed, only that information is added to explain that the symptoms could be caused by the flu itself.

Wayne PSS Training

from Gerald Butler

11/26/2007

The first Peer Support Specialist training to be held in Wayne County was completed Friday the 9^th of this month at St. Paul’s Retreat, and hopefully there will be many more to come. Veda Sharp (Detroit-Wayne County Mental Health) and Michelle Vasconcellos (Customer Services Director) presented certificates on Thursday just after dinner. The entire movement towards "Recovery with Dignity” has taken a giant step into the future. Through Peer Support we are now able to turn our poisonous past experiences into medicine to help heal others who are where we used to be. The only downer was that the person who was most instrumental in bringing Peer Support to Michigan ‘Irene Kazieczko’ could not attend due to ill health. That’s okay because at least we know she was there in spirit.

Friday, the 16^th was the Recovery Council meeting at which it was announced that Wayne County CMH and the Guidance Center have been awarded the ‘Virtual Center of Excellence’ grant. I spoke with Kari Walker (Dir. of Programs) and David Cherry (Program Development) of the Guidance Center, both of whom promised to put consumers first, so this was exciting news. The afternoon was filled with Yale University’s Dr. Pricilla Ridgeway’s (Pathways to Recovery) presentation titled “Implementation of Recovery Enhancing Environments” and it was super. Dr. Ridgeway has developed a method of enhancing the recovery process that everyone (from the consumer to the Physician) can utilize, raising the odds of a successful recovery journey. Even her satisfaction survey is unique in that it forces us to consider how much we are contributing to our own recovery.

Someone suggested it might not be a wise idea for consumers to have confidence in such lofty ideas as successful recovery. The Michigan Department of Community Health gave us Person Centered Planning and today Michigan is a national model of that program. Michigan’s WRAP program, also championed by MDCH, is providing consumers across the State with vital tools needed in the recovery process and it too is showing promise of becoming a national model. Larry Fricks and Ike Powell, the designers of Peer Support, have offered their highest praise and excitement for our efforts here in the State. Every member of the Recovery Council is more than capable of telling the difference between beneficial and non-beneficial methods. Taking all these things into consideration, I feel every consumer in the State can and should have faith and trust in Dr. Ridgeway’s “Pathways to Recovery”. After all, when it comes to making our dreams a reality, MDCH has not let us down so far and I don’t feel they are about to start.

The consumer band ‘Recovery’ gig for ‘Corrections to Work’ at the Charles H. Wright Museum was not only a hit, but we demonstrated that consumers are capable of giving back to the community. It has been my experience that it takes years for any band to play such a venue, yet we have been together a mere 8 months. By applying peer support to everything we do: our rehearsals become more productive, we demonstrate to other consumers and society that we can and do recover, because we know each others story, we develop an appreciation and respect for each other uncommon in most other bands. We like to consider ourselves as Peer Support in the flesh.

Yes, the Freedom Train has left the station and more and more folks, consumers and professionals alike, are climbing on board daily. HOPE, is what we live for, it is why we arise in the mornings. Consumers in Michigan have every reason to have hope and trust in the future.

Ideas on Treating Schizophrenia Have Come Full Circle

[Updated] Ideas about treating schizophrenia seem to be gradually coming full circle. What began as little more than blaming, shaming and confining, evolved over hundreds years into a state policy of institutional care with "humane treatment". Over the next hundred years treatment has evolved into primarily a highly professionalized medication regime with an inconsistently available community based supports.

Now there is evidence that early intervention in the course of schizophrenia with psychotherapy, medication, and consistently applied community based supports may sometimes prevent the usual long-term permanent disability. Medication alone is not sufficient treatment. What has always been assumed as a manifestation of the illness, may in fact be a by-product of a paternalistic and de-humanizing treatment by the community and service agencies as well as isolation due to the pervasive experience of stigma and discrimination by the individual.

Mental health parity can boost productivity and retention

Forging their own path, some employers are providing mental health parity in their employee benefits plans without it being required by law, while legislators in Congress and statehouses continue to debate mental health parity bills. What's more, companies are finding that parity improves productivity and retention.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based oil exploration and production company, has provided mental health parity for years - meaning that the mental health coverage is equivalent to the medical coverage when it comes to visit limits, deductibles, copayments, lifetime benefit limits and annual benefit limits.

