Advocacy Be Informed
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The next step is to understand current mental health legislation. The following sites offer a wealth of information on various topics in mental health;some are helpful for understanding the law as it stands and others offer insight into current legislation. The sites labeled ‘action alerts’ or ‘policy updates’ contain information on specific bills currently in the legislative process and are useful for advocacy. Links marked with an asterisk (*) are particularly helpful. |
General:
NAMI factsheet on the mental health system.
*University of Chicago’s Mental Health Advocacy Project (current and recent past Illinois legislation concerning mental health.)
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/clinics/mandel/mental/legislation
*National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.
http://www.thenationalcouncil.org/cs/home
*Action alerts from The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
http://www.bazelon.org/What-You-Can-Do/Take-Action/Alerts.aspx
Action Alerts from Mental Health America.
http://takeaction.mentalhealthamerica.net/site/PageServer?pagename=action_alerts
Commitment Laws:
Treatment Advocacy Center.
National: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/legal-resources
Illinois: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=209&Itemid=144
Parity and Mental Health Benefits:
Mental health benefits by state from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14352
Children’s Mental Health:
NAMI factsheet on legislation affecting children’s mental health (2011.)
Medicaid:
NAMI factsheets on Medicaid and mental health.
*Action alerts from the Association of Persons in Supported Employment.
http://www.apse.org/policy/lead.cfm
Supported Housing:
Policy updates from the Corporation for Supported Housing.
http://www.csh.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=289&nodeID=81
Homelessness:
Information about the latest homeless legislation.
http://www.hudhre.info/hearth/#.TuJTWg8qgns.email