The purpose of the Centering People with Disabilities in Leadership for Mental Health is to develop leadership skills in people with disabilities and enable them to learn the skills to support personal and community advocacy and learn how to reduce stigma in mental health for people with disabilities. This will be a group of people who can share their journey of their own needs and generate ideas that can be used to increase the capacity for people with disabilities to access mental health services. The primary goals of this project are to convene people with disabilities and provide the space for them to develop their own innovative strategies to educate and empower their community about the importance of mental health care, destigmatize mental health issues, develop culturally sensitive resources/tools, and increase community member engagement in the LACDMH stakeholder process. The population of focus includes people with blindness/vision impairment; deafness/hearing impairment; physical disabilities; intellectual/developmental disabilities; psychiatric disabilities; learning disabilities; autism spectrum disorder; and/or other disabilities, which may be apparent or non-apparent.
