RSVP Conference

 Paolo del Vecchio, M.S.W.
Associate Director, Consumer Affairs

Paolo del Vecchio, is the Associate Director for Consumer Affairs at the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, he manages the Center's precedent-setting activities in addressing consumer participation and education, discrimination and social inclusion, consumer rights, and others.

Previously, Mr. del Vecchio was the CMHS Acting Director for the Office of External Liaison where he coordinated the Center's communications and knowledge dissemination activities and was a Senior Policy Analyst who assisted in the development of national mental health policy and programs to improve the lives of people with mental health problems. This activity included emphasis on a wide-range of issues including consumer rights protections, restraint and seclusion, managed care, homelessness, alternative services, older adult mental health, cultural competence, and others.

Mr. del Vecchio was the first Consumer Affairs Specialist hired by this Federal agency. In this capacity, he promoted consumer/survivor participation in all aspects of the Center's policies and operations ranging from public education to efforts at researching effective strategies to address the needs of persons with mental health problems. Those efforts included initiating historic dialogue meetings between consumers and practitioners, regional consumer meetings, anti-stigma efforts, training programs, and grant development.

Prior to Federal service, Mr. del Vecchio worked for the Philadelphia Office of Mental Health in the areas of policy formulation and the planning of a comprehensive system of community-based mental health services addressing homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and many other issues.

A self-identified mental health consumer/survivor, Mr. del Vecchio has been involved in the consumer/survivor self-help movement for over two decades. A published author and a national and international speaker, he has been involved with many organizations and efforts including the Mental Health Statistics Improvement Project Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee, the Federal Advisory Planning Board for the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, and numerous others.