Submitted by sandpiper on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 10:24pm
Community Conference Call
4/19/09
Present: Boston, Seattle, Portland, New York, Canada, Michigan
Boston: First gathering last night. Eighteen people showed up! Interest in support aspects; Mad mapping at next gathering; Compiling local resources
→ overwhelming – how many things people want to get accomplished
Seattle: Switch each week between support meeting and organizing/activism meeting; Go to poetry jams together; Networking with local groups; organizing workshops
New York: Gallatin Campus Icarus @ NYU – workshops, gatherings, fairs, granted a President’s Service Award; Local Icarus Project support meeting every Monday at War Resister’s League
Portland: Local Icarus Project in limbo at present
Other Topics:
• Some folks want more support, some more activism → how to divvy that up?
- first hour for support, second hour for activism
- or switch on and off each week
• Using Friends Make The Best Medicine and other Icarus Project materials to help in local organizing facilitation
• Creating safe space around medication issue: making both those who take meds and those who don’t comfortable; seems to be split in local groups; support given either way – focus on what works for individual
• Allying with/reception by other local groups? Mixed bag, varying experiences in different areas, some more welcoming/accepting others less so
Groups:
10-17-10 Community Call Notes
Present- Clair, Freakshow, Triciafish, Aztone, Fightforroses, Sandpiper, Sarsha
Topic-Local organizing. Finding space is the hard part. The organizer of the New York Brooklyn group shared her experiences in setting up and keeping a local Icarus chapter going. Their focus is peer support and they meet once a month- once a week became too much. 20 people is their capacity.
Topic-Dealing with stigma. Nami, hospitals, physicians focus on medication rather than the underlying trauma or trigger for psychosis. Focus needs to be on building coping skills, psychotherapy. Fear and Stigma contribute to a cloak of secrecy around it...ways to break down stigma? Ways to break down secrecy (shroud of silence around bad hospital treatment, malpractise, confidentiality intrusions: One idea was to start a website where people who have been patients or received treatment from a mental health professional or therapist or hospital could rate them and write comments anonymously. Noone knows how exactly we would set up such a website?
Q. Other options for reporting unethical practises?
A. Usually there is a Mental Health Advocate working for the hospital
Books:
Living well with Bipolar by John McManamy
People of the Lie by Scott Peck
Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker
Mad in America by Robert Whitaker