Country
Australia

Contact Person / Email
nina@clubhouse.org.au

Call 618 8244 5525

Clubhouse Canada is dedicated to the recovery of people living with mental illness. We promote, assist and strengthen Clubhouse development across Canada, in accordance with the philosophy and standards of Clubhouse International. They aim to: 

1. Promote the Clubhouse International approach to recovery
2. Support the development of new Clubhouses
3. Support the enhancement of existing Clubhouses
4. Facilitate networking,  knowledge exchange, and promotion of best practices within the  Clubhouse Canada network
5. Ensure Clubhouses across Canada are accessible to everyone living with mental illness so that they can achieve their potential and are respected co-workers, neighbours, and friends in their communities.

Country
Canada

Contact Person / Email
chabalbrosek@progressplace.org

Call 416 323-0223

Visit Website

Clubhouse Coalitions represent strong, regional organizations that support the Clubhouse community. Clubhouse International recognizes the following regional/national Clubhouse Coalitions whose member Clubhouses are committed to:

• Comprehensive Clubhouse Training at a Clubhouse International Training Base
• Adherence to the International Standards for Clubhouse Programs (TM)
• Participation in the Clubhouse International Accreditation (TM) Process
• Nurturing new regional Clubhouse development

1. Australian Coalition of Clubhouses

• Nina Bozanic - Diamond Clubhouse - 618 8244 5525 - nina@clubhouse.org.au
• Kim Smith - Diamond Clubhouse - 08 8244 5525 - kim.smith@internode.on.net

2. Canadian Clubhouse Coalition

• Canadian Clubhouse - Criss Habal-Brosek - Progress Place - 416 323 0223 - chabalbrosek@progressplace.org
• Ontario Clubhouse Coalition - Joe Kennedy - Hope House - Club 84 - 705 942 9561
• Dan Morgan - Hope House - Club 84 - 705 759 0458, ext. 226 - dan@cmhassm.com

3. Danish Coalition of Clubhouses

• Hanne Gingold - Regnbuehuset - 45 26152 673 - hg@fhdk.dk
• Erik Pedersen - epd@outlook.dk

4. Finnish Clubhouse Coalition

• Markku Törnblom - Klubbhus Fontana - 358 45 8511 990 - markku.tornblom@suomenklubitalot.fi
• Sanna Rinkinen - Imatran Klubitalo - 358 50 469 8586 - klubi@klubitalo.imatra.fi

5. Irish Clubhouse Coalition

• Warren House - 1 Main Street Blanchardstown Dublin 15 - 00 353 1 805 34 72 - conaiclubhouse@eve.ie

6. Fontenehus Norge / Clubhouse Norway

• Svein Jacobsen - Hagegata 25 0653 Oslo - 0047 924 85 410 - svein.jacobsen@fontenehus.no
• Torhild Stimo - 0047 99 57 92 05 - torhild.stimo@fontenehus.no

7. Scottish Clubhouse Coalition

• Annette Callow - Flourish House - 44 141 333 0099 - annette.callow@blueyonder.co.uk
• Charlotte Smith - Flourish House - 44 141 333 0099 - charlotte.smith@flourishhouse.org.uk

8. Swedish Clubhouse Coalition

• Inger Blennow - 46 766 31 23 53 - inger.blennow@gmail.com
• Jeannette Andersson - Fontanhuset Malmö - 46 705 66 16 36 - moderatortv6@gmail.com

9. United States Clubhouse Coalitions

• Clubhouse Indiana - Rich Meyer - Elkhart County Clubhouse - 574 202 3920 - info@ecclubhouse.org
• Clubhouse Maine - Carrie Lemos - Unlimited Solutions Clubhouse - 207 404 8383 - 207 404 8384 - clemos@pchc.com
• Clubhouse Michigan - Jama Moffett - Petoskey Club - 231-347-1786 - jmoffett@norcocmh.org
• Clubhouse New York Coalition - David Plotka - 718 658 7201 - dplotka@venturehouse.org
• Colorado Clubhouse Coalition - Renee Schell - Frontier House - 508 831 0100 - renee.schell@northrange.org
• Florida Clubhouse Coalition - Luis Rivas - Club SUCCESS - 863 519 0874 - 863 686 2336 - lrivas@peacerivercenter.org
• Hawaii Clubhouse Coalition - Michelle Chow - Ko'olau Clubhouse - 808-233-3778 - michelle.chow@doh.hawaii.gov
• Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition - Reva Stein - 781 788 8803 - mccinfo.maclub@verizon.net
• North Carolina Clubhouse Coalition - Jodi Lorenzo-Schibley - Sanctuary House - 336 275 7896 - jschibley@sanctuaryhousegso.com
• Oklahoma Clubhouse Coalition - 918 749 2141 - jwineinger@crossroadsok.org
• Pennsylvania Clubhouse Coalition - Stephanie Visti - Clubhouse of Lehigh County - 610 433 9910 - svisi@yourgoogwill.org
• Utah Clubhouse Coalition - Matt Reed - Reflection House - 435-882-4845 - matthewr@vmh.com

Visit Website

There are nearly 300 Clubhouses in over 30 countries offering hope and opportunities to people living with mental illness. If you know someone living with mental illness, Clubhouses can help! Find all of our Clubhouses on: 

• The Map
• The Search Tool
• Clubhouse Coalitions

Visit Website

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
clemos@pchc.com

Call 207 404 8383

Clubhouse International Accreditation™ is a symbol of quality – a clear demonstration of a Clubhouse’s commitment to excellence. Today, 75% of Clubhouses are Accredited, compared to just 46% in 2014. These Clubhouses proudly display this icon and are universally recognized as operating with a high level of compliance with the International Standards for Clubhouse Programs.™ In 2018, Clubhouse International developed and distributed Wellness Guidelines to all member Clubhouses, and extended the focus on wellness efforts in our Accreditation process, disseminated the annual Clubhouse Profile Questionnaire, to measure mental health recovery outcomes across our Clubhouses globally and helped 29 Clubhouses achieve Accreditation for the first time, including Clubhouses in Michigan, New Jersey, Argentina and Taiwan.

The Accreditation process is both evaluative and consultative. Accreditation is awarded for either a one- or three-year period, subject to the degree of adherence by the Clubhouse to the Standards. It is conducted by members of the Clubhouse International Faculty, which is composed of veteran members and staff from Accredited Clubhouses around the world. Together, we oversee a rigorous process that includes:

1. The Self-Study: the entire Clubhouse works together to prepare for the Accreditation visit, evaluating the Clubhouse performance in relationship to the Standards. Each area of the Clubhouse is reviewed and discussed at community meetings, unit meetings, and other special forums. The result of the self-study process is a written report from the Clubhouse to Clubhouse International and the Accreditation team, describing the Clubhouse and its areas of strength and relative weakness as seen by the members and staff.

2. The Site Visit: accreditation visits are made by members of Clubhouse International's Faculty and last 3-4 days. The Faculty team confirms the information presented in the Self-Study, and meets with members, staff, board members and other stakeholders of the Clubhouse. At the end of the visit, the Faculty team presents their findings, highlighting both areas of strength for the Clubhouse and making recommendations for improvement. This report becomes the foundation for the written report submitted to Clubhouse International.

3. The Findings Report: upon completion of the Clubhouse visit, the Faculty team prepares and submits a written report to Clubhouse International, which includes: a detailed description of the Clubhouse, a review of the Clubhouse's strengths, specific recommendations as to how the Clubhouse can improve and more fully comply with the Standards, and a recommendation to Clubhouse International regarding Accreditation status for the Clubhouse.

