Representatives Murphy and Biggert Reintroduce Section 811 Reform

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Representatives Christopher Murphy (D-CT) and Judy Biggert (R-IL) have
reintroduced the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act (H.R.
5772).   The bill, which passed the House last year but never found
traction in the Senate, would reform the Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s (HUD’s) Section 811 Supportive Housing Program for Persons
with Disabilities. Section 811 provides housing for people with physical
or developmental disabilities or people with chronic mental illness who
are 18 years of age or older and have very low incomes (at or below 50
percent of the area median income).  Section 811 participants may live
in supportive housing units developed and owned by non-profit
organizations, or they may receive tenant-based rental assistance that
helps them rent decent, accessible and safe housing in the private
rental market.  Tenants pay 30 percent of their adjusted income
(approximately $200 per month) for rent which ensures affordability for
those receiving SSI benefits.
For years, HUD has treated the Mainstream Voucher program as traditional
Section 8 vouchers, administered by Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) for
many different low income populations on their waiting lists.  Even
though these vouchers were supposed to go to persons with significant
disabilities who needed supportive housing, HUD did not put a tracking
mechanism into place to ensure that this occurred until 2005.
Disability housing advocates believe that many non-disabled people and
persons with non-significant disabilities (who could use traditional
Section 8 vouchers) were receiving Mainstream vouchers. This created
fiscal burdens for the small 811 program because renewal of the
Mainstream Vouchers must come off the top of the 811 budget every year.
For example, the FY 2009 budget requires that over $87 million be used
for renewal of Mainstream Vouchers. This would leave only $150 million
for the production of new units.
The bill will shift fiscal responsibility for the Mainstream Housing
Choice Voucher Program to the Section 8 budget where it belongs.
Although funded and renewed from 811 appropriations, these Mainstream
Housing Choice Vouchers have never created new permanent supportive
housing units and are not targeted to people with the most serious and
long-term disabilities. By shifting the Mainstream voucher funding to
the traditional Section 8 program, all Section 811 funds currently used
for Mainstream voucher renewal will be freed up for production of new
units via the Project-Based Contracts (PRAC) Demonstration.
Currently, only Section 811 funds can be used to construct housing units
for non elderly people with disabilities.  The new bill would re-write
the law to allow for other funds to be combined with Section 811
funding, thereby increasing the number of units built. The PRAC
Demonstration program will “fast-track” and sustain the creation of
thousands of new permanent supportive housing units every year by
leveraging new set-asides of supportive housing units in federal Low
Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties. The PRAC program will also
provide a rental subsidy to reduce rents to affordable levels for people
receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in a small but significant
percentage of the hundreds of thousands of units that are routinely
created every year through the LIHTC program administered by states and
local jurisdictions.
FMI: To read the bill or track its progress, go to
http://thomas.loc.gov/

and search for bill number HR 1675.

A Guide to Getting Through Tough Economic Times

This guide provides practical advice on how to deal with the effects financial difficulties can have on your physical and mental health -- it covers:

• Possible health risks
• Warning signs
• Managing stress
• Getting help
• Suicide warning signs
• Other steps you can take

