NEW YORK CITYVOICESAdvocacy: 1999
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January/February 1999:
Leading By Example
By JOSEPH GLAZER, Esq.
"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."Gay and Mentally Disabled
By BERT COFFMAN
"The gay community stigmatizes us for being mentally ill, and the mental health communities stigmatize us for being gay."From Patient to Advocate
By FRED BAUER
"I became involved with a variety of consumer organizations throughout New York State. This allowed me to see that recovery is possible, even for someone with a diagnosis such as mine."Outpatient Civil Commitment
By Dr.ANAND PANDYA
"... using legal mechanisms to encourage compliance with treatment ... raises fundamental questions about how to divide the responsibility for mental illness between society and the individual consumer."
March/April 1999:
Mental Health Insurance Parity
by KEN STEELE, Publisher
"The good news is that when a compromise parity bill emerges from the legislature, many believe it is unlikely to face opposition from Governor George Pataki."Forced Psychiatric Treatment
By GEORGE EBERT, Mental Patients Liberation Alliance
"I am reminded of several people we knew who were taken into psychiatric facilities very much alive, treated, and carried out dead. I am reminded of the people who took their own lives, suffering from the despair, pain, and fear of forced treatment."Working with Mental Illness
By NEAL L. COHEN, M.D., NYC Public Health Commissioner
"One consumer ... agreed that the shift in focus moves us away from the sensational issue of violence and instead emphasizes the positive. 'Talking about it (violence) is like buying into it,' he said."
May/June 1999
Thousands of New Yorkers Attend 5th Annual Picnic for Parity
By WILFRED NOEL RABY, M.D.
"perhaps this was the biggest accomplishment of the day: a hand warmly extended to other New Yorkers had been warmly received."It's Time for Real Health Care Reform
By RICHARD N.GOTTFRIED
"Almost every problem in health and health care is made more serious and harder to solve because of the large and growing number of uninsured."Update on Involuntary Outpatient Commitment
By JOSEPH GLAZER, Esq
"a law establishing involuntary outpatient commitment is creating compulsory participation in something that does not exist ... For politicians in New York State, adopting outpatient commitment would mean great headlines and failed public policy."
July/August 1999
Deadly Restraints
By JOE GLAZER, Esq.
"On June 28, 1999, Gregory Lee Richardson died in restraints in the Albany County Jail. Diagnosed with schizophrenia 20 years earlier, Mr. Richardson was in the jail following his arrest for a traffic-related incident ... after nearly three weeks in the Albany County jail without a full psychiatric evaluation"Working for Systems Change and Peer-run Alternatives
By DARBY PENNY
"The New York State Office of Mental Health's Bureau of Recipient Affairs began in 1992 as a single individual charged with bringing consumer/survivor perspectives into the policy-making process."Our Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency
By KEN STEELE, publisher
The U.S. Senate just passed the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 ... because they recognized one simple fact: if only another one-half of one percent of us with disabilities were to join the workforce, the savings to the Social Security Trust Funds over our work lives would amount to $3.5 billion.White House Meets On Mental Health
By KEN STEELE, publisher
"The conference... was organized and moderated by Ms. Tipper Gore, President Clinton's Mental Health Advisor. Ms. Gore spoke openly of her own episode with depression. 'To improve the health of our nation, we must make sure our mental health is taken as seriously as our physical health,' Ms. Gore said."
September/October 1999
First Break: One Year Later
By DANIEL FREY, Managing Editor
"I'm part of a culture that mocks mental illness, fearing it and misunderstanding it. I grew up doing the same until mental illness entered my life."Frey & Frese on ABC World News Tonight
"A Closer Look" at Schizophrenia
"Sometimes I dance around the streets and that sort of thing. The neighbors I'm sure think I'm a little unusual. But this is much better than being locked up in a hospital."CSEA, Mental Health Group Team Up
By WILLIAM F. HAMMER, JR.
"CSEA President Danny Donohue said 'It is long past time for state workers and non-profit workers to join forces.' ... 'The lions are all lining up on one side,' said Joseph Glazer, president of MHANYS.Breaking the Silence
By JANET SUSIN
"Doug made the winning touchdown that day... A year later his days as a hero on the football field were over. Now he was in a psychiatric hospital, which called for a whole new brand of heroism."Working Toward a National Consumer Voice
By DAVID KELLOGG
"The vision of the Summit is to bring consumer/survivors together to focus on what we have in common as a people victimized by paternalism, stigma, and discrimination. ... Much work needs to be done to build a national voice for a community of individuals still struggling to have their own voices heard."
November/December 1999
$126 Million More?
By DAVID KELLOGG
"A recent draft report ... sited a lack of proper case management and supervised housing as contributing to the failure to provide adequate care to Andrew Goldstein, who is charged in the death of Kendra Webdale."Warm Line in Action
By ELAINE RONDINELLI and IRIS DISALLE
"She had heard about us and reached out for help ... The hospital became so uncomfortable in the spotlight that they released the caller the next day!"Homeless & Mentally Ill in New York City
By KEN STEELE, Publisher
"few incidents stir up firestorms like those where the tabloids use words like 'deranged' and 'psychos'... Can you name another group where these types of derogatory terms can be openly used on front page headlines without legal and/or political repercussions?"A Mental Health Agenda for the New Century
By GISELLE STOLPER
"There are a substantial number of people with recurrent, serious mental illnesses who tend to reject traditional mental health services. Many end up in crisis and then experience long hospitalizations ... An increasing number of them are now in jails and prisons."Consumer Cover-Up
By HOWARD KWASS
"Consumers, as they are called, keep their mental illness a secret. But do they really have anything to be ashamed of?"The "Brain Disorder" Label
By SARAH ABEND
"The illness model separates the disabled from the rest of the family, for example, by serving as the 'identified patient,' providing an easy victim for family problems when the struggle is system-wide."