I've seen ableism being mentioned on Twitter a number of times lately, and aside from the obvious meaning, it wasn't a concept I was all that familiar with in a mental health context. This post will explore what ableism means for psychiatric disabilities. An article on the Center for Disability Rights website describes ableism this … Continue reading Ableism: The Assumptions People Make About Ability (and Disability)
Not long ago, a photo was forwarded to Time.com from a 2001 yearbook of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who was a teacher at the time, dressed in an Aladdin costume that included brownface makeup. It caused quite a stir, with some people criticizing him as being racist. Since it's Halloween, it seems like a … Continue reading Halloween, Blackface, and Cultural Appropriation
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the articles contained in it from the perspective of someone with mental illness, and throw in some assorted other observations as well. Text in italic font is the actual … Continue reading Human Rights and Mental Illness
The concept of intersectionality was first proposed in 1989 by black feminist researcher Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to represent the many different layers of social stratification that can combine to disadvantage people. This includes factors like race, sexual orientation, social class, age, disability, and gender. Expanding on this concept, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins described the intersectional points … Continue reading Intersectionality and what it means for mental health
Employers aren't supposed to discriminate against people with mental illness. In fact, it's often against the law. Yet employment discrimination happens, so what do we do about it when it does? Canadian human rights legislation In Canada, provincial human rights legislation requires equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups. People … Continue reading Mental Illness and Employment Discrimination
NIMBYism is a fascinating phenomenon. NIMBYs, or people think that something is okay just as long as it's Not In My BackYard, cover discrimination with a thin veneer of civility and acceptability. Among the many manifestations of this is with regards to social housing, including supported housing for people with mental illness. NIMBYs' arguments may … Continue reading NIMBYism and Mental Health Housing
Like so many other things in this world, race shouldn't be an issue when it comes to mental health, but it is. I'm not talking about biological effects associated with race like genetic susceptibilities to certain illnesses, but rather the impact of socially imposed ideas about race, and the lack of equality that results. To … Continue reading Where race and mental health collide
As a nurse in my province (British Columbia, Canada), if I am hospitalized for mental illness then the provincial Health Professions Act requires the hospital to report me to the nursing regulatory college, and the college must treat this as a complaint about my fitness to practice. This ends up with being offering the non-choice … Continue reading The Health Professions Act and the Fight Against Stigma
I saw a post about this issue on Twitter recently, and it stirred up a pretty strong reaction for me. A man was writing about how he'd been advocating for his child to be able to have their cell phone on the psych ward, but this was flatly denied due to ward policy. As a … Continue reading Cell phones on psych wards – yea or nay?
Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse is a documentary, available on Amazon Prime, about a man with schizophrenia who was killed by police in Portland, Oregon. This film was funded by The Mental Health Association of Portland and over 1500 individual supporters, which I thought was pretty impressive. It's an extremely disturbing example … Continue reading Alienation and brutality
Today is International Women's Day, and the theme for this year's theme is #BalanceforBetter. To me, feminism is about tearing down the gender norms and stereotypes that divide us and marginalize people who don't fit into certain boxes. This is not about sameness, because we are all unique, although as human beings there is more … Continue reading International Women’s Day: Balance for Better
Stigma can be found in many places, even places where we might like to think it shouldn't be. One such place where I have found it is in government legislation, hence the title of this post, legislated stigma. Mandatory reporting of hospitalized nurses As a registered nurse, my professional license is through the College of … Continue reading Legislated stigma