4. Accreditation Status: after reviewing the report and reaching agreement, the faculty team awards one- or three-year Accreditation, or defers Accreditation, and forwards a letter indicating this Accreditation outcome, along with the written report, to the Clubhouse. Accreditation by Clubhouse International is a credential which affirms that a program is in fact operating as a Clubhouse, and is in substantial compliance with the International Standards for Clubhouse Programs.

5. Ongoing Consultation: ongoing consultation and technical support may continue with the Clubhouse International Faculty team even after the Accreditation process ends.

6. Employment Guidelines: the Employment Guidelines are used by the Faculty team as part of the process of reviewing the entire spectrum of opportunities provided by a Clubhouse.

Visit Website

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
clubhousemwebsite@gmail.com

Call 212 502 0341

Visit Website

Country
Norway

Contact Person / Email
svein.jacobsen@fontenehus.no

Call 0047 92 48 54 10

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
lori@magnoliaclubhouse.org

Call 216 721 3030

Visit Website

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
annette.callow@blueyonder.co.uk

Call 44 141 333 0099

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
renee.schell@northrange.org

Call 970 347 2128

Country
Denmark

Contact Person / Email
hg@fhdk.dk

Call 45 26152 673

Country
Finland

Contact Person / Email
paivi.lepisto@suomenklubitalot.fi

Call 358 44 238 48 02

Visit Website

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
dwebb@keyclubhouse.org

Call 305 812 3215

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
michelle.chow@doh.hawaii.gov

Call 808-233-3778

Country
Ireland

Contact Person / Email
conaiclubhouse@eve.ie

Call 00 353 1 805 34 72

The Kansas Clubhouse Coalition seeks to expand the number of mental health Clubhouses within the State of Kansas, thereby empowering individuals with mental illness to live, learn, and work within their communities with dignity and freedom from stigma.

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
barbara.andres@breakthroughwichita.org

Call +1 316-665-8607

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
reva.maclub@verizon.net

Call 617 872 0190

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
jschibley@sanctuaryhousegso.com

Call 336 275 7896

The includes 23 Clubhouse programs serving 26 counties allowing people to promote and strengthen the evidence-based Clubhouse model, empowering individuals with mental illness to live, learn and work within their community with dignity and freedom from stigma. It aims to

• Be a well organized, well-funded Clubhouse coalition, comprised of certified Clubhouses or those in the process of certification
• Promote and increase equal opportunities and improved quality of life for people recovering from mental illness in collaboration with organizations, business and industry, policy-makers and our communities
• Ensure quality, innovative and evidence-based Clubhouse services throughout Pennsylvania 
• Encourage member Clubhouses to become integral participants and leaders in their local communities
• Provide a definition of Clubhouse for Pennsylvania.
• Articulate the Clubhouse position on issues that affect the interests of adults with mental illness
• Educate and advise others throughout the State by clarifying the role of clubhouses in the array of services offered in the mental health system.
• Support the development of new clubhouses.
• Support the enhancement of existing clubhouses.
• Develop educational forums related to clubhouse issues.
• Facilitate outcome studies on the effectiveness of clubhouse programs and disseminate the results.
• Secure funding in Pennsylvania for Transitional Employment as defined by the International Clubhouse Standards.
• Facilitate the networking of clubhouses statewide.

Address
700 S. Main Street Sellersville, PA 18960

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
buffingtonm@csgonline.org

Call (215) 257-4760

Visit Website

Starting a new Clubhouse  begins with people coming together and sharing a common vision with Clubhouse International leadsingnew groups through the steps to making the dream a reality.

• Clubhouse Membership
• Training Programs

Contact Person / Email
jyatsko@clubhouse-intl.org

Call 808-651-8598

Visit Website

Country
Sweden

Contact Person / Email
info@sverigesfontanhus.se

Call 46 07 0566 16 36

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
matthewr@vmh.com

Call 435-882-4845

As Clubhouse buildings are closed, there are a virtual clubhouse community gathered from a global community of Clubhouses, Clubhouse Coalitions and Training Bases. 

Visit Website

Fresh Hope for Living Free is a Christian support group that empowers those who have been incarcerated to live free in spite of their past, addictions and/or mental health challenges.

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

Fresh Hope for Teens is a Christian support group for teens who have a mental health challenge and for their teen friends.

Address
5421 N 103rd St, Ste 100 Omaha, NE 68134

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
info@freshhope.us

Call 1-888-815-HOPE (4673)

Visit Website

Here you can be matched to your own personal Hope Coach. A Hope Coach is someone who has been trained and certified by Fresh Hope for Mental Health to help you move from feeling hopeless or stuck to a place of feeling hopeful. A Hope Coach is not a licensed mental health care provider nor a biblical counselor. Rather, a Hope Coach is a short-term friend specifically trained in “how hope happens” and what hopelessness is, all based upon 25 years of clinical research.  The Hope Coaching program is a Christian/faith-based ministry. (Please note, you do not need to be a person of faith to connect with a Hope Coach. And Hope Coaches are not here to evangelize anyone.)

The friendship between a Hope Coach and one who has requested their help is short-term, meaning three to five times of chatting with your Hope Coach. Although it could be as few as one or two, or possibly a few more than five if necessary. Here at the Hope Coach Connector, you’ll be matched with a Hope Coach that you can communicate via phone, text, Zoom, and email. Everything is confidential. Within the Hope Coach Connector, you’ll also find videos, and even some courses on finding hope and moving forward in life.

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

Hope Coaching is a free ministry that Fresh Hope offers by talking with a Hope Coach.

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

Key to Hope is a Christian support group for parents caring for a child with disabilities or mental health challenges, who need support for their own mental health. They will help you find real hope so you can live a full, rich, and faith-filled life in spite of caregiving and mental health needs.

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
maria@freshhope.us

Visit Website

Mental Health Strong and Fresh Hope for Mental Health offer a group to bring hope, resources and support to couples with mental health and addiction challenges, so that their relationship can thrive, and they can live full, rich and faith-filled lives.

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
samantha@freshhope.us

Visit Website

Refocusing Widows is a faith-based ministry initiative under the umbrella of Fresh Hope. We offer research-supported peer-to-peer support structures, as well as personal coaching, to encourage widows to embrace and move through their grief to a new season of growth and personal accomplishment.

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

Fresh Hope offers Trauma Healing Groups, developed by Christian mental health professionals of the Trauma Healing Institute of the American Bible Society. This unique method of Trauma Healing unites proven mental health practices and engagement with God through the Bible.

• Groups

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

MasterMind is the management of mental health disorders through advanced technology and services – telehealth for the MIND” The MastermMind Consortium to avoid dispersing efforts has narrowed the scope of the services to just one, non-organic, mental disorder: depression. This because of its high incidence, social cost and proven clinical effectiveness of ICT in its treatment.

MasterMind intends to implement at scale (almost 5.000 patient overall) evidence based computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) services for depressed adults across 9 EU and Associated Countries, 6 of which participate through Authorised National Representatives, and from
this implementation: identify the barriers and success factors to implement cCBT on a large scale in different political, social, economic and technical health care contexts and from the perspective of different stakeholders such as patients, professionals and health insurances; recommend successful strategies for implementing cCBT in these different contexts/settings.

MasterMind further aims to Implement video conference enabled blended care for patients with depression treated in General Practice where the patient and GP have an interview with a specialist to support diagnosis, treatment planning, follow-up and education of both the patient and the GP. Using the lessons learnt, the Consortium will develop guidelines for promoting and facilitating the broader implementation across Europe of a safe, effective and efficient service supported by relevant stakeholders. The project will also explore the implementation of language and culture specific cCBT services for foreign citizens living in EU countries and will produce localised version of cCBT (4 in total) for countries non represented in the Consortium to prepare the roll-out of cCBT in other areas of the EU. The outcome of the service will be evaluated using a widespread HTA-based rigorous multi-dimensional evaluation methodology, MAST, already in use in other Pilots A. The Consortium provides a balanced mix between pioneer and early followers and between Nothern and Southern, Eastern and Western Europe.

