[OCSC-news] CS/X movement- why are we so far behind?

Sat Apr 12 14:02:06 PDT 2008

Rick, Are you and your friend familiar with the conference on
Self-determination which NEC and the Center for Self Determination are
co-sponsoring in Detroit May 27-29th. You both would have a great deal to
contribute and the format will lend it self to such sharing. You can learn
more from our website, www.power2u.org
Dan Fisher

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Rick Snook <dwellintheheart at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> I wanted to provide a comment I received on my blog where I posted similar
> information. Someone I know who worked hard to make the DD brokerage system
> work and who is now fighting to reclaim it's soul wrote to me:
>
> Now hold on there Rick. You know there is still a hefty waiting list for
> people with developmental disabilities needing services. You know that
> Staley was resettled in order to stretch out this wait list in favor of
> other state programs. In fact, when I talked briefly with you about the
> whole brokerage fiasco a bit more than 1 month ago, you said every time you
> think about what happened with that system, it makes you want to cry. Can't
> have it both ways pal…
>
> The DD brokerage is definitely not the model to follow. Empowerment
> Initiatives is more on the right course (although it's funding is
> ridiculously inadequate). My friend who wrote the above comment is a
> dedicated advocate and he's right in the point he makes as far as I'm
> concerned.
>
>
> sincerely,
>
> Rick
>
>
> "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." -
> Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
> The preceding information is confidential and protected and is intended
> solely for the entertainment and enjoyment of the person to whom it is
> addressed, it may be disclosed to other parties only under specific
> conditions and with prior written authorizations and consents which maybe
> subject to the Homeland Security Act.Your phone is tapped; get used to it.
> Avoid having any friends,neighbors or relatives who may be of terrorist
> related ethnic groups or political parties opposed to the current
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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 3:41:13 PM
> Subject: OCSC-news Digest, Vol 3, Issue 2
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: OCSC-news Digest, Vol 3, Issue 1 (Rick Snook)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:31:18 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rick Snook <dwellintheheart at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [OCSC-news] OCSC-news Digest, Vol 3, Issue 1
> To: ocsc-news at intenex.net
> Message-ID: <187441.92136.qm at web37105.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> 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.
>
> The preceding information is confidential and protected and is intended
> solely for the entertainment and enjoyment of the person to whom it is
> addressed, it may be disclosed to other parties only under specific
> conditions and with prior written authorizations and consents which maybe
> subject to the Homeland Security Act.Your phone is tapped; get used to it.
> Avoid having any friends,neighbors or relatives who may be of terrorist
> related ethnic groups or political parties opposed to the current
> administration. Big Brother isWatching!! So smile! By receiving the
> information in this email the receiveragrees to abide by any and all
> policies regarding privacy and securityof confidential information,
> including those pursuant to state law and the federal Hippo Preservation Act
> (You may be interested to know that Hippos are completely extinct in the
> Western Hemisphere and have been since the Pleistocene Epoch bio-shift of
> roughly 20,00 years ago that also claimed
> the Saber-toothed Tiger, Giant North American Tapirs andthe Woolly
> Mammoth). The receiver of this email understands and agrees to hold the
> information received in strict confidence, not disclose,divulge, whisper or
> think about this information unless first authorized to do so in writing,
> not reproduce the information nor use this information for any purpose other
> than for which these documents are intended. Failure to maintain
> confidentiality could subject you to penalties such as those described in
> the old testament. Please recycle. May god have mercy on your soul.
>
> ----- 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
>
> Send OCSC-news mailing list submissions to
>     ocsc-news at intenex.net
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>     http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/ocsc-news
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>     ocsc-news-request at intenex.net
>
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>     ocsc-news-owner at intenex.net
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of OCSC-news digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>   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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-- 
Daniel B. Fisher,MD,PhD
Executive Director
National Empowerment Center
599 Canal St.
Lawrence, MA, 01840
V:800-POWER2U
Fax:617-492-5729
daniefisher at gmail.com
www.power2u.org
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