[MotownJohnny]

I am looking for ways to connect with people who advocate for the MH community specifically in fighting stigmatization and discrimination.

Any leads?

[Webgoji]

Wow, that's a great idea actually MotownJohnny. I don't know of any, but I'ma keep an eye on this thread.

[catsrhelm]

Go to NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy. That is an organization fighting against the stigmatization of mental illness, and also provides information on various mental illnesses.

[Perna]

I'd find an organization local to me that I liked and check them out:

NATIONAL STIGMA CLEARINGHOUSE

[patches4.0]

You can also call Mental Health America to get some direction.

[here today]

To me, it’s more than just fighting stigma and discrimination. It’s about getting more effective treatments and “helping” those mental health professionals who are NOT helping to recognize that early and have a good referral system. It seems to me that in your situation, MTJ, which you’ve written about on other threads, a MH professional should NEVER COERCE a person into treatment. Almost by definition, when we consult a MH professional for the first time, we are in an uncertain and potentially vulnerable state. It’s up to the ethics committees to put new standards into place but do they ask for input from clients? Of course not. Then, where else will they get the information that the existing guidelines need improvement??? As a former software developer, this situation seems ridiculous (“insane”) to me.

In the last 3 ½ years I’ve made tremendous progress with a trauma specialist. But for 50 years of therapy off and on, I didn’t make much progress and my life may have even been made worse because I followed some ill-conceived or incomplete suggestions from therapists. And I just lucked into consulting the specialist, on the suggestion from a support group friend, not any of the professionals I consulted.

I’ve been wanting to find a way to do some advocacy, too, but have been disappointed with both NAMI and MHA. Maybe there could be a separate forum or thread on Psychcentral that could collect some good information and develop some advocacy ideas?

[pachyderm]

Here's one:

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law