Community Hero Award for October 2004

Laura Van Tosh, October's Community Hero

by Wayne Goldstein, First Vice President

Laura Van Tosh, this month's Community Hero, has had a remarkable journey as an adult affected by mental illness. She has gone from having been a patient in a state psychiatric hospital to helping patients ready to leave such facilities to find housing and support services in the community. In between, she has become a recognized expert on the federal, state, and county level in a wide range of issues related to mental health, homelessness, and particularly the rights of consumers of mental health services to have a say in their treatment and in related public policy.

Laura is the founder and coordinator of the Mental Health Policy Roundtable, a national educational forum funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She is the author or co-author of numerous papers on mental health policy issues written for professional journals, federal agencies, advocacy organizations, and private health care corporations. She has served as a consultant to a number of federal agencies and projects and has been the winner of many awards, most recently recognized by the Washington Psychiatric Society as 2003 Advocate of the Year. Laura was part of the panel discussion on mental health issues sponsored by MCCF in October 2000, and she returns four years later to receive our wholehearted endorsement as a genuine community hero.

This Page Last Edited: October 12, 2004 .