NYAPRS Note: As part of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery’s (NCMHR) July 2023 Hill Days, NYAPRS joined advocates from around the nation to push for more recovery centered services with Congress members and federal agencies. We pushed for more funding for alternatives to coercion, the meaningful inclusion of peers and people with lived experience of mental health challenges throughout the mental health system, and more equitable services. This was one of many ways NYAPRS was able to contribute to national dialogue on mental health and recovery. Our upcoming conference will feature many national leaders from the field and federal level policy updates. One of the many great workshops we are excited for is the Federal Public Policy Panel, featuring Jennifer Mathis, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; Dara Kass, Regional Director of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and Paolo del Vecchio, Director of the SAMHSA Office of Recovery. Stay on the lookout for more information about the national leaders coming to the conference and see more of the workshops in the attached program. You can register for the conference and get your hotel accommodation through the links below. Read below to learn more about the NCMHR Hill Days.
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NCMHR Advocates for Recovery-Oriented Services in DC and Beyond
By Luke Sikinyi | Mental Health Weekly | August 28, 2023
The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR) was established in 2006 to ensure persons with lived experience of mental health challenges would have a voice to shape the development and implementation of mental health care and social policies at the national and state levels.
NCHMR represents thousands of people from across the nation and promotes mental health recovery through the principles of recovery as defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): Recovery is a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential. While members of the coalition come from various backgrounds, we all agree on the need to protect central principles of recovery, including self-determination and choice, protection of rights, trauma-informed approaches, and peer support.
NCMHR is opposed to all forms of forced or coercive treatment, including Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), because these programs contradict the principle of self-determination by taking decision making away from people who are using services while centering the goals of treatment providers. True self-determination and person-centered planning enable each person to define the services and supports that align with their hopes and dreams.
While we oppose coercive programs, which typically create trauma and distrust in providers amongst service users, we support offering appropriate, voluntary services for people with the most serious challenges and unmet needs. To this end, NCMHR supports expansion of alternatives to coercive interventions.
NCMHR leaders recently spent a week this past July 10-13th advocating with lawmakers in Washington DC to increase funding for these effective and desperately needed programs as well as to push the coalition’s overarching goal of creating a recovery focused mental health system that prevents crisis, protects rights, and promotes social justice, economic empowerment, and social inclusion.
30 members from close to 20 states attended and met with lawmakers to push this year’s three goals:
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Nothing About Us without Us- the need to have more inclusion of people with lived experience in planning and implementation of policies and services within the mental health system.
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Promoting Racial and Social Justice, including providing services to often underserved communities of color; and
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Increasing Alternatives to Forced and Coercive Treatment.
In line with these principles, NCMHR advocated for legislation to create or expand mental health crisis first responder programs, crisis centers like the crisis stabilization centers in New York state, and peer-run respite and recovery centers modeled after the 50 peer respites currently operating throughout the US.
Peer-run respites and recovery centers are voluntary, person centered alternatives to institutional care. Funding for these respites can come from SAMHSA’s Community Mental Health Block Grants (MHBG) to the states. However, states often fold Block Grant funds into their traditional clinical services, not peer-run services and supports. NCMHR used our time in DC to urge SAMHSA to increase funding opportunities for these programs, including designating 10% of its MHBG funds for mental health peer-run services and supports.
We also pushed for the expansion of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs to increase access to these person-centered services to advance community success, wellness and mental health recovery.
Lastly, we advocated for the introduction of Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) proposed legislation, Providing Empathetic and Effective Recovery (PEER) Support Act, which would help grow the peer workforce by creating a distinct classification for peer support specialists as well as codify SAMHSA’s Office of Recovery to continue providing leadership in the creation and implementation of recovery support services.
NCMHR continues our efforts locally after our week in DC. For example, members from Oregon are engaging Rep. Salinas (D-OR) to support national legislation to fund peer-run respite programs. New York members are advocating for the establishment of statewide, peer-led mental health crisis first responders and voluntary engagement programs for those dealing with serious mental health challenges and homelessness. Coalition members in Washington state are working to include the peer voice in 988 hotline expansion and improvement efforts. Finally, several members plan to testify to the Massachusetts state legislature to explain the many reasons why AOT should not be introduced.
While this year’s advocacy days were well received, there is much more work to be done. NCMHR will continue advocating on the state and national levels, as well as working with other national organizations, to transform the existing mental health system from coercive-based to recovery-based services and supports that are person-driven, and peer-delivered.