Advocacy Unlimited, Inc. - Events and Announcements

Events and Announcements

This page lists dates, locations, and registration information for important Mental Health related events and conferences, plus announcements and special notices. Events and Conferences are listed in sequence by date.

Events and Conferences

FOR-U Seminars and Workshops
FOR-U has published their Fall and Winter WRAP and Recovery Workshop schedule. Classes include:

   • Mental Health Recovery Seminar-I and WRAP
   • Mental Health Recovery and WRAP Seminar-II: Facilitator Training
   • Pathways FOR-U
   • Self-Esteem 101

See Workshops, Trainings, and Events on the FOR-U website for dates, times, and workshop descriptions (opens in a new browser window). For registration info or questions, contact FOR-U toll-free in CT at 1-866-255-5029 or by email.

Low Key Café (Next Meeting December 21st)
The Low Key Café is a café for persons in recovery, a cozy and inviting "low key" atmosphere suitable for all ages. Songs, poetry, short stories, music videos, and more. Open mic. Free refreshments. An atmosphere/forum to express yourself through art. Free admission!

Meetings are held monthly at the Berean Christian Center, 989 New Haven Avenue, Milford, CT 06460. The next meeting will be December 21st, their Holiday Edition featuring local singing artist Ruth Schultz appearing at 7:30 pm. Live open mic at 6:30 pm. As always, the warm tasty drinks and yummy pastries last all night.

For more info, contact John at 203-878-6365, ext. 633., or download the flyer (.pdf document, opens in a new browser window).

DMHAS Art Exhibit
Artists and photographers from the recovery community are invited to show their works in the exhibit space at the DMHAS office in Hartford. See DMHAS Art Exhibit for details and how to participate.

NEW Training Toolkit for Case Managers from UPenn Collaborative
Help for Behavioral Health Clients with Parenting and Child Custody Issues:
Parents with a psychiatric disability experience the same challenges that all parents face, but are confronted with additional barriers such as discrimination and stigma, problems related to their symptoms, lack of parenting skills, or lack of environmental and social supports. Further, these parents are at a greater risk of losing their children.

Research has shown that mothers with a serious mental illness were almost three times more likely than mothers without a serious mental illness to have been involved in the child welfare system or to have lost custody of their children. Losing custody, or the threat of custody loss, can be devastating and undermines the recovery process.

The UPenn Collaborative has introduced a NEW Training Toolkit - Helping Behavioral Health Clients with Parenting & Child Custody Issues. See NEW Training Toolkit for more info and to download the toolkit (.pdf document - opens in a new browser window).

UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration child custody study
The UPenn Collaborative is seeking stories from parents with mental illnesses regarding their experiences with the child welfare system, child custody issues, barriers to reunification associated with having a mental illness, and custody being used to encourage treatment compliance. For more info and how to participate, see UPenn Study (opens in a new browser window).

DBSA Greater Hartford Support Group
The Greater Hartford Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA Greater Hartford) holds a weekly support group run by and for people with affective disorders. See DBSA Greater Hartford for details.

Schizophrenics Anonymous
This self-help group meets weekly every Thursday evening from 5:30 - 6:30 P.M. at the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT.

AU Calendar
The schedule of workshops and presentations hosted by the AU Advocate team.

Concerts and Exhibits
The schedule of concerts, performances, exhibits, art shows, and other similar types of events presented by many of AU's talented and special friends in recovery.

Announcements and Special Notices

Plan Helps Persons with Serious Mental Health Problems
Oct. 6, 2008 -- Governor M. Jodi Rell announced that Connecticut has been granted approval by the federal government to begin using Medicaid funds to help divert and discharge people with serious mental illness from nursing homes to appropriate community settings. This Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waiver program is part of a larger effort occurring at the state and federal level to re-balance Medicaid spending by emphasizing community-based care for people currently residing in institutional settings. See the Governor's Press Release (opens in a new browser window).

ADA Amendments Act (ADAA) of 2008 signed into law
Sept. 25, 2008 -- The ADA Amendments Act (ADAA) of 2008 was signed into law in a White House ceremony this morning, after identical bills were passed by the Senate (unanimously, on September 11th) and the House (by voice vote, on September 17th). The law's effective date is January 1, 2009. This is a great victory for people with disabilities.

Since the ADA became law in 1990, a series of court decisions have narrowed the category of who qualifies as an "individual with a disability," contrary to Congressional intent. By raising the threshold for an impairment to qualify as a disability, these court decisions have deprived individuals of the discrimination protections Congress intended to provide.

The ADA Amendments Act remedies this problem and restores workplace protections to every American with a disability. The bill leaves the ADA's familiar disability definition intact, but takes several specific steps to direct courts toward a more generous meaning and application of the definition. This legislation makes it easier for people with disabilities to be covered by the ADA because it effectively expands the definition of disability to include many more major life activities, as well as a new category of major bodily functions.

For the Hartford Courant article (December 2, 2008) providing an assessment of the ADA Amendments Act, see Amended Law (opens in a new browser window).

