Legislation to Foster Consumer-Run Self-Help Programs

The following fact sheet was provided by the National Mental Health Association.

Background
What are consumer-run services?: Consumer-run self-help services are services provided by mental health consumers whose firsthand experience enables them to offer encouragement, support, assistance, and role models in a non-threatening atmosphere. Consumer-run services are part of a continuum of services that includes the professional system; they are not a replacement for the professional system.

Consumer-run self-help groups offer a range of services, most often organized around a drop-in center, which provide support and socialization activities, and/or education in such basic matters as money management, cooking, cleaning, and social skills. Some programs also provide residential services, crisis intervention, vocational services, and referrals to appropriate treatment and other services. Self-help services are extremely cost-effective, employing consumers who would otherwise be using services and who provide assistance at modest cost.

Services are provided at centers which are not only open during the day but on evenings, weekends, and holidays, when professional services are usually closed and support is most needed to counteract isolation and loneliness. Consumer-run programs usually operate "on a shoestring," and involve no "red tape," which often keeps people away from traditional mental health services. These groups counter the feelings of loneliness, rejection, and frustration common to mental health consumers by offering mutual support, companionship, and empathy. The experience is "empowering," enabling consumers to find they can help themselves and each other, replacing the often-limited expectations they encounter in other settings.

Research attests to the value of consumer-run services:
The importance of supporting and promoting consumer-run mental health services was recognized by both the Surgeon General in the 1999 report, Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, and in a recently published report by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Consumer/Survivor-Operated Self-Help Programs: A Technical Report.

The Surgeon General's report found:
"consumers in the role of peer-specialists integrated into case management teams led to improved patient outcomes;" and
"clients gain from being served by staff who are more empathic and more capable of engaging them in mental health services."

The Problem:
The CHMS report noted that consumer/survivor-operated programs have provided such benefits as coping strategies, role models, support, affordable services, education, and advocacy in a non-stigmatizing setting. In assessing the experience of consumer service programs, the CMHS report also notes that most consumer-run program sites indicated that: more training and technical assistance would have contributed to increased successes; and respondents felt "hindered by lack of knowledge and that coordinated, comprehensive approaches to meeting technical assistance needs would have been of benefit." (Emphasis added.)

The Solution: The Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act
This bill, which is being introduced by Representatives Jim Greenwood (R-PA) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), would create a modest grant program to support the establishment of 10 regional centers to assist non-profits and other entities to develop consumer-run self-help programs to assist people with mental illnesses. These centers would provide the technical assistance and training which would enable consumer-run programs to maximize their effectiveness.

NMHA Position:
NMHA urges Members of Congress to co-sponsor this legislation.

National Mental Health Association
1021 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-2971
703-684-7722
fax: 703-684-5968
www.nmha.org

Return to Mental Illness Consumer-Run Services Support Act Alert page.