Advocacy Section:

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Statewide Consumer Network Grants

 

What do the Statewide Consumer Networks do?

 

The Statewide Consumer Network Grants (SCNGs) enhance State capacity and infrastructure by supporting consumer organizations. The SCNGs ensure that consumers are the catalysts for transforming the mental health and related systems in their state and for making recovery and resiliency the expectation and not the exception. 


These small, three-year grants provide crucial resources for grass-roots development. They give consumers hope by reaching out to this disenfranchised population. The funding helps people find their voice and feel empowered to bring about systemic mental health transformation in line with the recommendations from the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.


Grantees use these resources to address stigma, reduce mental health disparities, prevent criminalization, promote self-care, a wellness life style, and peer-support, develop statewide infrastructure to promote positive changes in the state's public mental health system, encourage business and management skill development and help address gaps in services. 


These grants help consumers promote the development of systems of care that help consumers live independently and productively in the community so they can rely less on the traditional mental health provider, move out of institutions and into the community (in line with the Supreme Courts' Olmstead decision), and avoid inappropriate use of inpatient services.


Approximately $2.5 million is provided to support 30 grantees at $70,000 each per year. This funding is essential n bringing about mental health transformation, making services more accountable and better able to meet the real needs of consumers, and promote grass-roots systems change.

 

 

Why Are The Statewide Consumer Networks Important?

 

The goals of the program are to: (1) strengthen organizational relationships; (2) promote skill development with an emphasis on leadership and business management; and (3) identify technical assistance needs of consumers and provide training and support to ensure that they are the catalysts for transforming the mental health and related systems.  
For example, the SCNGs:

 

    Educate the public that mental health care is essential to overall health by conducting education campaigns that increase knowledge and consciousness about mental health care, and convening Leadership Academies, BRIDGES Programs, Consumer Support Specialists and Peer Support Activity that promote and sustain leadership skills;

 

    Promote consumer and family driven care through the development of position papers and/or impact statements to courts, local mental health councils and state administrators on systems needs and creative funding and providing outcomes based training that strengthens organizational relationships, promotes consumer leadership and develops local consumer councils throughout states;

 

    Demonstrate interest in the elimination of disparities in mental health services by developing regional partnerships that overlap with existing service needs and developing media and training materials that are culturally appropriate to consumers of various ethnic groups;

 

Promote recovery and resilience through self-help models by incorporating the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), leadership academies and self-help models into training programs and partnering with academic institutions to assist in the development and evaluation of self-help models, vocational training and innovative ways to promote mental health recovery;

    Promote the use of technology to access mental health care and information by implementing technological advances to disseminate information statewide and nationally, and creating interactive websites that allow consumers to exchange information, learn about recovery, and sustain recovery through self-help models.

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Example of Effectiveness

Consumer Statewide Networks have contributed to the enhancement of capacity and infrastructure development by supporting consumer organizations in many ways.

Some examples are:


VT -Vermont Psychiatric Survivors – builds innovative recovery programs which has lead to in peers developing as leaders, getting employed, becoming more independent of the system,  pursuing educational opportunities, which has resulted in decreased hospitalizations and  retainment of housing in the community.


MD – On Our Own of Maryland – held a statewide leadership summit which resulted in the establishment of Consumer Satisfaction Teams and a pilot project on self-directed mental health care.


Oklahoma - brought empowerment and leadership academy training to consumers statewide.  This has resulted in people becoming self sufficient and off the Medicaid rolls, and becoming active partners in building new programs and assisting others.


Ohio- has successfully developed peer training programs and held regional and statewide meetings of peer groups, developed a statewide mentoring program to build relationships between more established groups and emerging groups, and published a state directory of mental health peer services. 

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