Category: Learning Lens

Lesson Plans

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 …

Us and Them

Us and Them Unit Takeaways Recognize the profound dislocation of self and identity in mental health crises Appreciate the importance (and challenges) of empathic and critically-informed practice in bridging the distance between mental health practitioner and service user Component The component for this unit is a reflection on the distance between the patient and the …

What If?

What If? Unit Takeaways Recognize stigmatizing attitudes toward mental health and mental health patients, as compared to other medicalized conditions and patients categories Component The component for this unit is “What If? …Cancer Prisons,” a short satirical essay that contrasts attitudes toward cancer patients and mental health patients. Written by a Mad School community expert …

From Stigma to Action

    From Stigma to Action Unit Takeaways Understand the importance of adequate personal and systemic support in ameliorating discrimination and marginalization in mental health Appreciate the role of empathic knowledge informed by lived experience in fostering successful advocacy and activism Components The components for this unit are frontline stories of marginalization, discrimination, and nascent …

1940s Mental Health Radio Plays

  1940s Mental Health Radio Plays Unit Takeaways Relate social norms and notions of normal to the construction of good mental health, as viewed by mental health experts, the media and the wider society Appreciate the power of authoritative knowledge brokers, i.e. mental health practitioners, the media, and public mental health educators in constructing notions …

Unity Housing – Lesson Planning

Unity Housing Unit Takeaways Recognize the vital roles that safe and supportive housing play in wellbeing Discuss the characteristics and values of best practice as reflected in this module Recognize the value of stakeholder engagement and flexibility in a successful supportive housing model Components This component is this 10-minute video created by community expert Alex …

Lesson Planning

Because of Edmond: A Place of Safety and Hope Unit Takeaways Acknowledge that people living with mental health difficulties deserve dignified access to the fundamental necessities of life, i.e. housing, food Understand the critical connections between mental wellbeing and safe, supportive, affordable housing Recognize that crisis interventions with people in emotional distress require empathy, adherence …