MH-CAN (Mental Health Client Action Network)

(MHCAN logo by Kevin C. Murphy.)
Visit MH-CAN (Mental Health Client Action Network)
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The listed documents were drafted for MH-CAN by J. Zimmerman.
[Material property of MH-CAN and printed here by permission.]

Fact sheet for MH-CAN (Mental Health Client Action Network), October 2003.

MH-CAN in the palm of your hand:

The Mental Health Client Action Network is a valuable peer-community service. We help adults with mental illness live without crisis, which reduces pressure on other community resources. Our Drop-In Center hosts over 12,000 visits annually from almost 600 mental health clients, who otherwise have no community center. We lobby for better physical health care, and collaborate on affordable and independent housing. Each of our part-time staff is a peer, an adult with a serious mental health diagnosis. They and our volunteers give our clients the respect they deserve. Our clients demonstrate that people with serious mental illness can work, go to school, maintain stable housing, and help their peers do the same.

Suggested reading:

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Telling Is Risky Business: The Experience of Mental Illness Stigma
by Otto F. Wahl
Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady and Head of the Carter Center Mental Health Program, has written "Dr. Wahl's book gives those who suffer from mental illnesses an eloquent voice. Through their own words, consumers allow us a glimpse of life as they know it, struggling to overcome devastating diseases while withstanding the misconceptions, isolation, and discrimination - the stigma - that society imposes upon them."
Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications
by Peter R. Breggin,M.D. and David Cohen, Ph. D.
While one could not recommend using this book as a replacement from taking the advice of a physician, is gives a user of psychiatric drugs a way to speak to a physician about concerns and experiences on medication: irritable? anxious? emotionally numbed? physically fatigued? mentally dulled?
Helping Someone With Mental Illness
by Rosalynn Carter, Susan K. Golant (Contributor)
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter provides a powerful tool for families, social workers, doctors, and clients. Tells many deeply moving individual stories; discusses diagnosis, treatment, scientific research, stigma, advocacy.
"With proper diagnosis and treatment, the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness can now lead productive lives," writes Ms. Carter.
"Reading Carter on mental illness is like reading Dr. Spock on child care." (Peggy Moorman)
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
by Alex Beam
A 2-century history of psychology and treatments for the recovery of mental health, centered on the McLean Hospital (whose patients have included patients have included Sylvia Plath, James Taylor, Robert Lowell, and Ray Charles).
Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
by Robert Whitaker
Dr. Whitaker explores why the USA is so toxic to those whose mental health is severely challenged and shows how mental illness has become a profitable business for drug companies. For example, positive outcomes for schizophrenics in the U.S.A. have decreased over the last quarter century so that now they are lower than in developing countries. Explores our obligations to those with mental health challenges, what we value most about the human mind, and how our attitudes can change.
Don't Call Me Nuts: Coping with the Stigma of Mental Illness
by Patrick Corrigan and Robert Lundin
This book guides a recovering person on how to go about being accepted. Also helpful book for all concerned about mental health, or for corporate trainers and teachers to give communicate the painful consequences of prejudice, and the need for acceptance.

[Thanks for visiting.]

	Support us - buy what you want at Amazon!
	Telling Is Risky Business: The Experience of Mental Illness Stigma by Otto F. Wahl Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady and Head of the Carter Center Mental Health Program, has written "Dr. Wahl's book gives those who suffer from mental illnesses an eloquent voice. Through their own words, consumers allow us a glimpse of life as they know it, struggling to overcome devastating diseases while withstanding the misconceptions, isolation, and discrimination - the stigma - that society imposes upon them."
	Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications by Peter R. Breggin,M.D. and David Cohen, Ph. D. While one could not recommend using this book as a replacement from taking the advice of a physician, is gives a user of psychiatric drugs a way to speak to a physician about concerns and experiences on medication: irritable? anxious? emotionally numbed? physically fatigued? mentally dulled?
	Helping Someone With Mental Illness by Rosalynn Carter, Susan K. Golant (Contributor) Former first lady Rosalynn Carter provides a powerful tool for families, social workers, doctors, and clients. Tells many deeply moving individual stories; discusses diagnosis, treatment, scientific research, stigma, advocacy. "With proper diagnosis and treatment, the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness can now lead productive lives," writes Ms. Carter. "Reading Carter on mental illness is like reading Dr. Spock on child care." (Peggy Moorman)
	Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam A 2-century history of psychology and treatments for the recovery of mental health, centered on the McLean Hospital (whose patients have included patients have included Sylvia Plath, James Taylor, Robert Lowell, and Ray Charles).
	Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker Dr. Whitaker explores why the USA is so toxic to those whose mental health is severely challenged and shows how mental illness has become a profitable business for drug companies. For example, positive outcomes for schizophrenics in the U.S.A. have decreased over the last quarter century so that now they are lower than in developing countries. Explores our obligations to those with mental health challenges, what we value most about the human mind, and how our attitudes can change.
	Don't Call Me Nuts: Coping with the Stigma of Mental Illness by Patrick Corrigan and Robert Lundin This book guides a recovering person on how to go about being accepted. Also helpful book for all concerned about mental health, or for corporate trainers and teachers to give communicate the painful consequences of prejudice, and the need for acceptance.