The Keep the Promise Coalition is dedicated to advocating for the “Blue Ribbon Solutions” necessary to maintain and expand critical mental health services for adults and children and housing options to meet their needs. We hope you join us in building the bridge to support, respect and recovery.

The KEEP THE PROMISE Coalition was founded in 1999 when several consumers, family members, providers and advocates convened to discuss the mental health crisis in Connecticut. In the three years following the closure of two large state hospitals, the demand for adult mental health services had increased by 20% while funding for basic mental health services rose less than 1% after inflation.

As a result, the service system was stretched to the breaking point and could not meet client needs. Persons with psychiatric disabilities were unnecessarily institutionalized in hospitals, jails and nursing homes or living in shelters with few, if any, support services. Similarly, the Connecticut children’s mental health system did not address the needs of the clients and families it was suppose to serve. Roughly 90% of Connecticut’s children in need of behavioral health services were in expensive residential settings or institutions rather than community placements and hundreds were placed out of state. The needs of the families were often disregarded and they were offered what was available not what was appropriate. Connecticut was spending money on crisis, not recovery.

In July of 2000, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health issued a report documenting the crisis in the state’s mental health systems and outlining recommendations to restore their integrity. It recognized that implementing the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations would require an ongoing investment of funds throughout the children and adult mental health systems to repair the damage caused by years of underfunding basic services, and to develop and implement innovative consumer and family driven models that emphasize prevention, early intervention, and recovery.

The KEEP THE PROMISE Coalition actively supported implementation of the Blue Ribbon Solutions and advocated for appropriate policies and funding for the full range of services necessary to restore the integrity of Connecticut’s mental health system. The Governor and Legislators responded by proposing and enacting a number of significant initiatives to improve the state’s mental health system.

Despite these efforts, Connecticut’s mental health systems cannot address the critical needs of the individuals and families who require services and housing. Unnecessary incarceration and institutionalization continue and resources are not available to provide person and family focused age appropriate, flexible services. In short, the systems are still in desperate need of repair. Building a consumer and family-driven, comprehensive community based mental health system will require ongoing sustained state investments.

	Jan VanTassel, Esq. - Jan VanTassel, who has been CLRP’s Executive Director since 1998, has been a public interest attorney for nearly thirty years. A 1977 graduate of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, she spent a year as a VISTA volunteer in Idaho before moving to Connecticut to work with legal services doing policy advocacy work at the State Capitol. She had a three year hiatus in New Mexico, where she worked at the Institute of Public Law, and spent six very long years managing the Alternate Care Unit (community services) of DSS, before she was able to return to legal services as the Executive Director of the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut. While at LARCC, Jan founded the Connecticut Alliance for Basic Human Needs and was a leading activist on public benefits, elder and disability issues. Jan is President of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund as well as the ADA Coalition of Connecticut, and serves on the Board of the United Labor Agency and the Advisory Board of the Office of Victim Services and is a member of the CT Bar Association’s House of Delegates. Jan also has a master’s degree in History from Tufts University and has had several articles published.
	Sheila B. Amdur, MSW – Sheila Amdur has been a member of the National Board of Directors for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) from 2005 – present, and the Chair of the NAMI National Adult Policy Committee. She served as President of NAMI-CT from 1999-2002, Chair, National NAMI State Presidents’ Council from 2001-2002, and Co-chair of Task Force on Consumer Inclusion in NAMI. She is Co-chair of the Keep the Promise Coalition, and founding member of FAVOR, a family advocacy organization for children’s mental health. She is a member of the Community Mental Health Strategy Board, Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council, State Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and a commissioner of the West Hartford Housing Authority. She previously served as a member of Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan’s Mental Health Cabinet, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health. She also previously directed mental health centers, and was the Mental Health Policy Project Director for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health. Personal interests include a small business in selling antiquarian books, gardening, and traveling, and especially being a grandmother!