California Network of Mental Health Clients





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July - September 2005 Quarterly Report

California Network of Mental Health Clients
Contract # 05-75352-000
Quarterly Report
July - September, 2005

KEY ADMINISTRATIVE/MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES:

Staff focused on finalizing FY 04/05 fiscal and program reporting;
Staff developed in collaboration with DMH contract for 05/06 fiscal year;
Staff - with Board direction and involvement - developed an Expansion Program and Budget proposal requesting increased support from DMH. Staff and the President of the Board met with Dr. Mayberg to discus this proposal.
Staff coordinated and prepared for a face to face CNMHC Board Meeting, preceded by a New Board member training and Committee Meetings;
Staff negotiated and finalized a contract with the site for Client Forum 2006.
Staff continued to provide administrative and program support for all of the CNMHC Projects;
Staff continued to work collaboratively with other mental health constituency groups and policy makers.

KEY BOARD ACTIVITIES:

An announcement for the position of Appointed Board Members was sent to the Central Valley and Bay Area Regions in which there were vacancies;
A Joint Nominations/Executive Committee teleconference was held to select from among the Appointed Board member applications;
A face to face Board Meeting was held on September 15 - 18, 2005. This Meeting was preceded by a new Board Member training. Also, several Committee Meetings were held prior to the Board meeting proper. These Committee Meetings included: Program Evaluation Committee, Client Forum Planning Sub-Committee, Media/Communications Committee, Cultural Competency Committee, the Public Education and Policy Project Committee, Personnel Committee and Finance Committee.
Board members, mostly new Board members, met with Dr. Mayberg to introduce themselves and describe the old and new years' activities.

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES:

Client Forum 2006

Proposals from Bay Area sites were solicited and reviewed;
A site visit was conducted at the selected site and contract negotiations completed. The Forum will be held at the San Mateo Marriott, in San Mateo, CA, January 13 -15, 2006.
A Save the Date flier was mailed to the CNMHC membership, self-help groups, and constituency groups.
Theme for Client Forum 2006 established: Esperanza Y Lucha (Hope and Struggle): California Clients Leading the Way
A Call for Presentations and Fee Schedule was mailed to the CNMHC membership, self-help groups, and constituency groups.
The Client Forum Sub-Committee met at the Board Meeting provide advise on and monitor these activities.

Cultural Competency Project

Join with 3 statewide advocacy organizations to form the collaborative California Outreach & Education Collaborative (COEC) offering MHSA Educational Forums to select counties for identified underserved community populations. The organizations are the Mental Health Associations of CA, National alliance of Mental Illness-CA, and the United Advocates for Children of CA. The CNMHC component of the COEC is called, CA. Client Diversity Outreach and Inclusion Team (CA Clients DO-IT)

The CNMHC Board of Directors voted to define the 2005-06 Cultural Competency Project as outreach and inclusion with identical goals and objective as the CNMHC component of COEC.
The Cultural Competency Project staff consultant (Michele Curran) was hired to lead the CA Clients DO-IT project.
Project Coordinator and the Executive Director attended planning meetings and COEC teleconferences to develop processes and goals. She has attended 5 COEC in person meetings, 7 teleconferences, and held many individual conversations with the Coordinators of the partner organizations.
Project Coordinator established contact clients in 4 target counties. A duties/responsibility job description was developed for these Team Members. This Team is the work group for the Project. Individual training was given to Team Members. The Project Coordinator has communicated many times individually with each of the Team Members and held one teleconference with all of the Team Members. Since Fresno County is the first County to hold an Educational Forum, communication with the Fresno client Team Members has been on going. The County contact Team Members have attended strategy-planning meetings in each individual county with representatives from each COEC agency.
Project Coordinator assisted with the development of the Public Relations tri-fold to distribute statewide in order to encourage counties to partner in the COEC. This tri fold was translated into Spanish by a collaborative member and a client Team Member.
Project Coordinator contributed to development of COEC materials for the Educational Forums.
Project Coordinator designed brochure describing the CA Clients DO-IT Project.
Project Coordinator is developing Power Point presentation to use during the client targeted component of the COEC Educational Forum.