……

A Guide to Getting Through Tough Economic Times

Peer Support for People Who Live with Mental Illness: The Launching of this Blog

Hello to you all....and welcome. By creating this blog, I hope to create a safe spot where people with mental health conditions will feel free to come and share with others. As you might know all too well, we all go through our ups and downs, our good days and our bad days, and our steps forward and our steps back. I am here for you as you go through these trials and tribulations, and I think you will find that others will be here for you too. Please feel free to publish, morning, noon, and night...but be aware that I have this blog on a setting where I leaf through comments, just to keep out people who might have some bad intentions (such as making fun of people with mental illnesses)...so it might take a few hours before your comments get published.
I want to let you know that I come from a school of thought where I have learned that recovery from mental illness IS possible. "Recovery" is not meant in the classic sense of the word--meaning "cured"--but is meant in the sense that people with mental illness are able to live meaningful, fulfilling lives out in the community, able to function without their mental illness impairing them on a daily basis. This is a state that is not easy to achieve, but one that is well worth striving for. I am currently in the midst of my personal journey toward recovery, and am learning different things about myself every day that help me to take steps further and further in a positive direction. Even making this blog is one of those steps. Reaching out to others and socializing--even online--is a great way to help yourself achieve recovery. I encourage you all to share various steps that you may encounter along your own personal journey to recovery--what works and what doesn't, what helps and what hinders. It can even just start with what makes you get out of bed in the morning! I am looking forward to hearing from you and listening to what you have to say. Each person's journey is important, and we all have a lot to contribute to each others' recovery journeys. Please comment below--let me know who you are, and what's on your mind……

Peer Support for People Who Live with Mental Illness: The Launching of this Blog

Over 120 Patient Advocacy Groups Support Legislation To Eliminate Two-Year Medicare Waiting Period

The Coalition to End the Two-Year Wait for Medicare, over 120 organizations who work to ensure access to health care for people with disabilities, enthusiastically supports the introduction of Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2009, S.700 and H.R.1708, which would eliminate the unjustifiable two-year delay in coverage for people with severe disabilities who are waiting to become eligible for Medicare coverage.
"Nearly 40 percent of people with disabilities are without health insurance coverage at some point during their wait for Medicare; 24 percent have no health insurance during this entire period. Many cannot afford to pay COBRA premiums to maintain coverage from their former employer, and private coverage on the individual market is unavailable or too expensive for this high-cost population," the Coalition wrote to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Representative Gene Green (D-TX)…..

Technorati Tags: Medicare,disability,waiting period

Over 120 Patient Advocacy Groups Support Legislation To Eliminate Two-Year Medicare Waiting Period

Combating Weight Gain Caused By Antipsychotic Treatments

Antipsychotic drugs, such as olanzapine (Zyprexa), risperidone (Risperdal) and quetiapine (Seroquel), are commonly used to treat psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, but also bipolar disorder and even behavioral problems related to dementia.

Combating Weight Gain Caused By Antipsychotic Treatments

Unfortunately, the weight gain commonly experienced with antipsychotic treatment is an important side effect for many patients, and causes many patients to discontinue their use leading to even further problems. Biological Psychiatry, in its April 1st issue, is now publishing a new study that has evaluated an add-on treatment to potentially reduce treatment-associated weight gain.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Dr. James Roerig and colleagues evaluated the effect of modafinil on olanzapine-associated weight gain in normal volunteer subjects. Modafinil is a drug currently used to increase wakefulness in individuals with sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy. All of the subjects received olanzapine, and half also received modafinil treatment while the other half instead received placebo. After three weeks, although the body mass index was increased in both groups, those receiving olanzapine/placebo showed significantly greater weight increase than those receiving olanzapine/modafinil…

Help Support the Recovery of Michigan Housing

Thanks and a Hat Tip to Nelson Grit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOAfJzkOGIo.

Here is a link to a video of Lieutenant Governor Cherry and Secretary of State Land promoting the Living In Michigan Income tax checkoff. Please feel free to share it with your friends and contacts.
If we raise $100,000 each year for three years, the option will remain. Experience suggests that each dollar draws down an additional $11, meaning that the $100,000 will add $1.1 million dollars in investment in affordable housing and community development.

Plan Lifetime Assistance Network of Northeast Ohio

Art, Poetry and Mental Health Recovery Project 

Plan Lifetime Assistance Network of Northeast Ohio

Art is an effective tool that impacts public attitudes and stigma about mental illness, a misunderstood disease.  The mental health field recognizes the negative impact of stigma.  This project will help prevent and reduce stigma toward mental illness by displaying art from adults on the road to recovery from mental illness.  This traveling art exhibit will be in various venues throughout Cuyahoga County beginning in 2009.  The images will be selected from artwork created by PLAN members working with local art therapists and artists.  This project, funded in part by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, The Maltz Foundation and Ridgecliff Foundation, has an opportunity to reach and educate thousands to help reduce the stigma associated with mental illness…..

