[OCSC-news] Two OCSC lists: "news" and "talk"

David Oaks oaks at mindfreedom.org
Fri Apr 11 16:00:08 PDT 2008 

Thanks Rick for your provocative post! Great questions and challenges!!!

A reminder to everyone on this OCSC-NEWS list that if you wish to  
DISCUSS this or other items, then the place is over on the OCSC-TALK  
list.

(I'm going to post there now about one reason I think State of Oregon  
lags behind rest of USA on supporting consumer/survivor voice, a  
reason that ought to make us a little proud. My guess is that one  
reason the State doesn't fund that voice is because we have  
historically had so many "in depth" activists in Oregon, those who  
want MAJOR DEEP change... but more on that on the talk list!)

If you're not on that OCSC-TALK list, here's how to get on.

Sign up for free here:

http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/ocsc-talk

Of course, if you have a news item, statement, etc. relevant to OCSC- 
NEWS list folks are welcome to post here, too.

More info on these two (2) lists is here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/ocsc/ocsc-lists

Info on OCSC itself is here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/ocsc

On Apr 11, 2008, at 2:31 PM, Rick Snook wrote:

> A little while ago I had a chance to talk with Karl R. at my house-  
> he's semi-retired from Oregon AMH- and brought up the hospital  
> issue. He said, "Well, this seems to have way too much momentum for  
> us to do anything about it at this point." I said,"You and I both  
> know better. There is no possible excuse for this- the state has  
> learned this lesson before." (Karl was instrumental in the  
> downsizing and eventual closure of the state's large DD  
> institution- "Fairview Hospital and Training Center". The same  
> arguments were made. Some people just had to be kept in such a  
> place. The court mandates require it. We can't serve these people  
> in the community. You know the drill- it's the same now as then.  
> Both Karl and I had a lot to do with proving all of these things  
> wrong.) I said, "What did you think of when you heard about the  
> Federal inspection fiasco at the Sate Hospital- Deja-Vu?" (the  
> beginning of the end of Fairview was a federal inspection that  
> ended up de-funding the institution for nearly a year, creating a  
> major state funding crisis. I was at Fairview the week of the  
> inspection and was sitting in a resident cafe building when Karl  
> came in with the federal report and a big grin on his face.) Karl  
> said, "Well, there may be some things creeping forward through the  
> attorney general's office that could create a similar scenario soon."
>
> A few things happened as a result of the Fairview closure other  
> than the elimination of a great evil (believe me, Fairview was a  
> great evil):
> The people who came out into the community were served at rates far  
> and above those available to people who had not been  
> institutionalized. A back-log waitlist of 5000 disabled people  
> (folks who had stayed in the community, many at least as disabled  
> as those leaving Fairview were outraged. The waitlist was a dead  
> end. The rate of people being added far outstripped the number of  
> people leaving the list. The only way you could get new services  
> was if every family member who could care for you died. Even then  
> you couldn't get the level of services being given to the former  
> Fairview residents.
> The waitlist people sued the state- called the "Staley Lawsuit"-  
> and won; resulting in the "Staley Settlement". (I was instrumental  
> in implementing the Staley Settlement when I created the first new  
> self-directed supports brokerage to meet the demand for services-  
> Inclusion Inc.)
> The settlement demanded that everyone be served- no exceptions- and  
> that the mode of service was to be self-directed supports. (I'm  
> sure that Karl had a hand in that, too- he's a really great guy).  
> The waitlist was abolished. Down the road the bureaucracy found  
> ways to limit the the self-directed elements of the program but  
> it's still a national model for best practice. Real self- 
> determination throws pies in the face of any and all bureaucracies.  
> It is the true revolution that is needed in all social services.  
> Still, it is now a fact that everyone in the state with a  
> developmental disability has access to $9000 or more per year for  
> services that they select through person centered planning. (No  
> coincidence that Karl was a big part of creating Oregon's Mental  
> Health Brokerage- Empowerment Initiatives- still the only program  
> of it's kind in the country. But EI is extremely small, can only  
> serve a small handful of people annually, the funding is precarious  
> and amounts to a token gesture on the part of the state.)
>
> Maybe the state's real nightmare is- what if the same thing happens  
> in mental health? What if we demand self-directed services for all?  
> What if we demand real parity?
>
> A more important question in my mind is, "Why are we still so far  
> behind as a consumer movement? Why are we still licking the crumbs  
> from the table of social services?"
>
> One answer is that we have a history of not working together  
> effectively. Tell me if I'm wrong. I can see no other reason for us  
> to be in the pathetic situation of being at least 20 years behind  
> developmental disabilities advocates. (Oh, you can bring up stigma-  
> certainly we are not seen in as warm and fuzzy a light as someone  
> with a developmental disability- but again- how long are we going  
> to blame others for where we're at. The challenge is not just at  
> the doorstep of the State. The challenge is and has been at our own  
> doorstep. We need to stop our petty squabbles and unite to demand  
