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Over 250 mental health consumers and survivors from across the country gathered in the nation's capital on June 6th for the second annual National Summit of Mental Health Consumers and Survivors. The one-day event was intended to continue the work of organizing a national consumer/survivor group that was begun at last summer's summit in Portland, Oregon.
At the top of the agenda was gaining support for a consumer/survivor presence in Washington, D.C.—a so-called "national desk."

"Mental health policy is almost always designed without significant input from the people who are most directly affected. The National Desk will help bridge the gap between federal policy makers and the people who must live with the impact of their policies," said Joseph A. Rogers, executive director of the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse and an organizer of the event.

After morning presentations on each of the twelve working group "planks" developed in Portland, representatives from six major mental health policy groups were given the opportunity to talk about their groups in relation to the goals of the consumer movement. The groups featured were the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services (IAPRS), the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS), and the National Mental Health Association (NMHA). All groups agreed to support a consumer presence in Washington.

A high point of the Summit was an address by Justin Dart, renowned leader of the disabilities rights movement. He has been awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 in recognition of over forty years of service on behalf of people with disabilities. "The community of people with psychiatric disabilities and of psychiatric survivors is by far the largest constituency among people with disabilities, " Dart stated. "We have the potential to be one of the most powerful forces in the culture. But it's not going to happen until WE unite and until WE organize."

More information on the Summit and the work in support of a "national desk" for the consumer/survivor movement can be obtained through the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse at (800) 553-4KEY or on-line at www.mhselfhelp.org. A special public message board has been set up at the Clearinghouse web-site.