ABOUT MHEP

Mission

History

Future

Mission

The Mental Health Empowerment Project, Inc. (MHEP) is a not-for-profit corporation organized to develop and strengthen self-help and mutual support/recovery activities throughout New York State and other states for recipients of mental health services.

The mission is being accomplished by:

1. Providing technical assistance, instruction and guidance to mental health professional, recipients of mental health services, and families and friends of recipients regarding the concept of self-help and mutual support/recovery.
2. Informing the mental health scientific community about the effectiveness of self-help and mutual support/recovery for recipients of mental health services; fostering system research to self-help and mutual support/recovery; and communicating with the self-help mutual/recovery movement throughout the United States and abroad.
3. Developing all phases of facilitation and establishing self-help groups throughout New York State
4. Developing workshops to educate individuals with mental health issues regarding symptom management.
5. Developing workshops regarding the subject matter of empowerment to assist this population in obtaining more independence, with increased quality of like style.

Additionally, the accomplishment of this organization's mission serves to improve understanding and sensitivity among mental health providers, mental health planners, and their families and friends.

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History

MHEP began as the Mental Health Recipient Empowerment Project (MHREP) in 1988, a program of the Mental Health Association of New York State (MHANYS) funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health. MHANYS is a not-for-profit, statewide network of community-based mental health associations. The Empowerment Project sought to enable recipients to be “producers” of mental health rather than “consumers” of mental health services. Throughout the state, the project encouraged recipients to develop self-help programs in their local areas. Mental health care recipients voluntarily came together to help themselves and one another in a trusting, open, and supportive environment. In self-help, no dichotomy exists between the helper and the “helpee”. The group makes its own decisions.

Edward L. Knight, Ph.D., was the project coordinator of MHREP since its inception. Dr. Knight, himself a recipient of mental health services, is a strong proponent of self-help. A study conducted in 1991 by Dr. Knight and Sharon Carpinello, Ph.D., delineates the positive effects of self-help. The study included participants in self-help groups from across the state. It also combined focus group interviews and key informant interviews. More than one participant declared: “Self-help has given my whole life meaning.it has normalized my life.” Recipients talked about how they moved from dependency, self-destruction, or hopelessness to positive social identity.

In its first year, MHREP held approximately 30 town meetings with more than 400 participants between October and December 1988. People were excited. For the first time, recipients came together in an organized manner across the state to share their concerns. Local self-help and mutual support groups formed. Peers counseled each other. A sense of “common experiences and common concerns” started to break down the walls of isolation.

In 1989, MHREP sponsored the first statewide recipient conference, attended by more than 130 recipients from across New York State. In 1990, New York State recipients ran the statewide conference themselves. They gave presentations. They ran workshops. They shared their experiences and their successes. They argued about issues and priorities. And in doing so, they experienced a new sense of power, both individually and as a group.

Next, MHREP held statewide meetings with recipients and family members called “Stigma Forums” that focused on the powerful force of social stigma in the lives of both groups. Stigma Forums asked recipients and family members to focus on the questions, “Where do you experience social stigma?” and “How are you affected by it?” Consultants skilled in managing participatory meetings were brought in to help with these forums and to expand the work of MHREP. From the grassroots level, a consensus emerged that the mental health system itself was the most stigmatizing element in the lives of both recipients and family members.

In particular, participants felt the system had engendered a sense of isolation, dependency, and hopelessness among the people it served. Dr. Knight hired consultant and trainer Ike G. Powell, now Deputy Director of Training for the Mental Health Empowerment Project, to help design and facilitate a more comprehensive curriculum of workshops and seminars. MHREP held meetings across the state. This time professionals and recipients came together in a three-hour format called “Dialogues for Empowerment”. These dialogues focused on the questions, “What was disempowering about being diagnosed mentally ill?” and “What has empowered you?” Most professionals who participated in the dialogues confirmed the earlier consensus that the mental health system itself was the most disempowering element. They saw it as a system that created dependence, was often abusive, and tended to focus more on controlling behavior than on achieving wellness.