Congressional Negotiators Hitting Roadblocks On Mental Health Parity Legislation

Sponsors of the House and Senate versions of legislation (HR 1424 and S 558) that would require most health insurers to provide equal levels of coverage for physical and mental illnesses are "bumping up against" conflicts in negotiations that could "thwart" the bill's passage this year, CongressDaily reports. Over the last month, House sponsors Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) have met with Senate sponsors Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to discuss possible compromises. "We are at a delicate point in the negotiations," Ramstad said (Johnson, CongressDaily, 11/19).

Brainstormdocumentary

Interesting recovery site. Large scale, flamboyant layout. Worth a look...

UCC Mental Illness Network

n 1992 the Mental Illness Network began with a grant from the then American Missionary Association of the United Church of Christ. We began as a response to the need for families and others to communicate among themselves about their experiences as families, and in congregations. We are, therefore, a network and not a committee.

You, who are the Network, are in hundreds of congregations. You are the ones in touch with families who need support and understanding. You are the ones doing street ministry with the homeless, writing newsletters for your church, running a drop-in center, doing displays for Association/Conference meetings, providing transportation to appointments and a dozen other things. You are the families caring for loved ones experiencing a mental illness, and some of you are those persons. It is a moving experience to be in touch with you and know something of what you are doing.

Every two years there is a Network display at our national General Synod meeting. This display reaches out to new people and is a witness to our National and Conference Staff about this important ministry. We collaborate with Disabilities Ministries on various projects such as (twice a year) an insert in the UC News.

Shannon: My Story

My illness began to take its effect on me about 8 or 9 years ago. I managed to get by until around 6 years ago, when I was 43. I had been working an impossible job as a restaurant manager for 23 years and at about the same time my husband asked for a divorce. We had been married 27 years. That was it. I broke. I was hospitalized for a month, two weeks before Christmas and three weeks before my son’s wedding. Fortunately they arranged temporary release for me during Christmas and so I could attend my son’s wedding.....

Good News for Writers?

While the news of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader could signal a changing trend in the way that readers consume their information, unremarked upon is how the rise of the e-book reader will eventually change the world for writers.

If readers can download books into their Kindle (or Sony Reader), what’s to stop them from cutting out the middleman and downloading directly from an author?

What’s happening to the news media (blogs vs. newspapers) and music (free downloads vs. buying a CD) and video (YouTube or downloads vs. buying a DVD) will happen with novels: the middleman will become unnecessary.

Currently, it is extremely difficult to get a novel published.

Next on MIndFreedom Radio

Next on Free MindFreedom Live Call-In Web Radio:

What to do about America's epidemic of despair? Bruce E. Levine:
psychologist & author.

This Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 4 pm ET just click on:

http://prncomm.net

Bruce E. Levine, PhD is author of a new book, "Surviving America's
Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a
World Gone Crazy." Phone in with your questions & comments live.
Host: David Oaks.

More info on the next MF Radio show:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/next-radio

The USA Population is in Crisis of Despair -- What to Do?

Ask Bruce E. Levine:

"The rate of depression in the U.S. has increased more than tenfold
in the last fifty years. By not seriously confronting societal
sources of despair, American mental health institutions have become
part of the problem rather than the solution. The good news is that
age-old wisdom and legitimate science -- uncorrupted by the profit-
margin pressures of pharmaceutical and insurance corporations -- have
much to inform us about revitalizing depressed people and a
depressing culture.

Bipolar in Louisville

I indicated in the entry immediately prior to this that I was to have what I consider to be the great honor of receiving training to be considered for Peer [mental health] Specialist in this state. I did want to drop notes in over-paucity and in some exhaustion from the intensity of this encounter: therefore I cannot do anything like justice to this quality time. So I shall just pen out a kind of "lead" journalistically (who what where how; why being left for me and the other participants to live, better than convey in words.) Then I shall with equal brevity suggest some of the potentials this boon to the spirit may produce, immediately and in time.

Still another recovery blog

Being a peer specialist is hard work. Before becoming a peer specialist, I was employed in another entry-level mental health position, in a day treatment program.

Although work in the day treatment program was challenging, I have found that my work as a peer specialist is even more so. Perhaps because the peer support program is new, and helping to establish a new program is always tough; perhaps because there are few established tools and protocols to help peer specialists do their jobs; perhaps because my job responsibilities as a peer specialist are more varied; perhaps because I do more in-depth work with my peers in my current position; perhaps because I never have a “typical day” or set schedule as a peer specialist; or perhaps because I have to tell my own story over and over (and over) in this position (that can be emotional!)…. whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, I’m finding the peer specialist position to be challenging.

