The Time is Right
The Irish Advocacy Network was born in
November 1999, in
Derry, N. Ireland. A number of people came together under
the umbrella of Mind Yourself, a peer led and run advocacy
organisation in Derry. Martha McCleeland, myself and
others came together and thought about how we were going
to develop the process of peer advocacy on an island wide
basis. We talked over a number of meetings on how this
was best-- to bring the concept of advocacy right across
the island in the mental health field. And we drew the
conclusion that the only way we could do this effectively
was to organise a conference.
That conference took place in Derry in 1999. At that
conference we drew together approximately 270 individuals,
most of those individuals were people who use the
mental health services or survivors. Although the term
"Mental Illness" is something that we never liked, but it
was the term that was used within a medical context.
We would rather have seen the people who came to this
conference termed as survivors. It was a hard task to try
and bring survivors together on an island wide basis
for the first time, but we set out about doing that. Paddy
Masterson and myself travelled the country on a two-week
basis calling with health boards all across the Republic of
Ireland. Talking with survivors, talking to health board
staff and mental health employees.
At first nobody really wanted to listen to us, nobody really
wanted to engage, the doors were quite firmly closed.
Although in saying that we also encountered some very good
people within the mental health professions who were
prepared to listen and try and understand where we were
coming from and did in many ways support us. The
conference was pulled together, the people attended.
Survivors discussed for the first two days with no other
outsiders and allowed people time and space to tell their own
stories. We all needed to start to understand that we are not
alone. There are a lot of us out there.
And I must say that it was probably one of the most liberating
experiences of my life to date. Seeing all these people coming,
making their way to Derry from all parts of Ireland. People
who had been given no hope that they 1. could make it there,
or 2. that they could survive within that arena without a range
of professionals overseeing them. But we overcame it and
there lay the birth stone for the Network. The Steering
Committee was elected democratically for the conference,
a management committee of 12 individuals, 6 from the north,
6 from the south, 7 women and 5 men. Out of that beginning
the Network was born.
The task in front of us was enormous: where do we go, what
do we do, how do we start, all these questions posed in front
of us. Once the 3 day conference finished, I had been elected
to chair the Network so the task began getting out on the road.
Knocking on doors, making the acquaintances, talking to
people,explaining the process taking the fear away of
survivors actually doing something for themselves. We did
this with very little money, in fact we had no finances, we had
no understanding of where we were going to draw finances
from. We had no understanding of who to approach or what
road to go about it, but that did not deter us. We moved on,
we did the visits, knocked on the doors, had the arguments
and the debates, but we still managed in our own way to move
the process forward on a daily basis. And for the next 3 years
it was much of the same. It was about getting out there,
meeting the people, talking to survivors, persuading survivors
that we had to come together to form a Network of people
and that we had to bring advocacy to the fore within mental
health.
We were fortunate in the fact that we had a training
programme developed by Mind Yourself, with input from
Marty Daly from LAMP in Belfast, and myself and my own
background. Martha put a lot of work in putting the training
programme together. That training programme has been
invaluable in training peer advocates north and south and this
process in itself has been the tool that has liberated a lot of
people. We would fully understand that there is a lot more
people that could and will avail of the training and we would
see that as our way forward, our move, something that we've
been doing for ourselves, by ourselves. With our own
combined strengths, the training will lead us towards our own
recovery path. We have fostered the concept of peer
advocacy on this island, we have fostered the concept of
recovery, and we have fostered the sense of our own
liberation. No longer do we see ourselves as oppressed
people, no long do we see ourselves as being on the margins
of society.
The Network has grown in many ways and has still a lot of
growing to do. I would equate the Network at present to be
in its adolescence and like any adolescent we will make
mistakes, we will then learn by our mistakes and move on.
But no more can we go back to being victims of our
oppression, no more can we go back to being a people who
are not understood, no more can we go back to being
defenceless. We have to really take power again, to take our
own individual power and then combine our collective
power. We are all human beings who have been hurt in many
ways and some of the people we have come into contact with
over the years have been so brutalised and so demeaned by
the system and by society. For too many years we have been
silent, for too many years we've hid away and locked
ourselves in rooms and institutions away from society. In
many ways we had to do that for our own defence, for our
own survival. That has to change. We have the strength
within ourselves individually and collectively to know that if
we want to change the system, if we want to get equality,
justice and our own liberty we will have to fight. That fight has
already started.
A lot of work has to be done and a lot of work is being done.
