The Open Society Mental Health Initiative

News and Events

News and Anouncements

At UN, Countries Call For Strengthening Of Rights Of Persons With Disabilities

Friday, September 03, 2010

The United Nations-backed conference aimed at advancing the rights of persons with disabilities concluded today with countries underscoring the need to continue building on recent momentum to ensure that the rights of the world's estimated 650 million people with disabilities are protected and strengthened.

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Minister Announces Re-Shaping Of Mental Health Strategy (UK)

Friday, September 03, 2010

In an article published by Community Care on 2 September 2010 Paul Burstow, Care Services Minister confirms the commencement of work to re-shape mental health strategy.

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more news & announcements

Funding/Opportunities

Open Society Fellowship

Deadline: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

The Fellowship will enable outstanding individuals from around the world, journalists, activists, academics, practitioners to work on projects that inspire meaningful public debate, shape policy, and inform the thinking and activities of the Open Society Institute and the Soros foundations.

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Asia-Pacific Regional Officer, Disability Rights Promotion International

Deadline: September 08, 2010

D.R.P.I. is a collaborative project working to establish a holistic and sustainable global system to monitor the human rights of people with disabilities. D.R.P.I.'s International Coordination Centre is based at York University in Toronto, Canada. With the support of Disabled Peoples International - Asia-Pacific Region (D.P.I.A.P.), D.R.P.I. is establishing a Regional Centre for Asia-Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The Asia-Pacific Regional Officer will work from the Bangkok office.

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more funding/opportunities

Upcoming Events

Personalization And Peer Support - The Mental Health Education And Training Agenda

London, UK

September 08, 2010

This conference - the 10th annual event of its kind - will explore the mental health education and training agenda for both personalisation and peer support. This will be done through presentations on the key themes of personalisation.

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2010 Annual Rights Conference, National Association For Rights Protection And Advocacy (NARPA)

Atlanta, GA, USA

September 08, 2010 - September 11, 2010

The conference themes include: Guardianship/Forced Treatment/Restraint, Recovery and Peer Run Programs, Force and Coercion: Beyond the Institutional Setting.

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more upcoming events

Publications and Reports

From Discovery to Cure: Accelerating the Development of New and Personalized Interventions for Mental Illnesses

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) on promising research investments in the rapidly changing research environment.

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Information For People With Learning Disability And Their Carers

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists' Faculty of the Psychiatry of Learning Disability and the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust have produced a new series of very accessible information for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.

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more publications and reports

Highlights

1) Dumping Grounds For Forgotten People

An investigation by Bulgarian journalist Yana Buhrer Tavanier on the mental care institutions in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.   

Please visit the website dedicated to the investigation and view the new promotional video.


Judith Klein, director of the OSMHI (Open Society Mental Health Initiative) has written a foreword to the article, which appears in the newsletter of the European Coalition for Community Living, Issue No. 10, October 2009 and also on the investigation website.


2) Report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care

A report on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care was handed over to Commissioner Vladimír ?pidla on September 23, 2009. The report was drafted by a group of independent experts convened by Commissioner Spidla in February 2009 to address the issues of institutional care reform in their complexity.  The report is also available in Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian.

Films

Karin Dom - a training and resource centre for children with special needs and their families

This short film was made following a BBC production about a children's institution in Mogilino, Bulgaria. The film features MHI partner organization Karin Dom and highlights what community-based alternatives for children can be like in Bulgaria.

UN Disability Convention

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities received its 20th ratification on April 3, 2008, triggering the entry into force of the Convention and its Optional Protocol on May 3, 2008. This marks a major milestone in the effort to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

Information on the convention process:
Convention in Easy to Read
View the list of signatories
Countries that have ratified the Convention
ICRPD Ratification Toolkit
Convention and Inclusive Education
View more information

 

News reports on the Convention:
Agreement on New UN Convention
Urging Implementation
Archive Webcast: Convention Signing 
Record Number of Countries Sign
Secretary-General Ban Hails Entry Into Force Of Treaty On Disability Rights
More news reports

Publications:
UN Handbook for Parliamentarians on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol
First Implementation Manual For The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (Addressed Specifically To Users And Survivors Of Psychiatry)


Ratify Now (The campaign to support global grassroots efforts to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities).

Films about Inclusion

Foster Care for Children with Disabilities: English ** Russian

I Want to Work and I Can Work!

Living Proof: The right to live in the community

Reality - film on personal assistance

Being an Unperson. A short film about the experience of dehumanization within the care system.

In My Language. A short film about autism and nonverbal communication.

A Way of Describing Autism. A short film by Dave Spicer and Amanda Baggs.

Equalise It!

A Manifesto for Disability Equality in Development Cooperation

The international committee of UK Disabled People's Council (formerly BCODP) has written this manifesto in the light of the signing of the UN Convention on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

To read the campaign launch letter, please click here.

Organisations who wish to sign up to the Manifesto are asked to contact Bill Albert or Mark Harrison so that their name and logo can be added to the list of signatories.