Fw: Something Called Diversity
H. C. Covington (ach1@sprynet.com)
Sun, 11 Jan 1998 08:30:46 -0600
Forward from:
-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Poole <dpoole@awod.com>
Date: Sunday, January 11, 1998 12:10 AM
Subject: Something Called Diversity
The simple thing that is being overlooked: We have to think out of the box.
We have to think community connections. We have to think beating the
streets
to make contact and become visible.
We have to think self-determination, too...no paid "normal" advocates or
family-oriented agencies speaking for us. No government funding with
strings
attached. No gatekeepers censoring our message.
We have to think out of the box in which we have been trapped by
exploitation. A process of building bridges. Which will mean putting aside
fear of "normals" and going out among them to speak, to present ourselves
as
everyday people with the same needs and similar capacities and goals.
That's what is going to change the negative image. Nothing else is going to
give us credibility. The mainstream press gets too much mileage out of
sensationalizing the issues and portraying NAMI poster children who take
their damaging drugs and sing the system's praises...
While mental health professionals and the media babble about how we should
be confined, drugged, housed among criminals and observed constantly, we go
to the institutions that really count in this society...schools, churches,
civic and business organizations. Police departments, too, while we're
about it.
We ask for tolerance. We ask for opportunities. We generate a more balanced
way of looking at normality, mental health services and the concept of
mental illness. We find ways of explaining our needs. We find ways of
explaining that reasonable accommodations can be as simple as flex time for
different Circadian rythyms, for example.
We don't ask to be hired if we're not qualified. We do ask for lines of
open
communications and schedules that make allowances for times of severe
stress. We ask for education and training programs, apprenticeships, an
opportunity to demonstrate how much we can contribute with some acceptance,
tolerance and frank communication.
We form support groups...for social purposes and for assistance with work
and everyday living concerns. For purposes of visiting the day programs and
mental prisons to keep a finger on the pulse of what needs are there and
how
to meet them. At support groups, we discuss treatment and how to get what
we
need from the system, how to build support systems, how to resist what
doesn't work for us or what is harmful in ways that are quiet but firm. We
learn, for example, never to meet with a mental health professional without
a friend present. We learn to help one another identify problems and
articulate needs. We learn to educate our families and enlist their help in
obtaining what we need from the system and society.
We promote diversity and a common humanity.
This is the simple thing I've been overlooking for so long. We don't preach
to the choir. We broaden our identities, our scope and our efforts to
include a wider community, which may eventually respond by including us
when
we show up and prove to be personable, articulate, skilled and composed.
That's the basic thrust of Diversity. Hope. An end to policies of
isolation.
Growth. Outreach into community life.
What about so-called "low-functioning" folk? That's where we need to be
patient. Gain a foothold, then take a battle to the political arena in a
concerted effort to get money funneled out of acute care and into safe
refuges, affordable housing and mentoring projects. Explain to the public
the importance of nurturing hope, of recognizing that everyone has a
contribution to make, that force, fraud and violence are poor strategies
for
helping people develop untapped potential, that current methods of care
have
iatrogenic effects, that some people who might have recovered spontaneously
have been abused into chronic fear and confusion. And that many of these
people were abused or neglected in childhood, when their brains were
developing, and can only be brought back to life and hope with love,
inclusion, opportunities, a broad spectrum of social supports and the
promise of a decent quality of life. Point out that the social supports
would be cheaper in the long run than the black hole that now is now
swallowing so much public money and human potential.
Enlist progressive mental health professionals in a campaign to stop force
and replace it with decent voluntary alternatives. Use reason. Use common
sense. Above all, do it in the broader community, where the resources
reside. Emphasize the truth: that our agenda will mean millions, if not
billions, of taxpayer dollars saved in disability and insurance costs.
Not the mainstream media. Direct and personal contact with neighborhood
associations, civic groups, the religious community. Most large cities have
shelters. Work with shelters to start, say, computer training programs, get
grants to help people get MS certified, even. Push for social supports that
will lead to self-determination.
That's the general idea. We are just going around in circles if we keep
preaching to the choir and relying on a few elite leaders to represent us
in
the political and public arenas. We need to increase our numbers, become
visible. Give everyone a stake in the process, raise expectations and
demand
outcomes that meet our needs. Stop trying to negotiate with a system that
isn't going to change without strong external pressures. Go directly to the
people who can apply those pressures...businessmen and businesswomen,
religious leaders, educators.
Start with churches. Move on to business organizations. Make connections
with schools. Obtain funds through private sources, charities and business
groups, corporations, no strings except getting people up on their feet and
back into society as full participants in work and political endeavors.
Sue
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I have had to learn the simplest things last, which made for
difficulties. -
Charles Olson from "The Maximus Poems"
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