Thursday 18 December 2008

Best Wishes for Christmas and 2009

Hi everyone, just to wish you a all a very lovely Christmas and all the best of the New Year.

Thanks again to Be Morris and Colin Murray, both key supporters of the early movement, for all their help and enthusiasm.

I'm excited about the Oral History taster training starting in January 2009, get in touch if you want to find out more or fancy coming along. Happy Christmas etc etc

Monday 8 December 2008

Oor Mad History West Lothian Christmas meeting!

Hi there
Myself, an OMH volunteer and some steering group members were in West Lothian on Friday for our Christmas meeting. Thankyou to everyone at MHAP (Mental Health Advocacy Project) for making us so welcome and putting on such a fine spread. It was great to get people together who had not met before, to talk about the project and about mad peoples' history.
Check out the comments for the "What were you doing in 1984?" post - Andrew Roberts from the Survivors History Group in London has left an interesting comment about the work he was doing with the Hackney Mental Patients Union in 1984.
We are still looking for two more people for our Oral History training in January. Please give me a phone if you fancy coming along.
Thanks!
Kirsten

Wednesday 29 October 2008

What were you doing in 1984?

Well, we now have our earliest piece of archive material so far, film footage from 1984. Thankyou to the Andrew Roberts of the Survivors History Group, as it was through my contact with them that I discovered the film.

The film is a presentation made by Glasgow Link Club members at the 1984 MIND conference. The previous year Link members have gone to the conference and been shocked and angry to see that not one talk or workshop was given by a user. They made up their mind to change that.

The film is a really important part of the history of the User Movement at a UK, Scottish and Lothian level. Two of the people in the film went on to be founding members of Survivors Speak Out. It was Survivors Speak Out members who came up to early meetings in Edinburgh when the movement was getting started here. Through these early meetings Lothians' first user group was formed, Awareness, in 1989.

So I am really excited that we have a copy of this film in the archive. We're going to show a short clip at CAPS AGM on Thursday 7 November, so please come along and find out more about this fascinating piece of user movement history.

Other news is that the Living Memory Association, who sit on our Steering Group, have agreed to taster training sessions on Oral History interviewing techniques. This will be a fun way to get together with other folk and learn new skills. Please get in touch if you're interested.

I went to see Tynepark Multi Media Groups' drama "On the Road to Recovery" at a SAMH event in Musselburgh. It was really excellent and proved to me the power of drama to explore complex issues. I'm meeting with the Multi Media group next week to talk to them about the OMH project, so here's hoping they will get involved.

I have a few meetings with early activists coming up which is always interesting, really brings the whole archive to life for me.

Theatre Workshop are still keen to put on a community play around Mad Peoples History, so will keep you posted about that. The play they are putting on just now, Marat/Sade sounds great and I'm hoping to get together a group to go along. Get in touch if you fancy coming along.

We have two new members from the Patients Council who have joined the OMH Steering Group and we have someone from East Lothian and hopefully EUF joining soon.

I'm going on a trip with the Heritage Sub Group from the Royal Edinburgh Hospitals' Bi-Centenary project. We are going to the Lothian Health Services Archive to look at original copies of the "Morningside Mirror". This was a newspaper that was printed at the Royal Ed and is a really fascinating piece of social history.

Well that's a quick update on what's happening with the project. Please get in touch if you want to come along to Theatre Workshop's new play or if you'd like to find out more about the Oral History training. Cheers!

Monday 20 October 2008

‘Oor Mad History’: community history as a way of revitalising mental health collective advocacy

[This is an article printed in Concept: The Journal of Contemporary Community Education Practice Theory in Autumn 2008]
By listening to and learning from their stories from the past, and by understanding the views of those who have been in mental institutions in our own time, we create the greater possibility of making mental health treatment more humane, less imposing, less impersonal, and more responsive to what the people on the receiving end want or do not want. (Reaume, 2000: 253).
Those of us who use mental health services are usually seen as sufferers of mental illness, as victims of stigma and discrimination and as dangerous people needing to be controlled. Our madness and distress are understood as irrational and beyond understanding – some people are sane and some people are insane – and the former can never understand the latter [and there is no need to]. The medical model dominant in mental health services constructs certain individuals as sick and in need of treatment, and draws on the ‘expert’ knowledge of psychiatry for diagnosis and prognosis, and a reification of mental illness. Unlike other medical specialities, psychiatry has legal powers to detain a person diagnosed with a mental illness and considered to be a danger to his or herself or to others, and to treat them against their will. While it is a minority of service users who are under compulsion, the effects of this power can be felt throughout the mental health system, in what Rogers and Pilgrim call a ‘gradient of coercion’ (2003: 71)[. This is when] where some people are under legal compulsion to accept treatment, where some are under threat of such compulsion and so agree to something they might otherwise not (de facto compulsion), to the majority who are conscious of the possibility of coercion.