Visit Website

CAPICE (Childhood and Adolescence Psychopathology) is a project unravelling the complex etiology by a large Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Europe), is a project funded by the European Commission under the HORIZON 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Marie SkÅ‚odowska Curie Actions – MSCA-ITN-2016 – Innovative Training Networks. In the Roadmap for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research in Europe (ROAMER), top-priority is research into child and adolescent mental health symptoms. CAPICE  will address this priority. This network will elaborate on the EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortium, a well-established collaboration of the many European birth and adolescent population based (twin and family) cohorts with unique longitudinal information on lifestyle, family environment, health, and emotional and behavioral problems.

Phenotypic and genome-wide genotypic data are available for over 60,000 children, in addition to genome-wide genotypes for over 20,000 mothers and epigenome-wide data for over 6,000 children. Combined with the enormous progress in methodology, the results of the research performed in this network will greatly expand our knowledge regarding the etiology of mental health symptoms in children and adolescents and shed light on possible targets for prevention and intervention, e.g. by drug target validation. Moreover, it will provide Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with an excellent training in the psychiatric genomics field given by a multidisciplinary team of eminent scientists from the academic and non-academic sector highly experienced in e.g., gene-environment interaction and covariation analyses, (epi)genome-wide association studies, Mendelian Randomization (MR) and polygenic analyses. With a focus on common and debilitating problems in childhood and adolescence, including depression, anxiety and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, CAPICE will contribute to improving later outcomes of young people in European countries with child and adolescent psychopathology.

Contact Person / Email
c.m.middeldorp(at)vu.nl

Visit Website

E-COMPARED conducted comparative effectiveness research in routine specialised mental care settings on the (cost-) effectiveness of internet-based treatment for depression in comparison with standard care. Health care systems and policies and existing ICT infrastructures and their uptake will be taken into account.

E-COMPARED aims to evaluate EU mental health policies/guidelines for standard and internet-based care for depression in specialised care settings in countries with different health care systems and access levels of standard and internet-based care; compare clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of internet-based treatment and treatment as usual within controlled research settings; carry out pragmatic randomised controlled trials to study how internet-based depression treatment can be effectively implemented within routine specialised care settings; predict which patient groups could benefit from internet-based treatment vs. standard treatment by modeling patient characteristics; develop evidence based recommendations on how internet-based depression treatment can be cost-effectively integrated into routine specialised care systems for depression in EU mental health care systems, and develop a business case to ensure structural implementation of these services. E-COMPARED is multidisciplinary (psychology, HTA, ICT, care) and its members are leaders in internet-based treatment for common mental health disorders, e.g. through participating in FP7 projects (ICT4Depression, ROAMER)

Visit Website

ImpleMentAll is a European collaboration towards faster and more effective implementation of eHealth interventions. The project’s raison d’être is founded on the notion that implementation of new services and technologies is time-consuming and costly– and often fails completely – not least in the healthcare domain. Solidly based in research, and in a collaboration spanning from all corners of Europe to Australia, the project will construct its answer to this widespread problem. It's objectives is to develop a generic Integrated Theory-based Framework for Intervention Tailoring Strategies (the ItFits-toolkit) for data-driven tailored implementation of evidence-based eHealth services. It aims to demonstrate the impact of the ItFits toolkit on the implementation of eHealth for common mental disorders (iCBT) in 9 European countries (2 of which are Low and Middle Income Countries), and Australia. It aims to disseminate the validated toolkit in various healthcare contexts across Europe. ImpleMentAll is a true multidisciplinary, international collaboration that unites key experts in clinical practice, health, innovation, clinical research, and implementation science. The project consortium has been built with the aim of improving eHealth implementation in not only prosperous nations but all nations regardless of their economic status.

Visit Website

MooDFOOD is a Multi-country Collaborative project on the Role of Diet, Food-related behaviour, and Obesity in the prevention of Depression.
Depression is one of the most prevalent, severe and disabling disorders in the EU and places a heavy burden on individuals and families. A large proportion of the EU population is overweight which increases depression risk. Improving food-related behaviour and nutrient status offer opportunities to prevent depression, specifically for people prone to being overweight.

The MooDFOOD consortium combines expertise in nutrition, consumer behaviour, psychiatry and preventive psychology and uses a unique integrative approach. Existing high quality data of longitudinal prospective European cohort studies will be combined with new data from surveys, short-term experiments and a long-term preventive intervention study. This approach will provide insight in the causality of the link between diet and depression and underlying pathways, and will identify which modifications related to depression lead to beneficial dietary changes and lower the environmental burden of the diet.

Knowledge on all these aspects will be integrated and used to develop novel nutritional strategies to prevent depression. The MooDFOOD consortium aims 1) to gain a better understanding of the psychological, lifestyle and environmental pathways underlying the multi-faceted, bidirectional links of food intake, nutrient status, food-related behaviour and obesity with depression and 2) to develop and disseminate innovative evidence-based, feasible, effective and sustainable nutritional strategies for the prevention of clinical depression. In close collaboration with stakeholders and experts MooDFOOD will transform these nutritional strategies into guidelines and practical tools to guide policy at EU- and Member State levels. Promotion through extensive European networks will lower the risk of depression and contribute to overall health of all EU citizens.

Visit Website

SCHOOL FOR LEADERS OF SELF-HELP GROUPS was a program started in December 2001 in co-operation with “Public Initiatives on Psychiatry” (Russia) in a frame of the DFID’s Program “Health and Social Care Partnerships” (HSCP). Its goal was to provide necessary knowledge to people willing to establish and lead their own self-help groups. The project lasted two years. There were five tree-month courses, and about 40 persons graduated. The last course was arranged as a post-graduate one. Many of graduated lead their own groups, and the rest have strong intention to start groups in the nearest future. “Students” have got knowledge both in psychiatry and in a group work. The GAMIAN-Europe partners which are very skilled and experienced in this field, helped a lot. Sixteen students visited Oxford (in September 2002 and June 2003) where they had the very useful and encouraging training.

Visit Website

The European Parliament Interest Group on Mental Health, Wellbeing and Brain Disorders was set up in 2009 with the aim to advocate the development of sound EU policies which contribute to prevention of mental health problems and ensure good services, care and empowerment for those affected by mental health problems. The Group meets 3 times a year and these meetings provide an opportunity to advocate and underline the need for EU-level activities to take the field of mental health into account. The secretariat for this Group is being provided by GAMIAN-Europe. Co-chairs: MEPs Cristian Busoi, Nessa Childers, Marian Harkin, Jean Lambert and Tomas Zdechovsky.

Visit Website

Our Global Voice” Project  interviewed inspirational individuals with lived experience with mental health conditions from Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, India, and United States.

Visit Website

the GMHPN plans to bring lived experience perspectives to the Countdown through conducting engagement exercises with persons with lived experience with a mental health condition, obtaining their perspectives and real experiences against the set of indicators. The engagement exercises will be conducted with persons with lived experience through agents and partners of the GMHPN to collect qualitative data via: 

• Ongoing online surveys
• Focus groups from a range of low to high-income countries; and
• Conduct video interviews with individuals with lived experience to share their recovery stories and perspectives on where they have noticed progress, where attention is required and what can be recommended to accelerate change in global mental health.

