October 10 is World Mental Health Day. The global theme this year is citizen activism and advocacy to make mental health a global priority. To mark the event Amnesty International will hold a thank you party to celebrate our Mental Health Lobbying Network activists. If you are interested in mental health as a human rights issue please come along.
As part of our campaign to promote the right to the highest attainable standard of mental health, Amnesty International is facilitating this engagement of individuals through a Mental Health Lobbying Network. The network has been going from strength to strength over the last two years and we would like to celebrate your activism.
Ireland’s mental health policy framework, A Vision for Change, was published in January 2006. Now we have a framework, it is time to see some changes. It is time for individuals, as constituents, to voice their views to their Dáil Éireann representatives about how mental health services and supports are planned and delivered.
We invite everyone - services users, mental health professionals, teachers, you - to join this network. There is a vast constituency whose voices are not being heard by Government.
Together our voices are louder. We need your voice!
What we need you to do:
Each month a letter-writing action is issued to members of the Network, together with advice on how to lobby TDs. Regional training and capacity-building resources are available to Network members throughout the course of these actions.
The objective is that as many individuals as possible call, visit or write to their TD on the same day each month with the same issue and demand.
If you are interested in attending this event or going the Network please email mentalhealth@amnesty.ie or call
01 8638300
Posts
1 comment:
In the same way that the terms 'black' and 'African American' were originally conceived through the American civil rights movement to replace the then-prevailing and hate-perpetuating language of the era, the term 'menatlly ill' need not languish linguistically now that Amnesty Ireland is involved.
Whilst I support the spirit of what Amnesty Ireland is trying to achieve here, especially given that Ireland's branch is the ONLY Amnesty group world-wide prepared to address these kinds of issues; I think it is a mistake to fall into the trap of calling your campaign to be about 'mental health'.
Wouldn't 'Emotional Health' or some other wording be a better catchphrase? Since, inevitably, it is the 'catchphrase' which has the longest Media 'Half-life'.
The term 'mental health' was originally concocted by 'shrinks' in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies and has been granted nauseating gravitas and 'officialdom' by government and health department buraucrats ever since.
It's ironic that the term 'shrink' which is not officially used by Amnesty Ireland in its campaign is actually a popular word to describe 'mental health professionals' by those who have had experience with them or their flunkies.
None of these groups, I would imagine, are now sending Amnesty Ireland any donations for this current campaign.
Furthermore, at a recent forum held in Melbourne, Australia held to discuss proposed changes to the Victorian Mental Health Act, many so-called 'service users' voiced their distinct unhappiness with the terms 'mental health', 'mental illness' and 'the mentally ill' and their having to be associated with (the connotations of) these words.
The problem is also that by embracing psychiatric terminology, the language of the so-called 'service users' is 'owned' by the very people who are often responsible for their systematic abuse.
The term 'Service user' surely can't do justice to the suffering of people who have had no choice but to be unwillingly incarcerated by it.
Why describe these people as 'using a service' when the majority don't even want to be there? Why describe it as a 'service' when it is obviously being forced on so many people against their will?
Why doesn't Amnesty Ireland consider asking the people who have had experiences with 'shrinks' and the system how they would like to describe themselves (and the system) ?
I imagine a survey of that kind wouldn't yield a 'term' immediately agreed upon, but it certainly might precipitate a dynamic and informative debate - the kind which every robust civil rights movement needs.
Language is power, surely.
Post a Comment