CAP Accomplishments

Voter Empowerment

In 2001, the Partnership helped to organize the first Gubernatorial Breakfast in Trenton, NJ, where three major candidates spoke to mental health advocates about their platforms for policy and funding for people with mental illness. Mayor of Woodbridge, Jim McGreevey, won the gubernatorial election that November, after outlining support for several major initiatives for consumers in the community.

Since that year, CAP has trained consumers statewide to travel to agencies, organizations, self-help centers and hospitals to get other consumers registered to vote, to learn the issues and candidates, and to get to the polls on Election Day.

Policy Development

A major initiative of CAP is the Consumer Public Policy Committee, a group of consumers who meet monthly in Trenton—independent of the state Division of Mental Health Services (DMHS)—to develop policy recommendations about consumers, for consumers. To ensure that the committee gathers a broad base of consumer opinion, the group hosts forums in Trenton and the three regions, where consumers testify to elected and appointed officials and CAP leaders. To date, the committee has developed the following policy statements:

On a quarterly basis, CAP publishes these policy statements as "The Consumer Viewpoint" and disseminates them to New Jersey's legislature, self-help centers, agencies, affiliates and members of a large community of mental health advocates statewide.

Consumer Public Policy Committee members participated on subcommittees of Governor Codey's Mental Health Task Force and were instrumental in making sure that consumers were involved in all public hearings where it was essential that their voice be heard.

Legislative Advocacy

Since its formation, CAP has been instrumental in the passage of several major pieces of legislation that dramatically affect the lives of people with mental illness:

Budget Advocacy

Each year, once New Jersey's governor releases his proposal for the following fiscal year, CAP has mobilized consumers to testify in Trenton, contact their legislators and visit them in their district offices in order to help their leaders understand the impact of budget proposals. In 2002, CAP responded to "The Governor's Challenge," to deliver 1000 letters to the governor about the need for supportive housing and community services. In all years, CAP has blocked passage of Medicaid co-pays by helping legislators and the governor to understand their financial vulnerability in the community. Since 2006, when the federal Medicare Modernization Act went into effect, CAP has worked to ensure that New Jersey provide a "wraparound" for dual-eligibles, those citizens who are beneficiaries of both Medicare and Medicaid.

Rights Protection

CAP has initiated several movements in New Jersey entirely devoted to the protection of civil and due process rights of people with mental illness.

Most recently, CAP has worked in coalition with other groups in New Jersey to prevent the passage of involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) by establishing policy outlining alternatives that respond to consumer needs when in crisisÑwithout jeopardizing their civil and due process rights.

In 2003, after the murder of a mental health consumer in the Camden County jail, CAP mobilized consumers from all around the state to a Memorial and Walk for Justice. These events led to county efforts to educate law enforcement personnel and form community coalitions of stakeholders interested in creating jail diversion and re-entry programs, as well as policy that would protect consumers from violence while in jail.

State Hospitals

In response to the accounts of violence and overcrowding at state psychiatric hospitals, the CAP is seeking information from consumers about problems during stays in county or state inpatient psychiatric units or hospitals within the last five years. The Partnership is asking consumers to share their experiences—or those of loved ones—to compile an accounting of firsthand experience to present to state leadership. CAP is particularly interested in effecting improvements in inpatient units and hopes to accompany the stories with recommendations that will reduce violence and overcrowding, as well as improve treatment.

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© 2007 by Consumer Advocacy Partnership.