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Oryx Cohen continued from page 3 American community. It was as if the spirit of Pearl returned, because if anybody was known for impromptu gospel, it was her. This was an emotional lead-in to Michele’s talk, where she openly shared with us her experiences with psychiatry, hospitalization, and how she got the heck out! She went from political dissident mental patient, to political dissident rock star. Wow, rock on sister! Michele ended her talk with a quote from Mohandas Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win!” (The full text of Michele’s speech is available at http://narpa.org/ michelle.shocked.htm). Later that night, after enjoying the delicious hors d’oeuvres (which included quesadillas Austin style, my personal favorite) and assorted beverages, not to mention catching up with old friends, many of us NARPA folks headed out on the town for an old Western hoe down! We even heard rumors that Michele Shocked was playing somewhere in this Texas town, but alas, my small cohort was unable to find where. However, my small cohort did manage to find the sauna. It was quite exciting to hop on the glass elevators and zoom up one of the tallest buildings in Austin. The hotel was beautiful inside and all lit up with white lights. After the sauna, we ventured up to the hot tub which was on top of the hotel. What a view of the city! After our wrinkled bodies were finally kicked out by a group of partying teenagers, we took to the city. Two blocks from the hotel was Sixth Street, and quite an impressive array of clubs and live music. Alas, we did not find Michele Shocked, but we talked and walked and strategized late into the night, and had quite an enjoyable time nonetheless. I entered the next day feeling tired, but more united, more bonded to this group than ever before. Steven Schwartz, J.D., the Executive Director of the Center for Public Representation in Massachusetts woke everybody up Friday morning with his keynote entitled, “The Challenge of Advocacy: Maintaining Integrity and Cultivating Compassion.” His talk had depth and wisdom that reflects his over 30 years experience as an advocate to people with psychiatric labels. (A detailed outline of Steven’s speech is available at http://narpa.org/ integrity.htm). After a short break, the first slate of workshops began. Once again NARPA offered an impressive array of workshops ranging from children’s mental health issues, to legal workshops, to historical presentations, to grassroots organizing. The workshops featured such movement shakers as Chery Mead, M.S.W. and Cheryl MacNeil, Ph.D.; Judi Chamberlin, Pat Risser, and Tom Behrendt, J.D.; Susan Stefan, J.D.; Cheryl Stevens M.D. and Vikki Gilbert; Jackie McKinney and Celia Brown; Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.; Joyce Johnson, Ph.D. and Ron Bassman, Ph.D.; Peter Stastny, M.D.; Dale Boam, J.D.; Gail Hornstein, Ph.D.; John Breeding, Ph.D.; Al Siebert, Ph.D.; Jim Gottstein, J.D.; Beth Mitchell, J.D.; Leah Harris, Katherine Hodges, and Jenny Rogue; Bill Stewart; Dennis Feld, J.D. and Kim Darrow, J.D.; and yours truly, Oryx NARPA Rights Tenet: Summer 2004 page 18 Cohen, M.P.A. Phew! Now that’s a lot of letters behind a lot of names. I apologize to those I didn’t list, but you can find a complete list of presenters as well as descriptions of the workshops at http://www.narpa.org/conf_info_03/ workshopschedule03.html#W1. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, back to uniting for social justice! Friday was fun because my mother dropped by to meet some of us at the hotel (actually I think she heard the rumor that Quentin Tarantino was staying at the Downtown Omni, which I guess was true since we later raffled off his signature, collected by NARPA board member Pat Risser, to a lucky NARPA attendee). So my mother brought her NAMI card and wanted to “talk” to my friends….. Kidding! (Although if anybody could reform that organization, it would probably be her.) Anyway, as I saw her speaking so intently with Linda Morrison, Rene Andersen (who happens to be my boss), Gail Hornstein and Vikki Gilbert, I realized the power that supportive family members and friends could have in our movement. I know her open mindedness and encouragement have given me strength to become a better leader. Peter Statsny later brought up this very important point in his presentation, “In Mental Health, Good Ideas are History.” What are we doing to unite ourselves with our supportive and potentially supportive family and friends? Can NAMI be reformed or is there some other way to reach out to people like my mother in an organized way? As our social climate continues to deteriorate, we must seriously address these questions and find ways to join our family and loved ones in the struggle for our collective freedom. At the lunch keynote Friday, Bob Kafka gave us food for thought in his lecture entitled “Still Crazy After All These Years: Visions of an Old Activist.” Bob continued the theme of unity be challenging the audience to continue to dialogue and form community with the greater disability movement. He said the disability movement is “less like a melting pot than a salad: carrots, vegetables, lettuce, tomatoes, the occasional radish, but you put some creamy dressing on it and, voila, it all comes together quite nicely.” I have to say that my mixed greens never tasted better than on that day. There were an impressive array of workshops Friday, and for the late troopers, there was a fascinating session that night entitled Disability Activism: Images and Dialogue, put on by Tom Olin, Jim Ward, Darby Penney, and Ron Bassman. As usual NARPA was an excellent forum for dialogue and networking, whether at workshops or in the hallways or sitting at the hotel bar. After another night of socializing, the early risers returned for Beth Mitchell, J.D. and “Out of the Quiet Room and On to the Pulpit.” The talk rang true for the many of us who have been diagnosed and labeled and effectively tossed out of the “normal” human race, only to have fought to recover our voice and find our platform. Saturday morning’s workshops were excellent, as usual, and, not as usual, going right on according to schedule. In fact, the entire conference to that point had been run-