We have long been objects of social policy, of professional discourses and of the history of psychiatry. We have been constructed as people who are passive, rather than people who can act, however limiting the structural issues [constraints] may be. ‘As objects, one’s reality is defined by others, one’s identity created by others, one’s history named only in ways that defined one’s relationship to those who are subject’ (hooks, 1989: 42-3). For example, unlike most disabled people, those of us who experience mental distress are constructed in terms of our use of services rather than our experience of impairment[,] and society’s role in disabling us is therefore concealed. I consider this as evidence of how we are situated because of mental health legislation and the medical model.

The reality is that we have long been active in challenging these views and assumptions, and in generating ideas for better services and better working practices in the delivery of more effective services. In recent years, our demands to have our voices heard and our views included in mental health policy, service planning and management have been successful. Legislation such as the NHS and Community Care Act (1990) and the Mental Health (Treatment and Care) (Scotland) Act 2003 and policies such as the Patient Focus and Public Involvement Framework now mean that service user involvement is automatically part of every new development in mental health services.

The problems of success

However, success brings problems and we have found that the increased demands to participate in consultations, planning groups, evaluations etc. leaves mental health collective advocacy groups with less time and energy to focus on what we felt was important. We have also found that most user involvement initiatives operate so that important structural issues are effectively kept off the agenda (Hodge 2006). Such demand has also meant groups miss out on the opportunity to learn from one another. The focus on local issues (at local authority or health board level) means that we cannot always keep up to date with issues at a Scottish or UK level [European and international].

Collective advocacy groups are products of the social context in which they arise. Mental health services are not generally places or spaces in which those of us who use them have had positive experiences of power, so many of us who become members of collective advocacy groups may not have had the opportunity to explore issues of power and to challenge our own beliefs and behaviours. Therefore, there is a danger that we will generally replicate the power imbalances present within most mental health services. For example, we may see ourselves as primarily people with mental health problems and not as people who are capable of working together to effect change. Beresford and Wallcraft (1997) argue that psychiatry has had a powerful influence on how mental health service users understand their own experience of madness and distress, and on how they identify, individually and collectively. They contrast this with the experience of disabled people who developed the social model of disability based on their own experiences and understanding, independent of professionals and services.

So we need to explore ways of engaging with these kinds of issues. Some of us involved in Edinburgh Users Forum had been casually reminiscing about events and people from our past, and it was always noticeable how much more energy we had when remembering way back when compared to how we we talked about current demands. Perhaps a focus on our history as mad people and as activists would help us in our current work? By re-connecting us to the reasons mental health service users had set up our groups, by learning from the past, and by working together, we could use the past to change our future…

Then in October 2007, the visit of Canadian mental health ‘consumer’ and academic, David Reville, to Edinburgh. David teaches a course at Ryerson University called Mad People’s History, originally designed and taught by Geoffrey Reaume, and this caught our attention and our imaginations. This course looks at ‘madness’ from the perspective of those who were, or are, labelled as ‘mad’ as opposed to the history of psychiatry [a medical speciality] or the history of mental illness [a medical construct]. It is part of the ‘the wider goal of advancing social justice struggles for the vast majority of mad people who could never dream of being in a position to take any university course, let alone one that speaks so clearly about their own collective history.’ (Reaume, 2006: 174)

‘Oor Mad History’

We successfully applied to NHS Lothian for funding for a two year project to take this work forward. Oor Mad History will involve service users from all the Lothian mental health advocacy groups, the Patients Council at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, East Lothian Involvement Group, West Lothian Mental Health Advocacy Project, Service Users Midlothian and Edinburgh Users Group. It will be managed by CAPS – a user-led advocacy organisation which has played a major role in developing collective advocacy throughout the Lothians.

Language is significant – we chose each word in the project’s name carefully. Oor emphasises the collective nature of the project and the Scottish context. Mad is a loaded term, one which challenges the medical focus of much of the language in this whole area. No term in the history of madness is neutral — not mental illness, madness, or any other term. Madness, however, is more respectful of the huge diversity of views within this field over a much longer period than a term exclusively identified with biological determinism that has developed since the early twentieth century (Reaume 2006: 182).

And history?

For many marginalised groups, oral history is a key way of discovering and recovering their history. Thomson (2000) gives many examples of how such groups have been able to sustain themselves through hardship through remembering their history and using the confidence it gives them to mobilize politically. Oral history usually, though not always, takes a more collective approach [than what?]. The Oral History Society (2007) describes oral history as the ‘recording of people’s memories’ which ‘enables people who have been hidden from history to be heard’. Thomson (2000) argues that all history has a social and political purpose, whether stated or not. What we can do with oral history is to be explicit about our social and political purpose. Harding and Gabriel claim that ‘[a]n enduring and dominant theme in generating life-story interviews … has been the enrichment and democratisation of history and the empowerment of ‘disenfranchised’ groups’ (2004: 186).

