Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
September 27, 2006, Vol. 06-103

National Conference of People with Mental Illnesses To Act on President's New Freedom Commission Themes

The 21st Alternatives Conference, the only national mental health conference organized by and for people mental illnesses (also known as mental health consumers and survivors), will be held from October 25 to 29, 2006, at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel in Portland, Oregon.

The theme of Alternatives 2006 - "Blazing the Trail to Recovery Through Transformation" - echoes the report of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health: "Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America." "The report notes that mental health systems must be transformed to promote recovery, and Alternatives 2006 will focus on recovery and systems transformation," said Kathy Muscari, director of the Consumer Organization and Networking Technical Assistance Center (CONTAC), a federally funded, consumer-run national technical assistance center, which is organizing the conference. "In fact, the Alternatives conference is central to the recovery movement. This conference changes lives," she said.

This year's conference http://www.Alternatives2006.org features a number of nationally prominent speakers, most of whom have diagnoses of mental illness themselves. These speakers include Dr. Ed Knight, vice president of recovery, rehabilitation and mutual support of ValueOptions, a managed behavioral healthcare organization; Paolo del Vecchio, Associate Director for Consumer Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services; nationally known consultants Dr. Priscilla Ridgway, Darby Penny, and Wilma Townsend, advocate Yvonne Smith, and Emi Koyama, a Portland, Ore.-based national advocacy organization.

Each Alternatives conference offers in-depth technical assistance on consumer/survivor-delivered services and self-help/recovery methods. Topics include starting peer-run programs, engaging the media, developing personal resources, and the latest social services research, so that consumers at all stages of their own recovery - from novices to veterans - find something of value. Beyond the exchange of knowledge and networking, Alternatives offers a rich social, artistic, and healing environment that attendees have called inspiring, stimulating, empowering, and touching. Said one attendee, "The conference transformed me so I can transform the system."

Funding for Alternatives 2006 is made possible in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services.

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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.