Category Archives: Mental Health Activists

I’m Blogging About Bloggers Who Blogged Today For Mental Health And the APA Blog Party

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First I would like to thank the American Psychological Association hosting another awesome blog party! Getting bloggers in the blogosphere blogging with a focus on recovery and how to reduce discrimination. This event is without a doubt one of my personal highlights of mental health awareness month.

It’s not over yet you still have time to get your blog posts included in the blog party Roundup. Just write a post about stigma and how you feel it can be reduced and how others can be educated by learning more about mental illness. Then TWEET it (@APAHelpCenter & #mhblogday).

I am so amazed of the multitude of bloggers and the high quality of posts that are being written this year. I want to thank each one of you bloggers and advocate… I’ve been reading every post I possibly can get to… Below is a list of the blogs better than posted so far as of 7 PM.

Mental Health Month Blog Party 2012 – Round Up


Today’s APA Blog PARTY posts

Peer Scholarship deadline extended to May 4th!

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 www.namiflorida.org The NAMI Florida Consumer Counci

peer.jpg

Good morning all,

 

Please see the email below from the Peer Conference Chair, Dana Foglesong.  The scholarship deadline has been extended to May 4th!  Please share this with your members and community partners.  There are still plenty of scholarships available.  If you have any questions please feel free to call our office or email to jevans (at) namiflorida.org.

 

CEU’s available…………

 

 

 

From: danabirdsongfl (at) gmail.comSent: 4/22/2012 10:25:01 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Peer Scholarship deadline extended to May 4th!

 

The scholarship deadline for peers who need financial assistance to attend the 3rd Annual Peer Conference has been extended to May 4th! Please note, there are still about 100 scholarships still available so PLEASE FORWARD.

 

Attached is the scholarship application as well as the general registration form.

 

Thank you!

Dana Foglesong

Chair, 3rd Annual Peer Conference

We did it! Legislature Rejects Big Cuts to Mental Health & Substance Abuse Funding

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Dear Friend,

Thanks to you and the more than 3,800 individuals who signed our petition, we helped to convince legislators to reject the proposed $100+ in cuts to mental health and substance abuse services. The final budget includes cuts of $2.1 million, far less than what was anticipated. The Florida Legislature is sending this budget to Governor Scott for approval. In the past, Governor Scott has been a strong supporter of these services.

We had great support from these key legislators who served on the budget conference committees. Please take a few minutes to call the legislators from your district to say “thank you.” They need to know that we appreciate that they stood up for individuals with mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

We should also be grateful to the many people who were working on this issue in Tallahassee, including Judge Steven Leifman of Miami, who delivered copies of our petition to the Governor and key legislators, Gail Cordial from Florida Partners in Crisis, Mark Fontaine of the Florida Alcohol and Substance Abuse Association, Bob Sharpe of the Florida Council on Community Mental Health, and the Florida Clubhouse Coalition.

No cuts are good, however, and there is still much more work to do to elevate Florida’s MH/SA system from being one of the worst funded in the nation.

If you would like to keep in touch on these issues and be part of future state advocacy activities at the grassroots level, please reply to this email with your name and city where you live. I’m not sure where this is going, but perhaps we can keep working together to improve services and opportunities for recovery.

Thanks again for your part in this effort!

Amy McClellan, Family Member
President, The Key Clubhouse of South Florida

Florida Senate wants to eliminate more than $100 million in funding forour state’s mental health

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Hi,

The Florida Senate wants to eliminate more than $100 million in funding for our state’s mental health and substance abuse system, an unprecedented reduction.

Florida already ranks 50th in the nation for per capita spending in state supported behavioral health care. A reduction of this magnitude will destroy an already fragile system. Nearly 140,000 people who struggle with very serious mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders will lose their access to life-saving services.

This budget reduction will not only cause unnecessary suffering to individuals and their families, it will actually result in much higher costs for Florida taxpayers. Instead of having access to more economical community-based services, individuals in crisis will end up repeatedly in our hospital emergency rooms, criminal justice system, and homeless centers, at a much greater cost to all of us.

If you are a Florida resident, please sign our petition to let our state legislators know that we can’t afford this short-sighted and dangerous reduction to essential state services.

That’s why I signed a petition to The Florida State House, The Florida State Senate, and Governor Rick Scott, which says:

“Florida simply can’t afford to make reductions to community based mental health and substance abuse services. Please vote to maintain current funding levels for these cost-saving services.”

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/floridas-mental-health?source=s.em.cp&r_by=2739322

Thanks!

Free 40 hour Recovery Peer specialist Training

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 Subject: Free 40 hour Recovery Peer specialist Training

CFBHN is sponsoring a recovery peer specialist training for peers who would like to mentor other adult peers with mental illness on June 13-17, 2011 in New Port Richey and June 20-24, 2011 in Sarasota. The only requirement is that the person has a mental illness that they are comfortable disclosing and that they have an interest in either volunteering or working as a peer specialist. We are giving preference to consumers who live in the 11 counties of the suncoast region: collier, lee, charlotte, desoto, Hendry/glades, Sarasota, manatee, Pinellas, pasco and Hillsborough.   If the classes are not filled with consumers from the 11 counties we will allow peers from other counties to attend .  The classes have a 15 person maximum so you will need to register early. You can go on the www.floridapeernetwork.org website to register.  The training is free but they do register directly with Florida Peer Network.  This 40 hour training is accepted by the Florida Certification Board as part of the process to become a certified recovery peer specialist.  Thanks, Susan

 

Susan Lang, MPH, OT/L, CRPS

Consumer/Family Affairs Director

Central Florida Behavioral Health Network

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