For decades, the nonprofit Vermont Association for the Mentally Handicapped has played an important role in Vermont’s peer advocacy world.
The organization was founded in 1983 and has long worked to support “equal rights, protection, and participation for people marginalized by psychiatric diagnoses and labels,” according to its Facebook page. The organization is required by law to serve on various boards and committees and publishes a regular newspaper on mental health and psychiatric care issues in the state.
But now, the future of the organization is an open question. Amid concerns about the organization’s performance, it lost bids for state grants it had received for decades and quietly ceased many functions.
“Right now, we’re on a volunteer basis, including the executive director,” Zachary Hughes, vice president of the Vermont Commission on the Mentally Handicapped, said in an interview. “We kind of stopped our physical activities, so to speak.”
Hughes said the organization’s board of directors is still meeting and has decided to continue operating. However, it is not yet clear what exactly that will be.
“We are restructuring,” Hughes said. “And we are looking to apply for other grants as well.”
“Serious and specific concerns”
Since the 1990s, Vermont mental health survivors have received regular grants from the state Department of Mental Health for “peer leadership, advocacy, and peer support,” according to Department of Mental Health spokesperson Alex Franz. It is said that he has received. The most recent iteration of that grant, awarded to a different group, was $607,375 over 12 months.
According to Hughes, the grant was the group’s only source of funding; Tax return from 2022 Indicates a small amount of other income. In 2022, the nonprofit employed a total of 20 people and had approximately $125,000 in assets at year-end, according to filings.
This summer, the Vermont Department of Mental Health abolished decades of precedent and awarded grants to new organizations.
The decision was made after receiving opinions from more than a dozen people. signed the letter In January, he expressed concerns about the activities of Vermont Mental Health Survivors to the Department of Mental Health.
The letter, obtained by VTDigger through a records request, was signed by 14 “members of Vermont’s mental illness survivor community” and called on the state to solicit new bids for the grant.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to (the families of the mentally ill in Vermont) neglecting their responsibilities and obligations under the grant, nor can we remain silent about the wasteful allocation of state funds to VPS,” the letter reads. It’s dark.
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Based on the conditions of grantthe organization is supposed to support and advocate for people with psychiatric diagnoses, publish a newspaper about related issues, and award funds to projects run by community members, among other tasks. Ta.
But the January letter claimed the nonprofit was not meeting those responsibilities. According to the letter, Vermont Psychiatric Survivors has not participated in a statewide consultation on peer support, has not appointed anyone to a state board or commission, and has no impact on the psychiatric community. He also did not testify on any proposed legislation in the state Legislature.
The group’s newspaper, Counterpoint, “no longer centers the voices and stories of psychiatric survivors,” the letter said, and the group has experienced significant delays in funding community projects. .
The letter says the signatories also have “serious and specific concerns regarding VPS’s financial management, employment practices, organizational culture, and compliance with its bylaws, particularly regarding its membership and member meetings.”
The letter’s six signatories either declined to comment or could not be reached by VTDigger.
Executive Vice President Hughes said the letter was extremely upsetting and not entirely accurate.
“I know everyone says that, but it’s true,” he said. For example, the organization had representatives on some state boards and committees, Hughes said.
“There were certainly other things in (the letter) that I would have liked to have looked into a little more,” Hughes said. “We do know that there have been concerns about VPS over the years, but we have always overcome them.”
“Learning experience”
Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Emily Hawes said she met with the signatories after receiving the letter.
“DMH recognizes that it takes time, energy and courage for individuals to share their concerns, and we take those concerns very seriously,” Franz said in an email. said.
The ministry issued the following statement in May: Application request For Peer Support Grants. Three organizations applied: the Vermont Association of Survivors of the Mentally Ill, the Vermont National Alliance on Mental Illness, and a new group called Mad Freedom Advocates.
Of the three proposals, state officials rated MadFreedom Advocates’ application the most, according to records provided to VTDigger. One state employee, Eva Dayon, expressed concern that Vermonters with mental disabilities may not be able to meet their responsibilities with the grant.
“It is not clear that this organization has the capacity to undertake this activity,” Dayon wrote in a review of the Vermont Association for the Mentally Handicapped’s proposal.
The Department of Mental Health ultimately awarded the grant to MadFreedom Advocates. According to its website, the organization is “a grassroots nonprofit organization run by and for psychiatric survivors, the insane, and others marginalized by the mental health system.”
Chris Niall, executive director of MadFreedom Advocates, declined to comment.
Did this letter influence the state’s decision to award the grant to Mad Freedom Advocates on behalf of Vermonters with Mental Illness? Franz said not.
“Proposals submitted through the RFP process will be evaluated solely on the content of the proposal and the bidder’s ability to meet the scope of work set forth in the RFP,” she said.
Hughes, director of the Vermont Association for the Mentally Handicapped, believes this is indeed the case. But he promised that even without the grant, the organization would survive.
“This was definitely a learning experience,” he said. “But we’re still going to be here.