Gaining Insight

OPPRESSION COMES IN MANY SHAPES SIZES AND COLORS: PART II

Gaining Insight

Sorry for the delay, but this post compliments the photo essay in the post below (please view before reading on). I am always pondering the many complexities of mental illness stigma. One topic that I often dwell on is the history of oppression (in all societies). "Oppression is defined as the use of power to disempower, marginalize, silence or otherwise subordinate one social group or category, often in order to further empower and/or privilege the oppressor. Social oppression may not require formally established organizational support to achieve its desired effect; it may be applied on a more informal, yet more focused, individual basis." Most of us have experienced or learned about various types of oppression. I would like to outline a few in order to compare any similarities and differences…..

Health Articles | Mental Health Care "Consumers" Take Greater Role in Their Recovery | Miller-McCune Online Magazine

 

Health Articles | Mental Health Care "Consumers" Take Greater Role in Their Recovery | Miller-McCune Online Magazine

Fred Frese was a young Marine Corps officer and graduate student when he started experiencing the psychotic delusions of paranoid schizophrenia. He was hospitalized, the first of what would be 11 such institutionalizations. But he also managed to complete graduate school and earn a doctorate in psychology from Ohio University. He married and had four children, and 12 years after his first hospitalization, he became a chief psychologist for the Ohio mental health system.

That was 30 years ago. Today, Frese is director of the Summit County Recovery Project in Akron, Ohio, and one of the most articulate and outspoken national advocates of mental health recovery programs.

A crucial part of that recovery is battling the stigma of mental illness, he said. About 6 percent of the population, or one in 17 Americans, suffers from a serious mental illness. One in five families are affected…….

Mental Health recovery in 12 steps | icyou | The source for health videos

 

Mental Health recovery in 12 steps | icyou | The source for health videos

Added: February 4, 2008 | Time 10:55 | Views: 3,739

mental health recovery in 12 steps

a video about the process of recovery from mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizoaffective and ptsd.

Gaining Insight

OPPRESSION COMES IN MANY SHAPES, SIZES AND COLORS: PART I

Gaining Insight

A collection of Pictures as a photo essay.

 

Just a sample. Go to GI to see all.

ADS Center Training Teleconferences

Technorati Tags: Recovery,mental illness,medical treatment

Promoting Acceptance and Social Inclusion for People with Mental Health Problems in the Workplace

ADS Center Training Teleconferences

To access the archived presentation please select one or several of the options below.

• Access the teleconference (Download Windows Media player).
• View the transcript.
• Teleconference Presentation Slides [PDF Format - 2.9Mb]
• Teleconference Presentation Slides [PowerPoint Format - 2.2Mb]

Training Summary

The workforce includes many individuals with mental health problems who, like other employees, contribute greatly to the success of the organizations that employ them.  However, unlike their colleagues, people with mental health conditions may experience misunderstanding, social exclusion, and discrimination by employers or other employees due to prejudicial beliefs and attitudes about people with mental illnesses in the workplace….

Michigan Recovery Council: Part 3

Cheryl Flowers presented the Recovery Council with a very large dream catcher, containing the 7 grandfather teachings, symbols for recovery, hope and courage, turkey feathers, and deer skin bindings. It is beautiful!

Michigan Recovery Council-Part 2

Mike Head talked about the Anti-Stigma initiative. He mentioned the Figureheads, a youth rap group from Wisconsin, that came up in a meeting earlier today about family centered supports.

He reviewed the ARR initiatives, including culture change, person centered planning, justice system issues, employment. He also reviewed the questions that the PPGs raise for each PIHP and CMH. There is a clear focus on the REE and the implementation of recovery  throughout the system.  Mike told the Recovery Council to be sure to be involved in the ARR and how the PPGs are implemented in their area. Pers need to be involved in the design and implementation (quaity and evaluation, too) of the ARR and PPG priorities.

