April 8, 1998

Building a new tradition in client empowerment through accountability.

 We use the metaphor of an academic institution to describe our training program. In reality, it is to be just a training program.

Accountability 'Academy'



Java Cup a leap into the unknown


In the era of managed care, the agenda moves over from an empowerment centering towards accountability. We need to focus on bringing out the role of quality in our leadership. We will train a leadership core for Santa Clara County and network them into a new tradition of client activism. The objective is to build the sort of tradition that will have the capacity to involve a large number of clients in a meaningful way.

Mission Statement



  1. Project Support Committee

    ['Board of Trustees']

    community oversight


    This project rests on the advocacy of the clients of Santa Clara County. A representative group will be drawn from the county clients through a process determined by them. This Support Committee will oversee the financial arrangements for the training and insure that the needs of the client community are met.

  2. Project Advisory Committee

    ['Administration']

    Tyrannosaur managing affairs


    An Advisory Committee for the Santa Clara Project will be formed. It will (1) have a majority of clients and (2) in the spirit of developing dialogue include some professionals and/or other non-clients.

  3. Staff

  4. Network Support System

    ['Faculty']

    Putting a new tradition in place is a fragile process. It calls for networking with leading activists around the state who are the most experienced in the problem of accountability. In the beginning, it is important NOT to lean on local personalities heavily, so they won't have to bear any kind of double burden. Yet, while this networking will persist, the training is expected to engender a local accountability networking which will more and more take over the training capacities/functions.

  5. Trainers

  6. 17 listed confirmed
  7. 4 listed not confirmed




  8. Accountability leadership training

    ['Curriculum']

    Common Starfish Visionary training program


    This is six Saturdays, given biweekly. It involves selecting a core of leadership trainees (15-20) and one-day workshops in the areas below, each run by a group of consultants. The first is introductory, the topics of the next four are given below, the last one is to summarize and involves presentations by the trainees.

    Some sessions (e.g., mornings) would be videotaped, and the facilitators would also develop written training materials.

    1. Introduction: Overview, Cultural competency, Internet

      Coordinators: Maria Maceira, Dick Ratledge

      We introduce the perspective of persons of quality in a system oriented toward accountability.

    2. Ethical standards: Accountability for triggering

      Coordinators: Debi Davis, Alison Mills

      We will challenge the politics of attack by developing a dialogue regarding clients and the ethics of triggering.

    3. Discrimination: Advocacy as reasonable persons

      Coordinators: Claudia Center, Lyn Goldinger

      We will challenge the subordination to tokenism by a culture of advocacy of clients as prima facie reasonable persons.

    4. Role of sensitivity: Challenging system unreasonableness

      Coordinators: Bonnie Schell, Sharon Schmidt

      We will upgrade the self-help modality to a tradition of constructing sensitivity in the face of system unreasonableness.

    5. 'Paradigm shift': Interpreting medical model issues

      Coordinators: Sylvia Caras, Andrew Phelps

      We will construct the capacity for 'high-functioning' involvement by immersion in an advocacy style based on interpretation.

    6. Summary: Vision/spirituality, trainee presentations, networking

      Coordinators: B.J. Morganti, Carol Moss

      We will address the role of spirituality. The trainees will present topics as 'final examination' and we will ceremonially network them on the basis of accountability.


  9. Related Projects

    ['Associated Activities']

    Apatosaur resetting the work environment


    1. M.H. staff training/Client attendance




      A weekly seminar series for staff at County M.H. and the non-profit providers introduces the perspectives and personalities of the client training. Some clients, such as the trainees, to be invited to listen.

    2. Internet organizing & Silicon Valley outreach




      Develop a client InterNetwork and get material support from Silicon Valley firms for clients online. Bring client activism into prevailing mode of doing business.


  10. Outreach/Placement

    ['Placement of Graduates']

    Stegasaur constructing the new system


  11. Accountability leadership trainings

    ['Academic Schedule']





    After the concept and the experience have sunk in, we will do one or several additional leadership trainings based on the curriculum developed. Gradually, the out-of-county training roles will be filled by in-county trainers. In the first such additional training, they will be predominantly 'junior faculty' and be trained by some of the original group in providing trainings. From the second one on, many/most of the 'senior faculty' positions would be in-county. A lower key process of networking with out-of-county faculty, such as attendance at the 'graduation' ceremony, will be designed/developed.

  12. Quality Client-Run Advocacy

    ['Community Institution']


    Bat Star


    At the end of this project, we hope to leave in place an accountability training project that is part of the Santa Clara County system of care. The novelty is that this well be a client-run system that will promote high-functioning outcomes.

    The object is to involve a LARGE NUMBER of Santa Clara clients in the empowerment process. It is the test of the value of the Project. The challenge to the trainees is to invent the ways this empowerment can be made broad-based, it is to this standard they will have to be held accountable.