| Consumer Organizations | Non-Consumer Organizations | Consumer Writings | Recovery | Non-Consumer Articles |
Consumer Organizations
Support Coalition International http://mindfreedom.org/ is the umbrella organization for a coalition of over 100 organizations fighting for psychiatric freedom.
NARPA http://www.narpa.org/ Every day, human rights violations are occurring on a regular basis -- and Americans don't know about it. America's mental institutions are the shame of the nation. NARPA, the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy, exists to expose these everyday abuses. NARPA, an independent organization, is a unique mix of people who've survived these institutions, advocates, civil rights activists, mental health workers, and lawyers. NARPA exists to expose abuse, to shed light on coercive and dangerous practices, and to promote real alternatives to a mental health system that even professionals agree is a disgrace. Read about the history of mental health advocacy, and check out the ADA Case of the Week archives, and more
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse http://www.mhselfhelp.org/
The National Empowerment Center http://www.power2u.org/ mission is to carry a message of recovery, empowerment, hope, and healing to people who have been diagnosed with mental illness.
There is also a National Empowerment Center West website.
Zuzu's Place: Cooperative Living for Psychiatric Survivors
Welcome World's mission includes affirm that every person is equally worthy of basic necessities, nurturing relationships, fulfillment of potential, and freedom from violation of civil, constitutional and human rights. Clover Smith, its founder is the author of the amazing, poignant and ultimately hope inspiring book, Escape From Psychiatry.
California Network of Mental Health Clients
Stanislaus Chapter of Mental Health Consumers
United Self Help (Hawaii)
Texas Mental Health Consumers Organization.
Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, Inc.
The Freedom Center. The Freedom Center in Massachusetts stands against the mental health system's widespread despair, abuse, fraudulent science and toxic treatments. We call for compassion, human rights, self-determination, and holistic alternatives.
Mental Health Consumer Net Connections, a British Columbia, Canada group.
The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide legal representation to mental health consumers, particularly against unwarranted court ordered forced medication.
Contac http://www.contac.org/ (Consumer Organization & Networking Technical Assistance Center) serves as a resource center for consumers/survivors/ex-patients and consumer-run organizations across the United States, promoting self-help, recovery and empowerment. This is a very well organized site with lots of excellent information.
South Carolina Client Network: An Initiative to Organize for Respectful, Client-Delivered Services
Mental Health Association of South Carolina Consumer Section.
Alternative Mental Health Links by Morgan Brown has a lot of practical information and inspirational material.
Lunatics' Liberation Front, from the wonderful Irit Shimrat, who wrote the "must-read" but hard to get book, "Call Me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement."
Dual Recovery Anonymous is an independent, twelve step, self-help organization for people with a dual diagnosis. Our goal is to help men and women who experience a dual illness. We are chemically dependent and we are also affected by an emotional or psychiatric illness. Both illnesses affect us in all areas of our lives; physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually.
Safe Harbor (Alternative Mental Health On-Line)
Mental Health Matters http://www.mental-health-matters.com/ is a very well organized, comprehensive site.
Mental Health Consumer Net Connections
Lunatics Liberation Front has a lot of terrific original materal.
Bethesda Beatniks Dinner Club is for mental health consumers, their family members and friends in North America and meet at Alfio's Trattoria Italian restaurant in Friendship Heights, Maryland, right on the D.C. border, on the second and fourth Wednesday nights of each month for dinner, conversation and prominent after-dinner speakers.
DC Mental Health Consumers League.
National Association of Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Administrators (NAC/SMHA)
1st Person is a magazine devoted to giving accounts, opinion and artwork from the perspectives of people who have had mental health conditions, rather than from the professional point of view
Friends and Families of Psychiatric Survivors of Wisconsin
Another Way is a drop-in center located in Montpelier Vermont which provides support, peer counseling, a weekly Friday evening 'community' meal, arts and crafts, and crisis intervention for people who have or have had psychiatric labels and/or emotional problems.
Alternative Mental Health Online has a focus on nutritional issues.
Mary Ellen Copeland's mentalhealthrecovery.com has a lot of very good recovery self-help materials, particularly for depression and has started a quarterly Newsletter with good tips in it as well.
Office of Consumer Technical Assistance of Oregon has a lot of good information for consumers, and particularly its Paradigm newsletter.
Pat Risser's most excellent website. And there is the Pat Risser Mental Health Consultant website with a very good collection of materials.
Margot Kidder Mental Wellness Page
The National Association of Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Administrators http://www.nasmhpd.org/consurdiv.htm represents state mental health department senior managers who are current or former recipients of mental health services. One of its publications is the very interesting monograph entitled, "The prevalence of abuse histories in the mental health system."
Successful Schizophrenia's Psychiatry Deconstruction Zone: Paradigm Shift Ahead has a lot of good information about psychiatric survivors who had a breakthrough, not a breakdown, people who were transformed to a better level by their experience with schizophrenia.
