while i am idell wilson and i was born and raised right here in san francisco. i was born in san francisco general hospital, the one that they are going to put down and the new one is going up. and it is so ironic born there, i went back and work there had as a teenager, too, up on the 7th floor, in the psychiatric ward. and then went back as a patient a decade later, and now a decade later, i am back as a presenter. a speaker. a person who has been in recovery. in in our own voice has five components that we speak about. one is dark days, two is acceptance, three is treatment, four is coping skills and five is success, hopes and dreams. dark days came a little bit for me as a patient -- as a consumer, excuse me. as a consumer, go back to that language. thank you guys very much. language, language, see, we're still stuck in the language. dark days came from not knowing what was going on with me all of my life, should i say from childhood, teenagehood and adulthood. i knew there was something different, but i didn't know quite what it was. so i had numerous of da

alliance on mental illness, nami, gillian croen, nami peer-to-peer mentor and ioov speaker and idell wilson, co-chair, mayor's disability council nami peer-to-peer mentor and ioov speaker. 8 information item, report on the golden guardian exercise on may 15, 2013 the disability prospective, presentation by council members chip supanich and denise senhaux. >> 9, public comments, 10 information item, correspondence, 11, discussion item, council member comments and announcements. >> thank you. now we have public comment. is there anyone for item 3, public comment? >> good afternoon. my name is richard rothman and i'm a retired city worker. i just retired from the pedestrian safety advisory committee after being on it about six years and the last three years representing seniors and disabilities. and i just thought it was time for new blood in my seat. but i am coming here today to talk about the proposed mta's disability parking. i have been interested in this for a long time, and while there is a problem and i think mta needs to enforce the rules, you know? if people are getting disability pl

then we offer a peer-to-peer program, which idell wilson is one of our peer mentors, a 12-week free course also, taught by peers for peers. sort of a roadmap for recovery. we have provider education which is a new program we're started geared towards providers of mental health and taught by mentors and family members to give the alternative perspective of living with mental illness. similar will solve, we have a public speaking bureau called in our own voice, which is idell is a speaker and gillian is also one of our speakers, where we go to businesses and schools, and tell our own stories in an effort to fight stigma and educate the public about mental illness. we have a similar program geared towards high school students, called "ending the silence." and parents and teachers are allies where we go into high schools and colleges and middle schools, and try to put a face and a personal story to mental illness as a way to destigmatize and help people

so as chair wilson said, as idell said i'm the deputy director with the mental health association of san francisco and very delighted to be back here today and thank you to joanna for inviting us back today. to start things off, you know, i think just as a point of reference, i have a wealth of materials, we can provide the council members and public afterwards. a quick background on mha, we're a non-profit based in downtown san francisco. we do not provide direct clinical-based services. we are an affiliate of the national mental health association. we provide a lot more services based in education and advocacy, research, training and increasingly peer support services. so another thing to know about us, we are a consumer-run organization, a mental health consumer-run organization. so it really gives us a unique perspective on the work we do on behalf of folks in san francisco. to just talk briefly about our work with hoarding, i guess it's been about 15, 16 years, close to 16 years that mental health association of san francisco has worked on hoarding and cluttering challenges spec