WISCONSIN UNITED
for MENTAL HEALTH

Vision: All persons in need of mental health services across Wisconsin have equal access to resources that strengthen self-determination and self-sufficiency by promoting health and wellness, improvement and recovery, quality of life and dignity.

History of the Blue Ribbon Commission
Appointed by Governor Tommy Thompson in May 1996, this commission was charged to examine the mental health delivery system and the principle of a state/county partnership; the mental health services provided for children, adolescents, adults and elderly; and the impact of stigma on community perceptions and current mental health policy. The group was directed to recommend a service system targeted at prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery, and positive consumer outcomes.

The 40-member commission included five mental health consumers, three family members of persons with mental illness, four legislators, representatives from the county human services system, mental health provider groups, state bureaucrats responsible for programs serving persons with mental illness, as well as other stakeholders. The Commission met monthly from June 1996 until February 1997. It created two working committees to facilitate its work: the Prevention and Early Intervention and the Treatment and Recovery Committees.

The Commission finalized its report in April 1997 and presented it to the Governor later that year. The Governor accepted the recommendations of the report. Impressively, unlike some Commission reports, this one has not sat on a shelf collecting dust. The Department of Health and Family Services has moved ahead in many areas to implement the report recommendations, in the report including developing managed care demonstration projects to explore the feasibility of modifying the manner in which public mental health services are financed, moving ahead with efforts to incorporate a recovery philosophy as the basis for the public mental health system, and allocating funds to begin the work of incorporating prevention and early intervention practices into the public mental health system.

Recommendations to Combat Stigma and Discrimination by the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health.

The primary tool for combating stigma is education.  "... the remedy to stigma will depend upon our ability to understand mental disorders as being similar to other less stigmatized conditions that are also long-term condition but can be managed and controlled, e.g., diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure."

1. The Blue Ribbon Commission's first level of attention needs to be its own actions.
2. The Commission recommends that some amount of public funding be dedicated to statewide stigma reduction, to be used in partnership with even larger amounts of private funding for this purpose.
3. The state mental health system needs to educate and help consumers combat self-stigma, and teach families and the general public that a healthy life is both desirable and possible for a person with a mental disorder.
4. Consumers and family members along with mental health professionals must be involved in the effort to foster more understanding.
5. The problem of labeling needs to be addressed directly through education about the diagnostic process and its impact.
6. The mental health system needs to address the impact of stigma by making services more accessible.
7. The mental health system needs to reduce its own stigma toward consumers and their families.
8. Stigma needs to be addressed outside the mental health delivery system.
9. Current laws prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment need to be enforced, and new federal and state laws eliminating discrimination in insurance policies need to be enacted.