Report Gives Voice to Mental Health Consumers

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION--Report Gives Voice to Mental Health Consumers

The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission has released a report prepared by reachAbility, a non-profit organization supporting mental health consumers, encompassing the findings from focus groups and surveys across Nova Scotia.

reachAbility, a non-profit organization working to improve access to services and employment for people with disabilities, received a $30,000 grant from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission in September 2002 to prepare the document. The project concluded in June with a targeted discussion involving community groups that work with mental health consumers.

"This was a unique project for the commission," said Mayann Francis, CEO of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. "We hope the report's findings will spur discussion and policy development to address the needs of Nova Scotia's mental health consumers."

The report's findings fall into three main categories: quality of life; knowledge and accountability; systemic issues.

"Everyone at reachAbility was thrilled to be part of a process that was so successful because it was entirely consumer-driven," said Tova Lang, executive director of reachAbility. "From research design, project implementation to interpretation and findings, all aspects of the project reflect our solid commitment to hearing and understanding the true voices of mental health consumers in this province."

Money for the grant was made available as part of a settlement reached in the human rights complaint of H. Archibald Kaiser against the Executive Council of Nova Scotia. As part of the settlement, the provincial government agreed to provide $90,000 to the commission over three years to be allocated for projects to help mental health consumers access legal education and other advocacy and justice services.

The commission worked in co-operation with the Disabled Persons Commission to award the grant. The results of the second $30,000 grant competition will be announced in the near future.

The reachAbility report is available on the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission website at http://gov.ns.ca/humanrights/whatsnew.htm .