Did You Know . . .

New Statewide Family and Consumer Networks (FCN) TA Center

Policy Research, Inc. (PRI), and its sister company, Policy Research Associates (operator of the CMHS National GAINS Center), have partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Mental Health America (MHA) to be the new technical assistance center for the SAMHSA Statewide Family and Consumer Network grant programs. In this role, the group will be providing technical assistance to assist the networks with building system capacity by providing guidance and support regarding leadership and infrastructure development. Policy Research has been providing targeted technical assistance and training to hundreds of communities and states nationally for over 20 years and has been at the national forefront of mental health system transformation, pushing the field forward toward fully integrating families and consumers into all of the activities in which they must be involved.

NAMI at its roots is a volunteer membership organization with thousands of volunteers and professional staff working daily in their communities to build an effective system of care for persons with mental illnesses and their families. NAMI's Child and Adolescent Action Center (CAAC) focuses on systems reform that promises to improve the lives of children and adolescents with mental health challenges and is also empowering families to become more effective advocates for their children. Through its Leadership Institute, NAMI builds volunteer and professional leaders and strengthens local and state organizations through education and knowledge exchange at the local, state and national levels.

MHA works in partnership with its more than 320 state and local affiliate organizations to promote mental wellness for the health and well-being of the nation through advocacy, education, research and service. State and local affiliates bring together mental health consumers, family members and supporters of consumers, service providers and other advocates for collaboration and action. Through its technical assistance center, National Consumer Supporter TA Center, MHA provides technical assistance to consumer-run and consumer supporter organizations in areas such as organizational development and capacity-building, advocacy, empowerment, recovery, systems transformation and coalition building. 

More information on the new Statewide Family and Consumer Networks Technical Assistance Center will be available in the coming months.

What's Happening in Your Community

Rethinking Mental Health

For far too long mental illness has been stigmatized—stigmas that have served as barriers to innovation. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Rethinking Mental Health" is sponsoring a competition that offers an opportunity for new ideas to emerge that are outside traditional thinking.  A panel of judges will select the top 10 ideas and community change makers will vote to select the top three winners. Winners will be announced on December 16 and each will receive a prize of $5,000. For more information, visit http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/mentalhealth.

Announcements

CSG Justice Center Releases Essential Elements of Specialized Probation Initiatives http://consensusproject.org/jc_publications/probation-essential-elements

New NIH RFA Building Sustainable Community-Linked Infrastructure to Enable Health Science Research http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-09-010.html

SAMHSA Releases New RFAs for Consumer and Family Networks http://www.samhsa.gov/grants

More Resources from GAINS

GAINS Center Peer On-Line Community

The CMHS National GAINS Center is utilizing on-line networking to keep peers in jail diversion and reentry programs connected. The GAINS Center believes in creating a learning community that offers a way to network, support, learn, and grow. The GAINS Peer On-Line Community is a place where peers involved in the various GAINS projects can go to find answers to questions, seek out technical assistance, and share their experiences. To find more resources focused on peer involvement visit http://www.gainscenter.samhsa.gov.

What's Upcoming

Conferences

10/28-11/1 - Alternatives Conference - 23rd Annual Conference, Omaha, NE
http://www.mhselfhelp.org/resources/view.php?resource_id=608

11/11-14 - American Evaluation Association, Evaluation Conference 2009, Orlando, FL http://www.eval.org/eval2009

11/16-18 - American Jail Association – Special Populations: Special Problems, Reno, NV http://www.aja.org/aja/training/seminar_course.shtml

Webinars/Teleconferences

10/27 CHCS: Establishing Accountable Physical/Behavioral Health Care Homes: Medicaid Innovations http://www.chcs.org/info-url3966/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=104024