Sarah Blyth, executive director of the Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society, explains what’s needed to address the rising epidemic of overdose deaths: safe supply of drugs, decriminalization, a better approach to mental health – which is to say, action from all levels of government. She also discusses the experience of working in the heart of the […]
A half-hour interview with Idil, board chair of Across Boundaries mental health centre in Toronto, on race and mental health issues within the contexts of killings by police, incarceration, and mental health diagnosis and treatment. Main topics covered: Introduction to sanism, Anti-Black racism, and anti-Black sanism; Circumstances of Abdirahman Abdi’s death at the hands of […]
“What Sustains Us? What Stops Us?” An exploration and conversation starter on how we meld our activist lives, our political selves with our personal lives, our mental health work and the way we are in community – and how we can make it sustainable, healthy and constructive. Zine by Kristi Kenney; some pieces by guest […]
This appendixed poem on mental health and belonging was written for / originally published in the astrological PlanetWaves.net 2015 annual edition, Cosmophilia: You Belong Here. ~~~~~ PSYCHOVARIANT BELONGING by Greg Macdougall disassociation when you feel that you don’t belong don’t want to belong in what’s going on leave this world, find other reality […]
Film Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum By Greg Macdougall Set in the time of mass de-institutionalization of psychiatric patients, the Mental Patients Association (MPA) emerged in Vancouver at the start of the 1970s. This 36-minute documentary film, produced in 2013 by History of Madness Productions, captures the MPA experience and its impact […]
“Disability Justice work is … new in the sense that we’re building the shared political framework and shared language, so it’s also a very exciting time.” – Mia Mingus Disability Justice deals with the oppression of disability, but at the same time deals with other systems of oppression and injustice – it is a ‘multi-issue […]
Come and view this film documenting the early history of the Mental Patients Association in Vancouver, and engage with a panel discussion including the film’s producers as well as local mental health activists. FREE ADMISSION — ALL WELCOME Wed Oct 16, 7pm at the Bronson Centre, room 215 211 Bronson Ave – http://goo.gl/maps/K3jgm Thurs Oct […]
Interdependent media & in-person learning opportunities for those who are inspired to be part of movements for social justice.