> self-determination and substantial access to support for everyone  
> that has a mental health diagnosis. And we have to actively and  
> aggressively work to change our public face. There is no excuse.
>
> Years ago when I was first in therapy I learned and remembered the  
> damage that was done to me in childhood and how that has effected  
> my life. But I am 53 years old now and I am so past blaming my  
> poor, ancient, 88 year old mom for my problems. I am responsible  
> for making my life into what I want it to be. To the extent that I  
> ruminate on my childhood as the cause of all my problems today I  
> can not move forward. Responsibility, intention and determination  
> are what I need to move forward.
>
> Here we are stuck in a decrepit throw-back system that crumbles  
> even as it tries to provide meager services to a few in need. It  
> doesn't need fixing- it needs to be burned to the ground. In a  
> recent meeting David Oaks used the term non-violent revolution. A  
> revolution does not "tinker" with the old system.
>
> What are we going to do to change the status-quo? This is our  
> fight. The outcome is on our shoulders.
>
> We know what we need to do.
>
> love to all, without reservation,
>
> Rick
>
>
>
> "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." -
> Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
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> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "ocsc-news-request at intenex.net" <ocsc-news-request at intenex.net>
> To: ocsc-news at intenex.net
> Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 12:00:03 PM
> Subject: OCSC-news Digest, Vol 3, Issue 1
>
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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Street Roots publishes article about OCSC launch! (David Oaks)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:20:24 -0700
> From: David Oaks <oaks at mindfreedom.org>
> Subject: [OCSC-news] Street Roots publishes article about OCSC launch!
> To: ocsc-news at intenex.net
> Message-ID: <39A132C6-27BC-4D9E-9232-D25CD39BC8E2 at mindfreedom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
>
>
> Hi OCSC News list!
>
> The below article in the new Street Roots (available all over
> Portland, Oregon) is all about the launch of the Oregon Mental Health
> Consumer/Psychiatric Survivor Coalition (OCSC). The teleconference
> launching the first board is 22 April 2008.
>
> Please print this out and photocopy for those NOT on the Internet!
> Help them hear about the OCSC launch!!
>
> For more info about the new "OCSC" see links at the BOTTOM. By the
> way, I'm emailing this to the OCSC-News list. There is also an OCSC-
> Talk list for discussion. On there we are talking about organizing,
> exchanging introductions and news, and posting info about the
> upcoming launch. If you are not on the OCSC talk list and wish to be,
> you can sign up here:
>
> http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/ocsc-talk
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Published in _Street Roots_ newspaper, Portland, Oregon, USA:
>
> 4 April 4 2008 -- News
>
> New mental health coalition organizes survivors for reform
>
> By Mara Grunbaum, Staff Writer
>
> As far as David Oaks is concerned, it's no coincidence that "One Flew
> Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Ken Kesey's novel about the dark side of the
> psychiatric system, takes place in Oregon. Forty-six years after the
> book's publication, Oaks - who was himself institutionalized and
> involuntarily medicated in the 1970s - has serious reservations about
> Oregon's public mental health system. He isn't the only one with
> concerns, but the state, he says, isn't listening.
>
> Oaks heads up MindFreedom Oregon, a Eugene-based advocacy group whose
> several hundred members are mostly "mental health consumers and
> psychiatric survivors" - people who partake in mental health
> services, and people who feel the psychiatric system has harmed them.
>
> "We are an extremely disempowered constituency," Oaks said, despite
> the fact that more people now have psychiatric diagnoses than ever
> before. Oaks contends that decisions affecting mental health
> consumers are made without adequate input from those who will be
> affected most. For example, he said, instead of letting politicians
> argue over how to best help the homeless population, "Let's hear from
> homeless and ex-homeless people who've been through the mental health
> system about what helps them."
>
> In 2007, the McKenzie River Foundation granted MindFreedom $8,000 to
> set up the Oregon Consumer/Survivor Coalition. The coalition, which
> officially kicks off April 22, will unite 14 consumer/survivor groups
> statewide. Oaks and other members of the coalition's steering
> committee hope that by banding together, they can consult with
> thousands of mental health consumers across Oregon and push for
> reforms that people using the system actually want.
>
> The Oregon Department of Human Services treats between 70,000 and
> 75,000 people with mental health issues each year, and they're
> currently meeting less than half the need for publicly-funded
> services, according Addictions and Mental Health Division Deputy
> Assistant Director Madeline Olson.
>
> The state used to fund an Office of Consumer/Survivor Technical
> Assistance (OCTA), whose small staff served as a liaison between
> mental health consumers and the government, kept track of programs
> statewide, and provided technical assistance to consumer/survivor
> groups looking to expand their services. The office's director,
> Rollin Shelton - who says he received public psychiatric services in
> California in the 1980s - advised state committees on consumer
> concerns and regularly helped inform decisions on mental health
