Author Archives: Fred

Julie Hamos, the director of Health and Family Services is proposing to change the medications that are available to Medicaid receipients.  Her plan would limit Medicaid receipients to access to medications that are only available in generic varieties. 

We are asking our consumers and supporters to call Director Hamos at  312 – 793-4792     and let her know that you reject this proposal.

A new mental health movement was born in a church basement Sunday as Next Steps, NFP, launched a campaign to allow people with mental illnesses in Illinois to speak in a unified voice.

Next Steps reorganized itself Sunday as the first statewide membership organization in Illinois of people with mental illnesses. The group is recruiting new members to empower themselves and demand changes to Illinois’ broken mental health system.

More than 130 people packed into a room in St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chicago, including people who traveled there from around Illinois by a chartered bus. They enjoyed food and rousing speeches urging everyone to take action to support mental health—remarks that often drew cries of agreement from the standing-room-only crowd.

Because people in Illinois with mental illnesses have not spoken in a single voice, their interests often have been represented by friends, family members and service providers, said Next Steps Head Organizer Fred Friedman.

“It’s time for us to speak for ourselves,” Friedman said.

Next Steps will build on the progress made over the years by many advocates who fought for social and economic justice in the mental health system, Friedman said. He said the activists demonstrated the power of sharing their stories, and the satisfaction of making one’s voice heard.

“It’s time for us to see beyond our differences and unite in a common strategy,” Friedman said.

The work of advocates was crucial to success of a nursing safety measure signed into law in July that will allow many people with mental illnesses to move out of nursing homes, state Sen. Heather Steans said. Her keynote address cited Friedman’s attendance at every negotiating sessions over the measure. Advocacy and media attention of the nursing home issue helped overcome the lobbying by opponents and other pressures that had prevented action for many years, Steans said.

Steans said Next Steps members can make a difference by talking to their legislators about these issues. Their personal stories resonate with officials, she said.

“You have the stories to tell,” Steans said.

Gilbert Parham accepted the Next Steps Carol Vollendorf Award for a person in recovery from mental illnesses who is changing the mental health system. Parham is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state in connection with its overuse of specialized types of nursing homes to house people with mental illnesses. Lonnie Fulton was posthumously given the Les Brown Award for a person in recovery from homelessness who is changing the homeless system.

Next Steps was co-founded about seven years ago by Friedman, who has overcome his struggles with mental illness to become a leading Illinois mental health advocate. A grant from the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration allowed Friedman to hire organizers AJ French and Pete Dellos in August to recruit new members. On Sunday, the group transformed itself from a small crew of Chicago-area staff and volunteers into a larger statewide membership organization made up of consumers of mental health services and survivors of the mental health system.

The campaign will leave consumers/survivors in Illinois more united than ever before. It will exert new pressure on government agencies and other organizations to enact policies to improve mental health services and give people more choices in their treatment.

Action Now Lead Organizer Madeline Talbott urged everyone to vote Nov. 2, saying early voting and new rules on absentee voting have made it easier than ever to vote in Illinois. Solidarity and pursuit of a worthy cause can help people create meaning and purpose in their lives, she said.

“We are all capable of making history,” Talbott said. “That’s what you’re doing today.”

CHICAGO—An advocacy group is launching a grassroots campaign to repair Illinois’ broken mental health system by empowering people with mental illnesses.

Next Steps, NFP, is mobilizing people with mental illnesses to demand that their input be considered more often in decisions by leaders in Illinois. Backed by a federal grant, a recruitment effort now under way will turn the organization into the unified voice of people in Illinois with mental illnesses. The change will become official during a Sept. 26 event.

The campaign will give Illinois greater involvement in a nationwide movement to protect the human rights of people with mental illnesses. The national movement is bringing important changes to mental health services, but unacceptable levels of stigma remain in our society.

“The mental health system works very poorly in a number of ways,” said Next Steps Head Organizer Fred Friedman, whose mental illness once forced him to languish in a homeless shelter, and later a nursing home.

“Too many people are just being warehoused with poor services that do little to help them get better,” Friedman said.

In fact, Illinois wastes mental health funds by spending too much of it on institutional care, such as nursing homes, that are expensive and often provide poor services. The state instead should make greater use of less-costly community-based services. These community services have proven effective at helping people with mental illness live in their own homes with dignity and independence, at a fraction of the cost of institutional care.

Next Steps was co-founded about seven years ago by Friedman, who has overcome his struggles with mental illness to become a leading Illinois mental health advocate.

A grant from the U.S. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration allowed Friedman to hire organizers AJ French and Pete Dellos in August to recruit new members. The new members will transform the group from a small crew of Chicago-area staff and volunteers into a large statewide membership organization.

The campaign will leave people with mental illness in Illinois more united than ever before. These consumers of mental health services and survivors of the mental health system will exert new pressure on government agencies and other organizations to be more responsive. They will support policies that improve mental health services and give people more choices in their treatment.

Next Steps will then seek to join the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, which is leading the consumer/survivor movement nationally. Illinois is the only state with more than 5 million people that does not have organizational membership in the coalition.

Additional Article: Movement defends human rights of those with mental illnesses

CHICAGO—Mental health advocacy group Next Steps, NFP, supports the proposed court settlement allowing the long-overdue opportunity for some younger adults with mental illness to move out of nursing homes.

The proposed consent decree in the Williams v. Quinn case offers the chance for Illinois to end its terrible legacy of using nursing homes more than any other state to house people with mental illnesses. Next Steps called for measures to ensure mental health services are provided that give people the opportunity to live in their own homes successfully.