ning on time, how strange! This was soon to change, however, as Darby Penney and Peter Stastny, M.D. held there audience hostage for “Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic.” We were, of course, willing hostages as Ms. Penney and Dr. Stastny led us through a fascinating and powerful slideshow presentation piecing together lost lives from remnants of suitcases left at Willard State Hospital. They reminded us how important it is to remember the rich human history of the thousands and thousands of people who have had their lives interrupted and then lost to institutions, left to be buried in a numbered grave. I remember the Saturday afternoon workshops particularly well because I was a presenter with Vikki Gilbert for “Freedom Center: How to Form a Local Support and Activist Community.” Had I not been presenting, I would probably have attended Gail Hornstein’s “Hearing Voices Groups: An Innovative Alternative to Understanding and Coping with ‘Hallucinations.’” This brings up a common conference dilemma, at least at good conferences: what do you do when there are several good workshops running concurrently, which seems to happen all the time at NARPA? Well, there’s the “run and grab piles of handouts” method, the “stick to one workshop and take copious notes after grilling your friends” method, and there’s always the “I’m so overwhelmed I think I’m going back to my room” method, if all else fails. Anyway, here’s the part where I shamelessly use my journalistic bias to talk about a wonderful workshop experience. It happens to be my own workshop, but what NARPA/NAPAS Dialog continued from page 4 between groups. For example, many ADAPT members must rely on services to stay out of institutional settings. NARPA members may (or may not) want services, but only those that are self-directed. Laura Ziegler, NARPA president, said that our movements are based on “identity politics” and that better communication directed towards identification of common goals will be necessary. Some participants said that NAPAS should take the initiative in such discussions. (STATUS: From subsequent discussions, NAPAS representatives are aware of the tremendous disparity of goals related to service delivery systems and the potential for conflict that this can create. It is not clear whether NAPAS is willing to take a lead role in such a process.) 6.What does NARPA want? We agreed that a list of NARPA suggestions for priorities for P&As should be made available. Legislative proposals for involuntary outpatient commitment are an ongoing concern as are lowered criteria for inpatient commitment. (STATUS: The NARPA board agreed to survey current and former Board members about suggestions regarding areas of high concern for our members. We are attempting to develop a “matrix” for priorities with a caveat that we do not wish to superimpose recommendations on autonomous groups.) 7.The original “PAIMI Project” included a component of “cold calling” and asking for copies of civil commit- can I say. Vikki and I’s presentation at NARPA Saturday afternoon was the best experience I’ve ever had doing this type of workshop. About twenty-five of us sat in a circle and had an honest discussion about what it takes to effectively organize on issues we care about while forming a caring, supportive community at the same time. Vikki and I shared our Freedom Center experiences in addressing not only nuts and bolts organizing questions, but also the “guts and soul” questions of organizing such as: What do you do when ego’s clash? How do you deal with conflict and crisis? Should there be a hierarchy? How should you make decisions? There was an inspired yet comfortable energy in that room Saturday, and everybody left inspired to take whatever action they could, realizing that every conversation we have, every interaction we make, has power. Saturday night we held the awards ceremony and raffle. After the ceremonies, the night owls headed out again for one last Austin night out. Sunday morning, those of us who were left went to the last couple workshops and said our goodbyes to our colleagues and friends. For some of us, this conference is the only time we see each other all year. On the plane home to Massachusetts, I reflected on the conference theme, “uniting for social justice.” I think that we took great strides at NARPA 2003 toward accomplishing this. As usual, NARPA sparked honest, uncensored dialogue. With enough open dialogue comes fellowship, and through fellowship, strength to change the world. ment criteria. None of the three P&As contacted had them immediately available, although P&A staff present at today’s discussion indicated that they all had materials on civil commitment for distribution. We agreed that NARPA should create a suggested list of materials, which should be available to callers. (STATUS: we have not yet acted on this excellent suggestion.) 8.Everyone agreed that collaboration should be expanded beyond NARPA and NAPAS to other advocacy agencies. (STATUS: The NARPA board is in process of organizing a bare-bones retreat to develop a long-term plan for the organization. Discussion of collaboration without compromising NARPA values will be a part of the agenda at the retreat) Other suggestions by individuals: “Surveys and radio and TV ads should be part of the priority-setting process for P&As.” “The number one priority for collaborative efforts should be opposition to coercive treatment.” “The process of setting priorities for P&As should be based on input from grass-roots organizations.” ‘Consider regional chapters of NARPA.” “Many P&A employees should be consumers rather than being dominated by former service providers.” “NARPA feeds the soul; P&As should send their staff to NARPA conferences.” NARPA Right Tenet: Summer 2004 page 19
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Page 5 and 6: Dissident Psychiatrist Loren Mosher
Page 7 and 8: The psychiatrist informed me that a
Page 9 and 10: Networking in Action: NARPA 2003 Ph
Page 11 and 12: Larry Plumlee, Bethesda, MD, is obv
Page 13 and 14: Rachel Freund of Pittsburgh greets
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Page 23 and 24: Crazy Women Madness, Myth, and Meta

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