Visit Website

GMHPN has provide a safe, online space where we are all here to support each other. These sessions will run twice a month and are open to all who are affected by mental health conditions. 

Contact Person / Email
sandradjferreira1982@gmail

Visit Website

Each year, with the support of Intervoice, a different national network or organisation hosts a World Hearing Voices Congress. These congresses are a wonderful opportunity to bring together people who hear voices, family members, supporters, mental health professionals, researchers, academics and other allies to think, share, learn and connect with one another. This section of our site provides a summary of past congresses, along with details of future congresses when they are available. If you would like to find out more about an individual congress, you can either contact us at info@intervoiceonline.org or e-mail the hosts (who will have the most updated information).

Contact Person / Email
info@intervoiceonline.org 

Visit Website

World Hearing Voices Day is celebrated on 14 September each year. It recognises and values the diversity of those of us who hear voices, see visions or have related sensory experiences. It is a day to promote our right to define our experiences in our own way. It’s a time to expand the narrow stereotypes that still exist about voice-hearing – that it should be a source of shame and secrecy. We want to help create a world where people can talk about their experiences with those they choose – and expect an empathic response. We want to promote the idea that voice-hearing is a diverse human experience and that we need to leave judgements and assumptions at the door. 

Inspired by Louise Pembroke, a voice hearer and psychiatric survivor from England, we have celebrated World Hearing Voices Day since 2006. Without core funding, World Hearing Voices Day relies on the creativity, energy and passion of our members. Thankfully, our membership is overflowing with ideas and we have witnessed an impressive array of events and activities across the world. These events have included celebrations, social media campaigns, poetry/music events, conferences, marches, stalls and gatherings.

Visit Website

Abuse in Mental Health System is a page on issues related to abuse. These include:

• Psychiatric Labels: harm caused by unscientific psychiatric diagnoses.
• Electroshock: information about electroconvulsive therapy.
• An Overview of Psychiatric Abuse
• School of Shock: Inside a school where mentally disturbed students are jolted into good behavior. The Village Voice looks at an institution that openly uses pain to try to control behavior of people labeled with mental disabilities.
• Psychiatric Coercion: techniques ranging from pressure to out right force in the mental health system.
• Racism
• Psychiatric Institutionalization: stories and information challenging the use of coerced lock-ups in psychiatric institutions.
• Veterans Mental Health: present and former military personnel and their family are often denied adequate alternatives and advocacy for mental and emotional well being.
• Brain Altering Technology Experiments: psychosurgery, vagus nerve stimulation, and rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) are all examples of brain altering technology that may be used for psychiatric purposes and that are currently openly used internationally.
• Prescription Abuse Seen In U.S. Nursing Homes: a 4 December 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal, by Lucette Lagnado, describing the massive over-drugging of senior citizens.
• Restraint: information about restraint.
• E. Fuller Torrey: One of main opponents of human rights of mental health consumers & psychiatric survivors. One of the main crusaders to make it easier to forcibly administer psychiatric drugs to mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors — including in their own homes — is psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, and his extremist organization Treatment Advocacy Center.

Visit Website

Action campaigns to challenge and transform the mental health system. These the boots on the ground launching human rights campaigns in communities throughout the world.

• Candlelight vigil remembers Jim Chasse, Jr.: James P. Chasse, Jr. was a resident of Portland, Oregon, USA diagnosed schizophrenic who died in police custody. Psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers marched from the Alternatives 2006 conference to a memorial on 27 October 2006.
• 2003 Actions: the MindFreedom Hunger Strike and march on the APA.
• Toronto Star Covers “Mad Pride” Movement: the mainstream newspaper Toronto Star in Canada published an article about the international psychiatric survivors and allies in the “Mad Pride” movement.
• Psychiatric Survivor Movement History: the current era of psychiatric survivor and ally activism is generally considered to have begun in about 1970.
• IAACM – Creative Maladjustment: International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment – Fulfilling Martin Luther King’s Vision
• Eastern Europe: activism regarding Eastern European psychiatric human rights violations
• Madness, Citizenship and Social Justice: A Human Rights Conference (Vancouver, B.C., Canada, from Jun 12, 2008 12:00 AM to Jun 15, 2008 12:00 AM). The Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, B.C., is hosting conference on madness and society, to be held on June 12-15, 2008. MindFreedom director David W. Oaks is giving a keynote speech at the conference.
•  Asylum! Conference and Festival: the conference will bring together organisations, activists, campaigners and academics working for radical challenge and change in mental health. It will showcase critical work on psychiatry and psychology (‘Big Psy’) and the pharmaceutical industry (‘Big Pharma’), and alternatives to diagnostic medical labels like ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘paranoia’.” This event is being held on the Elizabeth Gaskell Campus, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
•  Al Galves Receives Humanitarian Award: MindFreedom sponsor group International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP) awarded Al Galves, PhD with a special award at their annual meeting in Arlington, Virginia. Al is a board member of MindFreedom International.
• A plan for a national mental health consumers memorial: mental health consumer Larry Fricks describes a campaign to build a USA national memorial in Washington, DC in memory of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.
• Acceptance Speech for “Award in Advocacy” from the Mental Health Legal Committee delivered at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, Queen Street site, Toronto, Canada. Dedicated to my close and lifelong friend, editorial consultant, and brilliant advocate Carla McKague.
• Alternatives 2008: since the 1980’s, the US federal government helps fund a large conference of several hundred mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors, many of whom are leading consumer-driven projects such as support groups and drop-in centers. This year’s conference is being held in Buffalo, New York, USA.
• Alternatives 2009: the 23rd annual Alternatives conference has begun.
• Help Not Harm
• Critical Psychiatry Network Conference 2009 (Dunstan Hall, Norwich, United Kingdom, from Jun 22, 2009 12:00 AM to Jun 22, 2009 12:00 . The Critical Psychiatry Network is hosting its tenth annual conference, entitled “Promoting the critical mental health movement.”

Visit Website

An advance directive is a written document that expresses your wishes in advance about what types of treatments, services and other assistance you want during a personal mental health crisis. A directive provides a clear statement of your medical treatment preferences and other wishes or instructions. You can also use it to grant legal decision-making authority to another person to be your advocate and agent until the crisis is over.

Visit Website

Mindfreedom have mapped a number of advocay activities in the mental helalth consumer movement. These include:

• Court ruling on Illinois warehoused psychiatric inmates: Federal Court Advances Challenge to Illinois Policy Warehousing Residents Labeled with Mental Illnesses

• Psychiatric Advance Directives: “Advance directives” on mental health topics can sometimes help prevent forced psychiatric treatment, but too often the psychiatric industry is allowed to override these documents.

• US Supreme Court on Freedom of Mind and Irrational Thought: a couple of brief quotes in US Supreme Court rulings about how the First Amendment guarantees freedom of thought and freedom of mind, even to have so-called “irrational” beliefs.

• Information about Illinois court case regarding “deterioration” standard: an Illinois court struck down a commitment from 2008.

• Advocacy to Encourage More Openness at US Mental Health Agency (SAMHSA)

Visit Website

Events related to alternatives & human rights in mental health are conferences, meetings, congresses, gatherings related to the topics of human rights in mental health. 

