The bill, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (H.R. 3717), introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, would cut funding for the Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI grant) by 85% and restrict DLAC from engaging in systemic or public policy advocacy.
The bill, in part, is a reaction to testimony at a Congressional hearing in which scant anecdotal information presented in a totally one sided manner portrayed the PAIMI program as part of the problem instead of, as we know it to be, part of the solution. The implication was that PAIMI programs were using their resources and authority to keep people with mental illness from getting necessary treatment. We know the opposite to be true – PAIMI programs have been at the forefront of advocating for people with mental illness to receive appropriate treatment ever since President Ronald Reagan signed the PAIMI Act into law in 1986. Unfortunately, Rep. Murphy, who ironically is a proponent of evidenced based policy making, is ignoring the well documented evidence of 27 years of successful advocacy by PAIMI advocates on behalf of people with mental illness.
Among the many changes contained in its 135 pages, the bill would defund mental health consumer networks, a model in which people with psychiatric disabilities have opportunities to develop independence and personal growth in supportive environments with their peers; deny mental health block grant funding to any state that has not adopted a forced treatment regime (“Assisted Outpatient Treatment,” a euphemism for Involuntary Outpatient Commitment); and amend HIPAA law to make it easier to access the records of people with a mental health diagnosis. This legislation would essentially move the clock back on decades of progress in mental health, promote discrimination and stigma, use coercion and drugs as the blunt instruments of care, silence the advocates and keep people away from seeking the treatment they need.
We are convinced that the only way Rep. Murphy’s misguided bill can succeed is if the people who know the truth about the PAIMI program remain silent. We need people who have benefitted from the PAIMI program, our allies, and members of DLAC’s Board and advisory councils which have guided our PAIMI program to speak up – to share what they know to be true - that DLAC and the PAIMI programs throughout America have been dedicated and effective advocates for people with mental illness.
ACTION NEEDED:
We need you to contact the members of Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation (contact information below) and communicate to them the negative impact this legislation would have and urge them not to co-sponsor this legislation. All you have to do is leave that message with the person that answers the phone. If you want to get into more detail feel free to use the talking points and background information in this email, but the key message is to ask your legislator not to co-sponsor H.R. 3717.
Talking Points
• Representative Murphy’s legislation (H.R. 3717) will reduce funding for the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program by about 85% leaving individuals with mental illness no independent advocates to help address the myriad of issues they face every day.
• Representative Murphy’s legislation (H.R. 3717) will make it easier to discriminate against people with mental illness in housing, employment, and education, and lead to fewer individuals receiving the treatment they need.
• Representative Murphy’s legislation (H.R. 3717) would remove the ability for our agency to fully serve individuals with mental illness. In its 27 year history, the PAIMI program has been highly successful assisting people with mental illness and should continue to have the broadest authority possible to ensure people with disabilities are free from abuse and neglect and receive the services and supports they need. Contrary to the implication in Rep. Murphy’s bill our PAIMI program, Disability Law & Advocacy Center of Tennessee, has been instrumental in securing appropriate treatment for and ensuring the safety of:
o Youth with severe mental health issues
o People with mental illness in jails and prisons
o People with mental illness residing in the community (board & care homes)
The links are to provide you background information should you want it.
Tennessee House Representatives
Rep. David Roe (TN-1)
Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (TN-2)
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (TN-3)
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (TN-4)
Rep. Jim Cooper (TN-5)
Rep. Diane Black (TN-6)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN-7)
Rep. Stephen Fincher (TN-8)
Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-9)
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please let us know. Please also feel free to share this email with others in your network.
