Hello World,
I started my advocating journey off a few years ago and that was also at the federal level. I have had to complain so much about the VA to them and his office has been there every step of the way. It turns out one of his aides, knows my equine therapist, so its even small world cozy to me on the inside.
I met with his office today and shared my candid thoughts on how to improve a few things, one of which is the PAIMI Act. I also write to SAMSHA about my ideas but with this Chevron Deference ruling I am not sure that they can make any new rules or even if the old rules even apply anymore to the P&A's, if there is one thing the P&A's do is follow the law, and not all of them abide by the "rules." We need to update the PAIMI Act to address today's issues, keep everything the same in it, but add a few more laws that the P&A's or someone in the food chain has to abide by them.
I feel there are issues with accountability with the P&A's for one reason or another, and there isn't enough funding to go around. Idaho is an example of a GREAT P&A and not enough funding, where as other states have issues following the rules. I don't want to give examples to avoid embarrassment, but it is an issue. A broader example is some states fill their Board of Directors and PACs with people who, well a nice way of saying this, they aren't really that effective or they are very underutilized and undervalued, we are currently living with the results across the country and I am not impressed. If the shoe fits, wear it, if it doesn't fit, don't worry.
There has been bad blood between NARPA and NDRN in the past. As a taxpayer I want my money to be used effectively and it isn't. I am only suggesting ways to improve the system, I might be wrong, I might be right. If the PAC's were utilized the way they were envisioned when that idea first came about, then I feel our current mental illness crisis wouldn't be as bad as it is. I know the original vision because I work with the people who were there fighting in the 70's and started pushing for changes.
To address this it needs to be law that someone on the food chain is funded and required to advertise our civil rights, PAC openings, and Board of Director openings. I would throw them on tik tok, twitch, and youtube, but we need to advertise somewhere to attract the people that are willing to do the work, recruitment is a huge issue.
There have been talks, and I will admit I do not know where this is today, but there have been talks about a "Mental Health Bill of Right's" being passed and I think that could be part of the updated PAIMI Act. 988 has issues with police responding, having access to what those in crisis feel are private phone calls. That information should only be accessed by a subpoena and not used as a weapon against people in crisis to force them into treatment, its not all, but there have been reports.
NARPA needs to receive some sort of funding too, what they do is just as important as NDRN but different in its own right. The NARPA annual conference provides valuable tools for the experts to do their work. Few know of it, in fact few know of their basic civl rights, yet alone anything that applies to mental illness. I like to explain the difference is that NDRN is big picture type stuff, and NARPA is more hands on, radical, advocating effort type issues. They do compliment each other.
Of course I drove home the point of FUNDING, we will always need more funding, could you imagine if we funded mental health, mental illness, and civil rights like we have funded the Ukraine war? I like to think we could educate a lot of people and weed out those that refuse to conduct themselves appropriately.
There response was to ask for bulleted list for them to give to their policy makers. As always they know how to get ahold of me and further these conversations when the time is needed. I countered with a link to my blog and they were more than happy to accept it. If any of this list becomes law that clearly states expectations and consequences, then the players involved will either rise up to the expectation, or quietly leave when their time is up.
This is a picture I took after going to my first NARPA conference in Newark, NJ. That conference was a trigger and I was struggling to make it through til the end, and when I got home we had a pre-planned trip to Carlsbad, California. I took this picture from my hotel room.
What are your suggestions?
Thank you,
Mikey