About Us
Current Board Members
Meghan Caughey, Board President
Corbett Monica, Vice President
Vacant Secretary/Treasurer
Kevin Bowers
Chrissy Peirsol
Deb Parker
Theresa Bingham
Michael Yao, MD
Terry Danielson
Organizational
History
MENTAL
HEALTH AMERICA OF
OREGON
Mental Health America of Oregon (MHAO) has been in existance since the 1970's. At various times it has been a 501(c) (3) organization and at other times it has been a program of another organization (e.g., Disability Rights Oregon, formerly known as the Oregon Advocacy Center). MHAO is currently a 501(c)(3) organization. Below is a timeline of its previous 13 years.
|
Year
|
Peerlinc
Oregon (formerly known as OCTA (Office of Consumer Technical Assistance)
|
Year
|
Mental
Health America of Oregon (MHAO)
(formerly known as the Mental Health Association of Oregon)
|
|
Oct 1998
|
State of
Oregon funded OCTA to provide statewide training and technical assistance to
consumer/ survivor groups. Kevin Fitts, Scott Snedecor and Miriam Gershow
were the original OCTA staff.
|
|
MHAO has
existed in some form for more than 35 years. Just prior to 2001, MHAO had
become a program at Oregon Advocacy Center.
|
|
Jan 2003
|
State of
Oregon eliminated OCTA’s funding due to budget cuts.
|
2001
|
MHAO
receives a bequest that allows it the ability to organize as a independent
nonprofit once again. Its primary
activities were systems advocacy. Beckie
Child, Casadi Marino, Steve Weiss, Jan Campbell and Rick ___ were founding
board members. Rollin Shelton joined the MHAO board in 2002.
|
|
Feb 2003
|
OCTA’s
organizational name continued; specific
work
activities in consumer/survivor community
determined
by Scope of Work attached to
individual
state and federal grants
|
2004
|
MHAO
awarded first round of funding for the Oregon Consumer/Survivor Network;
(successful
proposal was written by individuals associated with OCTA with OCTA named
as collaborative project work partner)
|
|
early 2005
|
OCTA begins
working on paper work to create 501(c)3 organization called Peerlinc
|
Oct
2005
|
OCTA and
MHAO become one organization. DBA is used for Peerlinc name
|
|
|
|
Nov 2007
|
Mental
Health Association of Oregon changed its name to Mental Health America of
Oregon via a DBA. DBA is also
maintained for Peerlinc name.
|
|
|
|
2010
|
MHAO wins
two awards from SAMHSA—Project Open and Peerlink
|
|
|
|
Jan
2011
|
MHAO moves
into its own office space once again.
|
.
Recognized
Organizational Work Areas of Expertise:
- Starting a consumer/survivor
group;
- Board development for
consumer/survivor groups;
- Infrastructure development for
consumer/survivor groups;
- Strategic planning for
consumer/survivor groups
- Fiscal responsibility trainings
for consumer/survivor groups
- Mentoring trainings to foster
consumer/survivor engagement with system planning bodies;
- Personal Futures
Person-Directed/Person-Centered Planning;
- Self-direction and
consumer/survivor self-management tools for Oregon’s Personal Care Services
program;
- Peer-delivered services trainings
and services expansion strategies for consumer/survivor groups;
- Trainings on peer-originated
funding proposal development and writing;
- Developing and building peer
networking affiliations from the ground up;
- Peer supports coordination
related to employment, including peer support groups specific to
employment-related concerns;
- Mental Health Systems advocacy