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I deeply thank you for reading and thus supporting and sometimes writing for New York City Voices. Certainly, we welcome every letter, email and fax we receive from our readers and read every one of them. Many submissions are selected to appear in the newspaper and some are delayed for further review, research and revisions and some are not accepted period. We do not accept articles that defame persons or institutions even if it is a consumer describing appalling conditions in a facility somewhere because, for the moment, we are not covered by insurance that would protect us if we are sued. Most of us who are involved with the newspaper are hard-working citizens and consumers whose lives would be thrown into a tailspin were that to happen. This may change in the future as we are working to incorporate the City Voices project, purchase protective insurance, and discuss how the newspaper can be involved in the kind of reporting that sheds light on injustices in the mental health community.

Recently, an article came across my desk that suggested psychiatric medications do a lot more harm than good. I circulated the article to the editorial board for a vote whether or not to run the piece as it was written. Some of the responses were quite passionate and adamant in their perspectives. Others were more open-minded. The decision was to fact-check it, discuss it with the author to add more information, and review it again when this is done. Sometimes, tricky articles like this come across my desk and when they do, I send it to the editorial board for a vote. If you feel that your article has been wrongly rejected, feel free to request an editorial board review.

In the issue you are currently reading, Meera Popkin wrote an article about her complete recovery from schizophrenia. You may remember her as the successful Broadway singer, dancer and actress who wrote her personal story in a past issue (visit www.newyorkcityvoices.org to read it). Following her glory days in show business, something happened and Meera found herself diagnosed with schizophrenia, put on meds and entering the mental health system. Never throwing in the towel, Meera stayed in the game and continued to audition for musicals while following a mental health treatment plan. She dated, maintained ties to friends and family and pursued her interests in the arts, exercise and spirituality. After many disappointments, Meera decided to put aside her dream of being a working performer and to pursue her dream of starting a family. Today, she has her husband and baby girl. Her psychiatrist recently told her that she has made a complete recovery from schizophrenia though her article asks more questions than provides answers as to how. In it, she speculates that she may never have had schizophrenia in the first place. After you read her article, please write a letter to the editor with your opinion on the matter to be published in the fall edition (writing instructions in Editor's Note at bottom).

I shall share with you our vision for the future of New York City Voices and encourage your ideas and participation. For the past ten years, City Voices has provided the mental health community in New York City with a newspaper that features the experiences of mental health consumers in their own voices as well as articles on policy, events, resources and stories from other stakeholders. In addition, we sponsor conferences and educational events to share the wonders of art and diverse perspectives with consumers. We want to keep doing this while expanding to reach other sectors of society.

Mental illness can affect anyone whether they are presently working in corporations, learning in universities, climbing the ranks in the military or anywhere. Many people suffer mentally even though they have never been diagnosed and do not realize there is a mental health community in their city with peer support, self-help support and educational resources available to them. It is very important to feel that you belong, that people love and benefit from you, and that you have a contribution to make in life. I know that City Voices has been making people feel this way. It always warms my heart to hear it.

We wish to expand distribution in New York City by distributing to most of the mental health orgs here, to expand distribution to other parts of New York State and to include a section in the paper that reflects issues there. We wish to pilot the City Voices project to other cities around the country with an eye on Philadelphia due to its proximity to us and the many consumer leaders there. We will create a City Voices module or "how-to" kit to help consumer-leaders start the project. There are many mental health projects in cities across the country, but nothing at the scale of City Voices with its emphasis on consumer leadership and empowerment.

We wish to help people who develop mental illness in high-pressure corporate and university communities. We shall start with corporations by educating leaders in human resources and presenting them with the human faces of mental illness through panels and other types of discussions. We shall emphasize the proven success of peer support, self-help and psycho education on helping people to resume their lives. Untreated mental illness affects productivity and results in huge financial losses, the paramount concern to corporate leaders. We shall see how City Voices can partner with corporate and university communities in mutually beneficial ways. Our mission is to destigmatize mental illnesses by helping people to realize that they are no one's fault, they can happen to anyone and that recovery is possible with effort and undying hope. Please take the time to write us a letter about the direction you would like City Voices to go (writing instructions in Editor's Note below). And stay posted on City Voices' 10th anniversary conference November 17!