The Region Ten Community Service Board, the Quality Community Council and the Virginia Organizing Project sponsored a legislative forum on mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse issues on April 26 at the Albemarle County Office Building in Charlottesville.

More than 175 people attended the event, with 55 speakers presenting their views on these important public policy matters.

Delegate Steve Landes, Delegate David Toscano, and Senator Creigh Deeds’ legislative aide, Tracy Eppard, listened to more than three hours of testimony.

“Residents, consumers, family members and service providers of Charlottesville and the surrounding counties gathered. . . to discuss their concerns related to mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse issues and how these services are provided in our community,” Lara Franke and Nina Robbins wrote in the summary of the forum that was presented to the regional legislative delegation.

Franke and Robbins were part of a University of Virginia community organizing course that worked on the forum as a class project. VOP leaders and staff assisted Dr. Wende Marshall in teaching the class.

Martha Maltais, mental retardation services director at Region Ten, said, “We need increased support and residential services for those with mental retardation. Legislators have to recognize that upwards of 1,500 people are on the urgent care waiting list in Virginia.”

“Consumer survivor representation on the commission on mental health reform is a joke,” said Frank Blankenship. “There is only a token consumer survivor presence on this commission and the task forces attached to it. The Governor’s panel established after the Virginia Tech tragedy doesn’t have a single consumer survivor on it.”

“Studies have proven that consumer-operated programs support people in recovery and reduce their use of hospital, crisis and other expensive services,” said Ann Benner, program director of the VOCAL Network, which is Virginia’s statewide network of mental health consumers.

Other speakers talked about transportation issues, the need to improve wages for those who are working in community facilities, and concerns about the lack of programming for addictions, as well as providing personal stories reflecting a serious need to reform the service delivery system to make it more effective.

Hearing testimony from Don Lewis, who works in Greene County, about problems of getting staff properly licensed, Delegate Landes said, “I want to get some specifics on how other states dealt with shortening the time for licensure and credentialing to see what we could do to make changes in that area. It is something we should and could do.”

For a copy of the 17-page report on the April 26 legislative forum, send a request to Joe Szakos at szakos@virginia-organizing.org.