Mission: The mission of the mental health association of essex county is to promote mental health, with the integration of physical healthcare, to improve the care and treatment of individuals with mental illness and to remove the stigma associated with emotional and mental disorders. We, as a community organization, accomplish our mission through advocacy, education, prevention, early intervention, treatment and service.
Programs: Prospect house - is a program designed to meet the needs of individuals who have been psychiatrically hospitalized and for those with severe and persistent mental illness. Goals: to provide support and to foster development of skills which enable successful community living. Another goal is to reduce the need for hospitalization and re-hospitalization. Services: psychosocial rehabilitation is the treatment modality of prospect house. Prospect house members participate in a therapeutic community. The program is designed to facilitate growth by helping members to join together to perform necessary skills required in the community. Each member has a role and purpose in contributing to prospect house.
integrated case management (icms)- provides community-based ("in vivo"), assertive and client-oriented outreach and monitoring. Icms serves persons diagnosed with a serious and persistent mental illness who need assistance, support, advocacy, referral, and intervention in all areas of maintenance for management of mental health.
supportive living services (sls): increase accessibility to quality affordable housing in essex county to individuals diagnosed with a serious and persistent mental illness and to provide comprehensive, high quality mental health services. In doing so, we endeavor to help individuals develop a personal wellness and recovery plan leading to successful re-intergration into the community. The supportive living services are designed to create permanent consumer 'leased-based' housing for individuals diagnosed with a serious and persistent mental illness. The goal of the sls is to assist individuals who are currently hospitalized, homeless, or living in sub-standard housing in gaining access to adequate, affordable housing.
center for low cost psychotherapy (clcp) offers psychotherapy services, psychiatric evaluation and medication monitoring to adults who can benefit from these services. Collaborative justice services (cjs) assists individuals with mental illness who have become involved in the state and/or county criminal justice system, providing jail diversion when possible and advocacy/service coordination for consumers who do become incarcerated. Intensive family support services (ifss) is a free service that provides support, counseling, consultation and education to all family members and friends who are concerned about the mental health of a loved one. Riskin children's center provides high quality, affordable, comprehensive, accessible and culturally appropriate mental health services for children. The project for assistance in transition from homelessness ("path") provides outreach, intensive case management and housing that will enable adults who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness, and have a serious mental illness, to engage in community-based services. In doing so, path strives to improve consumer health outcomes, participation in mental health services, and substance abuse treatment as needed.
I went to a depression group support meeting there. The director of one of the departments pressured me to go to what she said was a clinic with special facilities to treat my problem. I was already being treated by a psychiatrist but figured extra help couldn't hurt. It did! The place she sent me to was an ordinary ER. I wasn't even examined by a doctor, just two people who took down my history. On that basis a psychiatrist threatened to have me committed unless I checked into a hospital. The hospital did me no good at all but it all ended up costing me about$15,000 (and I don't have insurance). I learned later that a lot of these people get bounties for referring patients to a hospital.http://www.antipsychiatry.org/unjustif.htm
http://reason.com/archives/2002/05/01/ill-treated
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=26154
I was seeing a psychiatrist for depression and thought it might help to go to a group support meeting at this association. Then I talked to a couple of directors of the Association. It was obvious that they didn't have any expertise in dealing with depression. For example, the one woman didn't know that it takes several weeks for antidepressants to take effect. She told me to go to an ER some reason, even though I don't have insurance and that's very expensive. The advice they gave me was wrong and misleading. I don't know how this place chooses its staff, but from what I saw they were not competent to treat or even advise anyone.
