Radical US psychiatrist says mental illness is not a life sentence | Society | The Guardian

BuzzNet Tags: Recovery

Daniel Fisher was a young, idealistic man in his mid-20s, enjoying life in a hippy commune, when he was hospitalised for four months in 1970 and diagnosed with schizophrenia. During that stay in hospital – his second of three on psychiatric wards – friends came to visit with a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the bestselling Ken Kesey novel – later to become an Oscar-winning movie – about life on an Oregon psychiatric ward. He recalls fondly: "They said: 'Man, this is crazy. You gotta get out of here.' It was just a different era. We are in a much more conformist era."

 

Fisher, a prominent psychiatrist who is advising the Obama administration on mental health issues, has been on a personal mission for two decades to change the way wider society understands and reacts to mental illness. An advocate of the "recovery model" – which posits that a diagnosis of mental illness is not for life, and that people can recover completely – Fisher is an outspoken and controversial figure in the US, campaigning vigorously for the rights of people diagnosed with a mental illness. Much of what he does is rooted in his own experience. "Human rights doesn't even begin to grasp it," he says. "It goes much deeper than that."

Radical US psychiatrist says mental illness is not a life sentence | Society | The Guardian

Mental Illness vs Autism - Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation

BuzzNet Tags: recovery,autism,dialogue

Interesting discussion from the Autism/Asperger’s community. Suggests to me that here needs to be dialogue between the recovery and autism communities……

Why is it so acceptable for Autistics to behave in a certain "socially unacceptable" way, and therefore be self accepting; but for the Mentally Ill, there is no understanding, or acceptance - they must change - , or self-organised movement, or ads to get funding for research and educational programs...etc. etc.

Mental Illness vs Autism - Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation

Mental Health Shop - Getting back into the world

Technorati Tags: Recovery,report

Free Report (PDF) 

It focuses on the opportunities as well as obstacles that can be provided or reduced to assist each person’s own ‘recovery journey’. Three aspects are highlighted: 1) acceptance; 2) locus of power and control; and 3) dependence, independence and interdependence. The descriptions are based on findings from a research study where seven people with personal experience of mental illness and treatment interviewed 48 people with similar experiences across England, and used personal insights in the analysis and write-up of findings.

Mental Health Shop - Getting back into the world

Attorney-Activist Jim Gottstein on MindFreedom Live Web Radio - Free — MFI Portal

Technorati Tags: Recovery,MFI radio

Attorney-Activist Jim Gottstein on MindFreedom Live Web Radio - Free

by David W. Oaks — last modified 2009-10-29 14:13

Sat., 14 November: JIM GOTTSTEIN is an attorney, activist and psychiatric survivor. He'll be the guest on the next MindFreedom Mad Pride Live Web Radio show. Host is MindFreedom's director, psychiatric survivor DAVID W. OAKS. Listen and call in live.

Jim Gottstein, founder of PsychRights, is next guest on MindFreedom Live Web Radio.

Your calls are welcome on this next live web radio show using the law to challenge psychiatric human rights violations on Saturday, 14 November 2009.

Guest: Jim Gottstein of Alaska is president of PsychRights, a public interest law firm that has made waves to change the mental health system throughout the USA.

Host: David W. Oaks, psychiatric survivor.

Attorney-Activist Jim Gottstein on MindFreedom Live Web Radio - Free — MFI Portal

A New Vision of Recovery: People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process - NEC Article

 

These days people are talking about recovery from mental illness. This is a great step forward. Even using the word recovery in a field too long dominated by the goal of stabilization is refreshing. But whose vision of recovery are people talking about? I thought we were all talking about the same view of recovery. I see two distinctly different visions of recovery emerging, however. We will call these the Rehabilitation and Empowerment views of recovery. It is especially important to clarify what recovery means in each model because many states and counties nationally are proposing to create recovery-centered policies and services. Distinctly different policies would result depending on whose picture of recovery those policies are based on…….

Technorati Tags: recovery process

A New Vision of Recovery: People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process - NEC Article

God Stole My Boyfriend: Spiritual Care and the Recovery Model in Mental Illness

 

…….That means two things, for me, in the context of this reflection. 1) We have finally realized that the distinction between "professional" and "patient" is an unhealthily hierarchical construct that does not optimize a person's healing. 2) Spiritual care, because it focuses on unlocking and affirming a person's sense of meaning and purpose, and on connecting them to community and affirming their values, can be a catalyst in the sense of agency so essential to the recovery process…….