We intend that both the content (our history as activists [or active agents of change]) and the process (ourselves as oral historians) will challenge the more usual construction of mental health service users as objects and argues that we are agents in our own lives and can actively participate in the planning, management and evaluation of mental health services. We also expect it will strengthen collective advocacy groups by shaping ‘their sense of collective and communal attachment and the opportunities for further mobilisation’ (ibid.: 200) which should enable us to resist the user involvement agenda and to focus on our priorities.

Oor Mad History will have two key tasks
  • to gather and organise material which has been stored in organisations’ premises and other material which may be donated by individuals;
  • interview key people and transcribe the interviews.
The transcribed interviews and the organised archive will form a resource from which a number of products can be developed, e.g. DVD, website, book, etc.. The material will determine what formats the products of the project will take, taking into consideration, issues to do with accessibility of such products e.g. literacy, sensory impairment, etc.. However, it is important that we do not to decide too soon on what format such products might take.

A Community History Worker has been appointed who will have [has] the responsibility to co-ordinate the activity of Oor Mad History and supporting the activists. We will recruit, train and support people currently active in service user groups to carry out interviews and other aspects of Oor Mad History, based on their interests. We hope that this new project will draw a wider range of mental health service users into the work of the project and to wider user involvement.

Our aim is that the project will benefit
  • People who use or who have used mental health services in Lothian: by becoming involved with the project and being part of a wider group learning more about our history, they will develop skills in interviewing and/or archiving
  • Collective advocacy groups: by remembering our own history, we will reconnect with the reasons our groups came into being, celebrate our successes and learn from our mistakes and failures.
  • Workers: both in the voluntary and statutory sector, workers will gain a broader appreciation of how mental health service users have made and continue to make a difference to services
  • Trainers and educators: this resource will provide valuable material for people who do training in mental health awareness, user involvement etc. as well as those responsible for professional and academic education
  • Researchers: the resource will provide unique materials for those researching the history and current situation of mental health services, psychiatry, etc.
  • Public: through the products developed from the archive and the interviews, the public will get a broader perspective on mental health service users and this will counter stigma.
However, we must be cautious about expecting too much from an oral history project. Harding and Gabriel (2004) found that ‘the changes produced are small and local (186)’ and that attempts to represent ‘marginal experience’, inevitably define further positions of marginalisation for those who do not get to say their bit’ (Harding, 2002: 91, cited in Harding and Gabriel: 2004: 197).

References

Beresford, P. and Wallcraft, J. (1997) ‘Psychiatric System Survivors and Emancipatory research: Issues, overlaps and differences.’ In: Barrnes, C. and Mercer, G. eds. Doing Disability Research [Internet] pp. 66-87. Available from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/Barnes/Chapter%205.pdf [Accessed 20 June 2008].

Harding, J. and Gabriel, J. (2004) ‘Communities in the Making: Pedagogic Explorations using Oral History.’ in International Studies in Sociology of Education, 14 (3): 185-201.

Hodge, S. (2005) Participation, discourse and power: a case study in service user involvement. Critical Social Policy, 25(2): 164-179.

hooks, b (1989) Talking back: thinking feminist, thinking black Boston, MA: South End Press.

The Oral History Society (2007) The Oral History Society. [Internet]. Available at: http://www.ohs.org.uk/ [Accessed 20 June 2008].

Reaume, G. (2000) Remembrance of Patients Past: Patient life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.

Reaume, G. (2006) ‘Mad People’s History.’ in Radical History Review 94: 170-82.

Thompson, P. (2000) The Voice of the Past: Oral History. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Buzzing with ideas - with links

Hi there, it has been a busy few weeks for the OMH project. Let me tell you about a few highlights. A member of the Edinburgh Users Forum brought in a newspaper article about a Survivors History Group in London. I made contact with them and am delighted to be in touch with this group. This is a group of volunteers including Andrew Roberts and Peter Campbell. Andrew has created a Survivors Timeline, detailing significant events in User Movement history. I am hoping to be able to give Andrew some of the big dates in the history of the Scottish Movement. I am looking forward to doing some joint work with this group.

We also had a meeting of the Mad People's History Group, chaired by Steve Tilley, at the University of Edinburgh. There was a phone conference with David Reville and Kathryn Church from the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto which was excellent.