Francisca Guzman
Media & Development Advisor
Disability Law & Advocacy Center of Tennessee
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1 Comment
The DBSA steps up A big step backward into the future: mental health “reform” Washington style The case for shutting down the peer centers How Stereotypes Stop the Mentally Ill from Getting HelpPiper Hoffman Dec 6, 2013 6:00am Contending with a mental disorder is hard enough, but people who have one face another hurdle: the stigma associated with their illness. There is a widespread aversion to the mentally ill that is made up of “ignorance, fear, and discrimination.” Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has bipolar disorder, says that the things people say about it “can be painful.” Those things include the belief that people who are depressed are indulging themselves and should snap out of it. Dolly Parton subscribes to this notion and says it worked for her: she claims she ended a bout of depression by telling herself, “Right, get off your fat butt, or if you really are suicidal, then go and shoot your brains out.’” She doesn’t take into account that she probably could not have done that if her depression hadn’t been running its course on its own. Another popular conception is that successful people don’t get depressed. Winona Ryderbelieved this herself, but at a time in her life when she had it all, she was hit with depression. “I remember feeling, ‘I can’t complain about anything, because I’m so lucky, I’m so lucky,”” she says. Depression isn’t the only mental disorder weighted with misconceptions. For instance, some other disorders are believed to make everyone who experiences them violent. It is not an overstatement to say that this stigma, though it exists only as abstract attitudes in other people’s minds, has devastating health consequences for people who are mentally ill. The United States Surgeon General wrote in a 1999 report that the stigma reduces patients’ access to resources and opportunities (e.g., housing, jobs) and leads to low self-esteem, isolation, and hopelessness. It deters the public from seeking, and wanting to pay for, care. In its most overt and egregious form, stigma results in outright discrimination and abuse. More tragically, it deprives people of their dignity and interferes with their full participation in society. The worst news there in terms of medical outcomes is that people do not seek help because they do not want to admit to themselves or for others to learn that they have a mental disorder. Zeta-Jones wants that to change. By talking publicly about her condition, she says, “I hope I can help remove any stigma attached to it, and that those who didn’t have it under control will seek help with all that is available to treat it.” The audience for her message is large. More than a quarter of the American population suffers from a mental disorder in any one year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Looking just at depression, the American Medical Association reports that up to 12% of men and 26% of women in the United States will experience it at some point in their lives. That means that a whole lot of people are affected when the stigma prevents people from seeking treatment, especially considering the impact on the family, friends and colleagues of people with untreated disorders. That is not to say that people are always affected by an afflicted relative’s or friend’s failure to seek care. With some illnesses, a person may be able to hide her condition despite devastating symptoms. A sampling of celebrities who have been or are mental ill shows that it is possible to conceal the suffering, at least part of the time. Dolly Parton, Jim Carrey, and Rosie O’Donnell all say they have had depression, belying their cheerful public personas. O’Donnell says that she had lived under “a dark cloud” since childhood, but didn’t get help until she was 37. The stigma is particularly pronounced in certain sub-cultures. One of these is the military, which expects members and veterans to tough things out. Acknowledging and nurturing emotions probably isn’t that institution’s strong suit. That leaves veterans whose experiences in combat caused post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) isolated, sometimes shamed, and usually quietabout their suffering. In an article featuring the words of several veterans with PTSD, theMontreal Gazette notes that a “stubborn stigma…is rife in all ranks of the Canadian military.” Sometimes religious communities also have trouble acknowledging mental illness in their leaders. A North Carolina Baptist minister’ssuicide, which shocked his congregation in 2009, was “a rare outcome to a common problem” among the clergy. One expert said, “We set the bar so high that most pastors can’t” reach it, leading to depression. An organization called CareNet operates 21 counseling centers for pastors in North Carolina alone. Its president, Steve Scoggin, said isolation and loneliness are the “greatest occupational hazards” for clergy. The fact that one state has 21 counseling centers just for pastors hints at the problem’s prevalence. Another particularly vulnerable group isteenagers, who often do not seek help for fear of their families’ reactions. The growing number of celebrities speaking publicly about their mental illnesses may help reduce the stigma that hurts so many. Education can help too. Informative resources include theNational Alliance on Mental Illnesses and Mental Health America.
A big step backward into the future: mental health “reform” Washington style
by hopeworkscommunity The new mental health reform bill introduced by Rep Murphy provides for the following according to the Treatment Advocacy Center: " Requires states to have commitment criteria broader than “dangerousness” and to authorize assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) in order to receive Community Mental Health Service Block Grant funds. Allocates $15 million for a federal AOT block grant program to fund to 50 grants per year for new local AOT programs. Carves out an exemption in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) allowing a “caregiver” to receive protected health information when a mental health care provider reasonably believes disclosure to the caregiver is necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of the patient or the safety of another. (The definition of “caregiver” includes immediate family members.)" TRANSLATION: What does it mean? 1. States will be substantially limited in their control over their own mental health policy. This, in and of itself, represents a radical change of immense implications. It is a wall once breached that will never be rolled back. 2. The future direction of mental health policy will basically be in the hands of the Treatment Advocacy Center. After years and years of failing to get states to follow their policy of coercion first to the degree they want their view would effectively become federal policy. What they could never win by choice they will win by force. 3. Much gains in knowledge about what really works and helps people with mental health issues would be rendered unimportant and out of fashion. The notion of recovery would be given a death blow. 4. States by federal statute would have to agree to commit more and more people. 5. Failure to do so would make you ineligible for federal block grants that are the backbone of so many state mental health budgets. 6. Privacy laws would not allow so much privacy. Confidentiality would have holes big enough to drive a hole through. And that is only the beginning. It is a step back into an era of mental health care that was a national disgrace and one in which a diagnosis of mental illness was a life sentence.
