National Empowerment Center

"We envision a future when everyone
with a mental illness will recover"

-- New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003 --

Alternatives 2010

Registration is now open for Alternatives - the national mental health conference organized by and for mental health consumers and survivors, taking place Wednesday, September 29 - Sunday, October 3, 2010 at the Hyatt Anaheim, California. [Visit the Alternatives website]

Meeting "The Soloist"

NEC Executive Director Daniel B. Fisher and NEC TAC Director Debbie Whittle met Nathaniel Ayers, whose life was profiled in "The Soloist," at a May 1 fundraiser in Los Angeles for Recovery in Action, a nonprofit collaboration of consumers and other advocates to bring recovery and wellness to communities around the world.

Researcher seeks Participants for Study on Recovery from Long-Term Psychosis

A Saybrook University researcher is looking for participants who may satisfy the criteria of having recovered from long-term psychosis. The study's web page defines these terms more specifically (see link below). This will be truly pioneering research which fully validates the possibility of recovery, allowing those who have recovered from distressing anomalous experiences to contribute their wisdom and knowledge for the benefit of those who are still struggling with such experiences, as well as for the benefit for all of society.

If you are interested in learning more about this study, or if you think you may be an eligible participant, or if you know someone who may be, please click here for more information.

Judi Chamberlin passed away on Saturday, January 16th

Judi changed many lives throughout the world with her passionate speaking and writing to stand up for the rights of people who have been labeled with mental illness. We will miss her. We feel blessed to have known and worked with Judi. [Visit Judi's page]

New Report Surveys Consumer-Led Evaluation Teams

Consumer-run evaluation is essential to systems transformation; yet there is a lack of information out there about how to do it effectively. This new report, developed for NEC by Consumer Quality Initiatives, Inc. (CQI), surveys several existing consumer-led evaluation teams in the US, identifies best practices in consumer-run evaluation and provides recommendations for creating and sustaining a consumer-led evaluation team. Click here to read the full report (PDF, 221KB, 22 pages)

NEW AT THE NEC WEBSITE:

"Engaged, Employed and Wrestling With Mental Illness"

Inspiring recovery story of Anthony Sgarlato. "When he was in his 40s, he started volunteering as a peer counselor at Baltic Street A.E.H., a nonprofit group in Brooklyn that provides services to clients with mental illness. It was a perfect match: He helped men and women whose battles he knew well to get benefits or to find housing. He embraced the role of advocate, traveling several times to Albany to lobby lawmakers for greater benefits for mentally ill people. Mr. Sgarlato worked his way up, and now is the director of self-help and advocacy at the center." [Click here to read the full text of the N.Y. Times article]

Free Podcasts and Slides from Self-Determination Summit Available

Learn more about self-determination in a time of economic uncertainty, with an emphasis on person-directed recovery, peer-run services, economic security, and transparency and accountability in behavioral health care. Featuring presentations from Debbie Whittle, NEC TAC Director and NEC Executive Director Daniel Fisher. To access the podcasts and slide presentations, click here.

Comparative-Effectiveness Advocates Vow Better Outcomes Will Follow

The additional research on treatment options will not be able to meet its stated aim of improving mental health care treatment outcomes, however, unless it includes a range of options, maintain some mental health experts. For psychiatrist Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., those options should include patient-centered care and the use of “patient peers” in treatment. [Click here to read the article]

Mental health: Out of the cuckoo's nest

A radical US advocate for psychiatric patients' rights brings to the UK his first-hand message that a diagnosis of mental illness is not a life sentence "Dan Fisher, a prominent psychiatrist who is advising the Obama administration on mental health issues, has been on a personal mission for two decades to change the way wider society understands and reacts to mental illness. An advocate of the "recovery model" – which posits that a diagnosis of mental illness is not for life, and that people can recover completely – Fisher is an outspoken and controversial figure in the US, campaigning vigorously for the rights of people diagnosed with a mental illness." [Click to read the full article]

National Mental Health Advocates Join Hogg Foundation's Advisory Council

AUSTIN, Texas Renowned mental health experts and consumer advocates Dr. Daniel Fisher and LaVerne Miller, Esq., have been appointed to the National Advisory Council of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

The 10-member council advises foundation staff on strategic direction and potential funding initiatives. Council members have Texas-based or national expertise in mental health, consumer advocacy, philanthropy and other fields related to the foundation's mission of promoting the mental health of all Texans. [Read More...]

Intervoice Letter to Parents of Children who Hear Voices

Open letter to Oprah Winfrey in response to her program about “The 7-Year-Old Schizophrenic”

Dear Oprah

We are writing this letter in response to your program about “The 7-Year-Old Schizophrenic”. This concerned Jani, a child who hears voices, and was broadcast on the 6th October 2009.

We do so in the hope we can provide a more hopeful and positive alternative to the generally pessimistic picture offered by the members of the mental health community featured in the program, and in the accompanying article on your website. [Read more...]

Are you Depressed, or Just Human? By Dr. Andrew Weil

Many cultures find the American insistence on constant cheerfulness and pasted-on smiles disturbing and unnatural. Occasional, situational sadness is not pathology -- it is part and parcel of the human condition, and may offer an impetus to explore a new, more fulfilling path. Read more at: www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/are-you-depressed-or-just_b_307734.html 

Judge in NYC rules that 4300 mental health consumers are unduly segregated in adult psychiatric homes

New York State discriminated against thousands of mentally ill people in New York City by leaving them in privately run adult homes, which effectively replaced state-run psychiatric hospitals more than a generation ago but turned out to be little more than institutions themselves, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. [Click to read full article]

New Review of 20 studies shows that being labeled with mental illness does not increase the risk of violence

Click to view - Schizophrenia and Violence: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis [PDF, 15 Pages, 944KB]

Psychiatric peer review touted: Care termed a low-cost, effective alternative

People with psychiatric illness get better care from other people with a psychiatric history than from traditional doctors and psychologists in a traditional medical setting, according to Daniel B. Fisher. [Click to read full article]

Consumer-Directed Medicaid Services more Effective than Professionally-Directed Services

The above SAMHSA funded study by Ce Shen, Ph.D. and others published in the November 2008 Psychiatric Services found that self-directed care works well for persons with mental illnesses. [Read more...]

New research study finds unlocked, mental health consumer-managed, crisis residential program produce better results than locked, inpatient psychiatric facilities

For adults with severe psychiatric problems, consumer-managed residential programs may be the way to go, a new study suggests.

Dan Fisher's Presentations on Recovery

How Consumers STEP UP to Design a Truly Recovery-based Mental Health System 

Click to view Dan Fisher's article published in National Council Magazine

Reducing Seclusion and Restraint:

Reducing the use of seclusion and restraint: A NASMHPD priority

Click to view a Risk Management Guide (pdf, 35 pages, 246KB)

The National Empowerment Center is funded in part by:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Center for Mental Health Services
www.samhsa.gov