“Monitoring and enforcement of the decree is essential, especially with Illinois’ budget problems,” said Next Steps Head Organizer Fred Friedman. “Without these services, this is just another unfilled promise in a long line of unfilled promises.”

Community-based services are more effective, less restrictive and less costly for the state than often-substandard nursing home care. Strong services help people with mental illness live decent, productive lives connected to their communities.

People with mental illnesses brought the lawsuit to end unnecessary institutionalization in Illinois that violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s Olmstead ruling in 1999. That ruling ordered states to place people with disabilities in the least restrictive available settings.

Friedman’s mental illness once forced him to languish in a nursing home without the effective services he needed.

“Many of us remain warehoused for what seems forever and gradually lose the will to recover,” Friedman said.

The proposed settlement was reviewed Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge William Hart.

The agreement covers about 4,500 people who live in specialized psychiatric nursing homes called Institutes for Mental Disease. It calls for the state to assess IMD residents’ eligibility to move out. For eligible people who want to live on their own, the state must provide funding for support services. Everyone covered by the agreement would get this opportunity over the next five years.

The decree covers people in IMDs, but not another 10,000 people with mental illness in regular nursing homes who also deserve the same option. Those people in regular nursing homes should get relief from a nursing home safety law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn on July 29. That law calls for moving thousands of people with mental illness out of nursing homes. Friedman participated in negotiations over the law.

However, budget cuts in July prompted by the state’s fiscal crisis are devastating services needed to help people move out of nursing homes. The cuts could cause 60,000 people to lose mental health treatment.

CHICAGO—The disabilities-rights community spoke about devastating state service cuts in one voice today — a voice of discontent and determination.

Advocates from a dozen different organizations including Next Steps joined together to fill the Thompson Center plaza for a rally protesting cuts to disabilities programs. Waving signs and shouting their discontent, crowd members demanded the reversal of the $300 million in state cuts announced July 1 by Gov. Pat Quinn.

“I’m here today because I’m angry and I’m worried,” Next Steps staff member Ellen Feinberg told the crowd.

The cuts in community services will force many people who live independently into costly institutions like psychiatric hospitals, Feinberg said.

“We have told Gov. Quinn that makes no sense,” she said. “We have told him it is penny-wise and pound-foolish. And he has not listened.”

“He says ‘cut back,’ and I say ‘fight back,’” Feinberg said, prompting crowd members to chant “fight back” repeatedly. Other speakers led the audience in refrains of “No more budget cuts” and “This budget is upside down.”

Tens of thousands of people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities are expected to lose services because of the spending plan signed by Quinn for the 2011 fiscal year.

“We’ve got to stop these cuts, and our leaders have to behave like leaders,” said Zena Naiditch, President and CEO of Equip for Equality.

Other groups sponsoring the event include Access Living, The Arc of Illinois, Chicago ADAPT, Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in Illinois, Family Support Network, Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living, Mental Health Summit, Progress Center for Independent Living, Springfield Area Disability Advocates and Thresholds.

Speakers presented two members of Quinn’s staff in attendance with an oversized copy of a letter from the 12 groups. It called for a tax increase, timely payments to service providers, and the reallocation of funds from expensive institutional care to more cost-effective community-based services. The staff members promised to deliver the letter, adding Quinn will continue to seek a tax hike to fund services.

CHICAGO—A state bill to raise the inadequate stipend for nursing home residents would help more people with mental illnesses achieve their full potential by moving out of nursing homes and living successfully on their own.

Disability benefits for people with mental illnesses living in nursing homes mostly go toward paying those facilities. The residents receive only $30 a month of those benefits, which is not enough to cover the things they need.

House Bill 4989 would raise the stipend from $30 to $50.

Nursing home placement is an important option for those younger adults with mental illnesses who need higher levels of care. But many people who don’t need that level of care find themselves trapped in nursing homes anyway by their own poverty. They simply cannot afford the steps needed to build new, self-sufficient lives for themselves in homes of their own, said Fred Friedman, Next Steps head organizer.

“We cannot buy a transit pass to look for work, a place to live or outside help,” said Friedman, a former nursing home resident. “We cannot buy clothes suitable for a job interview. We cannot save for a security deposit for an apartment of our own.”

More than 40 states provide a stipend of $50 a month, and many states pay $75 or more. The Illinois $30 personal needs allowance has remained unchanged for years, despite inflation.

“This sum is inadequate to let us lead a humane life,” Friedman said.

Next Steps urges mental health advocates to support HB4989. See the Next Steps lawmaker lookup page for tips on contacting legislators.

Friedman, a leading Illinois advocate for consumers of mental health services, is in recovery from mental illness. Friedman, who has also lived in a homeless shelter and psychiatric hospital, moved out of a nursing home years ago with help from family and a social service agency.

“Most of us are not as lucky,” Friedman said. “Many of us remain warehoused for what seems like forever, and gradually lose the will to recover.”

The costs of the higher stipends are tiny compared to the amount of taxpayer money wasted by unnecessarily housing younger adults in nursing homes. Thousands of those people could live on their own with more cost-effective community mental health services at less expense to taxpayers. Illinois relies more heavily than any other state on nursing homes to house mental health consumers/survivors.

A state Nursing Home report in January called for more housing and treatment to help people with mental illnesses leave nursing homes. In June 2009, the state Taxpayer Action Board report said reducing institutional care such as nursing homes for a wide variety of needs would save Illinois hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years.