• Are We Mad? Critical Perspectives on the Canadian Mental Health System 
• Recovery from Psychosis: Healing through Relationship with keynote by Ron Bassman  
• International Conference on Self-Determination: the conference organizers announced: “International perspectives on progressive notions of mental health recovery, family supports, community membership, ending forced impoverishment and system change requirements will be part of the focus of the conference. The meetings will feature leaders from across disability and aging and relate the efforts being made across the world to make freedom a reality for individuals with disabilities.”
• David Oaks Lecture on the Mad Pride Movement: a free lecture by David Oaks at Harvard University.
• An Evening with David Oaks
• Petaluma Progressive Festival 
• Flyer for David Oaks Lecture
• PsychOUT: A Conference for Organizing Resistance Against Psychiatry: Toronto conference includes variety of speakers, workshops, plus protest about electroshock. David W. Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International, is one of the speakers.
• Celia Brown Moderates Panel on Mental Health, UN and Human Rights: on Human Rights Day, the Celia Brown will moderate and participate in a panel in United Nations Plaza about human rights and mental health.

Visit Website

Alternatives to the Traditional Mental Health System include:

• Consumer-Driven Resources
• Non-Drug Alternatives for Label of Schizophrenia
• Mental health system due for radical reform: a guest column by dissdent mental health worker and MindFreedom Lane County activist Ron Unger says that a range of real choices in mental health care is crucial for for recovery.
• Trauma model as alternative: viewing emotional distress through a trauma perspective can be one alternative to the domination of the medical model.
• ecopsychology: alternatives to the traditional mental health system that involve nature and the environment.
• yoga-for-depression
• Easy access to acupuncture: Freedom Center in Northampton offers free treatments.
• Alternative Healing: How to navigate the psychiatric system if you’re caught, and how to present yourself as “normal.”
• Positive Psychology is Getting a Tryout at McLean Hospital: the major psychiatric institution McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, a Harvard teaching facility, announced it is introducing “positive psychology” as an alternative approach to assist in mental and emotional well being recovery.
• Recovery and Mental Health: full and complete recovery — meaning re-integration into society without dependence on the mental health system, is an achievable goal for every known problem labeled as a “psychiatric disorder.”
• Consumer-Driven Services – International: international consumer-driven resource
• Inspiration for a Creative Revolution” by Janet Foner
• Nutritional and Orthomolecular: this is a folder about alternatives to the conventional mental health system that involve supplements, vitamins, nutrients, orthomolecular approaches, herbs., etc.
• Peer support: peer mutual support is now proven through studies to, in many circumstances, add to the likelihood of recovery following a diagnosis with some mental health problems.
• Hearing Voices: there are a range of alternatives that individuals have successfully used to address the problem of experiencing extremely distressing voices, thoughts, visions, etc. that others do not experience. While some individuals choose a medical model approach, such as psychiatric drugs, many others have reached recovery or manage their challenges with a wide variety of options and choices. For example, the peer support network Hearing Voices USA is a sponsor group of MindFreedom International. There are many Hearing Voices peer support groups in Europe.
• Alternative Medicine Resources: links to websites providing alternative medicine resources
• Review: “Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry” reviewed by Mary Maddock: Mary Maddock of Cork, Ireland reviews the new book “Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry” co-edited by Peter Lehmann and Peter Stastny. Mary is co-founder of MindFreedom Ireland.
• BBC News: “More funds for talking therapies: the English government will spend millions more on “talking treatments” for depression and anxiety.
• Finland Open Dialogue: a Finnish alternative to the traditional mental health system for people diagnosed with “psychoses” such as “schizophrenia” is “Open Dialogue.” This approach aims to support the individual’s network of family and friends, as well as respect the decision-making of the individual. Here are two follow-up studies: One is a two-year follow-up and the other, which is the recommended study, is a five-year follow-up.
• Bruce Levine’s New England Book Tour: a New Englnad tour to promote Bruce Levine’s new book: “Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy”
• Link to info on Chinese herbal psychiatry: a link to a simple “pharmacopoeia” of traditional Chinese medicine herbal blends for mental heath diagnoses from depression to psychosis.
• Brainstorm of our favorite alternatives from Opal Meeting in Lane County, Oregon, USA: psychiatric survivor and vet Hugh Massengill addressed the sixth meeting of the Opal Network in Eugene, Oregon on 29 July 2008 about moving from madness to mental wellness. The Opal Network brings together advocates for empowerment of people in mental health system in Lane County. Moderators Bjo Ashwill and Tom Wilson led a brainstorm about our favorite methods to reach and maintain mental and emotional well being. Here is a draft based on notes by David Oaks
• A New Group for People Who Hear Voices Celebrates Mental Illness Diversity: a weekly newspaper in Portland, Oregon covers “mad pride” alternative medicine, and profiles MindFreedom member Will Hall.
• Mental health: Out of the cuckoo’s nest: UK Guardian is one of the most influential English-speaking newspaper in the world. They ran an article about psychiatrist and psychiatric survivor Dan Fisher, and his work for more empowering alternatives in the mental health system such as peer support.
• Therapy Without Force: A Treatment Model for Severe Psychiatric Problems: this paper offers real-world examples of how therapists can avoid resorting to coercive interventions while attempting to respectfully help those in severe distress.
• Events to Promote and Support Humane Alternatives to Conventional Mental Health System: these are calendar event entries about changing the mental health system through approaches different than the traditional mental health system. These are listed for informational purposes only, author responsible for content, and publicizing these does not necessarily mean endorsement of all or part of the event.
• Panel on life: Dr. Brent Potter has organized a panel to speak about the life and work of R.D. Laing, the controversial psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and human rights advocate, who Dr. Potter states, “laid the groundwork for therapeutic households, mental health law reform, and the peer recovery movement.”

Visit Website

A sight focused on the role of art, music, dance, writing, theater in challenging psychiatric human rights violation and in assisting in the emergence of emotional and mental well being and recovery.

• Mad arts news: a few links, news items, announcements related to the ‘mad arts.’

• Mad Poetry: poetry cannot be silenced by psychiatric oppression. Here are some examples. Also, MindFreedom Journal has usually had a column of excerpts of Mad Poetry, edited by Bonnie Schell; see info about the journal elsewhere on this web site. You may submit poetry to that column at poetry(at)mindfreedom(dot)org. Please note that by submitting your poem you agree to MindFreedom publishing the whole poem, or excerpts of it. The MindFreedom poetry column is meant to give glimpses of the wonderful poetry out there, and so portions of poems are often used to illustrate this.

• Humor: nothing like humor to help challenge mental health oppression.

• Mad Theater: use of theater in ways that may help human rights and alternatives in mental health system.

• Mad Music: a few songs and musicians celebrating free minds, and challenging psychiatric human rights violations.

• Essay

• Audio activism: use of radio and other audible media to promote human rights and alternatives in the mental health system.

• The Art of Felice Debra Eliscu: some of the artwork of Felice Debra Eliscu.

• New Featured Products in the Mad Market: new products in MindFreedom’s online “Mad Market” store: DVD & CD. Plus there are books, brochures, and more. All proceeds benefit MindFreedom’s human rights work!

• New Mad Pride Jewelry: information about MindFreedom’s new ‘mad pride jewelry.’ You’ll find news release, photos, and more. Sale of these products benefits human rights campaigns by MindFreedom International.

• Celebrities who speak out about human rights in mental health: while many ‘cultural leaders’ in the film, TV, music and theater world have spoken out about having had mental and emotional problems, it seems most stories end simply with finding conventional mental health care they felt worked. These stories are often moving, and represent a segment of the public. But what about those who experienced some kind of trauma or human rights violations caused by their mental health care? What about celebrities who found recovery through less conventional alternatives than psychiatric prescriptions or electroshock? Why do we not hear more of their perspectives?

• Films and movies of interest to ‘mad movement’: activists in the mental health consumer and psychiatric survivor movement have found that showing movies that help inform the public about our issues can help. This folder is not meant to be comprehensive at all, but it’s a start about using various films to campaign for human rights and alternatives in mental health. There’s something fun about a film. (Listing film is not necessarily endorsement of all of it, the producers are responsible for content.)

Visit Website

Mindfreedom International has collaborated a number of blogs on the topic of human rights and/or alternatives in the mental health system. 

•  A Little Local Color: A local oddball’s colorful quips: this Milwaukee, Wisconsin blogger is a mental health system survivor who writes about a variety of local activist fields, including mental health. The blogger wrote to MindFreedom that, “I am a peer specialist and an army veteran. I am one of the people participating in re-designing the mental health system of Milwaukee to be more community based. So I write a lot about mental health.” 

• Anti-Psychiatry Web Log: Livejournal provides web space for a number of communities, in this case one calling itself “Antipsychiatry.” It’s entries are like a blog, along with other resources. This is from their self-description: “This is a community for people who are opposed to the practice and theory of psychiatry. It is a place for people to post information about patient’s rights, the dangers of psychiatric drugs, personal experiences, questions, and thoughts. Please stay on-topic, and please do not join or post if you are just going to laud the ‘benefits’ of psychiatry. There are plenty of communities for that already.”

• Asylum Squad Side Story: a blog from a young artist with a psychiatric label, focusing on her comics. In her words: “This blog serves as a space to post text entries both related and unrelated to the subject matter my comics touch on.” A July 2010 post covers a Mad Pride event in Toronto.

• Bad Psych: the psychiatric survivor blogger focuses on the psychiatric drugging of children, and the dangers of benzodizapine psychiatric drugs.

• Beyond Meds

• Beyond the Psychiatric Box

• Bipolar Burbles of Natasha Tracy

• Bitchmagazine Guest Blogger Anna Palindrome: “We’re All Mad Here”

• Bitchmagazine Guest Blogger SE Smith on : “We’re All Mad Here”

• Blog by Canadian journalist Rob Wipond: Canadian journalist Rob Wipond of Canada has a blog on various issues, including monitoring analyzing current events, media coverage and scientific research surrounding ‘mental health’ issues in Canada and globally.

• Blue Hackers: By and for people labeled both “geek” and “psychiatrically disordered”

• Bruce E. Levine: Bruce E. Levine, PhD has been a practicing psychologist for decades, and he’s a dissident. Perhaps it’s that Bruce was raised working class, but he connects the dots between social change and societal despair. Bruce has several books in the MindFreedom MADMARKET. Bruce blogs via Arianna Huffington’s site.

• Cape Town Mad Pride

• Church of Schizophrenia

• Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault in Toronto, Canada: CAPA is an organization committed to dismantling the psychiatric system and building a better world through strategic activism. We see the very concept of mental illness as flawed. We object to incarceration, electroshock, and the vast array of brain-damaging drugs. We oppose the violation of human rights which is endemic to psychiatry. Currently, CAPA members are working on developing strategies and actions aimed at curtailing the use of psychiatric drugs and electroshock.

• Corinna West Blog: Blogger Corinna West of Kansas is a Certified Peer Specialist and her blog focuses on changing the mental health system, and she is “actively working to transform the mental health system into a recovery-focused community of hope.” Corinna has an MS in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She was on the 1996 Olympic Judo Team and is a three-time National Champion and silver medalist at the Pan American Games.

• CounterPsych (Canada) Blog Talkspot

• Depression Mental Health: a support web-site based on depression and mental health problems constructed from a former sufferer.” Includes alternatives to conventional mental health system, and some human rights info.

• Different Thoughts: this blog is in English though it originates in Denmark.

• Discover and Recover: Resources for Mental Wellness

Contact Person / Email
news@mindfreedom.org

Visit Website

Contemporary and historical approaches to the art of mental health diagnosis:

• Psychiatry: Medical Fraud or Incompetence: this artricle is a critique of psychiatry’s diagnostic practices, extracted from the work of Bonnie Sigren Busick, RN, MA and Martha Gorman originally published in 1986, delving into issues surrounding the fact that there are (still, to this day) no evidence of biochemical markers, biological tests, or hard evidence to “prove” the existence of “mental illness.”
• Psych meds drove my son crazy: a Salon.com article by Ann Bauer, in which she describes a story of hope and recovery in the wake of her son’s experiences with depression and psychiatric misdiagnosis.
• Rethinking the Potential of the Brain in Major Psychiatric Disorders: this article, by Steven Morgan, is a critical reevaluation of the theory that the brain is permanantly diseasedin psychiatric disorders, and an exploration of the role that neuroplasticity plays in healing and reviving its functioning. It was published in February 2008
• Psychiatric leaders note lack of science for psychiatric theories: a MindFreedom member forwards these quotes from leaders in the psychiatric profession who point out that science is still lacking for the neurobiological theories in the mental health field that many falsely assume have been proven.
• Pathologizing Your Period” by Paula Caplan, Ms. Magazine, December 2008: psychologist and author Paula Caplan, a long-time member of MindFreedom International, examines the fraud and sexism involved in creating psychiatry’s “label bible,” it’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
•  Should bitterness become a mental disorder: tn the magazine Psychology Today, Professor Christopher Lane has a brief essay skewering one of the latest misadventures of the psychiatric industry, in which the American Psychiatric Association is seriously considering adding “bitterness” to one of their so-called scientific list of labels. Why not just add “dissent” and be done with it? Professor Lane is the author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness.
• EleMental – First USA Meeting: the first meeting in the United States of EleMental, an international organization introducing and developing the elements of Recovery and Thriving. 
• Mental health Trojan horse – It’s enough to make anyone sick: the conservative newspaper Washington Times published this guest column by two professors concerned that psychiatry’s unscientific labeling may harm attempts to implement universal health care in the USA.
• Dr. Allen Frances: “Vocal Opposition” to MindFreedom Protest: Dr. Allen Frances was a key architect of the current American Psychiatric Association “label bible” the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM IV). Dr. Frances became one of the main critics of APA’s proposed DSM 5. But a MindFreedom investigation revealed that – behind the scenes – Dr. Frances has “vocally oppose” the protest led by psychiatric survivors in front of the APA on 5 May 2012.

Visit Website

The Directory of Alternative Providers is a searchable online database for mental and emotional support. 

Visit Website

These documents explore the intersection between the disability movement and the movement to change the mental health system.

Visit Website

Mindfreedom provides information in Ethics and Mental Health. Resources include:

• Swiss Court Ruling Allows Euthanasia For Mentally Ill: a ruling by Switzerland’s highest court has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives.
• Revealing Quotes on the Goals of Psychiatry and Psychology: this web site has quotes critical of psychiatry’s views on everything ranging from conservatives, education, religion, creating a slave society, world government, to morality and families. An example: “The reduction of intelligence is an important factor in the curative process… The fact is that some of the very best cures that one gets are in those individuals whom one reduces almost to amentia (feeble-mindedness)…” Dr. Abraham Myerson, Harvard Psychiatrist, 1942
• Psychiatry residents often skip informed consent: an investigation into the practices of 108 psychiatry residents revealed an excessively passive approach to informed consent discussions with patients. Asked to participate in hypothetical clinical vignettes, only 3% of the students managed to provide responses that met the criteria for adequate informed consent.
• Psychiatry and Freedom: 11th International Conference for Philosophy and Mental Health International Network of Philosophy and Psychiatry

Visit Website

Mindfreedom International provides information that defines the role do parents, siblings, children, relatives, colleagues, friends on supporting psychiatric survivors. 

