Monthly Archives: September 2021

Creating Compassionate Alternatives to Systemic Interventions for People in Crisis & Distress

Brought to you by MindFreedom International
and Rethinking Psychiatry.

The Summit is organized to promote and support Peer Respites and Soteria Houses as effective alternatives to existing mainstream responses for people in emotional distress or life-interrupting challenges. This free international, online, participatory conference will give people the inspiration, tools, resources, networks and ongoing support to bring a Peer Respite or Soteria House to their communities. Click here for printable PDF flyer.

Day 1, Welcome!

• Hard hitting overview of the data of the success of Peer Respites and Soteria Houses
• Inspiring first-hand wisdom from people who have created, worked at, and used Peer Respites and Soteria Houses

Speakers:

• Robert Whitaker – American journalist, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic and editor of MadinAmerica.com
• Voyce Hendrix – Co-founder of the original Soteria House from the 1970s
• Cindy Marty Hadge – IPS, Lead Trainer HVN-USA and Wildflower Alliance

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Day 2, The Big Picture Workshop

• Peer Respite or Soteria House? Which to choose?
• Philosophy and principles, fidelity and mission
• Framework, design, structure, research and evaluation
• How to organize in your community
• More information to come on speakers

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Day 3, The Administrative Container Workshop

• Organizational structure, incorporation, board of directors
• Funding
• Policy environment
• The house, siting, NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), community relations

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Day 4, How To Workshop

• “Being with” instead of “Doing to” or “Fixing”
• Choosing and training staff
• Finding guests
• Dealing with challenging situations

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Day 5, Where Do We Go From Here?

• Building community among us
• Continuing, in-depth workshops
• Ongoing mentoring, networking and support
• Resource repository

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Saturday, September 25 at 2:00 PST

Join Rethinking Psychiatry for a virtual community screening of Medicating Normal, a 76-minute documentary film exploring our current mental health care system’s reliance on psychiatric drugs to deal with trauma, grief, and distress. There will be an interactive community discussion immediately after the film focusing on the structure of psychiatric power in the United States.

Accessibility: If you have any accessibility needs or need language subtitles, please contact us at: medicatingnormal@gmail.com

“Medicating Normal dares to challenge prevailing myths about how psychotropic medications work, or fail to, in our ongoing struggle to treat mental illness. It promises to spark a long-overdue national conversation on the growing problem of over-prescribing.”

– Anna Lembke M.D., psychiatrist, faculty Stanford University Medical School.

Medicating Normal follows the journeys of a newly married couple, a female combat veteran, a waitress and a teenager whose doctors prescribed psychiatric drugs for stress, depression, sleeplessness, focus and trauma. Our subjects struggle with serious physical and mental side effects as well as neurological damage which resulted from taking the drugs as prescribed and also from attempting to withdraw.

Discussion Panelists

Cindi Fisher, a mental health advocate and activist catalyzed by the harm her 43 year old son experienced, and continues to experience today, at the intersection of racial and psychiatric oppression. Today she is dedicated to Whole Health Community Transformation. His tragic and resilient story, and her work and journey, can be found on her website RegroundingLove.com.

Braunwynn Franklin, mental health advocate, peer support specialist, and founder of 313 Network Solutions.

Dorian Taylor is a community member, a disability justice activist, and an abolitionist. They began advocating after their life has been shaped and molded by systemic traumas. They bring their motto “accessibility as an afterthought is the opposite of inclusion” into everything they do.

Alec Fisher is a community organizer working to end prison expansion in Washington while supporting incarcerated people and their families. After successfully defeating the construction of a new women’s prison in the state, Alec is working on a campaign to stop the expansion of Western State Hospital, a psychiatric confinement facility in Lakewood, Washington. Alec believes that disability justice and the prison-industrial complex are intimately tied and must be addressed together.

Keri Stanberry is a survivor of 35 years on medications and 7 years in and out of jail and mental institutions. She is an activist and NAMI state trainer for “Ending the Silence” and facilitator for NAMI’s signature programs. Keri has a certificate as a Community Health Worker, is a Washington state Peer Support Counselor, a Recovery Coach, and a medical assistant. She is a mother and lives in southern Washington.

Carolyn Green is the author of “LOCKED Behind (Hospital) Prison Doors 40-Days” sharing her traumatic experiences. Her active court cases in Washington State are aimed at creating new laws and changes that govern unlawful imprisonment (guised as civil commitment), to also improve the litigation process to protect the innocent. Carolyn graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, with a minor in Education from the University of Washington.

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