CONTACT:
Barry Creighton
907 262-2824
burdock@ionia.org

Mental Health Consumers Consortium Announces Budget Initiatives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MAY 15, 2002
Kasilof, ALASKA.

The Alaska Mental Health "Consumers Consortium" announced today that it has submitted a comprehensive set of budget proposals to substantially improve the lives of many Alaskans suffering from psychiatric disabilities such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia while at the same time save the state money. The full text of the Consortium's proposals can be found on the Internet at http://akmhcweb.org/announcements/2002rfr/consortiumproposals.htm. "This is a historical accomplishment for Alaska consumers," said Katsumi Kenaston, president of the Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web, one of the members of the Consortium. The budget proposals are part of the two-year budget cycle that results in the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority's annual recommendations to the Governor and Alaska Legislature as part of the settlement of the decade long litigation of the Mental Health Lands Trust. Part of the settlement requires the Governor and the Legislature to explain any deviations from the Trust's recommendations.

Jill Ramsey, Executive Director of NAMI-Alaska, an organization of mental health consumers and family members, said "we need Alaska's mental health system to begin to move towards what Dr. Courtenay Harding, the preeminent researcher on recovery from mental illness, has found are the keys to success, 'Although there are many pathways to recovery, several factors stand out. They include a home, a job, friends and integration in the community. They also include hope, relearned optimism and self-sufficiency.' These proposals are directly aimed at getting people better, into jobs and out of the mental health system."
Pat Hjellen, Executive Director of the Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web noted that the Alaska Mental Health Board and the Trust Authority have been encouraging and helping mental health consumers to get involved in mental health system policy making. "Now that we have taken them up on participating and have made these proposals to get people better and save money at the same time, it will be interesting to see their reaction."

Barry Creighton, from Ionia in Kasilof, describing how the group formed said, "The Consumers Consortium came together when discouraged and weary consumer run organizations discovered their common problems and began looking for common solutions. The consortium has the assumption of commonness rather than the assumption of separation. In response to the Board’s call for input into the budget building process, we believe that it will be much easier for the MH system to respond effectively to us as a group, working together. In that spirit, we have gathered in order to build a consensus around the mental health system. “ The Mental Health Board's Budget Committee begins deliberations on the budget proposals May 30-31 in 8th Floor Conference room of the Frontier Building, 3601 C Street, in Anchorage.

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