• Linda Mulinix on her daughter Michelle’s battle in the mental health system: Linda Mulinix is a mother of a psychiatric survivor, Michelle, who is 30 years old at the time Linda told her family’s story at the quarterly “Opal Network” meeting in Eugene, Oregon. MindFreedom Lane County is one of the sponsors in this coalition. 
• Linda Mulinix is mother of a psychiatric survivor Michelle: Linda Mulinix is the mother of thirty-year-old Michelle who has experienced abuse and neglect in the California mental health system. Linda told the family story at an Opal Network meeting in Eugene, Oregon.

Visit Website

The Forced Drugging Defense Package developed by the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights for the MindFreedom Shield program. The Forced Drugging Defense Package is built around the written expert testimony of Grace E. Jackson, MD, and the award winning author of Mad in America, Robert Whitaker, which PsychRights has successfully used to stop forced drugging in one of its cases.

Visit Website

Mindfreedom Information provides information on Genetics and Eugenics. This includes:

• Conference: Eugenics and Sterilization in Alberta

Visit Website

Mindfreedom International provides information on international activist concerns on human rights and alternatives in the mental health system. These include:

• Globalization of psychiatry: concern about expansion of the mental health industry to poor & developing countries.

• Report documents human rights violations in Turkey psychiatric facilities: Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) released a 2005 report about human rights abuses in Turkey, including electroshock of children. MDRI is a sponsor group of MindFreedom International.

•  World Health Organization (WHO) Exposes a Global Emergency of Human Rights Violations in the Mental Health System: the World Health Organization announced they are dedicating International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2005 to all people diagnosed with mental disorders “and the all-too-prevalent violations of their basic human rights.”

• A MindFreedom Delegation in the United Nations for Meetings on Disability and Human Rights: this essay celebrates the MindFreedom delegation once again entering the United Nations, in this case on Martin Luther King, Jr. day, 16 January 2006.

• Report by John McCarthy — MindFreedom delegate in the United Nations: John McCarthy flew in from Cork, Ireland to help represent MindFreedom in 2006 meetings in the United Nations to create a successful “Convention” or treaty about disability and human rights. Here’s John’s first hand report about the experience.

•  wpa-dresden: a number of psychiatric survivor and mental health consumer organizations have united to speak out directly inside a special conference by the World Psychiatric Association on the topic of ending coercion and force in the mental health system

• IAACM: watch for upcoming news about the launch of the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment, with support from Mad Pride 2007 and MindFreedom International.

• Russian psychiatry: mental health system human rights abuse in Russia is gaining international attention.

• Torture: this material is on the controversial intersection between torture and the mental health system, such as the presence of mental health professionals during extreme interrogation of prisoners.

• Belgium Psychiatric Survivor Group Celebrates 10th Anniversary: the following news announcement was forwarded by European Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP) about one of their member groups in Belgium, UilenSpiegel, which is celebrating their 10th anniversary. UilenSpiegel is also planning a Mad Pride celebration. Dan Taylor, secretary from MindFreedom Ghana in Accra, Ghana, Africa, intends to attend.

• United Nations and Disability Rights: MindFreedom’s team in the United Nations worked hard for years with activists from all over the world to create a treaty on disability and human rights.

• World Health Organization Study Comparing Mental Health Recovery in Developed & Developing Nations: the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored major studies comparing how people recover in poor and more developed nations. The people in the poorer developing nations, on average, recovered at a far higher rate. Here is information about those studies. MindFreedom asked Professor Norman Sartorius to briefly summarize these studies, which he was directly involved in leading. The views expressed are those of Dr. Sartorius.

• Norman Sartorius: Norman Sartorius, MD, past Director of the Division of Mental Health of World Health Organization, retired in 1993. Dr. Sartorius helped conduct studies comparing mental health recovery rates in poor and more developed nations.

• Healing Angola’s Mind: The Medical Rehabilitation of Those Affected by Civil War

  A paper by Samantha Figueroa, available here as an MS Word document, on transitional justice and pychosocial rehabilitation in the aftermath of the civil war in Angola, Africa

• Nepal: tnformation regarding mental health human rights in Nepal.

• Freedom from Torture or Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment: a piece by Kate Millett, read at the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in New York City on January 18, 2005.

• Norway: information on mental health human rights in Norway.

• Human Rights for All” Tour: MindFreedom is one of the co-sponsors of a national tour by the US Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. Here is current information available.

• The Americanization of Mental Illness: in this New York Times article, Ethan Watters explores the impact of the spread of American culture on the understanding of mental health issues outside of the United States.

• Americanizing the global mind: this is a review by Andrew Rasmussen of the book “Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche” by Ethan Watters. The review is published by STATS, affiliated with George Mason University in Virginia, USA.

• Bendetto Saraceno, MD – Psychiatrist: Dr. Benedetto Saraceno is a psychiatrist trained in public health who served as Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of the World Health Organization (WHO) until February 2010. While at WHO, Dr. Saraceno has made a number of supportive statements about MindFreedom International and its director, David Oaks. Dr. Saraceno had WHO call the current human rights situation in mental health an “emergency,” and agreed there should be no forced electroshock. On 1 March 2011, Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) announced that Dr. Benedetto Saraceno has become chairman of its board.

Visit Website

MindFreedom published a comprehensive handbook for psychiatric survivors. This guide is intended to help survivors protect themselves and others from psychiatric harm as well as organize for human rights throughout the world.

Visit Website

The MindFreedom Shield Campaign seeks to help any individual at risk of psychiatric human rights violations, by filling out a convenient online Shield form well in advance, you make the process much easier. Campaigns may be as small as a volunteer inquiring with an institution, or much larger; the level of activity cannot be guaranteed.

Visit Website

Looking back on MindFreedom and history of our movement.

MindFreedom is connecting mentors to emerging leaders and activists who fight for human rights in the mental health system.  If you are interested in being connected to a mentor. This program aims to:

• Assist psychiatric survivors and allies to plan and put into writing, a simple but effective human rights campaign.
• Teach people to plan campaigns that meet the needs of a specific individual or group of individuals.
• Mentorship may be centered around helping a particular individual gain access to an alternative to forced/coerced psychiatric treatment.

Visit Website

A variety of information about psychiatric prescribed medications, including neuroleptic brain damage, deaths and psychiatric drugs, and resources about quitting psychiatric drugs.

Visit Website

Diabetes and Mental Health Peer Support Program is a two-year partnership project led by Canadian Mental Health Association and funded by the Lawson Foundation. Recognizing the significantly elevated risk factors for diabetes among the population affected by mental health issues, and knowing the power of peer support, it was felt that peer workers, armed with knowledge about diabetes, would be ideally positioned to support people with prevention, recognition and self-management of diabetes. The project undertook to create a two-day training using the same consultative approach as the Core Essentials program used, and leveraging from trainers that OPDI already has in place.

Country
Canada

Visit Website

OPDI’s NewsToGo is an electronic newsletter which is focused on research, resources, policy and legislative information of relevance to consumer/survivor organizations and to broader stakeholders in the healthcare sector. You will also find updates about OPDI as well as job postings and events that would be of interest to the readership. NewsToGo is OPDI’s e-mail update providing timely and meaningful information to its stakeholders. The ideas expressed are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of OPDI. We welcome your submissions; please direct them to opdi@opdi.org. Preference will be given to material which directly relates to OPDI member affiliates and issues of concern to consumer/survivors throughout Ontario. We reserve the right to edit the length and style of all materials submitted.

Country
Canada

Contact Person / Email
opdi@opdi.org

Visit Website

OPDI Members page is a list of OPDI’s membership, including their contact information and a brief and by no means extensive description of what they have to offer.  We encourage you to contact them directly to learn more. 

