Discussing racial and ethnic bias at home and with peers helps minority youth achieve in school despite discrimination. #NICHDImpact #PeerSupport #Race #School #Education #Discrimination #Achievement

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31788794

Evening followers, I've volunteered to take the hosting responsibilities this evening as this is a #peersupport space to share our wisdom and our woes with each other - just remember we are in a public space so keep it clean! #GBDoc

Time for our #FirstPost and an #Introduction
This account is shared by the volunteer hosts of weekly #GBDoc online Q&A Chat. (9pm UK time on this account).
Not run by fixed individuals or by companies, but run by the community for the community.
Open to all with #diabetes and their supporters. #t1d #t2d #PeerSupport
First chat as a trial of running this alongside the bird site to happen on Wednesday 23 August 2023.

@kevix hope all is well. could really use some of your peer support knowledge! I have a friend who is clueless about peer support. I don't know enough to guide him #MadMovement #PeerSupport #AntiPsychiatry

Okay, so: Peer Support is a thing.

It's not widely known, and it's IMPORTANT,

A Peer Support Specialist reaches across, not down. Non-hierarchical-- that's literally a requirement spelled out in the job description.

We close the liminal space between "patient" and "well person". We bridge the gap between the person receiving care and their therapist/doctor etc. We're the people you want knocking on the door when you're having a major personal crisis-- you know, instead of the people with guns. We've lived through our own crises/trauma/illness/addiction/etc, and we know how it actually feels.

This isn't just some cute hand-holding role. It's a crucial part of a larger movement to integrate and humanize-- frankly, to TRANSFORM--healthcare. That's the agenda, straight up. And I even get to fucking SAY THAT out loud.

And how do we enact this subversive scheme? By using empathy to relate to people, while helping empower them to determine and work on their OWN damn recovery goals, without judging.

Trying to "fix" people leads to burnout. Coercion and punishment have diminishing returns-- you can't force anybody to get better by kicking them when they're already down. Stigma has done massive damage. So we slow down, give an actual shit, and walk WITH people while they learn to fish, instead of beating fish over their heads, get it?

How's that for revolutionary.

#praxis
#mentalhealth
#mentalillness
#trauma
#traumainformedcare
#peersupport
#peergroups
#recovery
#resilience
#supportgroups
#peersupportspecialist

This week I started a peer support certificate training course.

It's 80hrs over 2 weeks. I've barely left the house since 2020, so my anxiety is kicking into high gear-- I've hardly slept for days, dreading yet another migraine this is likely to cause, and I feel horribly awkward. How am I supposed to help model recovery when I'm in the middle of backsliding so badly that even basic shit like clearing off my desk or trying to answer the phone can set me off into destructive meltdowns at the drop of a hat?

I was contemplating just trying out a bit of volunteering very cautiously, but there's a lot of emphasis being placed on this being not just a job but even a potential career, which is downright surreal when I'm hanging on by my fingernails praying I can get through just doing laundry or getting out of bed on time and haven't had a job since 2020.

The actual content of the class is very good, a lot of stuff that seems very intuitive to me and honestly should be common sense but most definitely isn't. I'm not used to being able to comfortably participate in most any structured program (be it class, workplace, whatever) without a lot of moral objections and aggravation going off in my brain and/or getting spooked looks from the people around me when I talk. Some parts are challenging (I can definitely see that "recovery language" is going to take a ton of practice) but for the most part it feels oddly natural.

I'm nervous about discovering where the lines will be drawn-- I can carefully couch deeply political and subversive ideas in very neutral, subtle, and easily digestible ways, yes, but I am not going to pretend I'm something I'm not, and I will not squelch or silence my fundamental core belief that our whole society is deeply corrupt and needs a profound overhaul.

I want to participate in something useful and real. I want to move forward and get out of this hole and do something with my life. I'm so terribly afraid that I'm not good enough to amount to anything but a liability in the end, burdening instead of helping.

I pray I can sleep tonight.

