Category: Social Change-Rights

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 …

Component Evaluation: Asking for Funding

Component Evaluation: Asking for Funding Time: 30 minutes Mode: In class; Online In September 2015, the Gallery Gachet Collective learned that their primary source of operational funding, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (the regional health), were cutting all financial assistance to the organization.  After students have viewed the Gachet video, share news of this decision …

Component Evaluation: Role Play

Component Evaluation: Unity Housing – Role Play Timing: 30 Minutes Delivery: In-class These teaching resources were co-created by university instructors and “community experts”, people who have used mental health services. Community experts contributed ideas but also made their own components. The Unity Housing: A Better Way video is one of these components. Community expert Alex …

Component Evaluation: Themes and Analysis

Component Evaluation: Unity Housing – Themes and Analysis Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online Write these themes on small pieces of paper: Supportive housing models with democratic processes Members as workers/staff Limitations of low levels of staff Peer support Voluntary participation Isolation and social exclusion Poverty Barriers to education and employment Then distribute these pieces …

Component Evaluation: Create a Commercial

Component Evaluation: Unity Housing – Create a Commercial Timing: 45 Minutes, flexible Delivery: In-class; Online Before your students watch the video on Unity Housing, split them up into small groups and assign each group a theme to gather insights about: Supportive housing models with democratic processes Members as workers/staff Limitations of low levels of staff …

Component Evaluation: Ideas for Change

Component Evaluation: Edmond – Ideas for Change Timing: 45 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online The coroner’s inquest that followed Edmond Yu’s death resulted in 24 recommendations aimed at preventing such a tragedy from reoccurring.  After explaining to your students the role of such inquests and recommendations, use this document (the jury recommendations begin on page 4) …

Component Evaluation: Values Line

Component Evaluation: Edmond – Values Line Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online The different aspects of this set of resources (the text, the audio clips and the documents) all speak to the importance of housing for people with psychiatric diagnoses and the role that it played in the life and death of Edmond Yu. At …