Recovery From Schizophrenia: Psychiatry And Political Economy

288 DESEGREGATING SCHIZOPHRENIAmovement—MIND, Survivors Speak Out, Making Space, Turning Point, theZito Trust, the Self Harm Network, the All Wales User Network, the ScottishUser Network, the All Ireland User Network, the Campaign Against PsychiatricOppression, Voices, the British Network for Alternatives to Psychiatry, GoodPractices in Mental Health, the Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Association, andso on.In the US, there is a similar proliferation of consumer groups. Two prominentorganizations, the National Mental Health Consumer Association and theNational Alliance of Mental Patients vie for membership, sponsor nationalconferences, send speakers to professional meetings, combat stigma through mediapresentations and lobby for political objectives. Many groups make effective use ofthe internet. The Support Coalition (www.mindfreedom.org) operates a listservecalled Dendron. The National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy(NARPA) is another web establishing itself (www.connix.com/~narpa).Recovery, Inc. is a well-developed organization with local chapters across thecountry, and the National Empowerment Center (www.power2u.org) is anotherprominent organization. Other consumer organization websites include theNational Mental Health Consumer Self-Help Clearinghouse atwww.mhselfhelp.org and People Who Net at www.peoplewho.net.Lacking unified national leadership, some of the strongest US consumer groupactivity is at a local level. California, Ohio and New York have particularly activeconsumer groups. Consumers are appointed to the governing boards of manymental health centers, and state regulations in California require that the boards ofresidential facilities include consumer members. In half of the states in the US,consumers have been appointed to paid positions in the state mental healthadministrative offices. 49Fundamental philosophical disagreements over such issues as involuntarytreatment and the reality of mental illness increase the tendency for splinter-ingamong consumer groups. Group leadership by people with schizophrenia is alsoheld back by the fact that most people who develop this disorder do so beforethey are old enough to have had any experience of how organizations operate.The fragmentation of the primary consumer movement, however, has notprevented it from changing the face of mental health service delivery.CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT IN SERVICEPROVISIONIn recent years, in the USA and elsewhere, consumers of mental health serviceshave become increasingly involved in running their own programs or providingtreatment services. Consumer organizations have set up drop-in centers, supportgroups, speaker’s bureaus, housing cooperatives, telephone hot-lines and a varietyof other services.A consumer action group in Denver has opened its own psychiatric clinic. TheCapitol Hill Action and Recreation Group (CHARG), is a coalition of