Country
Canada

Visit Website

OPDI Peer Support Core Essentials™ Program is a training program has been developed in consultation with the subject experts: Consumer/Survivor Initiatives and Peer Support Organizations across Ontario. OPDI Peer Support Core Essentials™ Program involves five full days face-to-face in the classroom with two trainers. There are many individual exercises, group exercises and role plays in class time, and daily written reflections assigned as homework. Prior to classroom training, a required 1.5 hour “Expectations” webinar is delivered by OPDI staff. 

Level 1 means the person attended and participated fully in the training, and is deemed at this point appropriate to deliver an informal friendship style of peer support within supervised settings that would correspond with the first three categories in the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Continuum of Peer Support, up to and including a C/SI or PSO. Level 1R means that the trainers are of the opinion the participant may be ready to work in a more formalized setting, and are Recommending that they proceed to an internship or practicum in which they deliver 50 hours of person to person support which is monitored and evaluated. It is not mandatory to do the practicum, but it is necessary for those who wish to earn the OPDI Certified Peer Supporter certificate.

Country
Canada

Visit Website

OPDI Training is a training program developed in consultation with the subject experts that focus is on strengthening and nurturing what is at the core of peer support. Some of OPDI’s members offer trainings of their own creation locally, or bring in other franchise training programs. Please see “Our Members” pages where those with training programs may have descriptions of their offerings, or call the member nearest you to find out what may be available. It is the position of OPDI and its membership that peer support training should be created and taught by peers, to peers (people who themselves have, or have had, a mental health issue) and that programs organizing training should use only trainers who are authorized by the training institutes.

Country
Canada

Visit Website

Recovery International have a number of chat meetings.

Visit Website

Recovery International’s Online Meetings are convenient and confidential peer-support meetings right to your home using your favorite web or mobile device. They are excited to bring convenient and confidential peer-support meetings right to your home using your favorite web or mobile device.

• Online Meetings
• Local RI meetings on Zoom and phone

Contact Person / Email
Steve@recoveryinternational.org

Visit Website

Recovery Canada is a Registered Charity  in Canada and affiliated with Recovery International in the United States. Recovery Canada runs weekly meetings in Canada. 

• Find A Meeting

Country
Canada

Visit Website

The Recovery International Chatroom is open 24 hours a day with a schedule of structured meetings and moderated chats. 

Contact Person / Email
meetingleaders@RIselfhelp.com

Visit Website

Recovery International Meetings provide a database of meetings that can be search by state and zip code.

Country
United States of America

Visit Website

Recovery International (RI) is a cognitive behavioral method that helps people address symptoms triggered by everyday events. In RI, we call these “trivialities”—it’s a way to recognize that many things that happen are not emergencies, and are not overly significant in the grand scheme of things. Calling these types of things “trivialities” is one of the tools we use to reframe our thinking.

• RI Independent Studies
• An Analysis Of Mutual Assistance
• Peer-Led Recovery International Groups for Mental Health Consumers
• Professional underutilization of Recovery
• Recovery Inc as an Adjunct to Treatment in an Era of Managed Care
• Recovery Inc Final Report

Visit Website

Recovery Reporter is a newsletter that welcomes news from area and group meeting news, articles, group photos, poems or your personal examples of how Recovery has helped people.

Contact Person / Email
editor@recoveryinternational.org

Visit Website

Recovery Self Help Method, Ireland is a HSE-funded, charity, that provides a specialised form of cognitive-behavioural training to its members. There are no fees, and people can come for 5 weeks, or even 5 years; whatever you need to help you get better. This Recovery method has helped thousands of people live more peaceful and productive lives, despite severe mental health problems, such as anxiety, bipolar disorders and depression.  Clinical research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and over 75 years of practice use, has shown that people who use the Recovery method use fewer tranquillisers, less medication in general, and need less psychological support from others.

• Find a Meeting
• Telephone Recovery Meeting
• Dr Abraham Low
• Recovery Books & Resources

Country
Ireland

Visit Website

Recovery International Telephone Meetings provide Recovery International Cognitive Behavioral Training Method, or a veteran member who has attended community meetings. Telephone meetings also serve those who are unable to attend R.I. community-based meetings in person due to distance, illness or other challenges.

• Current Telephone Meeting Schedule

Country
United States of America

Contact Person / Email
gilda@recoveryinternational.org.

Visit Website

Centre for Public Engagement (CPE) at Kingston and St George’s University of London: The Dragon Café in South London and Maudsley clinical records. The Dragon Café, a user led space in Southwark is mentioned over 2,000 times within South London and Maudsley clinical records. This project seeks to explore how the Dragon Café is perceived by SLaM staff and service users. 

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
konstantina.papoulia@kcl.ac.uk

Visit Website

Explorations of User-led Research: Impact, Knowledge, and Historical Approaches (EURIKHA) is mapping the history of research, advocacy, and activism by persons with psychosocial disabilities, mental health service users, and survivors. What we understand as ‘mental ill-health’ is usually defined by authority figures such as doctors, psychiatrists/psychologists, priests, lawyers and governments. For many years, however, people who have been deemed ‘mad’ or ‘mentally ill’ by society and psychiatry – variedly known around the world as users, survivors, consumers, clients, patients, persons with psychosocial disabilities, etc. – have been involved in challenging these understandings and creating new knowledge from their perspectives. This knowledge has taken different forms and histories influenced by the contexts within which they emerged.

Mental health service users, survivors, and persons with psychosocial disabilities have created knowledge through rights-based activism, community organising, advocacy, peer support, the arts, user involvement in research, and in some parts of the world through the developments of user/survivor-led research. Some work focuses not only on mental health, but also on intersecting issues such as disability, poverty and sustainable living, racism, gender-based violence, and other forms of marginalisation and oppression.

EURIKHA is led by Professor Diana Rose and is based at the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. A supplementary project, titled Still We Rise, will focus specifically on the history of activism, advocacy and research by African, African Caribbean, and Asian mental health service users and survivors in the UK. This project aims to work against the marginalisation and/or mythologisation of minority histories into the terms of a mainstream world view by focusing on the intersectional nature of challenging both the mental health system and institutional and structural racism within broader society. 

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
eurikha@kcl.ac.uk

Visit Website

IGNITE: Exploring the potential of civic engagement to strengthen mental health systems in Indonesia is a collaborative project with Jakarta, St Georges and Liverpool universities to investigate the possibilities of civic engagement, conceived in terms of rights, in Indonesia. The team worked with an NGO in Jakarta and also two rural sites. The idea was well received in the NGO but other issues took priority in rural areas and there was little interest in taking on board this notion. The project is in write-up stage. Professor Diana Rose was PI for King’s in this study. 

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
diana.rose@kcl.ac.uk

Visit Website

The Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London, launching in October 2019, is a five year cycle of research and partnership activities funded by the National Institute of Health Research. The ARC South London aims to embed partnerships between universities, NHS trusts, charities and local service users and carers, in order to improve health and social care service provision in South London.

The Patient and Public Involvement Research theme of the ARC is a collaboration between SURE and the Centre for Public Engagement (CPE) at Kingston and St George’s University of London which will be undertaking research aimed at understanding and improving patient and public involvement (PPI) in different institutional contexts including research organisations, health services and commissioning. SURE staff in collaboration with the Health Innovation Network will also be involved in setting up the ARC’s overall PPI strategy including extending engagement and collaboration with user led groups and organisations across South London. Project specifics and activity details will be added following the launch of the ARC South London.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Contact Person / Email
M.Chambers@sgul.kingston.ac.uk

Visit Website

The evolution of Patient and Public Involvement in the Maudsley BR is an evaluation of the organisational embedding of PPI activities across the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre over a 10 year period.

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Visit Website