We have to start at societies attitudes towards people with
emotional distress. We have to start with families, to make
families understand that this is not the end of the road, this is
only the starting point. This is only somewhere where we are
at that minute and that we're moving towards that change.
We have to start to work with professionals and in particular
with psychiatrists to give them an understanding that people
can and will recover if they are given the right support.
Medication is only one tool that can be used within recovery.
We also have to demonstrate that there are other models out
there, that there are pathways that we can use. Maybe it takes
more time to put them in place, maybe it takes a little more
skill, maybe it takes a little more understanding but most of
all it has to be genuine. We have to play our part in making
this happen. We can no longer afford the luxury of sitting
back and saying everything is wrong. We know the things that
are wrong but we have to take responsibility, we have to be
the foot soldiers of change. We have to be the very people that
are going to lead by example. In that perspective we have to
demonstrate that we can be the architects of our own change.
The Network has moved along very, very slowly, step by step.
We are now in the position that we have 9 full time employees
including 5 regional advocates, an advocacy director, a
director of development and 2 administration staff. A team
that is starting to grow. Hopefully in the years to come that
team will grow to a bigger work force. We are hoping that
we can attract volunteers, trained volunteers, support
volunteers, to bring this organisation to the fore of the mental
health field. Our aims is to have as many advocates on the
ground paid to do the jobs, skilled, trained professionals
within their job, within their role. But we understand that
is going to take time, a lot of time, and hard work. But we
need these people as this entire organisation is survivor
to survivor.
We have started from a base point but need people and
goodwill to drive this forward. We need to know that in our
time of distress there is a strong network there, that can
support and assist us in our own individual recovery and also
in the protection of our rights and liberty. For too long we
have depended on others to do that for us. Some very good
people have done it; some very good people have stuck their
head above the parapet and within the professions have
lost the chances of promotion. Careers have been shattered
and ruined because they said enough is enough and that they
had the humanity to come in behind us.
But now it is our time. Everyone has a time; everyone gets a
time that they have to stand up and take control for
themselves again. I believe that time is now, now that it is
started it can't stop. We must move forward and can change a
lot of things within our own lives. By changing things within
our own lives, that will ultimately lead us to be in a position
that we can enable others to change things within their lives.
The Network will always be here. "We're in it together"
Breda Lawless said on one of my very first meetings; "We're in
it together for the long haul". For history dictates to us that
this struggle is going on for the long haul". For history dictates
to us that this struggle is going on for hundreds of years.
We haven't really moved in the last 150 years but now we have
the opportunity and the tools, the skills and more than
anything the people. Time does many things. Time has taught
use to be silent, to be defenceless, when to be quiet, but time
can also be used the other way. The time is right, the time is
opportune; the time is ours and if it is ours now, we can move
with a strong united voice. This organisation is the voice of
survivors of emotional distress throughout the island of
Ireland.
I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all people
who have used mental health services, all people who have a
mental health diagnosis, all people who want to see change
within the present system to unite under the banner of the
Irish Advocacy Network. Then we will become a strong voice,
a voice that won't go away, a voice that will represent people
on this island, a voice that will be the driving force of all our
liberation. People who have mental health problems have
been victimised. The victimisation has to stop and here.
Life can and will be good. Life will throw certain obstacles
in our way but because we are united in our determination to
change the day to day problems that people meet. The very
fact that we are there to support one another, that will be our
rallying call. We will support, we will enable people to
emancipate themselves, to be able to break the chains of our
past without forgetting its history. We can look into the
sunlight of tomorrow and say yes; yes the Irish Advocacy
Network as the determination to be the voice and the
watchdog of people who encounter emotional distress. So
once again I would like to take this opportunity to thank all
of those who have stood shoulder to shoulder and also the
opportunity to thank all those who at first had problems
around us being on the ground, around the idea of us being
organised. When people support each other, the justification
of our fight and our struggle is justified, rightly justified and it
can never be taken away from us. we never again will be
prisoners of our past destiny. Onward and forward we will
march. We will march to the sound of feet, and those feet are
the survivors of emotional distress. The time is now, the time
is right and I would encourage everyone to take that step,
that first step and reap the rewards of your own liberty and
that of your fellow survivors.
Paddy McGowan - Director of Advocacy
Blue Genes
"I am sure there are no genes to carry the feelings of worth.
It is learned, and the family is where it is learned....................
an infant coming into the world has no past, no experience in
handling himself, no scale on which to judge his own worth.
