D.C. March A Rallying Cry For ‘Dignity’ Mental Health Recovery Support
Mental Health Weekly August 31, 2015
The need for a national strategy on mental health in this country has prompted a grassroots national effort calling for dignity, rights and support for the millions of people with mental health conditions. Hundreds of consumers with lived experiences, family members, providers and a coalition of nearly 50 national and local mental health and recovery-focused groups and organizations led the call with the March for Dignity and Change in Mental Health on August 24 at the National Mall in
Destination Dignity marchers and members of the Dignity Mental Health Coalition, including the Consumer Action Network, DBSA National Capital Area, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse, and National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors (NACBHDD) emphasized the need to end stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness.
The lead organizer of the event told MHW that the goal of Destination Dignity is to create a supportive community. “Recovery flourishes when people are treated with dignity,” said Eduardo Vega, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco and director and principal investigator of the Center for Dignity, Recovery and Empowerment, a founding partner of Destination Dignity.
“We had upwards of five hundred people at the march,” added Vega. “For a first-time event at the end of August, we feel it was a great showing, including people from many states and five countries.”
According to Vega, Destination Dignity, a collaborative project for change and public engagement around mental health in America, has identified a few core areas to address:
- Criminalization and incarceration.
- Lack of funding for community supports.
- Increases in suicides around the country.
- Low employment level for people with mental illness.
“Destination Dignity is about raising awareness of the problems of stigma and discrimination and how the history of [those issues] in many ways keeps people from getting the help they need,” he said. “Society isn’t paying attention to these issues.”
Lime green has been selected as the international color for mental health awareness, noted Vega.
“We’re wearing lime green ribbons and raising awareness of just how pervasive these problems are, and to build a public wave of support to make some changes around mental health and recovery,” he said. “The distinctive color is a great conversation starter.”
Participants in the march were encouraged to bring signs, placards and banners in lime green. They were also asked to wear T-shirts representing their organization. “In five years we want the whole nation to know and stand behind a wave of lime green in the same way pink ribbons are used as a powerful symbol for breast cancer,” he said.
Stimulating Reform
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, also a Destination Dignity founding partner, said the march represents the beginning of a national movement. It was also not intended as a way to push for legislation. “We were there to talk about liberation, not legislation,” Rosenthal, who participated in the march, told MHW.
“Our aim in these marches is to really raise the bar about understanding and supporting and stimulating reforms that will improve the lives and dignity of people with mental health conditions,” Rosenthal said. “I think our community has been subject to an unacceptable degree of discrimination and criminalization and marginalization.”
The mental health community needs its own defining moment, added Rosenthal. For African Americans, it was Selma. For women, it was the Seneca Falls Convention, and for the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender] community, it was Stonewall. Our aim is to create that defining moment. It may take years.”
The mark of a successful march, said Rosenthal, is when the general public far outnumbers mental health advocates. “It shows that we’ve really made it about the whole of society,” he said.
Supporting Leadership
Ron Manderscheid, Ph.D., executive director of the NACBHDD, and Brian Hepburn, M.D., the new executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), whose organizations are also members of the Dignity Mental Health Coalition, spoke at the march.
“I think it was an excellent event,” Manderscheid told MHW. “The message of Destination Dignity is, in part, the message of recovery. It’s very important we do things for ourselves and regain our voice and life in the community. That’s the important takeaway.”
During the event, Manderscheid told participants the NACBHDD supports their cause. “We’re bringing attention to the fact that exposure to trauma can cause mental illness,” he said. “We want them to be very successful and for stigma to be abated in order for [consumers to have] a full life in the community.”
Manderscheid added, “There can’t be any recovery without dignity. We will continue to support them as they do future events. This is not a one-time effort. It’s simply the first of many.”
Hepburn, who assumed his position at the NASMHPD July 1, was former executive director for the Behavioral Health Administration for the state of Maryland. He replaced Robert Glover, Ph.D., who retired in June.
During the march, Hepburn told participants, “We stand with you today to bring attention to the needs of persons with mental illness and to push for the elimination of stigma; to ensure the individuals who need mental health services are able to get those services within an environment of hope and dignity.”
Hepburn said that NASMHPD is appreciative of the efforts of mental health stakeholders that are doing good work across the country to help people with mental illness. “There’s much good work that is being done at all levels,” he said, adding that more still needs to be done.
National Strategy
The coalition is seeking a national strategy for change and social justice for mental health, said Vega. “Next steps for us include engaging the public nationally under the rubric of dignity, initiating an open disclosure challenge social media project, creating a framework for a national mental health strategy and continuing a fundraising campaign for a much larger event,” he said.
He added, “We need a national strategy that our whole country would get behind with positive change to support recovery. Coalition members intend to also address discriminatory practices like seclusion and restraint, he said. “We also want to pursue changes in housing for people with disabilities,” Vega said. A series of public webinars/dialogues will also be initiated shortly, he added.
“While many nations do have a national strategy around mental health, this country doesn’t,” said Vega. ”We’ll be working with leaders and people with lived experiences and many stakeholders to shake out what a [national strategy] should look like.”
For additional information, visit www.destinationdignity.org.