time to accumulate stuff and you are not as mobile as you were in your 20s and 30s and you have more stuff. so it's really rewarding for me just to go and give people hope. this is something that is new to them. it was new to me. that there is actually a recovery, actually recovery is possible with this. and actually the first big event that made me realize i wanted to be part of mha was the awards ceremony and i saw all of that love and how many people were coming together to celebrate people in recovery from mental health challenges. so that was a really wonderful experience and brought me into the whole world that i am in now and loving it. so i am not sure if you wanted me to finish? thank you very much. >> thank you. so terri you

can start with that award. >> all right. thank you very much. good afternoon council members. thank you so much for this invitation today. my colleague terri byrne and i, i am gillian plumadore and i will start right off the bat with the mention of our awards ceremony, because idell wants to hear about it so much. we have -- this is our third year -- we have worked to put on the mental health services act award ceremony, which specifically exists to honor peers in our community, who have made advanced in their own recovery, who are out there in the community, doing amazing things, things that a lot of them a few years ago, maybe even just a few months ago never knew were possible for them. and so we are right now, terri

and i are staff co-chairs for the awards ceremony committee. it's an ongoing process. we'll be meeting for the next few months and we'll be holding the awards ceremony in october. there will be more information available about that in the next few months. we are putting together our fliers, and our nomination forms, and doing outreach over the summer. so you will be hearing more about this, but remember you heard it here first. so we're really looking forward to that. it's going to be a fantastic event. and verian so eloquently pointed out, it's something that is a transformative event for many of the people who attended. we heard from many, many people it's that it's the first time that they realized what a supportive and powerful community they belong to. does that cover it for you right now? all right. what we're here to talk to you about

this afternoon is language and why language matters. and i want to start out by saying that we don't want to assume that any of this is actually knew to you, new to you because you are experts if the field of disability and the conversation that is happening around language in other parts of the disability community. we hope to have it more be of a conversation with you. we're here as much to learn from you as we are to share our own experience and thoughts. terri. >> is this on? >> yes. you can pull it up to you and it will come on? >> can you see me? >> yes. >> great. so one of the quotes that one of my favorite quotes around the issue of language is by mark twain who says, "the difference between

the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." so i think what we all know about language and how language can heal, words can help, and words can also hurt and words can hurt deeply. >> yes. >> so we really just wanted to get the conversation going. we have many roles in our positions, but as a program coordinator to stigma-reduction program, we go around to the community and we do presentations and we just discussion what "stigma" is and each presenter presents the stories about their lives and idell is one of our fabulous peer educators and we talk about the experience, living with mental health challenges and conditions, stigmas we have experienced and the road to wellness. so we really have a lot of conversations about stigma and how stigmatizing language can be. as we all know the definition

of "stigma," the one we use it's really a negative belief about a group of people. and i think in the mental health world, there are still so many terms and so much language that is accepted, that we want to really raise people's awareness when we go into the community. just because these words are being used doesn't mean we have to continue to use them. >> okay. that is one of the things that is of importance to us to raise awareness because so much language is used out of habit because people don't know there are other options and we certainly want to make it clear we're not talking about any checklist of appropriate words versus inappropriate words. what we're talking about is a basic concept., that we want to talk about people respectfully. we want to show respect for their experiences and we want to talk about their experiences

as accurately as we can and just grasping that concept is a huge step forward for a lot of people. i meant to make the point when i was speaking before, but i want to make it clear what we're specifically talking about today is english as a language and about spoken and written english. but mhasf has a practicing program and one of the things it's addressing is finding appropriate -- culturally appropriate language to use about mental health challenges throughout our community. so that is something that we are conscious of and that we are addressing. >> i think the other thing we would like to talk about is where this language came from. where this language comes from? it essentially comes from the medical model and we're now living in the recovery model and that is what the mental health services act is all