Mike said that we can monitor minimum standards, but no real way of assuring high quality.  Only a better, expandde, and deeper partnership between providers, PIHPs, CMHs, peers, families, and consumers generally. We need not just stories, but the hard work of coming up with solutions. It is a heady thing to ask highly regulated organizations to be open to possibilities.

When the ARR feedback comes back to DCH, state staff will form into roughly permanent teams that will be connected with specific PIHPs over the long term.

LUNCH

Michigan Recovery Council Meeting: Part 1

Consumer Conference is July 23rd this year. every CMH has 3 registrations free for 3 consumers.

Irene said that Mike would be late to discuss the Application for Renewal and Recommitment and the Program and Policy Guidelines for 2010. Finally, Mike is organizing an Anti-stigma Project.

Sherri Rushman is presenting on Hope givers and Building Friendships. she passed out a great handout. "You can reclaim all you had before your symptoms.

David Gruber and Wanda Joseph presented on the use of mediation as a way to resolve conflicts, solve problems, and reduce other tensions. Mediation is a set of communications techniques. The goal is a real agreement among people that all support.

END OF PART 1

When Time Is Limited, Internet Is The Number One Support Tool For Caregivers

From Medical News Today:

People who care for elderly parents are among the millions of Americans who regularly participate in social media. More than 65 percent of people caring for elderly parents use the Internet as their primary means of support and encouragement, according to an http://www.AgingCare.com survey. Family caregivers are using online forums and message boards, such as http://www.agingcare.com/community to connect with other caregivers, ask for suggestions, or just vent about what's bothering them....

For More...

Ray Sandford in Online Video Against Forced Electroshock!

From MindFreedom:

You can now watch a free five-minute web video of an electroshock
survivor and his allies speak out against his ongoing forced
electroshocks.

Ray Sandford lives in a group home out in a community just north of
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Every three weeks he is woken up early, and
under court order brought 15 miles north to Mercy Hospital for a
forced electroshock under court order.

Ray has had more than 40 forced electroshocks so far.

Ray's next scheduled forced electroshock is Wednesday, 25 March 2009....

You may watch the video in any of these three places:

*** Indy Media web site -- which includes IndyMedia news release, and
personal statement by mental health advocate Daryl Trones:

http://tinyurl.com/indy-ray

 

*** On YouTube, where you can add public support comments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJpvNHqXm0

 

*** On this MindFreedom web site:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/ray-video

 

...

For More...

Judi Chamberlin & Dan Fisher on MF Live Free Web Radio

From MindFreedom:

Dear MindFreedom International Members,

This is a quick reminder that *tomorrow* -- Saturday, 14 March 2009
-- you can listen and call in *LIVE* to the MindFreedom Live Free Web
Radio show, guests Judi Chamberlin and Dan Fisher. I'll host, and I
hope you call in.

TIME: 11 am Pacific, 12 noon Mountain, 1 pm Central, 2 pm Eastern
USA, 6 pm [1800] London UTC/GMT. Show is 90 minutes.

During that time go hear to listen via your computer:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidwoaks

 

Not at a computer with sound? A few members have mentioned that problem.

Here is a trick for all you members to listen live without a
computer: Instead of your computer you can just use your telephone to
listen live via the "call-in" line for tomorrow's show-- (646)
595-2125 -- just like a teleconference call. I may briefly bring each
caller on the show, but if you don't want to ask a question you can
just give a brief message (like "thanks Judi!") and go back to
listening.

This is indeed a special show to thank guest Judi Chamberlin, who is
a MindFreedom board member, because as you may know Judi has a very
serious medical diagnosis and is calling in while under hospice care.
Everyone appreciates Judi's decades of leadership and communication
abilities for our movement, and we all hope for many more decades.
You can read more about that health announcement on the MFI web site.

If you can't call in your support, comments or questions tomorrow,
you can e-mail in a brief message to radio@mindfreedom.org and we'll
try to read those on the air. Any messages for Judi we'll also
forward to her.

