Mini-Grants Address Cultural Competency
NCSTAC has awarded ten mini-grants of $5,000 each to consumer supporter organizations addressing the need for cultural competency:
Alaska Empowers Natives Georgia Initiates Project Hope for African-Americans Hawaii Launches a Mixed Plate Speaker's Bureau New Mexico Creates Empowerment Tool-Kit Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Develops Manual South Eastern Pennsylvania Serves the Elderly South Carolina Reaches Out to Minorities and the Elderly Houston Reaches Out to Asian Americans Utah Trains 100 Practitioners Washington Sets Up Warm-Line
Alaska Empowers Natives
The Mental Health Association in Alaska is an organization that
empowers consumers, their families, providers and advocates and that
works to turn awareness into action for Alaska's mentally ill citizens.
The MHA in Alaska will be launching the Mentor Project for Alaska Natives
who do not live on a road system. This mentoring project is designed
to work in tandem with the 7th Annual Building Bridges Campaign for Mental
Health by involving these individuals in the Bridges 2000 Fly-in.
For more information please contact:
Jan McGillivary
4045 Lake Otis Parkway, Suite 209
Anchorage, Alaska, 99508
Phone: 907-563-0880
Fax: 907-563-0881
E-mail: mhaa@alaska.net
Website: http://www.alaska.net/~mhaa
Georgia Initiates Project Hope for African-Americans
With Project Hope, the National Mental Health Association of Georgia
(NMHAG) will be bolstering mental health education and leadership in
the African American community. NMHAG plans to organize four community
training sessions where selected African American leaders will learn
about how to recognize clinical depression, how to educate others about
this important subject, and how to organize and advocate for change.
MHAG anticipates that these initial sessions will result in 15 "spin
off" sessions where newly-trained leaders offer their own public education
activities.
For further information please contact:
Kristine Medea, Director of Educational and Children's Programs
National Mental Health Association of Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
404-527-7175
Hawaii Launches a Mixed Plate Speaker's Bureau
Taking their title from the multi-ethnic meals often served in their
state, the Mental Health Association in Hawaii will be launching a "Mixed
Plate" speaker's bureau made up of bilingual mental health consumers
of different ethnicities. MHA of Hawaii intends to recruit native Hawaiian
and Asian-American consumers, train them in public speaking and mental
health education, and facilitate public education engagements for them.
Additionally, MHA of Hawaii will arrange for publications to be translated
into various languages.
For further information please contact:
Paula Heim, Mixed Plate Speakers' Bureau Director
Mental Health Association in Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
808-521-1846
New Mexico Creates Empowerment Tool-Kit
As part of their Consumer Involvement Project, a consumer-driven
project that provides consumers of mental health services with the tools
needed to achieve greater life satisfaction, NAMI New Mexico will create
an empowerment toolkit that will be customized to local communities.
Initial workshops will identify consumer needs, goals, and local perception
of cultural competency of mental health services. Each site will have
the opportunity to become a regional training and empowerment center.
Additionally, outreach efforts will also include recruitment to a statewide
Cultural Competency Council.
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Develops Manual
Through their Minority Community Education and Outreach Program,
the Mental Health Association of Allegheny County intends to produce
a manual on minority outreach that can be replicated by other consumer
supporter organizations throughout the country. A long-standing organization,
the MHA of Allegheny County has been serving a multicultural community
including African-Americans, Hispanics and the elderly for the past forty
years.
South Eastern Pennsylvania Serves the
Elderly
Philadelphia has one of the highest percentages of older adults
in major cities in the United States, yet only serves approximately two
percent of the older adults who need mental health services. The Mental
Health Association of South Eastern Pennsylvania will address this great
disparity by training elderly consumer/caregiver advocates and by approaching
providers and insurers to demand that appropriate services be made available
for older adults.
For further information please contact:
Tom Volkert, Director of Mental Health Aging Advocacy
Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
215-751-1800
South Carolina Reaches Out to Minorities
and the Elderly
The Mental Health Association in Aiken County, South Carolina, has
been serving families and consumers for the past 33 years. With their
mini-grant award, they intend to expand services both to African Americans
and to the elderly. They will administer assessment tools and follow-up
with a training program tailored specifically to their county needs.
Houston Reaches Out to Asian Americans
The Asian American Family Counseling Center (AAFCC) is a non-profit
mental health agency offering linguistically and culturally competent
services to Asian Americans in the greater Houston area. Their proposal
includes implementing and developing Project Intercultural Connection
(PIC), a cultural competency training curriculum for mental health professionals
who come in contact with the Asian American population in the greater
Houston area. PIC curriculum, once developed, can be used as a model
for other cities with similar needs.
For more information please contact:
Kim Szeto, Executive Director
Asian American Family Counseling Center
Houston, Texas
Kimszeto@aafcc.org
Utah Trains 100 Practitioners
The Mental Health Association in Utah (MHAU) is committed to both
the philosophy of inclusion and the acceptance of diversity. As Utah's
population becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, MHAU recognizes
the need for appropriate training of mental health professionals and
managed care providers in the area of cultural competence. MHAU plans
to train one hundred strategically placed mental health practitioners
in cultural competence as well as to promote the training program through
an extensive media campaign.
For more information please contact:
Mack D. Gift Ph.D,. Executive Director
Mental Health Association of Utah.
Phone: (801) 596-3705
Fax: (801) 596-3658
E-mail: mhaut@xmission.com
Website: http://www.xmission.com/~mhaut/
Washington Sets Up Warm-Line
Consumer Voices are Born (CVAB) is a consumer run non-profit organization
that provides peer support for consumers of mental health services in
Clark County Washington. As described in their proposal, CVAB plans to
implement a pre-crisis warm line as part of their consumer drop-in center.
This warm line is designed to provide a place where people can call and
talk to trained volunteers who not only provide support but also help
consumers manage their problems and avert the need for professional intervention.
For more information please contact:
Donna Roberts, Executive Director/Warm Line Coordinator
Consumer Voices Are Born/Warm Line
Vancouver, Washington
360-695-5012
This web site is in the process of being reviewed and updated with essential input from mental health consumers. To give your feedback, please email consumerta@nmha.org with your comments, needs, thoughts, and suggestions. Please give your contact information if you would like to speak personally about the web site, since reply follow-up will be conducted. Thank you!