about and what we're hoping to move the world forward in a recovery-oriented language. i know you are aware of people's first language and we still have people who will say, "that guy is a schizophrenic." you know? or she is a "borderline." or pointing at people and labeling them and it's very important that we use people-first language. that i am a person with the experience of living with schizophrenia or i am a person with a borderline personality or i am a person who is struggling to really establish relationships. we really encourage people to talk about their experience and not so much what the diagnoses is. because that is clinical language, needed for insurance carriers, so that the doctor can get paid and there are other reasons why that language is used, but we encourage people to use real people language. how do i describe my own experience with depression and

to describe to people what it looked like and not just a diagnosis. because people experience all kinds of things differently and that is one of the conversations that we have in our presentations. >> there are subtleties with that, of course. it's entirely an individual's prerogative to describe their experience in any terms that they like. that is an individual right. however, we really, really strongly encourage people to think about the language that they use when referring to someone else's experience. now i can say, for example, in another area of my life, i am queer. because that is something that i feel is an indivisible part of who i am. i can't separate that out from me and still be the same person. however, with my experiences, for example, with

being diagnosed with schizoeffective disorder in my 20s, i would say i experienced hearing voices, or i experienced a reality that differed from consensus reality. so i used different language talking about different things in my own experience because different things apply, but it's crucially important that we say that people have the right to define themselves as they wish. but we always, always need to be careful when we are talking someone else's experience. >> language is living and i think in the medical model, the focus has always been on the illness. what is wrong with you? i am the doctor. i have the cure. you take what i say and you will get wol.well. in the recovery model, i am the experiment expert on myself. i may choose to get the support of the medical field and it's me directing my care and that

is the strong difference, where the focus is not so much on the illness, but the focus in the recovery world is about me as an individual, me transforming my life and me healing, however that will look. i just saw myself in the mirror there. [ laughter ] >> i think one of the things that we came to talk about today is how do we change the conversation around language? what can we do to make positive contributions to that conversation? and one of the biggest areas that we're actually making advances in is the media. the media is one of the largest perpetrators of stigma and we're actually starting to make inroads in media and one of the most exciting developments there, and it's just been the past few months. i think it was the end of last year or the beginning of this

year, the associated press endorsed new style guidelines when reporting on mental health challenges and they are far more positive and i carry around a copy of these in my satchel, so i can show it to people, because i'm so excited about it. one of the things that is happening is that we're actually starting to see some positive portrayals of mental health challenges in the media one one of the good friends of the mental health association of san francisco is patrick corrigan, a researcher, says you have to replace that with a positive image and that is what is starting to happen and it's so exciting. just for being here, talking about this publicly today is helping to contribute to the conversation that is making visible changes in our society. because language is not only

one of the best -- it's one of the only ways that we have to convey our experience of the world of, but it's also one of the most powerful tools that we have to create and shape our reality and the world that we live in. so that is where we're moving with that. anything to add to that? >> i think you summed it up very nicely. >> we would love to hear any questions or comments that you might have or anything that you want have to share with us? >> thank you very, very much. i was going to take the questions at each, but i just remembered each of the presenters is different and maybe we could do this in a stylish way to take a few minutes, if any of the council members have any questions, because this is mental health

association. it's going to be different from the next presenter. any of the staff have any questions? >> through the chair, this morning i received an email from someone reacting to the agenda that we sent out and they couldn't unfortunately be here not to ask the question, but make the comment and asked me to read that into the record if that is okay? >> yes. >> with respect to the upcoming meeting, i would like to make two points. first i find the use of the word "recovery" to be inappropriate within the context of a commission on disability. maybe mental health professionals see it that way, but we know that the ada second prong definition respects the

fact that a history of disability or discrimination does not end with a cure. i encounter so many who feel that once meds are prescribed the disability ends. second, as we read over and over, almost daily when a person with a psychiatric disability is deemed as a danger, i am frustrated that law enforcement never seems to be included in these types of meetings and fail to progress their understanding and no one really sees this as a disability issue. and was sent by logan hopper, who is a member of the public and an ada disability consultant. >> i think those are excellent comments and excellent points to raise. terri, can we talk about the police aspect first?

