Alternatives 2007

Join us in St. Louis October 10-14th for the annual Alternatives Conference. The theme of this year's conference is Spanning the Recovery Movement: Consumer Control & Choice.

The Clearinghouse will be hosting the conference, and has just launched a new website to provide information about the city and all things Alternatives related: www.alternatives2007.org.

Attending or presenting at Alternatives is a great way to meet like-minded people working on peer services, transforming systems and working for human rights in mental health. If you're interested, check out the 2006 conference at www.alternatives2006.org or 2005 at http://www.power2u.org/alternatives2005/alternatives-conference.html.

Hope to see you there!

A step towards parity

On Wednesday a bill passed through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) on an 18-3 vote. Here are a few different takes on the advancement of the parity legislation:

Mental-health bill advances -- From the Providence Journal, this article gives an overview account.

Capitol Hill Watch Senate HELP Committee Passes Mental Health Parity Legislation -- A quick pro and con look from the Kaiser Network.

Health Insurance Benefits for Mental Illness -- An hour long radio segment from The Diane Rehm Show with 5 stakeholder guests and caller questions.

Free Psychiatric Advance Directives Learning Opportunity

The National Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives (NRC-PAD) is offering a live webcast next Thursday, February 15th. You can participate either by phone or on the web. Instructions are pasted below, questions can be directed to NRC-PAD using their email form.

TITLE: Helping Consumers and Families to complete Psychiatric Advance Directives : A Live Webcast

DATE: Thursday– February 15th

TIME: 2:00 PM EST

HOST: Dr. Eric Elbogen (a quick bio)

PHONE
1) Dial 1-888-346-3950
2) At system prompt, dial entry code 9552012(#)Press *6 to mute/unmute your phone, and *0 for operator assistance

WEB
1) Point your browser to www.infiniteconferencing.com/join (or just click here)
2) Select the Role of Participant
3) Type 9552012 in the "Participant Code" field
4) Type your Name, Company and Email in the fields provided5) Click the Log In button