Speaking to History: Mental Health Policy Unit Takeaways Understand the circumstances and ideas that informed deinstitutionalization policies and how they shaped day-to-day practice and the lives of service users Identify the ways in which restrictions and discipline characteristic of the earlier long-stay mental health hospitals have been reproduced in the bureaucratized mental health and social …
Component Evaluation: Sterilization Timeline Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online Download and use this Sterilization Timeline which tracks national and international events that determined Doreen Befus’ fate. Context is important in appreciating historical events, ideas and practices. The history of sterilization and eugenics in Alberta,and the story of Doreen’s life, needs to be appreciated as …
Components: Self-Guided 2 – Doreen Befus Story Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online It is very difficult to uncover the voices and perspectives of the targets of eugenics legislation, but this set of resources shifts the focus from the political to the personal. A selection of the letters and photographs that Doreen Befus donated …
Components: Self-Guided 1 – Sterilization as Law and Practice Timing: 45 minutes Mode: In-class; online Sterilization legislation in Alberta was a legal response to broadly-held eugenicist ideas which understood the larger social good to be dependant on limiting the reproductive capacity of certain citizens. This set of historical documents and audio commentary allows students to …
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 …
Component Evaluation: Order of Canada Timing: 30 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class; Online The Order of Canada, one of the highest honours that a Canadian citizen can receive, is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to Canada. The Order’s motto Desiderantes meliorem patriam (“They desire a better country”) underscores the fact …
Component Evaluation: 1 Document + 1 Photo Timing: 45 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online Have students read Making Madness Political at home and bring to the class 1 document and 1 photograph from Reville’s scrapbook that illustrate his evolution from patient to activist and advocate. Students present their documents in small discussion groups or through using the …
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