Connecting people with their communities
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Connecting people with their Communities Communities= Social Systems Recovery takes place in the community Medicalisation of Illness omits social dimension Is there a social system crisis? National, local or individual?
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Transcript of Connecting people with their communities
Connecting people with their CommunitiesCommunities= Social
SystemsRecovery takes place in
the communityMedicalisation of Illness
omits social dimensionIs there a social system
crisis?National, local or
individual?
Crisis Resolution
What is a mental health crisis?
Is it a life event or a life-threatening event?
Is it another term for severe emotional distress? Which Emotions?
Which is the best way to resolve a crisis?
Cheque book vs. Prescription pad
Providing Choice
“The range of interventions offered should be comprehensive”
(Joyce O’Connor, foreword, “a Vision for Change”)
Home based treatment
Where does home based treatment take place?
Who decides on the type of treatment?
What are the priorities of the home-based team?
Can acutely ill people betreated in the community?Why are hospital
admissions needed?
Alternatives to Acute Admission?
Respite Care- what is it and how does it work?
What is a crisis house and is this a form of acute admission?
What is the difference between crisis houses, respite facilities and acute psychiatric wards?
Resource Imitation
“We haven’t the money, so we’ve got to think ”
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
Some things don’t cost anything- justice, honesty, fairness, equality, respect, dignity for all.
Becoming a standard excuse for the lazy
People need a supportive community
In the right environment they will grow and
flourish. In the wrong environment they will
die and wither
“ I know I am amongst civilized men because they are all fighting so savagely” Voltaire
Normalising the Experience
“Sitting down to breakfast with seven men in various states of undress is not a normal experience”
Who bears the Burden
“We must not look awayNot caring for their caresThere is no crazy manwho dwells in Madmen’sGlenWe ought not sit besideAccompanying, whileHe bears on our behalfOur sickness in his mind”
STIGMA and Public Attitudes
Just 41% of thosesurveyed thoughtpeople with mentalhealth problemsshould have childrenif they wished. Only61% believed that peoplewith mental healthproblems had the right tofulfilment through sexualrelationships “Public Attitudes towards people with
disabilities” NDA 2007.
Social Exclusion
“People with a diagnosis of mental illness, as a group, are severely socially excluded in Irish Society”
(Quarterly National Household survey, CSO 2004)
LanguageEuphemismsMedia messagesNegative perceptions
Leadership
Praxis, a term used by Aristotle, is the art of acting upon the conditions one faces in order to change them.
Cultural change is the most important change, and the hardest to make happen
Diversity: An uncomfortable environment?
“Any solution to a problem changes the problem” (R.W. Johnson b.1914)
Conflicting rightsHelp people to cope in a
way that allows preference for their own wishes and behaviour
Involving everyone: Consumer Panels and Link-UpUse resources that already
existEveryone has something to
contributeProfessionals need to go to
meetings that service users organise.”
(A Vision for Change: report of the expert group on mental health policy.)
“We want a few mad people now, see where the sane ones have landed us.”
(G.B. Shaw1856-1950, “Saint Joan.”)
The Lourdes Conundrum
What would happen to St. Bernadette if she came to West Galway?
