NCSTAC: Links

Mental Health Links

Center for Mental Health Services
The U.S. Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is a division of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) whose mission is to lead federal efforts to treat mental illnesses by promoting mental health and by preventing the development or worsening of mental illness when possible.

Mental Health America
Mental Health America is dedicated to promoting mental health, preventing mental disorders and achieving victory over mental illnesses through advocacy, education, research and service.

Informacion en espaņol
AlSofa.org y healthfinder proveen informacion sobre asuntos de salud mental para personas con problemas de salud mental y sus familias. The Al Sofa site provides information on mental health issues to consumers and family members in Spanish and in English. Healthfinder provides information in Spanish.

Technical Assistance Center Links

Consumer Organization & Networking Technical Assistance Center
A national technical assistance center, Contac serves as a resource center for consumers/survivors/expatients and consumer-run organizations across the United States, promoting self-help, recovery and empowerment. Contac was developed utilizing research on ideal consumer self-help programs, successful consumer-run programs, community support service about service delivery, descriptions of mature mental health systems, and management and leadership skills.

DBSA Peer-to-Peer Resource Center
The Peer-to-Peer Resource Center operates under a National Consumer/ Consumer Supporter Self-Help Technical Assistance Center grant to DBSA from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Mental Health Services. The Center serves people living with all kinds of mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and other illnesses. The center’s goal is to put in place a national system to train and certify peer specialists who work with other mental health consumers to promote outcomes of self-directed recovery, independence, and community integration. For more information, visit www.peersupport.org.

Freedom Self-Advocacy Curriculum
NMHA, the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse, and the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems have collaborated in creating the Freedom Self-Advocacy Curriculum. This series of 3 workshops on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes behind self-advocacy will prepare you to teach others how to advocate for themselves with lessons on such topics as finding a new therapist and going back to work.

National Empowerment Center
The mission of the National Empowerment Center Inc. (NEC) is to carry a message of recovery, empowerment, hope and healing to people who have been labeled with mental illness. NEC is an independent group including survivors of mental institutions, advocates, civil rights activists, mental health workers, and lawyers. It exposes abuse and promotes alternatives to the mental health system.

National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
The Clearinghouse is a consumer-run national technical assistance center established in 1986 and funded by a grant from the Federal Center for Mental Health Services. We are committed to helping mental health consumers improve their lives through self-help and advocacy. Specifically, we help consumers plan, provide, and evaluate mental health and community support services.

National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC) for State Mental Health Planning
The National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning (NTAC) is supported under a cooperative agreement between the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Support Technical Assistance Resource Center provides support, technical assistance, and resources to help improve and increase the capacity of consumer operated programs to meet the needs of persons living with mental illnesses from diverse communities. Self-help is recognized as a major element of recovery, and peer provided services and supports are an important source of self-help and mutual support opportunities.