Dear Supporters, Please see the below fundraising notice from one of our co-signing organizations for the #Shattering Silence campaign. Healing Minds NOLA was founded by Janet Hays who is a brilliant, compassionate and fierce advocate for the 4% and their families. She is one the many heroes among us who gives all she has to support policy and system change for people with serious mental illnesses and their families. I was privileged to meet Janet last December in Washington DC where several of us converged on Capitol Hill to support the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. Now, Janet and her organization need our support. "Please join families and advocates for this amazing networking opportunity!** We are #ShatteringSilence to push for much needed mental health reform in New Orleans and Louisiana but we can't sustain our work without funding. Healing Minds NOLA has a presence at many tables as we work to create alternatives to incarceration, homelessness and death for seriously mentally ill people including: Mental Health America - LA (Janet Hays is on the Board) Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition [OPPRC] Louisianans for Prison Alternatives Jail Population Management Subcommittee - Additionally, we were part of the push for mental health reform legislation that was passed as part of the 21st Century Cures Act last December. - We hosted a film screening with the producer of Shattered Families: The Collapse of America's Mental Health System and we continue to hold meetings to increase collaboration amongst agencies that need to be involved to shift funding and people from the criminal justice system back to health and hospitals. Ongoing initiatives include: 1: Repurposing the iconic Art Deco Charity Hospital Building as a 'one-stop shop' Mental Healthcare and Research Facility. https://www.mediafire.com/…/e262m3lkmuk…/RFI_and_Sign_on_Ltr 2: The "Stepping Up Initiative" lead by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the American Psychiatric Foundation that unites state and local governments and the American Psychiatric Foundation to promote research-based practices to tackle our over-reliance on jail as mental health treatment, such as in-jail counseling programs that reduce the chances of repeat offenders. https://stepuptogether.org/ 3: Working at local, state and federal levels of government to enact better policy and funding redirection to reduce the barriers to treatment for those who need it most. Some provisions in H.R. 2646 - the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act - were included in the 21st Century Cures Act that was signed into law by President Obama on December 13th 2016. Learn more here: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/…/21st-century-cures… Moving forward, Healing Minds NOLA is steadfast in our commitment to passing all original provisions in the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. https://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisi… "To not include needed services for untreated mentally ill people as part of a complete comprehensive mental health care system is discriminatory and inhumane." Janet Hays **Healing Minds NOLA will be hosting a fundraiser brunch at Handsome Willy's from 11am-2pm featuring Dj Jaffe who will be promoting his new book "Insane Consequences" to hit the bookshelves April 11th. Dj was also instrumental in getting recent mental health reforms passes as part of the 21st Century Cures Act last December. Sunday March 26th, 2017 Handsome Willy's Bar and Cafe - 218 S Robertson St, (Next to Big Charity) 11am - 2pm Suggested Donation $10.00 Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill -Hardcover – April 11, 2017 "This well-researched and highly critical examination of the state of our mental health system by the industry's most relentless critic presents a new and controversial explanation as to why--in spite of spending $147 billion annually--140,000 seriously mentally ill are homeless, 390,000 are incarcerated, and even educated, tenacious, and caring people can't get treatment for their mentally ill loved ones. DJ Jaffe blames the mental health industry and the government for shunning the 10 million adults who are the most seriously mentally ill--mainly those who suffer from schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder--and, instead, working to improve "mental wellness" in 43 million others, many of whom are barely symptomatic. Using industry and government documents, scientific journals, and anecdotes from his thirty years of advocacy, Jaffe documents the insane consequences of these industry-driven policies: psychiatric hospitals for the seriously ill are still being closed; involuntary commitment criteria are being narrowed to the point where laws now require violence rather than prevent it; the public is endangered; and the mentally ill and their families are forced to suffer. Insane Consequences proposes smart, compassionate, affordable, and sweeping reforms designed to send the most seriously ill to the head of the line for services rather than to jails, shelters, prisons, and morgues. It lays out a road map to spend less on mental "health" and more on mental "illness"--replace mission creep with mission control and return the mental health system to a focus on the most seriously ill. It is not money that is lacking; it's leadership. This book is a must-read for anyone who works in the mental health industry or cares about the mentally ill, violence, homelessness, incarceration, or public policy."