> programs. When a revenue shortfall forced the state to make budget
> cutbacks in 2003, OCTA was one casualty, and Oregon has not paid for
> a comparable entity since.
>
> The consumer perspective is important, Olson said, and DHS has
> supported several attempts to reestablish an office like OCTA, but
> each failed to win funding from the legislature.
>
> "There are never sufficient revenues in this state to fund everything
> that people need, let alone everything that people would like," Olson
> said. She cited the $458 million project to replace the aging Oregon
> State Hospital as one thing that has taken precedence over funding a
> consumer affairs office. "There's a lot of value in a dedicated
> office, but if I had to trade between continuing to treat people in a
> building that was built in 1883 or building that office, I would
> elect to have a safer treatment space for those people."
>
> Oaks isn't convinced. If the state can find nearly half a billion
> dollars to build new institutions, he said, they should be able to
> devote some money to an organized consumer voice.
>
> Shelton, the former OCTA director, is now the executive director of
> Mental Health America of Oregon/PeerLinc Oregon, which provides
> training and technical assistance to people with mental health issues
> and consumer/survivor groups. He is also on the new coalition's
> steering committee.
>
> Without statewide coordination, Shelton said, the mental health
> system operates in many "different little fiefdoms." While some
> counties improve mental health services, others are still "in the
> dark ages," and little information is shared between them. "As a
> result, folks all over the state are again and again and again in the
> position of having to reinvent a wheel that someone else has already
> invented," he said.
>
> The Oregon Consumer/Survivor Coalition will represent a wide variety
> of viewpoints, Shelton explained, from those who vehemently oppose
> chemical treatment of mental health issues to "folks who believe with
> equal strength of conviction that without their psychiatric
> medication, they'd be lost."
>
> Oregon has taken some steps to include the mental health consumer
> perspective in its decision making. A senate bill passed in 2007
> requires at least one fifth of the members of any government-formed
> mental health advisory group to be consumers of mental health
> services. Olson also said that DHS has added staff at the state
> hospitals who are trained to respond to consumer concerns. "I think
> we've tried to compensate," she said, athough "it's not quite the
> same thing as having an everyday voice at the state," which OCTA
> provided.
>
> The level of consumer representation at the state is "still sort of a
> token," said Amy Zulich of Empowerment Initiatives, another Portland
> group involved in the coalition. Empowerment Initiatives gives 25
> individuals a year grants of $3000, which they use as part of a self-
> directed mental health plan. Grant recipients might spend the money
> on clothes, art supplies, or a personal skills coach, depending on
> what they determine would help them reach their goals.
>
> Zulich hopes the coalition can give mental health consumers wider
> access to these "brokerage" programs and other community tools.
> Shelton would like to expand peer-delivered services, where people
> who have experienced mental health issues are paid to assist others
> facing similar challenges. Oaks wants to put an end to involuntary
> psychiatric treatment, which is court-ordered for about 800 adults
> every year. All three advocates emphasize that what they really want
> is to hear from as wide a range as possible of mental health
> consumers and to bring those voices into the public process.
>
> "Nothing about us without us," Oaks stressed. "If we're talking about
> mental health.. Let's have people who've been at the sharp end of the
> needle. Let's have them at the table."
>
> - end -
>
> Street Roots, which is published every two weeks, has been Portland,
> Oregon's flagship publication addressing homelessness and poverty
> since 1998.
>
> You may submit a letter to the editor of _Street Roots_ here:
> info at streetroots.org
>
> ORIGINAL online article and info about Street Roots click here:
>
> http://www.streetroots.org/past_issues/2008/04_01/
> news_mental_health.shtml
>
> The article is also online here:
>
> http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/media/mf/street-roots-ocsc
>
> YOU are invited to support and become involved in the Oregon Consumer/
> Survivor Coalition (OCSC)!
>
> INFO about OCSC:
>
> http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/ocsc
>
> INQUIRIES: You may e-mail questions or comments about OCSC to: Mark
> at mfisher88 at msn.com
>
> E-LISTS: You may sign up for an OCSC News list, OCSC Talk list, or
> both, here:
>
> http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/ocsc/ocsc-lists
>
> PLEASE FORWARD this important news to all appropriate places on and
> off the Internet.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of OCSC-news Digest, Vol 3, Issue 1
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David W. Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

web: http://www.mindfreedom.org
email: oaks at mindfreedom.org
office phone: (541) 345-9106
fax: (541) 345-3737
member services toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] or 1-877-623-7743

United Independent Action for Human Rights in Mental Health!

MindFreedom International is an non-profit coalition with a vision of  
a non-violent revolution in mental health. Accredited by the United  
Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with Consultative  
Roster Status.

Join now! http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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