#MentalHealth
#PeerSupport
#Depression
#Anxiety
#Insomnia

I always appreciate the #wisdom of #SethGodin. This post is no exception. There are many varieties of #leadership, and #PeerSupport is quite valuable

https://seths.blog/2023/06/peer-support/

Mad People of Colour: A Manifesto

"We write this manifesto because we know that racism, sexism and oppression circulating in the [psychiatric] system are also circulating in the mad movement."

https://asylummagazine.org/2013/12/mad-people-of-color-a-manifesto-by-rachel-gorman-annu-saini-louise-tam-onyinyechukwu-udegbe-onar-usar/

#MadStudies #MadMovement #PeerSupport #Madodon

@kevix
thought this may be of interest to you

Psychiatry at the Margins
Mixed Bag #17: Julia Knopes on Boundary Ethics in Peer Support

https://awaisaftab.substack.com/p/mixed-bag-17-julia-knopes-on-boundary

all the best!

#MadLiterature #PeerSupport #MentalHealth #MadMastodon #Madodon

My blog post for #DiabetesWeek mentioning the #GBDoc has been published by PCS #Union
My favourite line is "Your trade union can help you find that #PeerSupport in the workplace to celebrate with people who understand the highs and the lows in your blood glucose and emotionally!"
https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/blogs/peer-support-people-diabetes

I handed out over 200 (!!!) zines throughout the PeerWorks conference, summarizing some of my research on peer support!

(I spent the past week doing nothing but printing, folding, & cutting paper -- my hands hurt so badly, and I definitely don't reccommend making so many zines in such a short time -- but it was worth it!)

I'm going to take the next few days to rest and recover, then it's onto the next project!

#PeerWorks #PeerSupport #MadStudies #Madodon #Disability #DIsabilityStudies #zine

I also facilitated a "dreaming together" networking session/workshop alongside my colleague, where participants were invited to (re)imagine opportunties for professional advancement within the peer sector, and brainstorm other roles where our lived experience & peer-related skills can be a valuable asset. Lots of great ideas came out of this session, which we hope to share soon on the PeerWorks blog!

#PeerWorks #PeerSupport

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended the annual PeerWorks conference and delivered a presentation called "Work as Recovery: Warning Signs of Dystopian Futures?"

This presentation explored one potential reason why peer support is undervalued & underpaid, drawing discursive connections between peer support, sheltered workshops, and work therapy in 19th-20th century insane asylums.

#PeerWorks #PeerSupport #Disability #MadStudies #Madodon #DisabilityStudies #LabourExploitation

What an absolute whirlwind the past few days have been!

On Monday, myself and other PeerWorks members visited the Ontario legislature at Queen's Park. I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Mike Schreiner, MPP of Guelph and leader of the Green Party of Ontario, about the value of peer support and independent consumer/survivor initiatives.

#ONPoli #PeerWorks #PeerSupport

Some of the best advice surrounding brain injury recovery comes from other brain injury survivors. We sent out a request to get the brain injury community's best tips and compiled them in an article on @biaamerica website.

https://bit.ly/3mXt13V

#Peersupport #BrainDamage

Over the past few days I've been trying to transform quotes from my research on peer support institutionalization into little comic strips -- here's a sneak peak, featuring one of my favourite discussions of ours!

#PeerSupport #Research #MadStudies #Madodon #MentalHealth #Healthcare #Institutionalization #InstitutionalEthnography

(my thesis & an 11-page plain language summary are available here: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/28026)

Wrote a new #Substack post about #grief and #PeerSupport. Please like and subscribe!

https://open.substack.com/pub/ind3fatigable/p/in-the-swirl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Right, I have been tasked with thinking as inclusively and broadly as possible about #peersupport in #highered. Have you got a favourite model? Bit of research? Dream?

Queer and disabled family with a 4yo and baby just lost our only car to a coolant line break, blown head gasket. Repairs cost more than the car. We MUST have a car to work.

We bought a new used car. The next day it broke down with the same issue, but was sold As Is and we have no recourse.

Capitalism is evil and we are drowning in it

Please help if you truly have something to spare

#mutualaid #peersupport #transcrowdfund

PayPal.me/londonshine
Venmo: @londonshine
$app: $glamorshark

hey all!

I've been on mastodon for a while @calvinprocyon which is where I post more about my scholarly interests (#disability / #mad / #PeerSupport #futures )

but in my ongoing quest to minimize my reliance on the blue bird app, I made a profile here for my more personal / messy thoughts :)