Voices Heard at the PAIMI Council's Rights and Recovery Campaign Kickoff
Consumer voices proclaimed "I like Rights" to kickoff the March 24th Ohio Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Council's Rights and Recovery Campaign event in Columbus. Throughout the day, participants from all over Ohio learned and taught each other about the natural relationship between rights and recovery and the role of advocacy to achieve both. PAIMI Council members and staff from OLRS facilitated the day's activities. The kickoff event was dedicated to Ellen Deacon, Ex-Officio PAIMI Council member and Manager of Consumer Advocacy and Protection at the Ohio Department of Mental Health. It was Ms. Deacon's vision and drive that created the opportunity for the Rights and Recovery Campaign.
The event was the premier for advocacy tools developed by the campaign. One unique product created for the Rights and Recovery Campaign was a rights video, "It's Your Right!," produced specifically for people who are deaf/hard of hearing. The video, to make it accessible to all, incorporates American Sign Language, voice-overs and closed captioning. The video was distributed to everyone at the event with the hope they would share it with local consumer organizations, providers and boards. The video's applicability and usefulness for everyone involved in the mental health system were apparent when it was shown. (Note: To order the video, contact OLRS by phone, e-mail, or regular mail.) Other advocacy items included:
Introduction of these materials prompted participants to share their experiences and ideas, personalizing and validating the relationship among rights, recovery, and advocacy. The attendees' passionate comments about advocacy and the current mental health system were compelling and persuasive. Participants reinforced each others strengths and skills and many pledged to return to their communities as both self advocates and to advocate for others.
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Drummers, photographers, poets, and artists enhanced the atmosphere and set the beat for the day. Stephen Canneto introduced "Recovery", his sculpture, based on his interpretation of the PAIMI Council's definition of Recovery. This sculpture, commission by Southeast Mental Health Inc., will be installed on the sidewalk in downtown Columbus. The PAIMI Council's first recipient of their Excellence in Advocacy and Recovery Award was Sandy Stephenson, Executive Director of Southeast Mental Health Inc. Ms. Stephenson was recognized for her leadership in supporting client directed recovery and rights and adopting the PAIMI Council's definition of Recovery.
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Michael Hogan, Director, Ohio Department of Mental Health, spoke at the conference, emphasizing the need for continued advocacy, recovery and rights. He remarked that unfortunately, in today's service system, a person who has an advocate receives better services than a person who seeks services alone. Participants validated this observation as they discussed their experiences. People said they did not know they had rights, and until they learned about rights, they received inadequate services. Some people said they were told they should not complain about poor or undelivered services because they were lucky to be getting any services at all. People said they did not know there was a client rights officer or access to other advocates. Attendees who were deaf spoke eloquently about isolation and how mental health providers fail to communicate and appropriately serve them. All the participants expressed a fear that poor community services make them vulnerable to repeated hospitalization. Several discussed the isolation and terror they felt during hospital stays and clearly stated that the hospital experience undermined their recovery process.
Other issues raised included a lack of insurance for mental health services, the complexity of various benefit systems, and employment. All of these expressed concerns and other overarching disability issues provided a foundation for a client driven advocacy agenda. This agenda was structured to provide the participants and other mental health advocates a common agenda and a unified voice to improve mental health advocacy and services in Ohio. The advocacy agenda included:
- Employment (Medicaid Buy-in, Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act)
- Family Support (Ohio Family Support Act HB 214, Custody Bill SB 192)
- Olmstead (The right to live in the community)
- Health Insurance (Mental Health Parity, HB 225)
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The Rights and Recovery beat will go on! Through the PAIMI Council's Leadership Training Institute, materials will be disseminated and training opportunities will be provided for advocates to use as they work to improve advocacy services in local systems.
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The OLRS PAIMI Advisory Council advises OLRS on its PAIMI goals and objectives and provides input to OLRS from around the state on issues pertaining to mental health.
Ohio Legal Rights Service sponsored this event, in part, with funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Health, through a grant from the federal Center for Mental Health Services.
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