NISA/Northern Initiative for Social Action is an organization run by and for consumers of mental health services.
NISA evolved out of a number of collaborative projects originally established within the Outpatient Occupational Therapy services of Network North (now the Northeast Mental Health Centre - Sudbury). The common objective of these projects was to reanimate consumers, to offer them meaningful and useful activities (or occupations), and to provide a setting for active social recovery rather than passive dependence on community services.
NISA was incorporated in order to unite and extend those initial projects; but the incorporation also reflects the value our members placed on the emerging sense of our own community. This sense of consumers' personal involvement and connectedness seems to us to be an essential element of mental health reform.
The basic task of mental health reform, therefore, is to make deinstitutionalization work, by providing appropriate community supports for consumer/survivors. NISA was, in fact, a pilot project in developing a wide range of such supports. It offered -- and still does -- enrichment, improved access, and alternatives to the opportunities available in the community. We have come to recognize three types of needs experienced by consumer/survivors:
Being: a basic acceptance of oneself; not having to apologize for one's existence.
Belonging: having other people to relate to; being part of a group; having 'family'.
Becoming: developing new skills and statuses; growing toward socioeconomic maturity.
We at NISA feel we have much to offer to the process of mental health reform. We have a working model for organization, cooperation, and community involvement. We have acquired experience, and a knowledge base which we have documented and shared with others both in Ontario and internationally.
NISA is an organization run by and for consumers of mental health services. We develop occupational skills, nurture self-confidence and provide resources for recovery, by creating opportunities for participants to contribute to their own well-being and that of their community.
Occupational initiatives for consumers of mental health services.