The Center for Career Freedom in White Plains New York, operated by well-qualified psychiatric survivors, has a mission of rehabilitation and recovery of persons with chronic psychiatric disabilities leading to competitive employment.
MindStar.org's http://www.mental-health-matters.com/ mission is teach and empower mental health clients of all ages (children, youth, adults and seniors) and to reduce the stigma of mental illness through education and informational products and services for clients, health care providers, and the general public.
Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Network of Minnesota.
The Consumer/Survivor Information Resource Centre of Toronto
CHANGE http://mentalhealthrecovery.org.uk/ -- Choice & AlterNatives for Growth & Experience is a British organization to help people towards recovery from the crisis situation they were in, but also looking at longer-term recovery for people with a diagnosis by "being with people."
Mental Health America's http://www.mhamerica.org/ mission is to provide mental health consumers with information through the media and internet that will help them participate as full citizens in their communities, state, nation, and the world
The Client Assistance Program http://akmhcweb.org/Announcements/CAP.htm was set up by the federal government as an ombudsman program to help people entitled to any program funded under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 make sure they are receiving the assistance that they should.
Association for Medical and Therapeutic Self-Determination, (MeTZelf)
National Mental Health Services' Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) http://www.mentalhealth.org/index.htm is a very good resource for consumers, including some excellent articles.
Schizophrenia-help.com/'s mission is to (1) share their experience in recovering from schizophrenia, (2) expose those who are considered to be treatment resistant to an atmosphere of hope and a treatment model that considers the healthy parts of the individual as the important focus, and (3) to bring about change as a result of a strong positiverelationship between the individuals who participate in treatment, the patient and the treatment team.
Madnation is a very interesting website devoted to consumers/survivors/ex-patients with articles by consumers and others, book lists, hot issues, etc. This is a website worth browsing.
Anti-psychiatry links from the Berlin Runaway House.
Yahoo.com's Alliance Against Psychiatry discussion group.
Help! A Consumer's Guide to Mental Health Information http://www.icomm.ca/madmagic/help/help.html
The National Empowerment Center West http://www.ilrcsf.org/necwest/index.htm is the west coast affiliate of the National Empowerment Center and a program of the Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco, http://www.ilrcsf.org/ .
The Fountain House http://www.fountainhouse.org/index.htm in Manhattan is dedicated to the recovery of men and women with mental illness by providing opportunities for our members to live, work, and learn, while contributing their talents through a community of mutual support.
The Antipsychiatry Coalition has a number of interesting articles about the state of psychiatry, including some provocative articles by practicing psychiatrists, such as Dr. Kaiser's Commentary: Against Biologic Psychiatry.
Mental Health Consumer Concerns (MHCC) http://www.community.net/~mhcc/index.htm (California).
Broward County, Florida's PEER (Personal Empowerment, Education and Recreation) Center http://www.peercenter.org/ is a model of a consumer operated program.
The Medicine Program http://www.themedicineprogram.com/ can provide free medications to those that qualify.
Public Citizen's e-letter http://www.citizen.org/eletter/ has information about the dangers of psychiatric medications.
Oregon's Office of Consumer Technical Assistance http://www.orocta.org/ has a tip of the month for consumer run organizations.
Ian Chovil http://www.mgl.ca/~chovil/index.html has a very interesting website arising from his 25 year struggle with schizophrenia, including a lot of useful information.
The National Association of Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Administrators http://www.nasmhpd.org/consurdiv.htm represents state mental health department senior managers who are current or former recipients of mental health services. One of its publications is the very interesting monograph entitled, "The prevalence of abuse histories in the mental health system."
The National Consumer Supporter Technical Assistance Center http://www.ncstac.org/content/news/csmay00.htm has a very extensive and informative page.
Pendulum http://www.pendulum.org/ -- a comprehensive information source for the bipolar disorders (manic-depression) and other mood disorders.
The Madness Group http://www.peoplewho.org/ is a family of electronic services for people who experience mood swings, fear, voices and visions. It provides mutual support, advocates and is a grass roots group of unbeholden voices in mental health policy and services.
People Who, a website for people who experience mood swings, fear, voices and visions.
Multiplicity Australia has Links to Journals and Perspectives on Multiplicity by Multiples.
Shery Mead Consulting: Peer Support and peer run crisis alternatives in mental health.
Non-Consumer Organizations
International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology
Center for Psychological Alternatives to Biopsychiatry
Temenos: A Soul-centred Therapeutic Community for Persons Undergoing an Acute Personal Crisis in Australia.
Social Security Online for American Indian and Alaska Natives.
Frontier Mental Health Services Resource Network.
NHT's Alternative Mental Health Resources Page
Welcome to Gift From Within: An International Organization for Survivors of Trauma and Victimization is an international nonprofit organization isdedicated to those who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those at risk for PTSD, and those who care for traumatized individuals. Educational materials include videotapes, art & poetry gallery, books and articles for both clinicians and those experiencing PTSD. Click here: GFW's Survivor Poetry & Art Center
Gateway to PTSD Information:This site has information on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The site contains information about traumatic injury and links to agencies and organizations with information about coping with emotional injury. It is a simple gateway to four specific sites that offer PTSD information and resources.
The Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma (ADS Center) helps people design, implement and operate programs that reduce discrimination and stigma associated with mental illnesses.
Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) is a non-governmental advocacy organization working for the international recognition and enforcement of the rights of people with mental disabilities.
Mental Health Recovery Links at the Recovery Directory
National Conference of State Legislatures' Mental Health website
The National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research (NCAIANMHR), a program in the Department of Psychiatry, is one of four minority mental health research Centers. The NCAIANMHR is sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and is the only program of this type in the country focusing specifically on American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
Alternative Mental Health On-Line has a lot of good resources on alternative mental health regimes, including a listserv.
The Huxley Institute for Biosocial Research (Westchester Chapter of the American Schizophrenia Association).
Neurology WebForums at Mass General Hospital.
Moshersoteria.com is the website by Loren R. Mosher, M.D., former Chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia, National Institutes of Mental Health who resigned from the American Psychiatric Association over its relationship to psychatric drugs and the drug companies.
Natural Psychotherapy is a person empowering therapy based on the best current scientific research and established knowledge.
Angelfire's Mental Health Links.
Ohio Department of Mental Health's Mental Health Recovery website.
The Psychiatric Times is the mainstream psychiatric journal.
Radical Psychology Network is composed of psychologists who "challenge psychology's traditional focus on minor reform, because enhancing human welfare demands fundamental social change [and because] psychology itself has too often oppressed people rather than liberated them."
Mental Health Infosource is a comprehensive mental health information site.
Worldwide Web Resources for Social Workers http://www.nyu.edu/socialwork/wwwrsw/ virtual online library resource, inc. full text articles from numerous professional journals.
WorkSupport.com http://www.worksupport.com/ is an extensive website devoted to employment issues.
Harvard's Institute for Community Inclusion has a number of anti-discrimination and related pages, including for employment.
Using the World Wide Web for Employment Support
http://home.att.net/~k_c/zztop.htmThe Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law http://www.bazelon.org/ is an excellent source for legal information of interest to consumers, including the Olmstead Case about consumer/survivors' rights to community based treatment. It also has an extensive list of good links.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Document Center http://janweb.icdi.wvu.edu/kinder/ contains copies of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), ADA regulations, technical assistance manuals prepared by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other United States Department of Justice(DOJ) http://www.usdoj.gov/, technical assistance documents sponsored by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/NIDRR/index.html (NIDRR) and reviewed by EEOC or DOJ.
The National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) http://www.nimh.nih.gov/ has a series of short papers on various mental health studies called "Science on our Minds."
The National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning (NTAC) provides focused, state-of-the-art technical assistance and consultation to State Mental Health Agencies, state mental health planning and advisory councils, consumers, and families to help ensure that the best practices and most up-to-date knowledge in mental health and related fields are translated into action at the state and local levels.
About Mental Health http://mentalhealth.about.com/health/mentalhealth/mbody.htm collects mental health news.
Patients' Rights Advocacy (PRAWI) in New Zealand
International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services Dedicated to promoting, supporting, and strengthening community-oriented rehabilitation services and resources for persons with psychiatric disability.
Dialogue on Diversity http://www.dialogueondiversity.org/
The Asian American Psychological Association
(AAPA) http://www.west.asu.edu/aapa/
is the major national organization for psychologists
dedicated to serving the Asian American community.
Home and Community Based Services (HCBS).
The Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP)
NAMI http://www.nami.org/ (the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) has a very well organized website and is particularly good on keeping up on various issues. Of course, it has NAMI's family member orientation.
Dr. Grohol's PsychCentral has a pretty comprehensive set of links for mainstream type of information.
drkoop.com mental health http://drkoop.com/wellness/mental_health/ is mainstream medical, but does try to be comprehensive in that regard.
Internet Mental Health http://www.mentalhealth.com/fr13.html also has a lot of mainstream ("scientifically sound") type of information.
In Dr. Bob's Mental Health Links there are a lot of resources.
Late Life Depression Evaluation and Treatment Center has information on this very under worked problem.
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's Links http://www.apollonian.com/namilocals/linkmgr/linkmgr.asp page is well organized and pretty comprehensive.
Support-Group.Com http://www.support-group.com/ has a huge number of support group news groups and also a number of chat rooms for various groups.
Southcentral Counseling http://www.southcentralcounseling.org/ has its own website too.
Mental Health Association in Alaska, http://www.alaska.net/~mhaa/ Home of the Bridges Campaign
The Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit of the University of Washington School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has a lot of resources on FAS and FAE
Denali KidCare provides health insurance coverage for children and teens through age 18, and for pregnant women who meet income guidelines.
The Violent Death Bereavement Society- Serves as a centralized forum of information and training for service providers of loved ones and family members after violent death.
Please e-mail us at webmaster@mhcweb.org with any questions, comments or suggestions.
last modified 11/2/2006