Technorati Tags: Recovery process

God Stole My Boyfriend: Spiritual Care and the Recovery Model in Mental Illness

Heart of the Treasure Valley: Emerging from the darkness of mental illness | Life | Idaho Statesman

Technorati Tags: recovery process

The young man that Eric Buckner is today - happy, smiling, confident - is totally unrecognizable as the boy that he used to be.

He says: "I was kicked out of three preschools, three elementary schools, one high school - and loads of restaurants - for violent behavior. I could not control myself."

It wasn't just one thing that would set him off; it was a multitude of things. He didn't think; he reacted. He got so angry he couldn't remember things. Kids at school would make fun of him; his outbursts and tirades would perpetuate the cycle.

"If anybody told me to do something, I'd resist, freak out and get angry, just to spite. In preschool at nap time. You're going to tell ME? I'll tell YOU.

"I was so emotionally fractured.

I was depressed constantly and constantly bullied. I was borderline suicidal; I didn't want to live. That's a depressing thought when you're only in fourth grade."

Heart of the Treasure Valley: Emerging from the darkness of mental illness | Life | Idaho Statesman

YouTube - NorthernLakesCMH's Channel

Technorati Tags: Recovery process,YouTube,Northern Lakes CMH

Thanks to Ernie for participating in the Northern Lakes "Look Closer: See Me For Who I Am" project. We can do more than we think we can do when we are given a chance and support. There is tomorrow, you can be happier, you have to step up and do a little work yourself, but recovery is possible. Ask for help when you need it!

YouTube - NorthernLakesCMH's Channel

MIWatch - First psychotic breaks -- conference topic

 

After several years, there is a renewed focus on treatment for first psychotic episodes. An emphasis on early intervention and prevention of psychosis, with the goal of shortening the "duration of untreated psychosis" has obscured the view on the actual services that are being offered to individuals in the midst of a first episode…..

Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health challenged the psychiatric field to develop a new, state-of-the-art intervention for an "initial schizophrenic episode" (RAISE), realizing that the outcome of conventional treatment leaves a lot to be desired….

Interventions that fit this bill have been around for many years. Even going back to the days of moral treatment in the 19th century, one can find many instances of early recovery when people responded to the kind guidance and structure available in the best asylums. Scandinavian psychiatrists have long been at work to optimize interventions for first psychotic episodes, integrating family treatment, individual psychotherapy, optimal and targeted use of medication into a flexible package they termed "need-adapted treatment."

Several studies using variations of this approach have shown dramatically positive results, with little use of inpatient services, and much lower medication dosages than usual. Rather than wait for the results of the RAISE project, which are not likely to become available for several years, the time is now to look at some of the tried and true, but non-traditional options. Questions such as when, how and how much medication is best applied; whether hospitalization is always necessary, or can frequently and safely be replaced by homelike residential settings, or even by services provided in the persons home, thus preserving the integrity of the family and the support system.

Technorati Tags: psychosis,person centered treatment

Is the danger of psychosis to the person experiencing it and the social environment exaggerated in the service of minimizing risk and liability for the helping professions? Can we find viable ways of engaging the suffering person's own agency - her own reflective powers - as part of passage through the crisis? These questions and more will be addressed at a one-day conference on November 23, 2009, at the NYU Kimmel Center, co-sponsored by the International Network towards Alternatives and Recovery, (INTAR) and the Center to Study Recovery in Social Contexts.

MIWatch - First psychotic breaks -- conference topic

A Voice Needed

 

HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO EXPRESS YOUR RECOVERY ARTISCALLY

 

It’s time to take CHARGE of your hopes and dreams

The Center of Healing Arts, Recovery, Growth, & Empowerment

Is in need of

Vocalists to enhance our community choir

 

    The ‘Voices Of Recovery Gospel Choir’ is a group of people in recovery spreading the message of recovery through their music. We are looking for non-professional consumers who have had dreams of performing but were never given a chance.

For more info contact

Patti Charleston

313-304-6022

Or E-mail

pattiecharleston@yahoo.com

Avoice needed.doc