saboma/activism

This is just one reason why continuing anyone's native tongue is important. I believe everybody of different cultures should be taught their native language.

"Daniel Fisher was a young, idealistic man in his mid-20s, enjoying life in a hippy commune, when he was hospitalised for four months in 1970 and diagnosed with schizophrenia. During that stay in hospital - his second of three on psychiatric wards - friends came to visit with a copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the bestselling Ken Kesey novel - later to become an Oscar-winning movie - about life on an Oregon psychiatric ward. He recalls fondly: "They said: 'Man, this is crazy. You gotta get out of here.' It was just a different era. We are in a much more conformist era." Fisher, a prominent psychiatrist who is advising the Obama administration on mental health issues, has been on a personal mission for two decades to change the way wider society understands and reacts to mental illness. An advocate of the "recovery model" - which posits that a diagnosis of mental illness is not for life, and that people can recover completely - Fisher is an outspoken and controversial figure in the US, campaigning vigorously for the rights of people diagnosed with a mental illness. Much of what he does is rooted in his own experience. "Human rights doesn't even begin to grasp it," he says. "It goes much deeper than that.""- RAPatton

"There is something unique, he suggests, about the individualism and self-help philosophy that permeates American culture, making it particularly conducive to advocacy of the rights of patients - or consumers, as they are commonly called in the US. "I know I shouldn't generalise, but it is a bit old world, new world," he says. "The culture we live in here that people [outside the US] don't understand is that we are very self-help and peer-support oriented." Despite all the progressive changes to mental health care in Britain over the years - from the closure of large asylums to moves toward a recovery model - Fisher contends that activists in the UK have been too "tame"." - RAPatton

"Not only does he reject the notion that people cannot recover from serious mental illnesses, he rejects the term mental illness. "We don't believe that description is helpful. In fact, we think it's harmful - not only in terms of stigma and discrimination, but also in terms of recovery, because it focuses the person's own attention and the people around them on the wrong issues. It focuses on: 'You take this pill and be compliant, and you listen to the doctors.'" What matters, he says, is the kind of support people get when they need it most. "It's unfortunate that the first message people hear when they are in acute distress is: 'You have incurable brain disease.' That takes a long time to undo. The first thing that people hear should be: 'Yeah, you're in distress, but other people have been in that [state] and there's hope, and you can heal.' If people heard that, many more would recover. Medicine is a tool, but it's not the primary tool."" - RAPatton

   From the page: "Chief Clyde Clinton presented Sebastien with a helmet and a certificate naming him Sanger's first reserve captain. Clinton said it was the first time the department has offered such VIP treatment to a terminally ill patient.

'What I see in this child is a mentor,' Clinton said later. 'He's not looking at death, he's looking at life.'"

As a crisis negotiator with the San Diego Police Department, Rick Carlson was tasked with talking people out of committing suicide. Photo: Sam Hodgson

[W]hen Diana visited a veterinary clinic in December 2008 and saw Starsky, the resident mascot of the hospital, outfitted in his Santa hat and darn mad about it.

The beloved poodle-cat (you'll see why in the video) captured Diana's imagination and once back in her studio, she began painting Kitty Humbug. Watch, listen, and enjoy the story of Kitty Humbug!

Riverside County Regional Medical Center- Arlington Campus Wins CA-NAMI 2009 Zero Tolerance Seclusion & Restraint Award.

Present to accept the award was Dr. Dennis, Dr. Patel, Deborah Johnson, Sheree Fernandez and Anna Fuzi. It is the first time that any California county has won this award. Riverside set the benchmark for other counties throughout the state. Shannon Jaccard from NAMI San Diego presented the award in memory of her brother Jeffery.

Dr. Dennis stated: We treat seclusion and restraint as some of the most humiliating, degrading sort of things that can be done to people and we recognize that. And we want to do everything possible to avoid these sorts of things from happening. So, we've been doing everything possible in the innovative approach, adn taking the approach. "Where there's a will, there's a way." And, keeping from the top down that commitment to make sure we keep making strides. Each month we make improvements but w're not satisfied, so we are going to continue the effort and hopefully, one of these days we'll be able to achieve that. In certain areas in our facility, we are achieving the zero restraint already. We're very proud of that. And just have to say again, "Where there is a will, there is a way," and I know you all know that too. We're going to keep on working. Thank you very much everyone for this.

Git on, Kathy Stringer!

From the page: "ICE has granted Herta an order of supervision until November 9, 2009, but she is still facing deportation.

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, Herta will still have to report back to ICE on November 9th, and that's not good enough

DHS and ICE need to grant Herta deferred action on her deportation.

Help us reach the proposed goal of 5,000 letters today.

*If anything, let's negotiate to keep Herta here and trade off a handful of our Criminal Justice poster children in her place.

That'll teach them!