Advocacy

Philip Yanos, PhD, ISPS-US Member, professor, and eminent researcher at CUNY has started a petition titled "Mayor Adams, stop scapegoating "severe mental illness""
⁠
We encourage you to sign on today!⁠
⁠
Description:⁠
Mayor Eric Adams has recently been scapegoating people with "severe mental illness" for high-profile public safety issues in New York City, including shootings committed by people without mental health histories 5%, or nearly 400,000, people in New York City are diagnosed with a "severe mental illness" and make major contributions to its communities. Let's let Mayor Adams know that it's not okay to use mental illness as a scapegoat for the city's problems.⁠

ISPS-US Launches Speakers Bureau to Revolutionize Mental Health Conversations

PHILADELPHIA, PA - The International Society of Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis - US Chapter (ISPS-US) proudly introduces the ISPS-US Speakers Bureau. The Bureau offers access to a range of experts dedicated to changing the narrative on psychosis and mental health and championing psychological and social approaches that uphold human dignity.

Our Speakers Bureau brings together a diverse group of speakers, including service providers, academics, clinicians, individuals with lived experience of psychosis, and their families. By uniting these diverse voices, we aim to create an easily accessible and comprehensive resource for the press, organizations, and event planners.

Dear ProPublica,

In response to your investigation into mental health care access, we are writing to you on behalf of ISPS-US, the US chapter of an international organization devoted to advocating for psychological and social approaches to psychosis.  While many of our members are mental health professionals and researchers, a significant proportion are people with lived experience or their family members who have embraced our organization after years and sometimes decades in the mental health system. 

Structural barriers to care pose a critical problem, but this problem is compounded by a crisis regarding the quality of the care that can be accessed. 

ISPS-US's Advocacy Committee penned the following letter in response to SAMHSA's recent Request for Information; Potential Changes to its Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center. In it, we conveyed our concerns about the re-evaluation of the Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center (EBPRC), emphasizing the need for a more inclusive, transparent approach to evidence-based practices. We highlighted biases in current treatments, emphasizing the need for transparency, the inclusion of qualitative measures, and a focus on long-term research for effective mental health treatment.

We urged SAMHSA to consider the limitations of manualized treatments and to prioritize the relationships between clinicians and clients in the pursuit of well-being-focused interventions. Furthermore, we emphasized the importance of a more inclusive approach to soliciting feedback from various stakeholders in the mental health field.

ISPS-US is the United States Chapter of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis. Our organization is unique in its inclusion of researchers, clinicians, individuals with lived experience, family members, and other stakeholders, all of whom have joined together to create a three-dimensional picture of what works in the treatment of people diagnosed with severe mental illness. We appreciate SAMHSA’s invitation to share our knowledge and experience, and do so urgently to address our significant concerns regarding certain of your agency’s current recommendations and resources