Mary Ellen Rehrman, 72, health advocate
Mary Ellen Helms Rehrman, 72, an executive with the Philadelphia Mental Health Care Corp. in the 1990s, died Saturday, Sept. 7, at home in Spring City, Chester County, after suffering a stroke.
Mary Ellen Helms Rehrman, 72, an executive with the Philadelphia Mental Health Care Corp. in the 1990s, died Saturday, Sept. 7, at home in Spring City, Chester County, after suffering a stroke.
Mrs. Rehrman was a board member at PMHCC from 1992 to 1999 and was its vice president from 1992 to 1995, her daughter, Susan Miller, said.
"It became important to her to advocate on behalf of families that suffered from mental illness, to erase this stigma associated with it, and to allow those people to live with dignity," Miller said.
On April 30, 2011, Mrs. Rehrman was honored at the second annual family recognition celebration of the Philadelphia chapter of the Family Resource Network.
It gave her its family leadership, changing lives award.
The network's website report of its 2011 event states she was honored for her Pennsylvania efforts, specifically "for her 20 years of statewide advocacy in the reduction of the use of physical restraints and seclusion, the transferring of funds from state hospitals to community based services, and other important services."
She was a founding member of the Pennsylvania office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in the early 1980s, and was its first staff director of public policy, from 1991 to 2000, said David Dinich, the Pennsylvania office's first executive director.
Dinich now runs two programs for the Philadelphia Mental Health Care Corp.
Mrs. Rehrman was elected to a 1992-98 term on the board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, her daughter said.
In 2000, Mrs. Rehrman was a founding member of the Family Training and Advocacy Center for Serious Mental Illness in Philadelphia, for which she was staff policy director until retiring in 2010, her daughter said.
Born in Camden, Mrs. Rehrman grew up in Mount Ephraim and graduated in 1959 from Aubudon High School.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Rehrman is survived by her husband, Donald J.; son Donald H.; and two grandsons.
No services are planned.
Condolences may be offered to the family at www.bacchifuneralhome.com.
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