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Over 350 mental health consumers and survivors gathered last month in Portland, Oregon, to begin the process of building a national voice for our community. The setting, on the banks of the mighty Columbia River and within sight of majestic Mt. Hood, was suited to the important work of the first National Summit of Mental Health Consumers and Survivors. The assembly of activists from across the country was sponsored by the National Mental Health Self-Help Clearinghouse.

The Summit's goal is to begin organizing a national consumer/survivor group in response to the fact that our movement has had little impact on mental health policy at the national level. One main reason for a unique consumer/survivor organization is simply the appreciation that mainstream groups, while often seen as consumer supporters, have separate agendas and cannot be expected to be a national voice for consumers. Within the consumer/survivor movement, the emphasis must be on collaboration, given the tradition of tension between people calling themselves consumers and those calling themselves survivors. Such tension has sometimes been fueled by the competition for scarce funding. The vision of the Summit is to bring consumer/survivors together to focus on what we have in common as a people victimized by paternalism, stigma, and discrimination. One hope is to bring activists living with psychiatric disabilities together with activists from other disability communities in a national advocacy organization.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Summit as the representative of the Mental Health Association in New York State, which is one of 31 organizations across the country to have recently received a grant from the federal Center for Mental Health Services to promote networking between consumer and consumer supporter organizations in New York State. Our flagship project for the CMHS grant is the Mental Health Voter Empowerment Project, originally started by Ken Steele in New York City but now being organized statewide on the county level through local mental health associations and colleague groups. The goal of this project is not just to foster ties among groups, but to promote empowerment among individual consumers and survivors by showing to ourselves and to our elected officials that we are a force to be recognized.

The business of the Summit was divided among twelve working groups or "planks" with the goal of developing consensus statements on issues from Advocacy and Organizing to Recovery and Stigma. Each participant was asked to commit themselves to participating in the work of one planking group for the three days. This format encouraged focused work in small groups, but limited the chance for attendees to move among different planking groups of interest. All attendees gathered periodically during the day to hear working reports from each group.

One of the great pleasures of attending such an event is the opportunity to meet like-minded people from across the country who are involved in a variety of interesting and important work. And in going so far from home, I had the chance to meet consumer advocates from New York who are offering real leadership to the national movement.

The planking group on Organizing, in which I participated, was facilitated by Ed Knight of the Mental Health Empowerment Project. One of the panelist in the group was Joan Nobling, a consumer advocate from Rochester who is on my organization's Board of Directors and generally active in the mental health association movement. "So many people are dreaming the same dream," Joan told me. "For me it is an intensely stimulating opportunity."

Of particular interest to me was the work of the planking group on Forensic Issues. Starting with the conventional wisdom that jails and prisons have taken the place of state hospitals as our nation's principal mental health facilities, the group discussed the personal experiences of participants in focusing on what forensic alternatives offer better treatment for people living with mental illness. One general view was that the option of pleading Guilty But Mentally Ill offered little promise because after release from a hospital an individual was still likely to serve more prison time then someone not identified as living with mental illness. And while prison mental health treatment was seen as often inadequate, prisons may offer more educational and vocation opportunities than mental hospitals.

"The Summit was a historical event that laid the groundwork for a national consumer/survivor movement," noted Joseph Rogers, Executive Director of the National Mental Health Consumers' Self Clearinghouse. Rogers was especially pleased with the diversity of attendees and the many states represented.

Much work needs to be done to build a national voice for a community of individuals still struggling to have their own voices heard. Growing pains are inevitable as people with different diagnoses and postures to mental health services work to build legitimacy with each other. Summit organizers hope to make the conference an annual event. More information on the work of the Summit can be obtained through the National Mental Health Consumers' Clearinghouse at (800) 553-4KEY or on-line at www.mhselfhelp.org.