While the empowerment dialogues continued across the state, Mr. Powell and Dr. Knight created other workshops and seminars to offer to the New York State community. “An Introduction to Self-Directed Rehabilitation” focused on taking more control over one's life through setting and achieving goals. This seminar, now called “Getting Your Life Back”, continues to be offered to recipients of mental health services and has been updated regularly to reflect the many changes that have occurred in the mental health system. “Recovery Dialogues” helped both recipients and staff focus on what is helpful and what is not in the recovery process. “Strategic Planning,” “Group Facilitation Training,” and other special focus workshops helped to prepare people for leadership roles in their local communities.

In 1990, New York State received a three-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to expand recipient leadership training into rural and minority areas. Ten groups, each representing a county, received funding for three years. Their mission was to develop leadership skills around whatever project the recipients decided to initiate. Mr. Powell, selected to be the field consultant to this project, helped with the organizing, training, and documentation. Using participatory workshop methods, recipients, professionals, and families of recipient members met to decide projects for their respective counties. Recipients selected projects such as:

• Thrift stores
• Computer skills programs
• Drop-in centers
• Monthly social and recreational events
• English as a second language (ESL) classes
• Advocacy centers

The recipients ran each project, with support from professionals and family members, as needed. Recipients learned to maintain financial records, organize and facilitate meetings, work with community agencies, and advocate for their rights.

In 1991, recipients began to work directly within the system. One of the most successful programs was the Peer Specialist program at Bronx Psychiatric Center. Funded through MHANYS, this program included Dr. Knight on the management team. Four recipients were hired as “assistants” to intensive case managers who were assigned to work with individuals who have the most serious and persistent mental illnesses. Intensive case managers regularly visit clients to teach them to function more effectively in the community. Peer Specialists help in many of the socialization activities, from taking the client shopping to educational or entertainment events. The clients relate well to the Peer Specialists because of their common experiences, i.e., hospitalization, medication, social stigma, isolation, and hopelessness. The Peer Specialists saw themselves as valuable, significant human beings with something to share with others because of their experience rather than in spite of it.

As MHREP continued its outreach to recipients, positive change began to spread gradually throughout the state. Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center initiated a program to cover the cost for recipients to receive training in social casework and then hired them as assistant case managers. Each of the five regions in New York State has hired a recipient as the regional Recipient Affairs Specialist. People are empowered when their past is seen as a time of valuable learning rather than just shameful experiences.

In 1994, the Mental Health Empowerment Project (MHEP) was established as its own (501)C3 nonprofit, statewide organization. The offices were located at 261 Central Avenue in Albany and have remained there to be accessible to consumers of mental health services. In 2003 the offices moved (due to a fire next door) from 261 Central Avenue to 116 Everett Road Suite #7 Albany, NY 12205 and still remain accessible to consumers of mental health services. MHEP has demonstrated it financial viability with its successful annual audits and the technical assistance review conducted by the Audit and Investigation Unit of the New York State Office of Mental Health in 1999.

In its first five years, MHEP focused on community education and outreach, stressing activities that involved recipients in different geographic areas, of various age groups, and all ethnic groups. In the midst of broad-based participation, the locally operated, recipient-run services and programs caught the attention of key professionals in the state. They also gave hope to hundreds of recipients-hope that their efforts had produced some of the changes they sought. Housing Options Made Easy (HOME) in Gowanda, NY, Projects to Empower and Organize the Psychiatrically Labeled, Inc. (PEOPLe) in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Hands Across Long Island (HALI) on Long Island, NY, all demonstrated the power and potential of recipient participation for direct delivery of mental health services.

As evidenced by its extensive schedule of current programs, MHEP continues to build on its early success. The agency introduces consumers of mental health services to the skills and the knowledge they need to ensure that their voices are heard, that they are the most important player in the development of their treatment plan, and that regular participation in self-help/mutual support activities benefits them, their families, and their communities. MHEP's annual regional conferences bring new and exciting initiatives and trainings to consumers where they live.

MHEP continues to offer a weeklong Advocacy Training in conjunction with PEOPLe, Inc. In addition, the agency continues to build skill levels through the modified "Self-Directed Rehabilitation" training, which is now called "Getting a Life." MHEP hosts ongoing dialogues between various stakeholders to ensure consumer inclusion at all levels of decision-making.

MHEP has served and will continue to serve in a fiduciary role for programs with the intent to help these programs build the skill levels necessary to achieve independence and fiscal responsibility. Finally, MHEP continues to support research that demonstrates the value of consumer participation, independence, resilience, and self-actualization.

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Future

Upcoming projects will be listed here.

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