“Hey man, are you crazy?” “Sister Friend, I think you need some counseling.” “Are you off your medicine bro?” Many of us hear those phrases everyday. They can be said teasingly by friends, or
rudely shouted from a car waiting for you to cross the street.
Many people hear these phases from doctors and government leaders in ways that are neither cute or funny. What happens when someone with a mental disability smashes into the institutions and services of state and county government. How much help is available? Which state hospitals are more dangerous than jails? Where’s the hope?
We’re joined by Susan Rogers who has been active in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement since 1984. Susan is director of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse, a peer-run national technical assistance center and one of the organizers of the successful Occupy the American Psychiatric Association (APA) protest in May.
Karen Rose is here too. A local therapist who lives with a visual impairment, Karen has spent 28 years in the field of mental health, including many years supervising and counseling graduate
students at John F. Kennedy University and San Francisco State University.
Plus, a new commentary by Jacob Lesner-Buxton on how disability issues fare in left organizations.