If you miss tomorrow's special show, you can hear an archive not too
long after the show -- and hear January and February's shows -- at
the same web site:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidwoaks

 

And please also circle your calendar for "Second Saturdays" for
MindFreedom Mad Pride Live Free Web Radio for all of 2009, same time.

New 'smart' Homes For Dementia Sufferers

From Medical News Today:

Within five years innovative 'smart' sensing systems that will help the UK's 700,000 dementia sufferers live independently at home could be available commercially.

Once installed, the systems are designed to closely monitor people's movements and actions around the home. As well as providing voice-prompts (e.g. reminders to turn off a tap or cooker), they can also directly switch lights or appliances on and off in order to eliminate potential dangers...

For More...

STORIES OF RECOVERY

From Gaining Insight:

During the next two months, I will be creating a short documentary about mental illness/stigma. I will present this video to the public while my exhibit is shown (at a gallery) during late April and May. There is said to be news coverage at the opening. Once I receive initial feedback, I intend to use this documentary as an educational tool. I will be devoting a portion of this documentary to the "faces of recovery". Since so many of you have inspired me with stories of recovery, I think it could be quite powerful to send this message to public. If anyone is interested, here is what I would need:

For More...

Study Examines The Role Of Gender In The Stigma Of Mental-Illness

From Medical News Today:

The mentally ill don't get a fair shake in this country. Many employers don't want to hire them, and health insurers don't want to treat their illnesses. Even within their own communities and families, the mentally ill are often treated with contempt and outright anger. There have been many efforts to combat the stigma of mental illness, but with limited success at best. That's in part because the stereotypes are so powerful: Mental patients are either violently dangerous or docile and incompetent. We fear the first and disdain the latter.

These are not equal opportunity stereotypes, however. The image of dangerous mental illness, including violent alcoholism, is much more often directed at men. Similarly, women are much more likely to be caricatured as pathologically dependent and depressed. Psychologists James Wirth of Purdue and Galen Bodenhausen of Northwestern wanted to know if these gender biases contribute to the harmful stigma of mental illness. Specifically, they suspected that when the mentally ill act "out of character," violating the stereotype, they might arouse more of our sympathy and leniency; if it's more uncommon, it's probably more authentic. By contrast, we might be more apt to blame and stigmatize the mentally ill when they conform to stereotype....

For More...

Welcome to ISPS

From ISPS:

... an international organization promoting psychotherapy and psychological treatments for persons with schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions.

We are committed to advancing education, training and knowledge of mental health professionals in the treatment and prevention of psychotic mental disorders for the public benefit.

For More....

Paper In New 'Psychosis' Journal Shows Many Patients Do Better Without Psychiatric Drugs

From Medical News Today:

The first edition of Psychosis: Psychological, Social And Integrative Approaches was published this month. The journal, published by Routledge in the UK, [http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/psychosis] is the official scientific journal of the International Society for the Psychological Treatments of Schizophrenia [http://www.isps.org].

The very first paper, by Dr John Bola of the University of Southern California and three European researchers, reviews the only five studies of what happens when people diagnosed 'schizophrenic' are given psycho-social support instead of anti-psychotic drugs in the first few weeks of treatment. All five found better long-term outcomes than the traditional approach of hospitalization and medication.

Dr Mario Maj - President, World Psychiatric Association:
"Psychosis will be extremely useful not only in providing information on evidence-based psychotherapies and other psychosocial interventions, but also in re-educating all of us about the importance of the psychosocial dimension in the development, persistence and outcome of psychoses."

Dr Paul Fink - Past President, American Psychiatric Association:
"Psychosis is going to be a monumental help to people working with psychosis all over the world. I particularly value the fact that it stresses psychotherapy"

Editor, Dr John Read of the University of Auckland, New Zealand:
"Psychosis fills a gap in the scientific literature, which is currently dominated by a rather simplistic and reductionist bio-genetic model that often seems to be based more on ideology and vested interests than on rigorous research. This approach can lead to a minimization of psychological and social factors and to a damaging pessimism about the probability of recovery."