Public Education and Policy Project (PEPP)

The PEPP held four (4) MHSA related teleconferences and two face to face meetings of the Client MHSA Implementation Team (a sub Committee of the PEPP) and others.
The Client MHSA Implementation Team produced two formal responses - White papers - to the DMH, on the DMH's May 18 "Draft Mental health Services Act Community Services and Supports, Three Year program and Expenditure Plan Requirements" and the "Mental Health Stakeholder Inquiry Regarding Potential Use of MHSA Funds for Short Term Hospitalization."
The Client MHSA Implementation Team coordinated a presence at all (how many?) of the MHSA Oversight and Accountability Commission (OAC) meetings to provide clients with maximum and meaningful involvement in MHSA processes and decision-making. Clients have had a visible presence through identifying shirts and buttons and at the Public Mike. Clients met individually with OAC personnel and members for the purposes of education and promoting client inclusion.
The CNMHC wrote a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger expressing its disappointment at the insufficient level of client representation appointed to the MHSAOAC.
In accordance with our goal to aggressively assure that clients are represented at all levels of the mental health system, the CNMHC has provided the client perspective in many venues. Following are a selected few:

Carole Ford presented at the Mental Health Policy Forum in San Francisco;
Kathy Trevino presented at a Senate Hearing on "Review of the Federal Department of Justice Investigation of California State Mental Health Hospitals";
Catherine Bond presented at a Senate Hearing "Status Report on Seclusion and Restraint Practices State Mental Health Hospitals, State Developmental Centers, and Publicly Funded Community Facilities Pursuant to SB 130";
Sharon Kuehn, Carole Ford, Jay Mahler, and others are representing the clients' perspective on recovery, client and family member employment, peer training programs for employment as providers, and person centered services in regional and web cast trainings conducted by CIMH;
Sally Zinman presented at:
Multiple clients conducted trainings at a Recovery Conference in Mendocino County;
CNMHC members have been selected to serve on the MHSA Performance Measurement Work Group and the Education and Training Work Force.

The PEPP continued to educate the mental health community about the need for discussion about reform in California's Board and Care homes. The PEPP wrote a letter to Dr. Mayberg regarding the DMH's oppose position to SB 258, a bill that would set up a Task Force to study and make recommendation about critical problems in CA's Board and Care homes.
The CNMHC finalized a settlement agreement with the County of Los Angeles regarding its partial implementation of AB 1421. This is the culmination of a lawsuit that was brought forward in February, 2004.
The CNMHC collaborated with the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) on an Education and Training Partnership. The goal is to produce a joint statement on workforce development under the MHSA, including the employment of consumers and family members. Two joint groups have been held, in Los Angeles and in Oakland.
The CNMHC continued its collaboration with the cross disability community. The Executive Director spoke at the CA Foundation of Independent Living Center's Board Meeting to discus the MHSA from the consumer's perspective.
The PEPP continued its collaboration with Protection and Advocacy, Inc (PAI) and People First of California on the California Memorial Project. The annual Remembrance Day was held at eight (8) different sites in California on September 19, 2005. A generic Press Release was sent out, and press packets available for folks who attended the ceremonies. An individualized Agenda for each ceremony was prepared. The Remembrance Day Ceremonies were moderately covered by the press.

Self-Help and Regional Projects

Regional Project Coordinators' Job Announcements were mailed to Regions where there is a Coordinator vacancy: the Central valley, South and Far South. To this date, only a Project Coordinator in the Far South has been selected.
The Office of Self Help/ Technical Assistance and Support Project (TASC) is supervising the Regional self-help projects. The Director of the OSH has held several teleconferences with Regional Directors and Coordinators to work on their respective yearly projects.
The Office of Self Help key activities include the following:
(This Project is funded by a SAMHSA grant; however, DMH provides much in-kind support for this Project and DMH contracted activities interrelate with it.)

OSH letters of introduction - to counties and constituency groups;
Self-Help Survey - to all Self-Help groups, counties, and constituency groups, to ascertain the status of self-help in California;
Job announcements for Client Specialists - sent to full membership, counties and constituency groups, to assemble a pool of self-help specialists to match with self-help group and county needs.
Trainings and presentations have included:
An email database has been developed of self-help leaders/programs throughout the State;
An initial statewide teleconference of self-help groups was held on September 29, to be followed by regularly scheduled statewide self-help group teleconferences.