The case for shutting down the peer centers
by hopeworkscommunity 1. Take a service that operates for about the price of a Mcdonald's quarter pounder, fries, and coke per person per day.... 2. That serves a population largely not served by any other programs.... 3. That historically normally has had lots of problems including using a lot of very expensive services with little success.... 4. And enable that population to experience success for the first time in their lives, often dramatic success..... 5. And then shut down that service to save a few dollars in the short run ignoring totally the long term savings that success means for the individual, their families, their communities and the state.... 6. And basically abandon one of the most vulnerable populations in this state without any real backup or contingency plan.... Thats basically it. You might call it a "no-brainer."
The national organization of Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance featured my personal story on the homepage of the national website, November 20, 2013 through December 17, 2013. I feel honored that my story is included in the Life Unlimited stories permanent archive. www.DBSAlliance.org
The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is the leading patient-directed national organization focusing on depression and bipolar disorder. The organization fosters an environment of understanding about the impact and management of these life-threatening illnesses by providing up-to-date,
scientifically-based tools and information. DBSA supports research to promote more timely diagnosis, develop more effective and tolerable treatments and discover a cure. The organization works to ensure that people living with mood disorders are treated equitably. Assisted by a scientific advisory board comprised of the leading researchers and clinicians in the field of mood disorders, DBSA has more than 1,000 peer-run support groups across the country. Nearly five million people request and receive information and assistance each year. DBSA’s mission is to improve the lives of people living with mood disorders. For more information about DBSA or depression and bipolar disorder, please visit www.DBSAlliance.org or call (800) 826-3632.
hopeworkscommunity posted: "The plan as it currently stands is to
totally and completely eliminate funding for peer support centers in Tennessee. 45 centers will close and the over 3000 people served a month will be left out in the cold. The post below talks more about the situation" Send a Christmas card to Governor Haslam by hopeworkscommunity The plan as it currently stands is to totally and completely eliminate funding for peer support centers in Tennessee. 45 centers will close and the over 3000 people served a month will be left out in the cold. The post below talks more about the situation. What I am asking is two things. 1. Send a christmas card to Gov Haslam. Share your knowledge and experience with peer support with him. Let him know Tennessee deserves and needs what peer support centers add to the mental health system in Tennessee. His address is: The office of Governor Bill Haslam 1st Floor, State Capitol Nashville, TN 37243 His email address is . 2. Share this with at least 3 other people. Ask them to share it with at least 3 other people and so on. This is the time to act. Let Governor Haslam know what you think. Make your card a Christmas gift to Tennessee. The death of peer support in Tennessee. There are 45 peer support centers in Tennessee. Next year if things go as planned there may be none. The initial recommendation of the commissioner of mental health to the governors request for a 5% decrease in budget was to recommend that 4.5 million dollars be taken from the budget for peer support centers. That would leave 0 for next year. It makes you just want to shake your head. When I heard I emailed a bunch of people. I thought I had misheard. I knew no one could seriously make such a suggestion. I was wrong. Peer support centers do two primary things. They save money and they save lives. A lot. For a few dollars a day per person served peer support centers give a chance at success for people who have never had success. People who have never made it in the community make it. The last figures I saw indicated a 90% decrease in psychiatric hospitalization. The savings from that alone should almost pay for the program. In a time when the jails are filling with the mentally ill how in the world can we shut down one of the most successful community based services we have?? This program defines the notion of “bang for your buck.” How is this in any way a savings?? We lecture our children about thinking before they act and considering the long term consequences of their actions. Shouldnt we expect the same out of ourselves and particularly our political leaders? But it is more than an economic issue. It is more than a political issue. It is profoundly a moral issue and it is wrong!!! If it actually sees the light of day it will be the planned abandonment of one of the most vulnerable populations in this state who basically have no where else to turn for this kind of help for a short term financial gain that in the end will cost far more than it saves. In plain terms it will be an act of large cruelty. I urge you to stand loud and express your opinions. This is an old battle we thought done last year when support for peer support become recurring dollars. Once again we are a political football. Now is the time to end the game. hopeworkscommunity | November 27, 2013 |
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