The journal, which includes first-person accounts from people who experience psychosis, will be one of a tiny minority of mental health journals which will not carry drug company advertisements. Its official international launch will be at the ISPS Congress in Copenhagen in June [http://www.isps2009.ics.dk]

For information about the ISPS visit http://www.isps.org

For information about Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches visit http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/psychosis .

For More....

CHARGE: Center of Healing Arts, Recovery, Growth & Empowerment

From Gerald Butler:

Helping to build roads to recovery

Recording session a success

       

      The Friday recording session for the band went great. We gained some ideas on how to improve our sound from Dilan Wade, engineer/owner Tapwater Studios. It is unbelievable how many doors have opened for us in the short amount of time we have been members of the Russell Center community. It is exciting when I think of all the opportunities will become available to consumers in recovery.

      “Indi Edibles” sponsored the recording session and in exchanged the Recovery Band will play for their events. They are a group of folks that do urban farming and are willing to show consumers how to feed themselves from their own gardens. The exciting thing is that there are many more visual artists and organizations in the complex showing interest in our mission of providing an environment where growth to potential will be the norm.   

Arts & Recovery

       I consider myself lucky for having had leaders in my life that supported me in pursuit of my dreams. I also feel that I would be selfish if I did not pass this support on to others.  Looking for a way I could share my good fortune, I organized The Recovery Band. The band is based upon and practices the Appalachian model of Peer Support. It has worked extremely well for us and other consumers who have worked with us. We needed a program designed by consumers based on the peer support principals of caring, integrity, honor, and recovery. Thus CHARGE was born.

       The relation between the arts and is quite old. I remember when I was hospitalized years ago, being given crafts to occupy my time. When consumers work with the band our primary concern is his/her self-esteem. So we empower them by having them tell us what they want to do. That sense of empowerment shows through in their music. Sans this feeling of empowerment, the best outcome is someone who knows more about their particular art, but they’ve made little progress in recovery. CHARGE is not an arts program, but we use the arts as tools in the recovery process.

Being a part of the Community

      The Russell Industrial Center & Bazaar community is devoted to the betterment of the City of Detroit through the arts. By being a part of this community CHARGE is demonstrating how folks in recovery are capable of participating in and contributing to society. More than the business’ are the people like Amy P. Amy is a professional writer who is also working towards her Masters in Social Work. Amy’s dream is to work with creative adults and children, fulfilling their emotional needs, and enhancing unique talents and abilities.

      To keep up on such things as guitar strings and cords, the band is always looking for deals. On a visit to a music store that was having a closeout sale, we met Linda. Years ago, Linda was a Psychiatric nurse who was in the minority because she believed that treatment should be delivered with compassion. She left the field and opened a music store and studio for piano and accordion. After 30 some years, Linda is closing the shop and is willing to share her talents and experiences with us.

Leaders in our lives

      As we charge forward into this new era of treatment and recovery, we must be sure to thank those who made it possible. We dedicate this year’s Empowerment Day to those who have heard our pleas and opened new doors to recovery. True compassion contributes greatly to recovery, but caring cannot be mandated. We wish to honor those who provide the right mixture of leadership and compassion. The best way to honor and thank them is for us to work harder on our recovery. We must work closely with therapists, participating in our healing. Dare to dream again, and seek out those who wish to make it a reality. A person

Must have faith in his or her self, and his/her abilities to be able to effectively participate in their own healing and recovery. We must take charge of our lives and leadership of our recovery.

       Finally, over the past 2 years the Recovery Band has done many events for little or no compensation. We are dedicated to spreading the message “Recovery is possible”. We used our pocket money to pay rent and security at the Russell Bazaar and are now in need of help to continue. If you can help us please send help to (P.O. Box 7458, Detroit Mi. 48207).

Gerald Butler

Certified Peer Specialist