Stress can be a huge contributing factor to bringing out symptoms of mental illness. There’s evidence that people with mental illnesses produce more cortisol in their bodies when they become stressed, and that it takes them longer to return to “baseline”–or “normal”–levels of cortisol in their bodies....

And one more

http://www.northernlakescmh.org/blog/2007/10/28/nannette-my-story/

I was in a horrific car accident with my boyfriend at the age of seventeen. We had all been drinking. I ended up with broken pelvic bones and a closed head injury. It took 15 weeks before I was healed and out of the hospital. It was months before I could ride with other people driving and I have never been completely comfortable with others driving since. I started having panic attacks. Even the thought of having to ride in a car made me nervous. I ended up dropping out of high school and wasn’t able to graduate with my class – one of the many bad choices I would live to regret. Post-traumatic stress was something I had to educate myself about because, before, I believed that only soldiers suffered from this disorder....

Another Peer Blog

http://www.northernlakescmh.org/blog/2007/10/19/mary-beth-life-times-three/

I knew something wasn’t right because all I did was cry day and night. I was engaged to be married, had a house, a job and reliable transportation. Money wasn’t an issue; I had enough to more than get by. So why then, was I crying continuously?

I made an appointment at mental health to see if they could “fix” my problems of crying. I went to see an intake worker who said I didn’t meet criteria for services because my primary diagnosis was substance abuse.

Two weeks later to the day I made my first suicide attempt. Nine state cops and three hours later, I was getting a free ride in the back seat of a trooper’s car to be involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital. I was mandated by the court system to not only be admitted to the hospital, but to receive mental health counseling for no less than six months.

Upon discharge, I found myself single, homeless, and jobless.....

Peer Blogs

The recovery movement is producing some great blogs. I'm going to point you to some samples, as sources of news, ideas, and hope:

http://www.northernlakescmh.org/blog/2007/10/01/ernest/

I live in the woods near Roscommon, Michigan, in the upper part of the Lower Peninsula. I am 62 years old and lived as a hermit for 12 years. I am now a consumer of Mental Health services served by Northern Lakes Community Mental Health (NLCMH). I came out of the woods to get back into society around seven years ago. I started volunteering for the Crawford County Sheriffs Department as a Certified Victims Advocate which later dissolved, then went on to volunteer in the mental health system, and have not turned back to living as a hermit.

Let me tell you a bit about my life and how I came to be a hermit in the first place. I was raised in Rochester, Michigan. A somewhat happy life but had a father who was an alcoholic and a very loving mother who was beaten by him. I have an older brother and sister. I started realizing I was developing a mental illness when I was 20 years old. I first entered the mental health system in 1965. At that time the basic treatment was with drugs and psychoanalysis, the ones of choice at that time were Stelazine and Thorazine. Both of these drugs just controlled the problem but would not give lasting treatment. You were put in the mental health system and discharged after a maximum treatment of 20 times, no matter if you were stable or cured or not. This was a revolving door for me. Mental Health Parity did not exist then (Parity is the equal medical treatment of physical and mental illness). I did not get the appropriate diagnosis or medication to let me return to a good way of life. I was hospitalized on four different occasions with the same result, still not stable. Because of my poor physical and mental health my families suffered the consequences of this problem.....

NAMI Launches Veterans Resource Center On Mental Health; Online

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has established an online Veterans Resource Center http://www.nami.org/veterans to help support active duty military personnel, veterans and their families facing serious mental illnesses such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia.

"We are a nation at war," said NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "The war includes mental illness. Many veterans who return from active duty face a second war at home, confronting profound mental health problems. Their families also are affected."

MindFreedom Needs Help with Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encylopedia that anyone can change and edit,
and thousands read it.

MindFreedom has had an entry on Wikipedia for some time, and it's
been 'challenged':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfreedom

Please see an urgent message from member Mike T. ***BELOW***. He's
formed a MF Wikipedia Team.

If you can help, please e-mail Mike T. soon off-list at
miketierney2@gmail.com, and please copy that to me at
oaks@mindfreedom.org.

Note: This is *not* just 'piling on' of numbers of people. This
*does* take a bit of skill and dedication. But do not be intimidated
either, it's fairly easy to learn how to help edit entries.

