IDHA organized our first-ever Decarcerating Care conversation in September 2020, in the midst of ongoing racial uprisings in the United States and globally. As abolitionists and organizers called to divest funding from the police and some advocated for reallocation to mental health care, IDHA sought to draw attention to the ways in which the mental health care system maintains white supremacist, racial hierarchies and operates on logics of surveillance, coercion, and control. In the five years since, IDHAâs eight panels have reached more than 15,000 people with urgent dialogue about alternatives to policing that are rooted in the lived experience of mental health service users and survivors, movement leaders, and disabled community members.
The state is escalating the pathologization and criminalization of trans, immigrant, Indigenous, disabled, poor, and other marginalized communities at an alarming rate. While authoritarian control may be more visible right now, this tactic â relying on the definition of certain groups as âotherâ to justify their exclusion, control, and disappearance â is nothing new. Today, it manifests in involuntary commitment laws targeting unhoused communities, coercion and abuse in community-based settings, and the everyday pathologization of those resisting unjust and inhumane conditions. Politicians across ideological lines have called for expanding forced interventions as a supposed solution to social crises, doubling down on a long history of psychiatric incarceration being framed as âhelp.â The mental health system remains a key site where state violence and social control unfold under the guise of care.
On Monday, May 5, 2025, IDHA will continue the conversation with Decarcerating Care: Strategy, Struggle & Sustained Commitment. In this ninth installment of the series, we will take stock of past, present, and future efforts to decarcerate care. As we navigate a volatile sociopolitical moment, it is essential to pause and assess our strategies. What lessons from history must guide us now? What strategies have been effective, and where do we need to shift course? How do we resist the pressure of reacting, and instead stay focused on long-term, systemic transformation? Drawing from diverse lineages and contexts, our panelists will explore where we go from here â balancing the need to meet the moment with a broader, long-term vision. Together, we will reflect on the urgency of the present while amplifying strategies that move us toward a future where radical care is accessible, just, and free from state violence.
12:00 PM Hawaii/3:00 PM Pacific/4:00 PM Mountain/5:00 PM Central/6:00 PM Eastern/7 PM Brazil Standard
Pre-registration required. To register click
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYucOytrzMrEt0MB4FSNRIqMdJQwyyjwJ0i
About the Topic
This presentation focuses on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its significance for users and survivors of psychiatry. The CRPD emphasizes a human rights approach, non-discrimination, and autonomy for persons with disabilities. It represents a shift from older, more paternalistic approaches like the United Nations MI Principles, asserting that the CRPD respects all human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities equally and prohibits forced psychiatric interventions based on dangerousness to self or others. Key principles highlighted include autonomy, freedom of choice, and active involvement in decision-making. The presentation discusses Article 12, advocating support for supported decision-making over substituted decision-making, and covers various rights protected by the CRPD, such as liberty, freedom from torture, and the right to health and political participation. The CRPD is viewed as a victory for users and survivors of psychiatry, providing a legal foundation to abolish certain practices and establish support systems. How we must come together in unity NOW more than ever before⊠LETS RALLY TOGETHER 4 RIGHTS
About the Presenter
Myra Kovary, a passionate movement activist and international disability rights leader in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement for the human rights of persons with disabilities, survivors of psychiatry. She played a key role in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a representative of MindFreedom International and a member of the International Disability Caucus (IDC). Kovary has worked with several internal rights organizations as the Network Facilitator, International Network of Women with Disabilities and has actively worked to educate others on the CRPD and its implications, especially concerning legal capacity, autonomy, and the right to freedom from forced treatment. Her advocacy extends to various platforms, including the United Nations, where she has participated in expert panels and side events.
Join us on Saturday, May 10th, 2025 at 10AM PST, 1PM EST, 5PM GMT, 7PM CET
Cover Me: The Path to Purpose is the award-winning film about the Central Oregon Veterans Ranch (COVR), a small nonprofit ranch in Oregon with a big vision for the post-traumatic growth of veterans. Narrated by founder and film co-producer Alison Perry Sower, the film features the stories of combat veterans and military trauma survivors whose lives were transformed by their participation at the ranch. Perry Sower weaves in elements of her own experience and insight as a military family member and trauma therapist who worked under the medical model for six years, along with her vision for a paradigm shift in how we approach healing and growth in trauma survivors. Perry Sower, who currently works as a trauma-informed coach, consultant, educator, and writer, will also illuminate the core elements of the model of care implemented at COVR, as well as its relevance as a model of care applicable to various populations.