>> at solve we attend the crisis interventions and do our presentations and discussions about stigma. michael coordinates that with the police force and more and more officers are volunteering now, which is a really good sign. they used to be mandated -- told to go and this last class we had a lot more volunteers and just shows you that the culture is changing. so there is hope. and i want to say about recovery, i know many people think when we say "recovery" we mean "cure ," and we don't mean cure at all. when someone is recovering from a stroke "recovery" there are many, many definitions to "recovery." and essentially one of the main definitions i have seen is to have "living a life

that is meaningful to me." >> exactly and "recovery" is, what we talk about "recovery" it's a process. and it may not be the ideal word. language is evolving. language always evolves and the words that we use today may not be the words that we use a year from now or ten years from now and we'll always find better, more appropriate language to use, but the alternative to the concept of recovery is hopelessness; that we as mental health consumers will never get better. that we'll never have fulfilling lives and that is not our reality. i spent part of my 20s homeless and schizoeffective disorder and i am here talking to today. i am working full-time.

i am not taking psychiatric meds by choice and that is what my recover looks like and it means that i am able to live a full, productive, and fulfilling life. and i absolutely agree with the discussion surrounding the exact terminology. but i really can't take issue with the concept. and whatever words we use to describe that experience of moving forward with our lives, of finding things that work for us, of finding ways to be happy and fulfilled in our lives, that is what we're talking about with recovery. the word may change, but the concept stays the same. >> thank you so much. thank you so much. >> thank you for inviting us. >> thank you. we're going to keep moving on and we're going to move to team c, mental health and veterans.

lara star. >> hi good afternoon and thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk to you guys all again. it's always a pleasure to be back. good to see you all. the offices have moved, so we're not nearly as close as we were in the past and i think you can't have a conversation in regards to mental health and not in addition, have the conversation of how that intersects with the veteran population? so i am thankful it was allowed to continue to be part of the agenda and that we continue the conversation, and that the conversations that happened in the disability world don't exclude the conversations that also need to happen within the veteran community. so thank you again. in keeping with the mental health awareness month, the national center of ptsd has june 27 as the post traumatic stress disorder day and for the entire community to realize the

issues revolving around post traumatic stress disorder. in keeping with the language, . post traumatic stress disorder and that post traumatic stress disorder doesn't have to identify you for the rest of your life. so just in keeping with the theme, we are a veterans service organization with direct services with mental health services, case manager, social workers, clinicians and we are veterans helping veterans. so a little brief history about

ptsd. ptsd has been termed and coined many different terms, shell-shocked, battle fatigue and vietnam syndrome and in the late '80s, several elements are unique to the veteran population. so saying all right, look at the post traumatic stress disorder and in regardss to the civilian population how different is that from what the military and what the veterans experiencing combat experiencing? and paralleling those with mental health conditions and mental health diagnoses. it's necessary in order to seek specific types of treatment in regard to post traumatic stress disorder. but for the rest of the presentation, i will drop the d

to reduce the stigma around the disorder. one of the things that we offer associate with post-traumatic stress is combat and that is the unique experience that veterans bring and the unique experience that makes post-traumatic stress in veterans different and unique to the population. also saying that that population is requires specific types of treatment that are unique to dealing and coping with -- and learning coping skills to function and having fulfilling, wonderful lives after the experience. so the idea that combat-related issues, combat-related stressors, and of course, anyone who follows the news and the media, there is improvised explosive device, rocket-propelled grenades and other individualized blasts, but the actual combat experience itself can many times cause severe symptoms of

post-traumatic stress. an additional level of post-traumatic stress when we think of just combat is a new concept called "moral injury." it's something that is beginning to take a little bit of interest in the lot of the communities and they are trying to figure out how to best serve veterans with post-traumatic stress? moral injury is the guilt element and how you live with your experience and you live with your decisions of combat. so identifying that post-traumatic stress has different levels and not everyone responds equally to treatment, nor does everyone have the exact same experience, because everyone's experience is unique, regardless of the con flict or the amount of time that you served in the military. in addition, to the combat-related issues there are issues that aren't necessarily isolated or selective in the military that are wrapped around the combat element. so that is something that i am sure many of you have heard about in the military, which is

military sexual trauma. so the survival of military sexual trauma is likely to then relate and have the exposure to those traumas ending with post-traumatic stress. so these three categoreys are how the veteran's affairs communities tries to provide treatment. regardless of which mode that you are identified to have experienced in which created the post-traumatic stress is avoidance and numbing. so it's one of the main issues that makes it very difficult to get veterans treatment. and many veterans, especially those returning from current conflicts will often isolate themselvess from communities and from the mental health communities and the mental health initiatives in place to help address these issues.