He must rely on the experiences he has with people around
him and the messages they give him about his worth as a
person."
W.D. Winnicott
A Word About Genitics and
Mental Health
Many people believe - or fear that mental illness is somehow
"caused" by genes- inherited.
But in constrast to popular belief, research indicates that
genetic influences in mental illness is NOT an "either/or",
unalterable mechanism like inherited blue or brown eyes.
These physical characteristics are laid down before the birth
and unless you use hair colourant or special contact lenses,
your hair or eye colour cannot change.
In mental illness, genetic influence is hotly debated. However
it is generally accepted that genetic make-up accounts for
only one INPUT into the person's mental make up. Genetic
input into mental illness amounts to a "predisposition" to
experience a certain maintained illness, in the presence of a
number of factors, including social, environmental and
physical influences. These influences INTERACT.
Genetic input in mental health difficulties might be best
described as a risk factor or predisposition, NOT an iron-clad
determinant.
Depression
In Ireland about one in twenty people suffer from depression
at any given time. Being depressed does not mean you are mad
or different from society in anyway, though it is very common
for people who suffer from it fo feel as if they are. It is an
illness like any other and has often been referred to as the
"common cold of mental health problems."
No one is sure what exactly causes depression because the
reasons for it can vary widely from person to person. These
reasons can range from, or be a combination of biological,
genetic, psychological and social factors. Traumatic events
in life can open up a tendency towards it, while on the other
hand, depression can occur even when life is going well. If you
break a leg, it is easy to see what the problem is, because it is
visible and easily defined. However, because depression
remains unseen, it is difficult for people to understand what a
person who is suffering from it, is experiencing.
Recognising Depression
These are some of the main features of depression
Prolonged low mood
Loss of appetite
Sleeping too little or too much
Poor concentration
Mood changes
Loss of interest in things you once enjoyed
Lack of energy/Always tired
Thoughts of suicide/self-harm
Not coping as well as usual
Difficulty in doing the smallest activities
Guilt/Self-blame
A person with depression will usually experience some
though not all of the above. If depression occurs on more than
one occassion, it is common for the same symptoms to present
themselves each time. This is useful to remember because
these symptoms can act as an "early warning" system for the
sufferer.
Acheiving Good Mental Health
There are a number of different types of mental illness, each
with distinguishing characteristics of its own. As far as the
layman is concerned, the individual names and symptoms are
more confusing than helpful. What we need to know primarily
is what constitutes good mental health, and more importantly
how to achieve it.
How does the person who is enjoying good mental health
think and act? Here, according to mental health experts are
some of his characteristics.
He has emotions, like anyone else, but they don't explode for
little or no cause. When he gets angry, his anger is in
proportion to what caused it. He doesn't fly off the handle for
odd or slight reasons.
He experiences fear, love, hate, jealousy, guilt and worry-
but he isn't overcome by any of them.
He gets satisfaction from simple, everyday pleasures.
He gets disappointed, but not so crushed by disappointment
that he can't pick himself up and start over again.
He doesn't underestimate his own abilities. He feels able to
deal with most situations that come his way.
On the other hand, he knows he has shortcomings and can
accept them with getting upset. He knows how to laugh at
himself.
He expects to like and trust other people and assumes that
they will like him.
He is tolerant of others's shortcomings just as he is of his own.
He doesn't expect others to be perfect, either.
He doesn't try to push other people around and doesn't
expect to be pushed around himself.
He is capable of loving other people and thinking about their
interests and well-being. He has friendships that are
satisfying and lasting.
He can identify himself with a group, feel that he is part of it
and has a sense of responsibility to his neighbours and fellow
men.
He handles problems as they come up. if he cant change
something he doesn't like, he adjusts to it. He plans for
tomorrow with being afraid of what's coming.
He's open minded about new experiences and ideas.
He tries for goals he thinks he can achieve through his own
abilities; he doesn't want the moon on a silver platter.
He does whatever he tackles to the best of his ability. If the
result is not perfect, he doesn't fret about it, just tries to do
better next time. He enjoys his work.
what do you think? Respond by e-mail
SOLAS: The Light after Darkness
Depression comes to most people at different stages of life. It
can be sparked off by a number of reasons- it can come from
buried childhood trauma, a sudden death, stress in the home,
work or from school.
