
A Fragile Revolution
Consumers and Psychiatric Survivors Confront the Power of the Mental Health System
Barbara Everett(Author)
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. January 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
263 pages
978-0-88920-342-6 (ISBN)
Description
Despite two centuries and three major reform movements, mental patients have remained on the outside of the mainstream of society, often living in poverty and violence. Today we are undergoing yet another period of reform and, in a historical first, ex-mental patients, now calling themselves consumers and psychiatric survivors, have been recruited in record numbers by the Ontario government to participate in the change process.
A Fragile Revolution investigates the complex relationship between ex-mental patients, the government, the mental health system, and mental health professionals. It also explores how the recent 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 translated into political action.
While it is clear that consumers and survivors have affected the rhetoric of reform, they know that words do not equal action. As they struggle to develop their own separate advocacy agenda, they acknowledge that theirs is a fragile revolution, but one that is here to stay.
A Fragile Revolution investigates the complex relationship between ex-mental patients, the government, the mental health system, and mental health professionals. It also explores how the recent 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 translated into political action.
While it is clear that consumers and survivors have affected the rhetoric of reform, they know that words do not equal action. As they struggle to develop their own separate advocacy agenda, they acknowledge that theirs is a fragile revolution, but one that is here to stay.
Reviews / Votes
``Everett is a professional. She has worked in institutional and agency settings and has a valid take on the nature of power and powerlessness, control and being controlled.... Quotations from consumer/survivors make the book come alive.... Everett has done a good service to professionals and clients alike.'' -- Pat Capponi -- The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health, Vol. 4 #4, July/August 2001 ``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 ``[As] a worker in the mental health field...[it] was gratifying to see my lived experience described in a cohesive way within a theoretical framework that helped me understand my professional experiences at a deeper level.... The author's ability to integrate the historical context of mental health reform with the experiences of consumers/survivors, the viewpoints of family members, and the perspectives of professionals is both exceptional and sensitively done. I highly recommend this book for anyone coming in contact with the mental health system--consumers/survivors, family members, mental health professionals, and students who are plannng to enter the field of mental health.'' -- Ru Tauro -- Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol. 21 #1, Spring 2002 ``A Fragile Revolution demonstrates quite unequivocally, a first-rate strategic thinker, competent analyst, and elegant literary stylist.... This is the book you give to non-academic Psych Industry Workers for their `own short course in what the antipsychiatry movement is all about.... A major contribution and a must-read for anyone concerned with Canadian mental health policy making and development.'' -- Byron Fraser -- In a Nutshell, Winter/Spring 2002 ``The initial section on the history of the consumer movement is excellent.... Everett's discussions about `partnership,' about the different meaning behind the terms `consumer' and `survivor,' and about possible retaliation against consumer activists are all excellent and important. Her description of the failure of well-funded consumer groups is illuminating.... The discussion about whether consumer-survivors can participate without being co-opted is worth the price of the entire book.... I finished the book wanting to phone the author and continue the discussion, to argue with her and to agree with her.'' -- Ronald J. Diamond -- Psychiatric Services, Vol. 52, #39, September 2001More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
460 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-88920-342-6 (9780889203426)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Barbara Everett has worked in both hospital and community mental health services in a variety of professional roles, from social work to senior manager. Her clinical focus has been the provision of psychotherapy for people suffering from complex posttraumatic stress disorder. She presently works as a consultant providing services such as clinical skills development workshops, clinical consultation and supervision, as well as program developmnet and evaluation.
Content
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
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