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 …
Component Evaluation: Deconstructing Madness Timing: 40 – 50 minutes Mode: In-class; Online Although it is extremely important to challenge depictions and false representations found within film and other media, we should not discount the benefits of fiction and non-fiction narratives to participate in practices of bearing witness and truth-telling needed to combat stigma and produce …
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 …
Component Evaluation: Intersectional Analysis Timing: 30 Minutes Download Beckman’s piece titled “What If? …Cancer Prisons” as a prompt for your students in a creative writing or cartooning exercise. Ask your students to respond to Beckman’s satirical treatment of the criminalization of mental difference and substance use. Encourage them to use humour (carefully!) to delve deeper …
Component Evaluation: Getting to Activism Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class Pat Capponi and veteran Vancouver activist and writer Lanny Beckman have never met each other, but wouldn’t they have an interesting conversation if they did? Imagine the two talking about the life moments and influences that helped push them from personal dislocation to empathy and …
Components: From Stigma to Action – Self-Guided Learning Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-Class; Online Living on the frontlines of community mental health during her stay at the Parkdale boarding house, Pat Capponi found an identity and a purpose there, creating coherence out of the chaos of early deinstitutionalization. What makes her story such an excellent …
Component Evaluation: Think Piece in Governmentality Timing: 45 Minutes; Flexible Mode: In-class; Online Professor Kathy Kendall, the sociologist who discovered the 1940s radio plays, describes them as an example of governmentality, the creation of the ideal Canadian citizen through the guidance of mental health experts and the use of public education. Listen to Kendall make …
Component Evaluation: Creating a Radio Play Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class These radio plays help us to understand the socio-political-historical context in which madness is defined and managed. The act of writing a script for a current radio play prescribing “appropriate” behaviour allows students to explore how socio-political influences impact what we see as pathological …
Components: Radio Plays – Self Guided Learning Timing: 60 minutes Mode: In-class; Online Instructors can assign either Radio Play 1 and its accompanying commentary or Radio Play 2 and its accompanying commentary for students to listen to online or in class. Students should listen to their assigned play and take note of words and ideas …
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