Join us as we explore the following questions:
- What kind of services do people want, but have difficulty finding when they need them?
- Are there important services that do exist, but which are not well publicized? How can people find out about the full range of what is available?
- Which of these services are covered by the Oregon Health Plan under Trillium, and who qualifies for them, and how?
- What services or alternatives should exist but don’t?
- How should access to existing services and coverage for them be improved?
This summer meeting of the Opal Network will explore these issues. A Trillium representative will be present to explain what options are currently available through the Oregon Health Plan, and to answer questions about that. Some providers of “alternatives” may be present to describe their approaches. We will then broaden the discussion to explore all of the above questions, and there will be time for you to express your views and concerns!
Please come and join us! Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Where: Where: Eugene Public Library – Tykeson Room
Date: Thursday 7/2/15
Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
The Opal Network is a Lane County coalition of mental health consumers, survivors, family members, providers and others working to better understand mental health issues while supporting the voice, empowerment and self-determination of users of mental health services.
Mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors are especially invited to speak out!
Sign language with 72 hours notice. Wheelchair accessible.
You can also download a copy of the flyer for this event here.
The Opal Network Presents:
Mental Disorder, or Mental Difference: Who Decides, and In What Ways Does It Matter?
How should we be distinguishing between what is a “mental disorder,” and what is simply a “mental difference” which may cause problems at some point but which a person can learn to live with successfully and even value as part of his or her individuality?
- Who should be allowed to decide what is really a “disorder,” and what is just a difference?
- What are the consequences of viewing experiences such as extreme mood swings, hearing voices, having really different frames on “reality,” and various ways of being neurologically atypical, as “just differences” rather than as mental disorders?
- What effect has it had on members of our community when their differences were seen as signs of pathology? Or, have people had experiences where they really did need help, but those around them failed to see or acknowledge that something was wrong or that help was needed?
The March meeting of the Opal Network will explore these difficult questions by hearing from people with lived experience of these issues, both personally and/or as family members and as professional helpers. We will also watch videos that challenge us to think in new ways about those issues, and have a wide open community discussion in which you will have a chance to express your view!
Please come and join us! Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Where: Where: Eugene Public Library – Tykeson Room
Date: Tuesday 3/31/15
Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors are especially invited to speak out!
Sign language with 72 hours notice. Wheelchair accessible.
More info: 541-607-7020 or bashwill@lilaoregon.org
You can also download a copy of this flyer: Opal 3-31-15.
