Overview

Investigates the complex relationship between ex-mental patients, the government, the mental health system, and mental health professionals. It also explores how changes in policy have affected that relationship, creating new tensions and new opportunities. Using qualitative interviews with prominent consumer and survivor activists, Everett examines how consumers and survivors define themselves, how they define mental illness, and how their personal experience has been turned into political action.

Full Product Details

Author:   Barbara Everett
Publisher:   Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Imprint:   Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.460kg
ISBN:  

9780889203426

ISBN 10:   0889203423
Pages:   263
Publication Date:   30 January 2006
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

"A Fragile Revolution: Consumers and Psychiatric Survivors Confront the Power of the Mental Health System by Barbara Everett Acknowledgements Introduction The research questions A word about methodology Some caveats 1. Nothing changes and no one gets better Becoming a professional helper What is mental illness? Help for the patients Nothing changes and no one gets better Control battles Who's in charge of the staff? Helpless and hopeless In conclusion 2. From insanity to mental illness to psychiatric disability Insanity Mental illness Anti-psychiatric thought and feminist criticism The therapeutic community Deinstitutionalization Psychiatric disability In conclusion 3. Power and protest Power inequity and oppression Dominance For your own good Power as protest Agency Power as a contractual relationship New social movements Personal empowerment and social action When things go wrong In conclusion 4. A new power contract? Partnership Another group of partners The making of policy The forgotten partners In conclusion 5. A special bond Telling stories Four stories Sadly mistaken A special bond The personal becomes political In conclusion 6. Them Invisibility They hate emotion It's just a job They are abusive But they're more like us than they think The system In conclusion 7. Us Getting involved Is this a social movement Consumer? Survivor? Consumer\survivor? Or just a person? When some of """"us"""" joined """"them"""" The Ontario Psychiatric Survivors Alliance In conclusion 8. Partnership The threat and the promise of partnership The problems with partnership The personal costs Feeling used If it's not partnership, what is it? Will mental health reform work? In conclusion 9. What do consumers and survivors believe in? It's a chicken or egg thing What needs to change? What are consumers and survivors going to do about it? Disability rights In conclusion 10. Final thoughts and understandings So, what's it all about? A legacy of violence The power of powerless people The powerlessness of powerful people Things change and people get better A political identity in search of a future In conclusion Postscript Appendix I. Research methodology Sample selection A global view of the respondents Data collection techniques and sources Data analysis References Index"

Reviews

The major sources of information for Everett's study were consumers and psychiatric survivors and those involved in providing services to this group. In-depth interviews yielded striking stories of pain and heroism as people sought help from a system with limited help to give.... Everett['s]...book, a powerful examination of the mental health system from the inside, presents a strong case for continued reform in the system.''--Robert B. MacIntyre Canadian Book Review Annual, 2000

Author Information

Barbara Everett has worked as a psychotherapist for people with histories of severe childhood trauma. She currently works as a consultant to the Ministry of Health and is co-authoring a textbook for trauma therapists.

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