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The Bay Area Networks of Mental Health Clients (BAN) is a network of mental health client-run self-help organizations. Founded in 1990, BAN was an outgrowth of groups in four San Francisco Bay Area counties that had been meeting regularly since 1987.
BAN currently includes client organizations from Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Peninsula, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties and is doing outreach to other Bay Area counties and organizations. Please see our Directory of Members to find the local organization in your area.
The self-help organizations comprising BAN meet quarterly to discuss common concerns such as managing centers, obtaining funding, facilitating support groups, providing peer counseling, advocating for mental health clients, and exploring client-run alternatives to traditional forms of mental health treatment. Learning much from the civil rights movement, we identify with the struggles of racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, the homeless, the elderly, and other disadvantaged groups to achieve dignity and equality.
Survival of the member organizations and their services depends on sharing the skills client providers have developed. When we meet, BAN members define self-help principles, encourage leadership, exchange information about mental health legislation and computer technology, develop strategies to fight discrimination, organize political and legislative action and promote public policy favorable to clients.
We welcome your financial support which will help sustain BAN activities and our member organizations. Please make tax-exempt donations payable to:
The Alameda County Network of Mental Health Clients/BAN
3238 Adeline Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94703
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