NYAPRS Note: The goal of the Recovery Now! network is to promote best practices that lead to and support recovery. For those of us with a recovery story, it is time that we see and hear examples of that in the media and in political discourse, rather than harmful rhetoric. Recovery Now! is a coalition, and its partners including NYAPRS expect and need recovery proponents, whether you be individuals, agencies, organizations or alliances, to be part of this historic campaign being formed at this critical time.
Join Recovery Now! today at http://www.mentalhealthrecoverynow.org/join-us/.
Campaign Aims to Steer Recovery into National MH Conversation
Mental Health Weekly; Volume 25 Number 8, 2/23/2015
A number of mental health organizations on February 18 announced the launch of a new campaign to advance recovery-focused mental health care. The campaign, which aims to promote the need for more community-based services, is seeking individuals, agencies and other organizations to join.
The new campaign, Recovery Now! is supported by such organizations as the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Mental Health America, the National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors and the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.
Recovery Now! “will identify and promote proven approaches to end cycles of preventable relapses, hospitalizations, incarceration, and homelessness,” according to a press release. Campaign members intend to advocate for greater availability of comprehensive community-based services that promote wellness and recovery through the integration of mental health, addiction and medical care.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) recently announced plans to reintroduce mental health reform legislation. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is also working on legislation to reform the country’s behavioral health system.
“Mental health policy reform is rightly a top priority for Congress and the country,” Robert Bernstein, executive director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, said in a release. “We want to ensure that any reform advances the science of what we know works: accessible, recovery-oriented, community-based treatments and supports.”
“We think the time is right, especially given that mental health is receiving a lot of attention,” Debbie Plotnick, vice president for mental health and systems advocacy at Mental Health America, told MHW. “Unfortunately, not all of it is positive.”
She added, “It’s very important that we get our voices heard about recovery. We know that people with mental health conditions can do very well in the community with the right supports.”
Plotnick pointed to the closing several years ago of a Philadelphia state hospital. A follow-up study 10 years later found that people were thriving in the community, she said. “Why? It’s because the money followed that closing into the community,” Plotnick said. “That’s the kind of thing we need to hear about: what works from families who are doing well, who are directing their own care.”
Stories about people who are in recovery and going to school and to work don’t make the news, she said. These stories are not considered “sexy” or “splashy,” said Plotnick. You don’t hear about an individual with a serious mental illness who as a teen first developed the problem, sought treatment and got better, she noted.
Funding support is essential. “We need to do a better job and put money back into the state budget [that was taken out] five or six years ago,” said Plotnick. MHA is pleased about the president’s proposed FY2016 budget, which includes funding increases for workforce development — including peers — and for early intervention and prevention programs and services. “These are things we know make a huge difference,” she said.
“We would like to offer concrete solutions on what works, highlight communities that are doing an excellent job and hear stories from individuals and families in recovery,” Plotnick said. It’s important to have an understanding about what recovery means, she said. “Even folks with many chronic conditions can thrive with community treatment and supports. This is the news we are bringing [to this campaign],” said Plotnick.
Many of the organizations involved in the campaign are based in Washington, D.C., she noted. It’s a given that they intend to meet regularly with lawmakers, she said. “We want to multiply,” Plotnick said. “We invite others to join us.”
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