Ccall notes from July 20...
those appearing although not neccessarily in order of appearance...
astra, asheville
and chopper, woof!
steven_smiles, atlanta (formerly vermont)
caprice, brooklyn
sandpiper, some other planet
bmad, san francisco
sealegs, seattle
that's a good start on the call notes, isn't it?
okay, more notes... imperfect and splotchy as they may be...
agenda for the call evolved as we went and facilitation was fluid although madigan (bmad) took more of a role in facilitating at times just cos the rest of us were new to the call or not comfortable doing so or... but once the call got rolling, we all tried to take turns and make sure everyone felt heard... i think we did really well with this give and take.
so... first up on the call... check in. We checked in with each other by saying a little blurb about where we were from and what was up in our big little worlds... whatever we wanted to say or not say...
madigan (bmad) let us know that a media training would be happening soon in the wonkavator and to tell you the truth I don't know what that means and I forgot to ask...
AGENDA ITEM #1: Suggestions for a Seattle Group
after check in we somehow segued into sharing suggestions with SEALEGS in SEATTLE for starting an icarus group there... yay sealegs]!
here's the thread on what seattle is up to...[/i]
https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10865
I think they are going to try'n meet Sunday July 27 from 7-8:30 pm at the Seattle Museum of Mysteries... that sounds cool. I'm so excited for seattle!
Okay, so suggestions we gave to sealegs for getting the group in seattle going...
Steven suggested checking out http://www.furiousseasons.com/
This is a blog by another seattle-ite, and getting in touch with the guy who writes it.
Other suggestions included checking out threads in the https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=84 to find out what others are doing/have done to get groups going in their cities...
https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=86 Richmond, Virginia was mentioned as a resource in particular because they just got a group going there pretty recently... jackrabbit! how's it going?!
Posting an announcement in the community forum on http://seattle.craigslist.org/
Seattle Craigslist was also suggested...
Another suggested resource... Friends Make the Best Medicine Support Manual... Sealegs had already downloaded this from our website and printed it out... it's on the icarus home page... https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/icarus-downloads/friends-make-the-...
AGENDA ITEM #2: Steven's Question about Outreach
Anyone else who was in on the call -especially you Steven, if you are still around -please jump in here and help me out with this one! I'm having a little bit of difficulty synthesizing all the parts of this particular part of the conversation...
Okay,,, so
Steven was thinking about how to reach out to the population of people in the mental health system who might never have the opportunity to hear about the icarus kind of vision ~the perspective and whole block of thinking differently about mental health... the beyond the NAMI disease biomedical model...
Steven identified this population as those dealing with chronic conditions who become detached from information or have no computers or access to computers... those locked up in institutions and hospitals... those warehoused through the system...
So the question was how do we do outreach to this specific population? how do we bring perspective and our whole block of thinking these mad kin? How do we start to have the conversation with them?
This part of the conversation on the ccall was pretty dense... A lot of good points, ideas and personal experiences were shared...
and i'll be back to post these here!!!
(((more intermission music)))
One icarista shared that NAMI came and spoke when s/he was in the hospital. Steven pointed out that NAMI is focused on the disease and biomedical model…Bmad commented on NAMI’s entitlement phrase “America’s voice on mental illness” Our response: hahahaha...NOT! (well, that was my response!) Does anyone, do any groups go into the hospitals to present an alternative to the NAMI model?
Madigan shared her experience as a peer advocate before she got involved with The Icarus Project. She worked as a part of the H.O.T. project/team (hospital outreach team). I didn’t quite catch who sponsored the project due to Wonkavator interference and my own distractibility. ANyway, the h.o.t. team focused on sharing information about outside (the hospital) options and resources and how to access them. One main focus was help on housing and how to access housing resources. Peer advocates also shared their own personal experiences and how they got out of the hospital, etc. The team got information out about all the different avenues for self-healing, self-selection/determination; options, resources and rights… many mad kin don’t realize they have rights.(well, i think that is what madigan said they did... or what outreach groups could do!)
Steven voiced his concern that he didn’t think Icarus materials would be welcome or be able to make their way into the hospital setting. He felt that that would be tricky and require LOCAL working groups… that local groups working in individual communities would have to collaborate and conspire to get these kinds of materials and outreach into hospital settings.
Since Icarus is not going into the hospitals like NAMI does, what can we do?
Bmad pointed out that Icarus already helps people distribute zines through the community…
Steven suggested a newsletter to be distributed to peer centers, hospitals and clubhouses… Steven had already written about his idea in the “icarus newsletter” thread and is excited about those on the site and involved in TIP contributing writing… There are many good writers and thinkers on Icarus!
Madigan nominated Steven for the Icarus Media and Outreach working group… Steven enthusiastically accepted… Horray, Steven!
Astra suggested starting a working group for the newsletter and expressed interest in being involved and contributing to this. Yay, astra! Would sandpiper like to contribute some writing to an Icarus newsletter ? YES!
In fact there is quite an exciting conversation going on about the icarus newsletter right now… check it out here…
https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org/fo.....mp;start=0
Madigan (bmad) also talked about seeing ICarus as a part of a bigger whole... of joining forces, cooperating and building coalitions with others who are doing similar work to that of Icarus... Mindfreedom and the Psychiatric Survivor’s Network are two examples…
Mindfreedom also puts out a newsletter (I was just thinking about that when bmad mentioned it!) Colleges and universities, even though they are a part of the “hierarchy machine”, also provide great organizing opportunities… So we can see what already exists out there… the groups that already exist and see what they are doing… this would save us from reinventing the wheel.
Another important point Madigan made is that poverty is the most salient disability….if we want to address the question of outreach (among many other questions) we need to address poverty! Let’s do something about that! (Madigan said it better than what I can.)
Editor's Note... I think there were supposed to be a few more notes, but I'm not sure what happened them!