Youth on Mental Health Policy Unit Takeaways Recognize how children and youth are characterized within Canadian mental health policy. Consider the implications of how children and youth are represented in policy, and how their agency and inclusion offer new interpretations. Reflect on the gap that racialized youth see between how people who create mental health …
Letters to Professionals Unit Takeaways To explore the messages that youth have for mental health professionals about what helps and what hinders their wellbeing. To consider the ways young people experience their mental health in relation to what they need from professionals and professional services. To recognize microaggressions committed against children and youth because of …
Resisting Adultism in Mental Wellbeing Unit Takeaways Through an understanding of intersectionality, examine the ways discourses about “childhood” intersect with mental health discourses from the perspectives of psychiatrized youth. By looking at how youth understand mental health, and mental health issues, recognize how psychiatrized youth resist pathologization of their experiences of distress in childhood. By …
Component Exploration: M.C. Cruz’s Art A Series of Paintings by M.C. Cruz M.C. Cruz (they/them) – Artist’s Statement and Reflections M.C Cruz is a child of Chilean immigrants. Born, raised and currently based in Toronto, they also lived two years in Chile and more recently completed an Artist Residency in Morocco and Spain. They attended …
Component Evaluation: Gallery Text Time: 60 minutes; flexible Format: In-Class; online Begin with a short lesson on elements of clear writing and successful exhibit writing. This could include going over visitor expectations, different types of exhibit labels, and clear language. Have students work either in small groups or on their own, have them write object …
Mad Artists’ Gallery Takeaways Appreciate the importance of art-making and creative self-expression as a healing practice for racialized mad people who often have adverse experiences in the traditional mental health system Understand art as a form of activist engagement with, and critique of, interlocking systems of oppression Recognize the value of art-making as a medium …
Component Evaluation: Reimaging Sites of Care Timing: 60 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class; Online Disability justice scholars have theorized and dreamed up ideas around care work and communities. Care is understood as relational and involving feelings, practices, and labour that connect people together. In disability circles, care is about collectivity and resistance to the ableist structures …
Component Exploration – Claiming Space Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-Class; Online Namitha is a racialized young woman with a disability. The first component presented is her poem “O,C,D.”. The second component is an excerpted set of Namitha’s thoughts on her work as a spoken word artist, navigating mental health differences in her family, her experience …
The ‘Claiming Space’ Unit Takeaways Analyse the diverse experiences of oppression and exclusion that exist for mad people across race, gender, class, culture and sexuality. Understand the importance of equitable political and community engagement and representation. Explore how power affects racialized youth’s experiences of mental distress in a range of contexts and the importance of …
Component Evaluation: Language and Visualization Timing: 35 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class OPTION 1: In groups of 2-4 have students write down the word capitalism on a blank sheet of paper. Ask them to visualize the connections between capitalism, oppressions, and mental health that are discussed in Cheers to Capitalism. Once those connections are established, encourage …
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