hyperarousal, or the exaggerated startle response. quickly responding to outside stimulants and triggers and once again, that ties in with the need to prevent and avoid situations and circumstances that might cause severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress and just the reexperiencing. avoiding certain situations, which might make you feel you were right before where you were what created that post-traumatic stress. some common causes for post-traumatic stress with our current combat veterans, ied, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma and death of military individuals. within the disability community, and with our veteran community and within our populations in san francisco, one of the ways that the veterans who are dealing -- and

really having a difficult time coping with post-traumatic stress, many find coping mechanisms in drug and alcohol and other substance-abuse and it's a coping mechanism that hasn't just begun to affect your current veterans, but many vietnam-era and world war ii veterans are struggling with the coping mechanisms of drug and alcohol. recovery and what "recovery" means. if you receive treatment, and you are actively engaged in your own mental health, that post-traumatic stress doesn't have to identify an individual and that through this process, and through many different modalities of treatment, an individual with live with their

post-traumatic stress and live with what is required for them to live a happy and healthy life. there are some who never really get there and unfortunately, that leads to post-traumatic stress and our overall numbers of suicide and currently reporting 22 veterans who commit suicide every single day and that that number will continue to rise with the number of veterans that we have during multiple deployments and extended period of time that many of our young people are serving in the military. with recovery, there are many aspects of our community that are really doing a lot of outreach and peer support, which is found to be the no. 1 -- the best way that younger veterans are recovering from post-traumatic stress is that here are my experiences, here is how my experience has shaped me, and now i am sharing this experience with someone who isn't there yet and hopefully, together, we will all find a

better tomorrow. and so in addition to organizes like swords, the va has come a very long way in updating its services and ensuring that they are the foreleader in addressing post-traumatic stress. so i couldn't give this presentation without that additional element and post-traumatic stress and how we finally try to break down some of the stigma and someone who is suffering from post-traumatic stress can lead a healthy and fulfilling life. someone who had conditions, can fulfill all of their employment obligations, take care of their families, because they are still spouses, wives, husbands and individuals of the community. so finding the way

that our disability rules, regulations and ideas take that part and understand that the veteran experience is unique. and just identifying that it is unique, really can break down a whole lot of barriers. that is all. any questions? >> thank you. is there any questions from the council? any questions from staff? seeing there are no questions. thank you very much. >> thank you. you have a great day. >> thank you. next we have david elliot from the mental health board of san francisco and roland wong will be taking over as co-chair now. thank you. >> i don't know how much time we have here. about ten minutes or so. >> you have about that, eight minutes.

>> my name is david elliot lewis and i'm glad to have the chance to be here to be able to talk to access to services in the city, from my own experience, my observations of others. this city is blessed in many ways and we probably have more access to mental health services per capita than i think any other city in the circuit city and that is good, but pain and suffering still exists. and it's actually pain and suffering that i have known firsthand. first let me talk a little bit about myself and you can see where i am coming from. in addition to being co-chair of the mental health advocate, i have been successful in many ways in my life and i have been

a consumer and if it wasn't for the services actually offered in this city to help people with mental illness, i wouldn't have been able to pull myself out of the darkness. i wouldn't have been able to bring myself here to talk to you. i wouldn't be able to serve on mental health board and i wouldn't be able to do volunteer work that i do for the mental health association and nami and other groups, but i couldn't have done it if i hadn't gotten help from the city, from the city's services. so first and foremost, i am grateful and there are excellent services and there are gaps too. it's not a perfect system, but i am sort of a late bloomer in terms of mental illness and i actually managed to go through most of life without having a problem. and i am not saying that i didn't have problems, but i didn't think i had problems, but it took a