Question Man Unit Takeaways Appreciate that patients may experience mental health services as oppressive and soul-destroying Understand the importance of practitioners working with patients to help reclaim strengths and strategies that were part of their identity before they experienced mental health difficulties Value voice, resiliency, resistance and experiential knowledge in supporting good mental health Component …
The Psychiatric Gaze Unit Takeaways Appreciate the negative impact of power imbalances and distance in the mental health system between those who provide and those who use services Understand the damage that can be done in the practitioner-patient relationship when patients are understood through their diagnoses rather than their skills and life experience Recognize the …
MoVay’s Way Unit Takeaways Appreciate the importance of service user perspectives in determining appropriate plans for care and wellbeing Recognize the importance of exercise, food, and sociability in supporting good mental health and caring for the whole person Component This component is a 3 minute video made by puppeteer and community expert Lori E. An …
The Doreen Befus Story Unit Takeaways Recognize the historical role of medicine, science and the law and their institutions in violating the human rights of mental health patients Understand the danger of unchecked professional power and authority as evidenced in the theory and practices of eugenics Appreciate the possible consequences of professional practice that negates …
Components: MPA – Self-Guided Timing: 45 Minutes (flexible) Mode: In-class; Online The 36-minute Canadian documentary The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Stories from MPA, is an excellent learning tool for exploring advocacy, activism and promising mental health practice. Early MPA members still feel passionate about the group that they founded and wanted to make a …
Go Nuts! Unit Takeaways Appreciate the diversity of perspectives within the mad community Value a radical service user perspective which celebrates mental diversity, simple pleasures, and alternative treatment modalities Component This component is a short video called Go Nuts! – an entertaining 4-minute homage to mad culture and a provocative critique of normalcy and its …
Making Madness Political Unit Takeaways Understand activism as pragmatic and strategic rather than just ideological and/or dogmatic Appreciate the personally transformative impact of community change work Explain between the role of media and popular culture inside marginalized groups and outside the mad movement as shaping broader societal attitudes Components David Reville’s dynamic scrapbook displays his …
The Toronto Scene Unit Takeaways Understand that mad activism is a social and cultural movement which fosters positive individual and community identity Appreciate that advocacy and activism function differently to promote social change Component This component is a fifteen-minute video featuring oral history interviews shot in 2009. Secondary student Lily Ross-Millard used the footage to …
MPA: The Inmates’ Utopia Unit Takeaways Understand the power of activism in mental health communities Appreciate the empowering attributes of democratic structure and shared accountability in grassroots mental health groups and projects Recognize that service users often know what they need and can play an active role in the provision of appropriate services Appreciate the …
D Components: Self-Guided Timing: 15 Minutes Mode: In class; On-line In-class or online, students can read or listen to Lanny Beckman’s memoir, a compelling consideration of the distance between mental health practitioners and people who live with mental health diagnoses. Ask students to use the following themes to guide their consideration of this component: Professional …
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