Mainstreaming Mental Illness :: Advocacy :: Discrimination :: Stigma

The Infinite Mind radio show - hosted by Dr. Peter Kramer - gathered a group of mental health professionals, consumers and activists whose thoughts collected here together speak eloquently to the state of the art of mental illness.

From the show notes:

Right now in the United States, tens of millions of Americans live as part of a minority group that is routinely denied jobs, housing and basic human rights. This group has no widely recognized leaders, no Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony or Cesar Chavez. For the 44 million Americans living with mental illness, change is coming through the efforts of unsung heroes and revolutionary, grass-roots approaches to transformation.

This segment explores the discrimination and stigma about mental illness that continues to marginalize people with mental illness and thwart making the best medical practices actual policy. They describe people with mental illness as a minority group that has yet to achieve its rights, comparing the struggle to the civil and human rights movements.

Mental health consumers. Employment opportunities not despite but because of mental illness. Mental illness and the law: self-determination with Psychiatric Advance Directives, a kind of 'living will'. Dignity. Empowerment. Peer support. Peer counseling. Lobbying government. A brief history of the grassroots movement for treatment change. Access to services. There remains states in which the mentally ill are not permitted to vote. Mental Illness = Physical Illness.

Hear for the first time in this radio broadcast about The Campaign for Mental Health Reform:

The Campaign for Mental Health Reform has been organized as the mental health community’s united voice on federal policy. Its goal is to make access, recovery, coherence, and quality in mental health services the hallmarks of our nation’s mental health system. It works directly with federal policymakers to make this a reality.

Enclosed for distribution to subscribers is the four-page .pdf of the Executive Summary, "Emergency Response: A Roadmap for Federal Action on America’s Mental Health Crisis". The action items are of special note, an easy browse to get a sense of where they want to go with this.

This collection of people have a lot to say about the cutting edge of living with mental illness.

Including this post in the 'Bibliography' category (see sidebar, right) since the radio show and .pdf constitute a collection of names and ideas for interviews and cogitation to which I shall return again and again.

[source]
[listen to the show in Real Player]
[Download the .PDF - Emergency Response: A Roadmap for Federal Action on America’s Mental Health Crisis]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression