Massachusetts Web Designs teams with The Ruby Roger’s Center

As part of Massachusetts Web Designs ongoing “Giving Back” Program we have recently teamed with the Ruby Roger’s Center to develop a online marketing platform and website for this great organization. The Ruby Roger’s Center, located in Somerville Massachusetts, provides mental health services and support to patients who are dissatisfied with other mental health services or do not qualify for them. They describe themselves as “A social club and support center run for and by people in mental health recovery”

The Ruby Rogers Center is a pioneering program established in 1985 by a group of people led by Judi Chamberlain and Dr. Dan Fisher who were dissatisfied with existing options for psychiatric care and support. Their vision was to create a cooperative center separate from existing mental health services where people could come and offer each other support. The center was also conceived as a base for a variety of advocacy activities.

What makes the Ruby Roger’s Center different is that its members run the facility – with all decisions, upcoming events, and activities discussed and voted on democratically at weekly business meetings. Their motto is “freedom with responsibility”.

The Ruby Rogers Center is named after Ruby Rogers, who helped secure many key rights over treatment for the mentally ill. With the landmark case, Rogers v. Okin, she helped determine the course other states took to help certain psychiatric patients participate in decisions about their treatment.

As a result of that case, the mentally ill in Massachusetts must give informed consent before doctors and nurses administer medication. A doctor who believes a patient isn’t competent to grant permission must schedule what is known as a “Rogers hearing.” If the patient is found to be legally incompetent, a judge – through what is called “substituted judgment” – decides whether the patient would want to accept the prescribed treatment.

More information about Ruby Rogers can be found at MindFreedom.org

The Ruby Rogers Center continues the legacy of this important woman by allowing its members to find the best treatments that work for them through a corporative effort.

Massachusetts Web Designs will be working with the Ruby Roger’s Center to provide them with a website and online marketing strategy free of charge, as we feel that the center provides a great service to the community and to the mentally ill. We hope that the new website will allow the Ruby Roger’s Center to help more people through it services, as well as gain new sources of funding and donations.

Massachusetts Web Designs picks two non-profits or charities per year and develops website and marketing plans for them free of charge. In 2012, Massachusetts Web Designs developed websites for New England All Breed Rescue, a nonprofit animal rescue, and Brady’s Mission, a charity fund set up to help three-year-old Brady Smith who is currently battling Neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer.