Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
Lembagai KITA / CC BY-SA Just because slavery is no longer legal doesn't mean it isn't happening. Human trafficking isn't an issue that gets a lot of public attention, but if you look, what you can find is scary. What human trafficking is There are thee fundamentals elements of human trafficking: Actions: This includes recruiting,… Continue reading Slavery Isn’t Over – The Horror of Human Trafficking
Lately white privilege has been a hot topic. The people I've come across who take a stance against the idea of white privilege seem to have in common the line of thinking that they haven't been handed anything, so how can they have social privilege? I thought it might be worth reframing social privilege in… Continue reading Another Way of Looking at Social Privilege
Black Lives Matter has been leading the charge in calling for defunding the police. While that may initially sound like a very bad idea, taking money away from the police is only half of the picture. The money that would be spent on police is instead shifted to community programs and supports to handle the… Continue reading Defunding the Police: What It Could Mean for Mental Illness
Through our shared humanity, all lives matter. So why is it important to talk about black lives mattering? All lives should matter equally. That is the ideal, and probably most of us would agree that it's the "right" thing. Unfortunately, though, in practice, not all lives are given equal value. An obvious example would be… Continue reading Why I Use My Voice to Say Black Lives Matter
It's International Women's Day, and the theme for this year is #EachforEqual. THE IWD website has this to say about this year's theme: "An equal world is an enabled world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day. We can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden… Continue reading International Women’s Day #EachforEqual
This came up in a recent post by Kacha of Food.for.thought – a therapist had pointed out the privilege that came with her being white and educated, as if that somehow made her less entitled to have a mental illness. So what does it mean to have privilege? And can you have privilege but still… Continue reading Social Privilege and the Underprivileged
We're all familiar, at least to some extent, with the sex trade. If nothing else, you may have seen the movie Pretty Woman. The level of desperation in the survival sex trade, though, is galaxies removed from what's portrayed in Pretty Woman. I used to work at a community mental health team in Vancouver's downtown… Continue reading The Survival Sex Trade
I got thinking about this is a little while back when Michelle of Michelle Writer Blog did a post about National Period Day, which falls on October 19. It's expensive to be a woman! Menstrual products First you've got the cost of menstrual products. In some areas, including 36 American states as of 2018 as… Continue reading The Cost of Being a Woman
I love a good toilet joke, but this actually isn't one. World Toilet Day is an initiative of UN-Water, the United Nations agency that deals with sanitation. This year's theme is leaving no one behind, which speaks to the 4.2 billion people worldwide who don't have access to safe sanitation. The numbers are astonishing. Open defecation… Continue reading It’s World Toilet Day – and Yes, That’s a Thing
In 2017, during Jeff Session's confirmation hearing to be attorney general, Senator Elizabeth Warren raised concerns about Sessions' civil rights record. After quoting a statement made by former Senator Ted Kennedy in 1986, that Sessions was a disgrace to the Justice Department, Senator Warren proceeded to read a letter from Coretta Scott King that was written… Continue reading Nevertheless, she persisted