Joseph Rogers of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania to Be Honored with Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award

PHILADELPHIA, May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Joseph Rogers, Chief Advocacy Officer of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP), will receive the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from Eli Lilly and Company on May 22 at 2 p.m. at the Roosevelt Hotel, 123 Baronne Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Conti Room. The award includes $15,000 for the non-profit organization of the honoree's choice.

Rogers overcame psychiatric hospitalizations and homelessness to become a national leader of the mental health consumer movement and an internationally known advocate. In 1984, MHASP hired Rogers to start support groups of individuals with psychiatric diagnoses – but he didn't stop there. Through his leadership and vision, MHASP has grown from a regional advocacy organization with a dozen staff into a multi-faceted advocacy and services agency with approximately 275 staff, operating some 50 diverse peer-to-peer programs.

For nearly three decades, Rogers (who was MHASP's President and CEO from 1997 to 2007) has worked tirelessly on behalf of individuals with behavioral health conditions. He has testified before U.S. Senate committees, the Pennsylvania Legislature and Philadelphia City Council, and has consulted in more than 30 states as well as with the federal government and internationally. He was a key player in the closing of Philadelphia State Hospital and the successful struggle to get the dollars to follow the patients into the community, to establish a nationally recognized system of community-based services, including peer-run services. He helped design Community Behavioral Health (CBH) – Philadelphia's city-run agency that administers behavioral health services for some 400,000 Philadelphia Medicaid recipients – which has become a national model, and was a leader in the successful effort to save CBH from being taken over by for-profit managed care organizations. He helped develop a successful coalition effort to bring the Crisis Intervention Team model – an award-winning model of community policing that prevents injuries to, and saves the lives of, officers and civilians – to Philadelphia. Besides many other accomplishments and awards, he received the 2005 Heinz Award for the Human Condition, which includes a $250,000 unrestricted cash prize.

MHASP's mission is to promote recovery and resilience through innovative education, advocacy, services and supports using person-first, strengths-based approaches, and to lead, serve, and offer technical assistance to regional, state and national organizations and constituencies.

Contact: Susan Rogers, MHASP, 267-507-3812, [email protected]

SOURCE Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania