Can Psychiatry Respond to Mad Activism?

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Psychiatrist Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed explores a way forward for psychiatry in responding to the Mad activism of service users.

Opening Doors in the Borderlands: An Interview with Liberation Psychologist Mary Watkins

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MIA’s Micah Ingle interviews Mary Watkins about reorienting psychology toward liberation and social justice.

Parachute NYC Peer Support Program Presents Challenges and Opportunities

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Anthropologists study Parachute NYC to identify challenges and opportunities for implementing peer support and Open Dialogue practices.
Berlin Manifesto launch

Berlin Manifesto for Humane Psychiatry Released

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Changing the mental health and psychosocial support system in Germany requires public debate about the ways our society should help and support people in mental crisis and with chronic mental health problems. We believe the driving force behind all help and support should be humanitarianism and respect for inalienable human rights.

Discrimination Leads to Mental Distress for Gender Diverse People

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Researchers seek to identify adaptive coping responses to discrimination for the transgender and gender diverse community.

How to Involve Youth in Their Own Mental Health Care

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Clinicians play a key role in empowering adolescents and their parents to make decisions about their mental health treatment.

Psychiatrist Describes Role in Open Dialogue Model of Care

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Psychiatrist outlines varying roles in Open Dialogue model, fostering service-user and family agency through meaningful conversations with a team of providers.

De-Othering “Schizophrenia” by Placing it in Socio-Historical Context

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Understanding schizophrenia as a non-enigmatic, understandable human experience goes against a history of institutional “othering” that has sustained psychiatric legitimacy and further marginalized service-users.

Service-Users See Long-Term Antipsychotic Use as Compromising Recovery, Review Finds

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A new meta-review examines the experiences of antipsychotic drugs use among people diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.
snapshots of spring

Snapshots of Spring: Journeying Off Psych Meds After 20 Years of Compliance

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My prayer to be taken out of my misery was answered, just not the way I used to envision. I managed to escape the system and here I am in the same lifetime, alive and well. I’m slowly getting acquainted with this new setup and am eternally grateful for yet another opportunity at life, which I hope does not slip through my fingers.

The Power Threat Meaning Framework One Year On

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The team that developed the Power Threat Meaning framework as a diagnostic alternative reflects on the response to the framework after one year.

“Dad, You Were Right”: I Got Better When I Stopped Treatment

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Through all the years that I was a mental patient, my parents were excellent advocates who constantly questioned what the docs were doing, even though my own faith in psychiatry was unwavering.... Amazingly, what cured me was not some type of “treatment,” but getting away from drugs and therapy.

Valuing Posttraumatic Growth in Psychosis

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Individuals who experience psychosis can also experience posttraumatic growth, which can be a central component of the recovery paradigm.

Antidepressant Use Linked to Longer, More Frequent Psychiatric Rehospitalization

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New study finds that antidepressants may negatively impact recovery after psychiatric hospitalization.

Constructing Alternatives to the DSM: An Interview with Dr. Jonathan Raskin

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Dr. Raskin discusses psychotherapists’ dissatisfaction with current psychiatric diagnostic systems and explores alternatives.

Psychosocially Oriented Psychologists Struggle Against the Medical Model

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Interviews with psychosocially oriented psychologists demonstrate their experiences of discomfort with the hegemony of the medical model in their place of work and the conflicts that arise when they attempt to provide alternatives.

Mental Health Recovery Narratives Play Central Role in Trauma-Informed Care

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New research synthesizes insights from 45 studies to construct a conceptual framework relating different elements of recovery narratives to trauma-informed approaches to care.

Debate Ensues Over Rights-Based Approach to Mental Health

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Debate ensues as scholars and policymakers discuss how to bring a rights-based approach to mental health policy.
recovery porn story

Recovery Porn: Tell Me Your Story, I’ll Tell You Your Value

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There is little denying the power of story… until our own stories get taken from us, positioned against us, and used to determine our value as some sort of human commodity. We deserve to have our stories heard and to hear the stories of others, but on our own terms, without being fetishized or controlled, and without competition for paltry awards and recognition.

First-Person Accounts of Madness and Global Mental Health: An Interview with Dr. Gail Hornstein

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Dr. Gail Hornstein, author of Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meanings of Madness, discusses the importance of personal narratives and service-user activism in the context of the global mental health movement.

Stigmatizing Effects of the Psychosis-Risk Label

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Study examines the effects on participants of being told they are at risk of developing psychosis.

Psychology Needs New Concepts and Healing Models for Racial Trauma

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Contemporary empirical research explores new ways to conceptualize and heal racial trauma through anticolonial and sociohistorical lenses.

Psychology Must Become a Sanctuary Discipline to Heal Racial Trauma

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Researchers explore pathways of healing racial trauma in Latinx immigrant communities.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Reduces Self-Harm and Suicide Attempts

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A new meta-analysis finds that DBT reduces self-harm, suicide attempts, and reduces the frequency of psychiatric crisis service utilization.
fragility

Funder Fragility and Forced Collaboration

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Dear Funder, You say you want to work on health equity but can you walk the talk? Do you care about hearing the actual community? Do you REALLY want data-driven, accurate info to balance harm vs benefit? Or do you just want to keep your status quo? Dear Funder, Don't be fragile. Move beyond your blind spots. Our people matter.