 |
 |
|
|
In this article, I describe a workshop on consumer mental health advocacy groups I organized for APA's fall component meetings in September. I am grateful to the five wonderful speakers who shared their time and work with us. This article appears a bit late because the day I flew to Washington, D.C., Hurricane Fran roared through North Carolina where I live. While I worked in D.C. for five days, my intrepid husband coped with no electricity, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old, and a flooded basement. I returned home to witness the devastation wrought by this extraordinary storm: 200-year-old trees literally uprooted by the hundreds and power lines tangled in knots. So, I also want to thank my husband, who made it possible for me to fulfill my responsibilities to APA and know that our children were safe and in the best possible company for such a scary adventure.
Helen Egger, M.D.
APA Member-in-Training Trustee
At APA's fall component meetings in Washington, D.C., in September, I invited representatives from a number of mental health advocacy groups to speak with the residents and early career psychiatrists attending the meeting. The speakers were Mike Faenza, the executive director and CEO of the Mental Health America (NMHA); Farrell Fitch, the communication director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI); Frank Burgmann, the president of the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (NDMDA); and Liz Weiner, a social worker in Baltimore, and Polly Sherard, special projects coordinator from a local ABC-TV affiliate, who are working together to create a public service campaign against the stigmatization of mental illness. I asked all of them to talk about their organizations, the services they provide for mental health consumers and their families, and their critical political advocacy work.
I became interested in organizing this workshop for a number of reasons. First, I am grateful for the services and information that our local branch of NAMI has been able to provide to patients and their families, particularly at a time when we are practicing with ever-diminishing resources and support services. Such practical support can be literally lifesaving for patients and their families.
Second, I had the privilege of sitting next to Mike Faenza at my first meeting of APA's Board of Trustees. With my 3-month-old son and my 21-year-old nanny down the hall in the "sick bay" of APA's central office, I nervously sat at the table not knowing what to expect in my new role as member-in-training trustee-elect. Mike, who attends APA Board meetings to give updates on NMHA projects, was so thoughtful about the issue of stigma, so open about his family, and so supportive of me as I tried to get my bearings.
Lastly, I strongly feel it is vital that we, as individual practitioners and as representatives of APA, need to strengthen our alliances and collaboration with mental health advocacy groups. In the face of economic cutbacks, lack of true parity for coverage of mental illness, and stigmatization of people with mental illness, we must work with our patients and their families to change the current climate.
The workshop was a success. Farrell Fitch recounted NAMI's history: This grass-roots organization was started in 1979 by people with mental illness and their family members to provide information, support, and advocacy to all those affected by mental illness. NAMI has 140,000 members nationwide and 1,000 state and local affiliates. Ms. Fitch emphasized the critical need for all of us to advocate for people with mental illness, to work to erase the stigma of mental illness, and to get involved on the local level. She also talked about a wonderful program called the Journey of Hope Family Education and Support Group Program, a family-to-family program providing psychoeducation, clinical information, and emotional support for families facing the grief, helplessness, frustration, and guilt that occur when a family member has a chronic, often devastating, mental illness.
Frank Burgmann, the president of NDMDA, spoke movingly about his personal struggle with manic depression and the NDMDA model of patient-run and -led support groups. NDMDA is a young organization_it was begun in the 1980's_and currently lacks NAMI's many resources, but chapters are opening across the country. The organization also has a toll-free telephone line, which provides information about depression and manic depression, referrals, or guidance on how to start a local group (see information below).
The NMHA, run by Mike Faenza, has a national office in Alexandria, Va., and 300 local affiliates. The organization was founded in 1909 by Clifford Beers, who suffered from manic depression, to advocate for the needs of the mentally ill. The NMHA has developed a number of public information campaigns including "Are You Covered?," which asks people to check their health insurance benefits and challenge plans that discriminate against mental illness. The symbol of the NMHA is a bell with a shadowed face on the front. It is reminiscent of the bell sitting outside the national NMHA office that was forged from the chains that once shackled patients_a chilling reminder that while we have made progress, we still have far to go to get compassionate, adequate, and equal treatment for our patients.
Lastly, Liz Weiner and Polly Sherard gave a lively presentation of their burgeoning public service campaign on the stigmatization of mental illness for an ABC-TV station. They were eager to get our ideas of stories that could speak to audiences. Though the campaign is a local project, this affiliate has a track record of producing campaigns that become national models.
I met Liz through a representative of the Rotarians. At the June APA Board meeting, Rotary Director Matt McGowan addressed the Board about a national project started in San Diego called "Erase the Stigma." The Rotarians hope to make education about mental illness a priority in all Rotarian groups, and APA is supporting the campaign.
An important point was brought up in the workshop's question-and-answer period; outreach, support, and psychoeducation must be extended to all members of the mental health community, regardless of race, ethnic background, or socioeconomic group. Two African-American psychiatrists pointed out the importance of talking to African-American fraternities and sororities or other African-American community groups, as well as the importance of respecting and addressing cultural differences in all presentations. This reemphasized the importance of local, personal contact in our communities.
It is hard to fit all of the information we learned into one column. I leave you with this final thought: All of our work is local, whether it is sitting in a room across from a patient doing therapy, going to your child's school to talk about children's mental health issues at a faculty meeting, talking to a Rotary group or another community group about stigma, fighting a patient's mental health claim for coverage, or joining NAMI, NMHA, and NDMDA. We need to be active in our communities, speaking up and reaching out. As we do so, we are reminded of the many wonderful people who are also doing this critical work.
National Alliance on Mental Illness
NAMI Telephone Helpline: (800) 950-6264
Web site: http://www.nami.org/
Journey of Hope Office
Phone: (504) 343-6928
Mental Health America
Mental Health Information Center: (800) 969-NMHA
Web site: http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm
National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association
Phone: (800) 82-NDMDA
(Its Web site is currently under construction)
The NAMI and NMHA Web sites offer excellent links to other useful online mental health resources.
(Psychiatric News, November 1, 1996)