A new year, a new legislative session. 1999 brings more challenges and opportunities, particularly for the mental health community.
Each year, mental health advocates spend the winter and spring battling efforts to cut funding for community-based services, trying to bring about the adoption of pro-consumer/recipient legislation, and defeating legislation aimed at doing disservice to the needs and goals of people living with mental illnesses.
Historically, there has been a division in the mental health advocacy community, based upon the distinctions drawn between the titles of "Advocate" and "Consumer". Advocates have long held the belief, and rightfully so, that any person who tries to make the world a better place for people living with mental illnesses is undertaking a just endeavor. Consumer/recipients have long held, also correctly, that no one speaks better on their behalf than they themselves.
If both are correct, then where does the aforementioned division come from? Boiled down to bare bones, the dichotomy is found in concerns about advocates speaking for consumers.
Recognizing that advocacy is best served when driven by the heart, a person living with mental illness who can relate their relationship to the value and shortcomings of the mental health system is clearly the best advocate. Simply put, "you telling your story" will always be more effective than "someone else telling your story,"
Yet, that distinction doesn't have to be drawn. There are many consumers who are advocates, and well-prepared to step into appropriate leadership roles.
The Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc. (MHANYS), is striving to erase those artificial lines. Ken Steele, a well recognized consumer advocate and movement leader is the new vice-chair of our board of directors, overseeing the Committee on Government Affairs. Ken is one of at least five consumers on our board, each not chosen because of "consumer" status, but because they bring a constituency of consequence to MHANYS membership. Another nationally recognized consumer, Frank Marquit, CEO of National Artists for Mental Health, chairs the Nominating Committee, responsible for identifying and recruiting new board members. Frank and Ken together make up two-sevenths of MHANYS Executive Committee, nearly 30%.
The internal structure of MHANYS has also been refocused, in large part due to highly credentialed consumers looking to give something back through their professional lives. Presently, MHANYS has 5 full time project directors, responsible for the day-to-day implementation of our programs and objectives. Four of those five project directors are consumers - one living with schizophrenia, and the others with bipolar disorder or manic or clinical depression. Interestingly, each also had a resume which far exceeded any others submitted when those positions were advertised. That may simply be the product of discrimination in another form, or a conscious decision to work in the not-for-profit world, looking to do good, not necessarily do well.
Each of these people, from our board members to our staff, speak for us everyday. They speak from their experience, and usually not about it. They speak with authority, because they have every right to. They are models to their professional colleagues, who understand the value of the hard work that has gone into their recovery and success, and models to consumers and recipients across the state, for the same reason.
MHANYS has a responsibility to its staff, one it does not take lightly. The Managing Director of the organization has an MSW degree, with experience in both the clinical and administrative fields. This serves her well in her role as the direct supervisor of virtually the entire staff.
MHANYS is a better place for its efforts to eliminate the lines between consumer and advocate. We are more credible, more in tune with the community we serve, and more capable because of the talent we have compiled.
One of the cries of the consumer movement is "Nothing about us without us." At MHANYS, we have become us.