In the big picture, Wikipedia does have major flaws. On the other
hand, it is possible for grassroots groups to document legitimate
knowledge items and get them in there. If you enjoy the web, and want
combine that with doing some some good, here's a chance! Once the MFI
entry is taken care of, there are dozens of entries that could use
the perspective of MFI members.

Again, if interested, e-mail SOON to miketierney2@gmail.com and copy
to me at oaks@mindfreedom.org

HERE is Mike's message to you! THANKS!

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Mike Tierney" <miketierney2@gmail.com>
> Date: November 5, 2007 9:59:05 AM PST
> Subject: call for a MF-Wikipedia-Team

> This is a call for a 'MF-Wikipedia-Team '
> I have begun to document 'wikipedia- friendly' entries for our
> wikipedia mindfreedom entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> MindFreedom_International , but I need help. I need tech-savvy,
> patient, academic mindfreedom members who can read wikipedia's
> rules and guidlines wrt references and 'neutral point-of view' or
> 'POV' in w-pedia- speak, and update our entry per their wikipedia
> rules with outside media & scholarly references.

Job posting

Greetings,

My name is Curt Oostveen and I have been asked by the current board of directors of the Recovery Cooperative of Muskegon to share these exciting job opportunities with you. Allow me a moment to tell you what the Recovery Cooperative of Muskegon is. The Recovery Cooperative is a peer-run organization that is just now starting to get off the ground. It has been in the planning and very early development stages onset February of this year. In April it then became incorporated formally with the state of Michigan and procured its EIN # shortly thereafter and has applied for its 501c3. During this time it wrote an RFP and later acquired funding through the Mental Health Block Grants.

The Recovery Cooperative is currently seeking a director (Head Recovery Coach) and an Account/Consultant. The applications may be downloaded from http://recoverycooperative.org and mailed to: Recovery Cooperative of Muskegon

Attention: Jennifer Faunt

% CMHS Youth Services

173 E. Apple Ave.

Muskegon, MI, 49442

The application deadline for both positions is November 14^th 2007.

The Recovery Cooperative of Muskegon, located in downtown Muskegon, will be a service unto the mental health/disability community which will be offering recovery-oriented education such as WRAP, cultural diversity sessions, and micro-enterprise start-up assistance and displaying them unto the business community. This is just to name a few of the exciting things that have been planed to occur within.

If you would like to know more information regarding this exciting new enterprise, feel free to contact me at recovery@recoverycooperative.org

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Curtis Oostveen, CPSS. CWRAP

Certified Peer-Support Specialist

Certified Mental Health Recovery Educator & WRAP Facilitator

Madness, Citizenship, and Social Justice

This public conference, hosted by the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, will take place at the SFU Vancouver campus, British Columbia, Canada on Thursday June 12th through Saturday June 14th, 2008. Our objective is to provide a forum in which critical topics and issues related to madness, citizenship, human rights and the role of the ‘psy’ professions can be explored across a range of intersecting positions and perspectives. Participants and delegates will include academics, users/survivors, activists, advocates, practitioners, and community workers from the local Vancouver area, across Canada and around the world.

In China, Brain Surgery Is Pushed on the Mentally Ill

NANJING, China -- Mi Zhantao, a poor 25-year-old living with his parents outside this provincial capital in eastern China, was battling depression and had trouble socializing. Doctors said he had schizophrenia. They recommended brain surgery.

Mr. Mi's family spent about $4,800 -- the equivalent of four years' income, and more than their life savings -- on the operation, at No. 454 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army in Nanjing. The highly controversial procedure involved drilling tiny holes in the young man's skull, inserting a 7½-inch-long needle and burning small areas of brain tissue thought to be causing his problems.

Let's Launch Twenty New MFI Affiliates!

by Frank Blankenship, Chair, MFI Affiliate Support Committee

A number of exciting things are in the works now regarding affiliate
formation at MindFreedom International. If we work together we will
have a much better chance of bringing these things to fruition.

We want to expand the MFI presence into places where it has not been
felt to work on local issues.

We have set the goal of forming twenty new affiliates in 2008, and we
need your help to achieve this.

Do you have an affiliate yet in your area? Do you know an interested
person in another region that doesn't have an affiliate? Consider
introducing this person to our organization and its affiliates.

For those of you who have already expressed interest in starting an
affiliate, now is the time to re-double those efforts!

You all have an excellent opportunity to help us spread the word
about MFI and perhaps even to establish a foothold where none has
previously existed.