Disability

Reclamation and the Power We Give to Words

Words interest me, which I suppose makes sense given that I do a lot of reading and writing. I’m particularly interested in the power that some words have, how we decide how much power to give them, and what informs our choices about what words to use. The idea of language reclamation seems quite appealing …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Unmasking Autism

Book Review: Unmasking Autism

Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price explores masked autism, which the author describes as any presentation of autism that isn’t consistent with stereotypes or the standard idea of autism in most diagnostic tools, as well as “any Autistic person whose suffering wasn’t taken seriously for reasons of class, race, gender, age, lack of access to …

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Mental health care: The case for investment

Mental Health: The Economic Case for Investment

Investing in mental health care and workplace mental health programs takes money, and in the short term, that can be an obvious deterrent. However, it can really pay off in the longer term. A number of organizations have each put together solid economic cases for investment in mental health, and this post will take a …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary

Book Review: The Night the Lights Went Out

The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary tells the author’s story of experiencing a traumatic brain injury and the gradual process of recovery. After hosting the 2018 Deadspin Awards, he collapsed, breaking his skull and his brain. In this book, he brings readers along as his life is turned upside down. Since the …

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Mental illness, person-first language, and stigma: I have a mental illness vs I am mentally ill

Is Person-First Language All It’s Cracked Up to Be?

Is there a “right” way to talk about illness and disability? The current popular favourite is person-first language. It really got going in the 1990s, with the American Psychological Association leading the charge. Instead of talking about a “disabled person”, person-first language literally puts the person first, as in “person with a disability.” This has …

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"The opposite of poverty isn't wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice" – Bryan Stevenson

Poverty Can Be Very Expensive

There are some significant barriers that people living in poverty face when it comes to managing their finances. However, these may not always be obvious, so let’s talk about them. Let’s consider what it might look like to be living in poverty here in British Columbia, Canada, where I live. Provincial income assistance payments, including …

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Universal income: a guaranteed livable income could take poverty out of the picture

Benefits of Universal Basic Income for People with Mental Illness

I don’t have the economics background to speak to the feasibility of universal basic income, so I won’t try; however, I did want to explore the potential benefits for people with mental illness. What universal basic income is While various implementations have been proposed, at its core, universal basic income (UBI) has several basic characteristics. …

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What Is… the Euphemism Treadmill

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is the euphemism treadmill. Psychologist and linguist Stephen Pinker coined the term euphemism treadmill in a 1994 article in the New York Times. It refers to a process by which words that are used as a euphemism for …

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Do Attempts to Sanitize Mental Illness Reduce Stigma?

Recently, I came across a post that was a myths vs. facts type deal on mental illness stigma. One of the myths identified was that people with mental illness are disabled. The blogger’s response was that, on some days, mental illness could make it harder to work for some people, but there are also people …

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