Open Journals at Memorial University
Not a member yet
1472 research outputs found
Sort by
“About Nothing Without Us”: A Comparative Analysis of Autonomous Organizing Among People Who Use Drugs and Psychiatrized Groups in Canada
No full textBackground: A growing body of literature demonstrates the value of autonomous organizations of people who use drugs (PUD) in education, mutual support, and policy debates. Simultaneously, over the past 10 years, Canada has witnessed increased emphasis on what is generally termed (service) user involvement in public health, particularly among PUD and/or psychiatrizatized groups. Paralleling the development of autonomous organizations of PUD in relation to independent groups by and for various psychiatrized constituencies, this article traces the history of Canadian drug/service user organizing with an overt focus on structural barriers, suggesting that the psychiatric survivor and mad movements have served as critical organizing models among PUD. Methods: Drawing from a comparative review of psychiatric survivor/mad initiatives and organizations of PUD, in tandem with observations from the author’s cumulative ethnographic field research, this paper conducts a critique of how PUD are positioned in Canadian drug policy. Results: Despite popular perceptions regarding Canada’s embrace of harm reduction, recent political shifts have indicated both a clear regression to moral-criminological approaches closely aligned with the U.S. “war on drugs,” and the persistence of structural barriers among Canadian PUD. Conclusion: Drawing from evidenced- based research concerning peer-based forms of harm reduction, this paper argues for the fundamental centrality of autonomous organizations by and for PUD in the harm reduction movement at local and global scales, suggesting that addiction research and policy development that neglects the direct involvement of PUD bears little, if any, relevance to the people in whose interests it is ostensibly conducted
Racialized Communities, Producing Madness and Dangerousness
No full textThis article seeks to explore how issues of dangerousness and madness inform the experiences of racialized groups in England. It draws on insights from critical race theory and intersectionality to analyze the intersections between “race,” madness, and dangerousness. The understanding gained from this analysis is then applied to the evidence by drawing on two case studies of men who were perceived as dangerous. The article explores how issues of race are played out in social work and concludes that exploring the intersections between madness, race, and dangerousness should help us to move to a more nuanced understanding of the persistence of racial inequalities in mental health
Legitimating Damage and Control: The Ethicality of Electroshock Research
No full textThis article probes the ethicality of standard electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) research, examining the politics of the questions asked, the criteria used, and the treatment of participants. In the process it walks the reader through a concrete case. Particularly focal is research connected with effectiveness and/or damage. A pivotal conclusion reached is that all research which in any way promotes an electroshock agenda (the vast majority of ECT research conducted) is unethical, for it is in the service of violence and control. This includes research whose stated goal is improving ECT. The author demonstrates, correspondingly, that the bulk of the research is an institutional product in which the criteria used originate solely with the professionals, seriously clash with the knowledge of participants, and indeed, it is part and parcel of a discourse about efficacy and safety which is at odds with both lived experience and science. Examined in particular detail is recruitment material such as advertisements and information sheets which functions to systematically mislead, prey upon, and otherwise harm prospective participants. While affirming the ethicality of much of the critical research, the article ends by introducing the possibility of knowledge insurrection.
Too Young to Be Mad: Disabling Encounters with 'Normal' from the Perspectives of Psychiatrized Youth
No full textIn this paper, the psychiatrization of children and youth is explored, as well as their representation within Mad and Disability Studies. Presented are the outcomes of a photo voice project conducted with seven (N=7) youths between 14 and 17 years old constructed as having a “serious mental health issue.” The self-identified research question the young people asked and answered was: What is ‘normal mental health’ for children and youth? Through the photographs and explanations of the images, we learn that ‘normal’ is a matter of perspective, an ambiguous and shifting standard against which young people are compared, and from which constructions of ‘mental disorder’ as difference and abnormal are imposed on their experiences of distress. As a mechanism for psychiatrization, the difference becomes the rationale for prejudice and discrimination at the intersections of childhood and adultism, distress and sanism, and (in)competence and ableism. The implications of expanding children’s theorizing and activism for Mad and Disability studies are discussed
Psy-Times: The Psycho-Politics of Resilience in University Student Life
No full textGuided by insights from interpretive sociology, Mad Studies, and Disability Studies, this paper explores the role of universities in a psycho-social politics of resilience. I examine how the concept of resilience is used to rationalize the removal of the perspectives of university students with lived experience of disability and madness. Focusing on the University of Toronto, Canada, as a case, I trace the systematic exclusion, silencing, and erasure of the perspectives of people with lived experience within the University to the University’s inception as a colonialist project. The analysis is supported by a theorization of resilience and a brief genealogical analysis of the University of Toronto’s history as “Temporary Asylum for Female Lunatics” (or “University Asylum”) from 1856–1869. This paper illustrates the integral role that the concept of resilience plays in the social order of the University, and in the exploitation, oppression, and forcible displacement of mad-identified people by the University. Although the University Asylum building is now demolished, the colonial project that leveled it lingers on in resilience-based, success-oriented, university disability programs and initiatives
Taking Action on Stigma and Discrimination: An Intersectionality-Informed Model of Social Inclusion and Exclusion
No full textSocial inclusion has increasingly been positioned within research and policy as integral to addressing stigma and discrimination related to mental health and substance use. Yet there is a lack of consensus about the meaning of social inclusion and how this concept can be applied to understand the broader social contexts that influence health and inequity. In this paper, we respond to a recently developed model of social inclusion for mental health and substance use in British Columbia (BC), Canada, by proposing an alternative model: an Intersectionality-Informed Model of Social Inclusion and Exclusion. Drawing on the BC model, we demonstrate what we see as key limitations of current conceptualizations of social inclusion and highlight the ways in which the proposed model extends, improves, and complicates understandings of social inclusion. We argue that this inquiry is a necessary precursor to better addressing the complexities of stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion, and in so doing, to promoting social inclusion and equity
The Rise of Anti-immigrant Policies: An Analysis of Three State Laws and Implications for Social Work
No full textThis article examines United States immigration policy in three states: Arizona, Alabama, and Indiana. All three states have varying rates of Latino immigration and a complex set of socioeconomic and cultural factors; yet nonetheless, all have participated in the criminalization of undocumented immigrants through state-level legislative action. First, this article explores Latino migration to the United States and its relationship to the forces of globalization. Second, we discuss the consequences and impacts of racialized and decentralized immigration policy. Third, we detail the history and background of each state law and its economic and social costs. Lastly, we conclude with implications of these policies on the lives of undocumented immigrants, social welfare policy, social work and transnational practice, and social work education