AU releases Spanish language version of its website

En español

To better support persons with psychiatric disabilities and their families in the Hispanic community, Advocacy Unlimited is pleased to have launched the first release of a Spanish version of its website. Developed completely in-house with translations done by AU's bilingual staff, this first release explains who AU is, what we do, our philosophies and goals, and our stand on many of the issues surrounding mental health. It also provides contact info and a full description of the Advocacy Education Course along with the schedule of courses being taught in Spanish and the capability to apply for the course online. Like the English site, the Spanish site will continue to grow as more and more info, resources, and functionality are added.

This project is part of AU's overall Latino Initiative which includes the expansion of AU's outreach into the Hispanic community and translation of the entire Advocacy Education Course curriculum.

The development was funded through grants from SAMHSA and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Many thanks to our Advocates and volunteers who make up the Translation Review Committee. Visit the Spanish site now!

Charter Oak Health Plan - Connecticut's new affordable health care
For the first time, Connecticut adults of all incomes have access to health coverage! Connecticut adults who aren't lucky enough to get health insurance on the job will have access to decent, affordable coverage. As proposed by Governor M. Jodi Rell and approved by the General Assembly, Charter Oak offers coverage to the uninsured and to many adults experiencing financial hardship in paying unaffordable, non-group premiums on their own. The State of Connecticut is contracting with three private insurers -- Aetna Better Health, AmeriChoice of Connecticut, and Community Health Network of Connecticut -- to coordinate benefits and medical providers.

Charter Oak will cover enrollees with pre-existing medical conditions (no exclusions).

For complete details, visit www.charteroakhealthplan.com, or call I-877-77-CTOAK. Download the application form here (these links open in a new browser window).

FDA requests warnings on older class of antipsychotic drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today exercised its new authority under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA) to require manufacturers of "conventional" antipsychotic drugs to make safety-related changes to prescribing information, or labeling, to warn about an increased risk of death associated with the off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia. Read the full article

No Kidding, Me Too!
Founded by actor Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), No Kidding, Me Too! is a nonprofit organization comprised of entertainment industry members united in an effort to educate Americans about the epidemic related to mental illness in all forms. The goal is to tear this stigma out of the closet and de-isolate it so that these people will be surprised to find millions of others like themselves and say, "No Kidding, Me Too!"

See more here, or watch Joe Pantoliano's (The Sopranos) in-depth interview on NBC News with Brian Williams.

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation
Written by Charles Barber, author and lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, "Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation" is an unprecedented account of the impact of psychiatric medications on American culture and on Americans themselves.

Public perceptions of mental health issues have changed dramatically over the last fifteen years, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the rampant over-medicalization of ordinary Americans. In 2006, 227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed in this country, more than any other class of medication. In that same year, the U.S. accounted for 66% of the global antidepressant market. In his latest book, "Comfortably Numb," Charles Barber provides a much-needed context for this disturbing phenomenon.

See more about Mr. Barber and his books on his website at www.charlesbarberwriting.com (opens in a new browser window).

Also see Mr. Barber's article Healing a Troubled Mind Takes More Than a Pill.

2007 Dr. Karen Kangas Award Winner
Congratulations to AU Advocate Virginia Gerena, recipient of the 2007 Dr. Karen Kangas Award for Excellency in Advocacy.

Ginny is a member of the Keep The Promise coalition, CAC 23, the Connecticut Behavioral Health Advisory Council (CBHAC), NAMI's In Our Own Voice, the MRO task force, and the Connecticut Transformation Network to name a few. During legislative session, she is a familiar face at the LOB and State Capitol. She is a member of the AU Legislative Task Force and regularly writes testimony and testifies on important pieces of legislation. She continually reminds those in power that they have to care about the civil rights of people in recovery, Latinos, and children.

Ginny was presented this prestigious award at the 2007 AU Holiday Party held December 7, 2007.

The next Dr. Karen Kangas Award will be presented at the 9th Annual AU Leadership Conference to be held in the fall of 2008.

Transformation State Incentive Grant Town Hall Meeting Replay
If you missed the Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant Town Hall Meeting held Thursday October 26, 2006, you can watch a replay of the video online. Go to Town Hall Meeting, then click on the "View: Town Hall Meeting - October 26, 2006" link at the bottom of the page (the video will open in a new browser window).

Thanks to the many AU Advocates who attended this meeting and participated through their relevant questions during the session.

AU receives 2006 Spirit of the ADA Award
AU is proud to have received a 2006 Spirit of the ADA Award. The award was presented to AU, along with the other nominees, on July 26, 2006 at the Second Annual Spirit of the ADA Celebration sponsored by the Developmental Disabilities Network. See Spirit of the ADA Award.

New book features chapter on AU
"On our Own, Together: Peer Programs for People with Mental Illness", a new book now available, includes a chapter about Advocacy Unlimited written by AU's Founding Director Yvette Sangster.

HUD Inventory of Multifamily Units (opens in a new browser window)
Information that can assist advocates in finding affordable and accessible units is available from HUD on their "Subsidized Multifamily Units" web page.