"This holiday season is a time for family... and I have my wonderful family to thank for the spiritual poems in this issue." 

"A recent draft report ... sited a lack of proper case management and supervised housing as contributing to the failure to provide adequate care to Andrew Goldstein, who is charged in the death of Kendra Webdale."

"diagnoses of schizophrenia or other psychoses do not mean an end to sexuality. However, mental health professionals have long acted as if individuals with chronic psychiatric disorders somehow become -- or are expected to become -- asexual."

"WCEC is a unique vocational rehabilitation mode, operated by  to provide peer support and self-help services to residents of Westchester and Rockland Counties."

"She had heard about us and reached out for help ... The hospital became so uncomfortable in the spotlight that they released the caller the next day!"

"Schaefer, 71, and her 74-year-old husband have learned to relinquish the dreams they once had for their 44-year-old son, a talented artist ...  After a long struggle ... he is now a patient at a Maryland psychiatric hospital." 
 

"few incidents stir up firestorms like those where the tabloids use words like 'deranged' and 'psychos'... Can you name another group where these types of derogatory terms can be openly used on front page headlines without legal and/or political repercussions?"

"People who have been diagnosed with a mental illness open up to you when they discover you have one too, especially schizophrenia."

"it was the first Christmas since my mother passed away, and I needed support. All around me I got the message that I was supposed to feel happy, but I only felt more and more alone."

"The first "Voice" Journalism Award was presented to Marvin Spieler, for a riveting account of his experience with the criminal justice system in 'A Car Ride to Hell'"

"MHVEP trainings are providing an excellent networking opportunity ...  building the grassroots momentum essential to a civil rights movement."

"There are a substantial number of people with recurrent, serious mental illnesses who tend to reject traditional mental health services. Many end up in crisis and then experience long hospitalizations ... An increasing number of them are now in jails and prisons."

"friends and acquaintances spent much time and effort trying to talk me out of what was best for me. They probably meant well, but they weren't educated about mental illness and they were simply wrong."

"these steps lead to clear boundaries for oneself that allows the relationship with the ill person to resume a place in one's life, but not to take over one's entire life or prevent one from ever planning their own life because they have to always be 'on-call' for the next crisis."

"many sibling-advocates feel that having a brother or sister with a disability has helped them to learn that a person's value should not be measured in IQ tests."

"If you are a consumer of many years of illness and treatment, then we need to trust that you may know more about professionals than we know about ourselves."

"Consumers, as they are called, keep their mental illness a secret. But do they really have anything to be ashamed of?"

"The illness model separates the disabled from the rest of the family, for example, by serving as the 'identified patient,' providing an easy victim for family problems when the struggle is system-wide."