TMHCA Winter-Spring Newsletter Now Online

Click Here for Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association’s Winter-Spring Newsletter

2009 TMHCA Conference Registration Extended

The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association’s 2009 Annual Conference will be held Monday, May 18 & Tuesday, May 19 at Patterson Park Community Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Conference attendees can obtain valuable information on current mental health trends and services. Conference highlights will include keynote speakers, innovative workshops, annual presentations of the Bob Long, Erika Ecos, Don Boyette, Public Eye, and Legislator of the Year awards, and the election of TMHCA’s Board of Directors for FY 2009-10. Registration forms and more conference information are now available below. Feel Free to mail your registration to TMHCA or register at the door the day of the conference. You can obtain more information by contacting TMHCA’s Nashville office at 1-888-539-0393.

Click Here to View 2009 Conference Flyer

Click Here to 2009 Conference Registration

Mental Health Reductions/Cuts Hurt and Could Soon Elimniate Peer-to-Peer Programs in Tennessee

The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association (TMHCA) currently holds a sub-contract with the Tennessee Disability Coalition. Within that current agreement TMHCA provides two programs; Building Recovery & Individual Dreams & Goals through Education & Support (BRIDGES) and a Regional Advocacy Training Program. These programs are scheduled to be cuts/reducted by 68% of their current budget.  

Also, Peer Support Centers that are funded by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities with block grant funding budgets are being reduced in FY 2010 and nearly eliminated in FY 2011. The Peer Support Centers are a place for mental health consumers to go for education, support, and acceptance while working on recovery.

Please protect peer-to-peer funding by calling the Chair of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee Senator Randy McNally at phone (615) 741-6806 or (865) 483-5544. Senator Randy McNally can be emailed at sen.randy.mcnally@capitol.tn.gov or fax to (615) 253-0285. Time is runing out to save our programs.

TMHCA’s Beers Van Gogh Center Begins Construction Soon

The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association (TMHCA) is pleased to announce that the TMHCA Beers Van Gogh Center of Excellence will soon begin construction.  The Center will be the new home of TMHCA’s Peer Center and 10 individual single room occupancy (SRO) units. The new development will be located at 669 Madison Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a project that has taken around a year to start with a completion date slated by December 2009.

In an effort to meet the urgent and pressing housing needs of individuals with mental illness who are frequently incarcerated, and chronically homeless, in Memphis/Shelby County, TMHCA will construct this new multipurpose service and housing facility.  The facility will be owned and operated by the TMHCA, which provides best practice services for individuals with mental illness. The project will target individuals who are frequently incarcerated, homeless and experience mental illness.

TMHCA’s Opens New Locations for Psychchosocial Rehab, Intensive Outpatient and Certified Peer Delivered Services

The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association opened two new locations recently this year. TMHCA Dickson location opened on Thursday, January 8, 2009. TMHCA Columbia opened March 2, 2009. The new location/program will be open fulltime and provide Psychosocial Rehab, Intensive Outpatient, and Certified Peer Services to eligible mental health consumers in the Middle Tennessee area. The program will be open Monday – Friday from 9am-4pm at 91E Mathis Drive in Dickson and Monday—Friday from 8:00—4:30 at 100 Berrywood Drive  in Columbia in the offices owned by the Mental Health Cooperative .

These locations will be home to many recovery-based courses including Illness Management and Recovery, Supported Employment, Wellness Recovery Action Planning, and many other well-known curriculum-based recovery education and support programs.

How do you qualify? To qualify an adult (18 and older) must have received mental health and/or substance abuse services, be enrolled in the state’s TennCare Program and live in Tennessee.

You can currently enroll in the program four different ways:

By completing a referral form < CLICK HERE FOR REFERRAL FORM > or a referral form can be obtained by calling 1-888-539-0393. Self referral or referrals from an outside source can be faxed to our office; or

A State Certified Peer Specialists will take referrals via phone. For phone referrals call 1-888-539-0393 M-F between the hours of 9am-5pm; or

A State Certified Peer Specialist will meet you in your community to assist you with the enrollment process; or

You can mail a referral form to TMHCA Dickson, 955 Woodland, Nashville, TN 37206.

If you need to call after hours or toll free you can call 1-888-539-0393 Extension 8638 and leave your name and phone number and your call will be returned the next business day.

The Tennessee Mental Health Consumers' Association (TMHCA) is Tennessee’s only statewide consumer owned and operated organization with a board of directors and staff that are 100% mental health consumers. It is an organization that understands and lives the concept of peer-support.
For additional information contact TMHCA at 1-888-539-0393.