Another event we attended was the launch of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival in Glasgow on 10 September. This was great day, where they launched the programme. The festival has more than doubled in size since it started last year. They have 140 events happening, films, plays, literary events and art exhibitions. We also had a chance to meet with key stakeholders, such as Breathing Space, Mental Health Foundation Scotland and Scottish Recovery Network and find out more about their work. We thought that the festival is a fantastic platform and we hope to see Oor Mad History's name in the programme next year!

Archiving is going well. I am meeting with an Archivist at the National Archives of Scotland tomorrow to discuss methods.

I have been out to the Patients' Council to look through thier archival material. Thankyou to Maggie for arranging that. Two members of the Patients' Council are joining the OMH steering group which is great.

I also met with Ruth Rooney from the Edinburgh Carers Council, who worked with both EAMH (Edinburgh Association for Mental Health, now Health in Mind) and the REH Patients' Council. Thanks to Ruth for meeting with me when they are so busy with moving office.

I am heading out the West Lothian today to meet with MHAP (Mental Health Advocacy Project). Really looking forward to seeing them. Also meeting with SUM (Service Users Midlothian) this week, to update them.

Also have another meeting coming up with an early activist, so looking forward to that.

Well that's about it for now. Please get in touch if you are interested in finding out more about the project. Cheers!

Thursday 21 August 2008

Oor Mad History Update

Hi there,

I have been busy sorting through all the archive material here at the office. Interesting and dusty work! Lots of Beyond Diagnosis material, the national magazine that was a voice for people with mental health problems in Scotland during the 1990's.

I also met with Graham Morgan, who is a key person in the Lothian User Movement. Graham was involved with 'Awareness' a very early User Group in Edinburgh. He was also the first paid worker with CAPS whose role it was to set up a Lothian wide Users network. Graham was threfore invovled in LUF (Lothian Users Forum) as well as Beyond Diagnosis, SUN (Scottish Users Network) and many more such as ELIG (East Lothian Invovlement Group) and groups in West and Midlothian. It was fantastic to hear about the early days from Graham and I'd like to thank him for taking the time to talk to me. Although Graham is now based in Inverness with HUG, he has agreed to be interviewed for the oral history archive and is willing to come along to events in the future.

I am meeting with some other activists from the early days of the Movement in the next couple of weeks.

OMH has also been invited to the launch of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival in Glasgow on 10 September 2008. This is a great chance to meet with all the organisations involved and to find out about the 100 plus events that are happening across the country.

Well thats about it for now. Please get in touch if you want to find out more about OMH, if you have any old papers at home that you think might be good for the archive or you can think of any people who have been active in the User Movement that we should be speaking to. Phone Kirsten at CAPS on 0131 538 7177. Thanks.

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Thankyou to the Patient's Council

Hi there! Met with the Patient's Council yesterday. Thankyou to them for having me along. Everyone was really supportive and helpful. People began to think about contacts from early Patient's Council days. Maggie McIvor, Patient's Council Administrator, has a box file of archive material set aside which is fantastic! She has also written a short history of the Patient's Council. The group are happy for me to scan documents at their office to add into Lothian Archive. A member of the PC is going to sit on the Steering Group and I will also keep in touch with regular updates to the Management Committee and drop ins.

Thursday 7 August 2008

Welcome to Oor Mad History Blog!

Hello and welcome to our blog!

My name is Kirsten Maclean, I am a Community History Worker with Oor Mad History.

OMH is based at a project called CAPS (Consultation and Advocacy Promotion Service) in Edinburgh. CAPS provide an independent advocacy service, working with people who experience mental health problems.

In September of last year an event was held to coincide with a visit from David Reville, a Canadian mental health 'consumer' and academic. User groups from all over Lothian came to meet with David, who teaches a univeristy course in Mad People's History at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Service Users were inspired by this visit and began to think about what work could be done here around Service User History. A Steering Group was formed to put together a funding proposal to NHS. Funding was secured and a worker, myself, was recruited.

In the first two years we are putting together a Lothian Wide archive, both paper based (posters, leaflets etc) and an Oral History Archive of people who have been active in the Movement.

What happens then? Well we want to create resources based on the work done in the first two years, which can be used to celebrate the movement, train professionals and challenge the stigma still associated with mental health problems.

This is a hugely exciting project. We hope that it will raise the profile of the Service User Movement and highlight what has been achieved in the last 30 years. We hope to learn from the past and from each other and to take this learning forward into future campaigns. OMH will highlight the involvement of Service Users in the development of key services.

Are you or have you been involved with a User Group in Edinburgh or Lothians? Please get in touch! We want to hear from you!

Do you have any old leaflets, posters, minutes of meetings? Get in touch!

Interested? Want to find out more? Please comment here or email me at

kirsten@capsadvocacy.org

Thanks for reading...