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Info about Opal Network in Lane County, Oregon: A quarterly meeting to support the voice and empowerment of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

 

Next Opal Network meeting in Lane County:


Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 7:00 pm at Eugene Public Library
 
 
 
 
Speaker: Pam Birrell, PhD of University of Oregon.  
 

Topic: Restore Human Dignity in Mental Health Care Through Authentic Relationship

How can family, friends, and mental health workers support the humanity of a person who is diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder?

Plus panel:

*** JERRY SMITH is a mental health consumer and retired social worker who is on the City of Eugene Community Task Force on Homelessness.

*** T.C. DUMAS, PhD is a long-time leader for change in mental health care.

 

Background about Opal Network: 

 

Opal Whiteley is remembered in this mural in downtown Cottage Grove. The Opal Network began in Spring 2007 as a way to gather everyone quarterly in Lane County, Oregon, who supports the voice and empowerment of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

Since then, quarterly, there's been a public meeting at the Eugene Public Library on a variety of topics and panels, all with free refreshments, networking and news.

Below you will find a link to more info about recent and upcoming Opal Network meetings, as well as a "folder of folders" with information about Opal Network, its background, etc.

If you do one thing....

.... stay in touch with Opal Network, and sign up for free occasional announcements about the quarterly meetings and other important events, here: 

Opal Network Announcement Email list

 

More info on the Opal model: 


The cross-disability group LILA, a Center for Independent Living, has especially been helpful. MindFreedom Lane County and a number of other organizations have supported this important coalition.

Opal Network now offers a workshop nationally on this model: Uniting the cross-disability and mental health consumer/psychiatric survivor communities to mobilize allies for real change in the mental health system. For more info on these "Amplify" workshops, click here.

And who was Opal? Opal Whiteley was a famous author in Lane County, Oregon, who ended up in a psychiatric institution.

 

For more background information about the Opal Network itself -- including history, posters, fliers, the story of Opal Whiteley herself and more -- go this folder:

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org/as/act/us/or/lane/opal

 

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We are MFI



Ron Unger, chair, MindFreedom Lane County affiliate

Ron Unger LCSW is both an human rights activist and a therapist who specializes in alternative approaches for "psychosis." Said Ron, "As a young person, I had my own experiences that could have been labeled 'psychotic' but got through them without mental health system intervention. I am proud to be a member of MindFreedom, the world's leading coalition fighting for radical reform in the mental health system!" Ron created MFI's "Truth Injection Campaign." You can find out more about Ron's views on his blog [see 'related content' link below image view].

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