Depression can be a life time of medication, of being admitted
to a Mental hospital - and this is where the stigma comes into
play. If someone is physically sick, everyone seems to rally
round and help in someway but if you are classified as having
a mental illness people are ignorant to the fact that its as
crippling or even more so. They are apprehensive of getting
involved so this makes the depressed person feel isolated,
vulnerable and very lonely. Many doctors haven't the time or
the resources to accommodate the people that are in more
ways of needing care.
I have had the experience for many years of fighting
depression on my own, but not anymore. My counsellor and
doctor referred me to Solas which means light. Solas was
founded by the Monaghan Community Mental Health team
which identified that while the statutory psychiatric services
were doing a good job, there was a need for an on-going
support following disengagement from the service.
Solas sprang up in January 2001 from nothing, in a room that
was filled with second hand furniture and carpet at Old
Rooskey, Monaghan. Some of the funding came from the
local Mental Health Association, Monaghan County Council
and the North Eastern Health Board.
Solas means light for many people like myself it is the light in
the midst of darkness. I was very apprehensive the first time
that I went but with a few pushes in the right direction from
the practice nurse and the Counsellor, I finally picked up the
courage to walk in and the feeling of apprehension slowly went
away as I started to chat and was greeted by the same people
as myself at different stages of recovery.
There are highly qualified psychiatric nurses who seem to
understand how you are feeling as soon as you walk in. They
take the holistic approach to helping and try to compliment
the medical model of recovery and to identify with the whole
person rather than just the mental illness.
The people that I associate with come from many
backgrounds and care for each other as much as the nursing
staff. Many of the people that have been referred to Solas in
the beginning are now volunteers helping you to share what's
troubling you on that particular day, making coffee,
answering the telephone or just sitting beside you and holding
your hand while you cry.
Solas also tries to help these people to find work and to
integrate on the outside be referring them to FAS, Freshstart,
Obair etc, if its for education purposes they are referred to
Dochas, the VEC etc. If any of them are homeless they contact
the County Council, Urban District Council.
On one occasion that I happened to be in Solas, a gentleman
needed accommodation urgently as he was homeless. The
phone was picked up and calls were made and after a lot of
work the facilitator took him into town and managed to get
this man a council house, and went beyond her duty to make
sure that it was liveable. Also they rang St. Vincent DePaul to
make sure he was made as comfortable in his own private
world and as secure as possible.
But it is not all doom and gloom. They don't just sit around
and drink tea and cofee all day. There are different activities
going on each day plus the hustle and bustle. There is art,
reiki, creative writing etc, something different going on each
day.
Solas is open from nine thirty until five in the evening but
what I have found eocouraging is that the time you spend
there, you can take off the many masks that you have to put
on - outside in the world that surrounds you, and truly let so
many of the feelings and emotions that erupt on many
occassions be dealt with in strict confidence, trust, caring,
supporting safety, that many of us find difficult to deal with
in every day life.
There is still a lot of ignorance around about Mental Illness
and still biased people. The argument against Mental Illness as
I can see stems from this. A lot of so called "normal" people
think that if they're left to their own devices and take their
prescribed medication and pull themselves together that they
will snap out of it, how dare they put them into local housing
in communities where there are vulnerable children and
where hard working decent people live, "if they are unstable
they should be locked away".
Who's to say who's stable or unstable, all they need is positive
people around them, giving them the care and support they
most need. Every human being whether categorises as
"stable" or "unstable" needs support and care at sometime in
their lives. A lot of depressed people just want their own
space to live a decent productive life. And with no outside
support, the Psychiatric Hospitals are full of many people
who if they had the support that we receive now, would be
out living amongst us, for so many have become
institutionalised with nowhere to go. That is one of the main
reasons that Solas is there. It is the light at the end of the
most frightening dark tunnel.
The other thing that I have against Solas is that there is not
enough of these drop in centres. They should be in every
town and city in the whole of Ireland, north and south. I think
if there were more places like Solas, there would be far fewer
suicides. I know that I will be forever grateful to my
counsellor and doctor for giving me the encouragement to
take the step of finding the support that I most needed, for it
could have been the last chapter in my life but now with
Solas supporting me, the true light of so many like me, a new
chapter of my life is starting to emerge.
Solas Resource Centre
Old Rooskey House
Rooskey
Monaghan
047 72930
Why I Am A Member of IAN
Someone recently asked me, why I am a member of the Irish
Advocacy Network. I thing that they meant," What a lot of
trouble, and often progress is so slow."
I see it differently
The people are great. Some of the best people I've ever
met to be honest
They've all been where I've been, so they really
understand. No one has every given me silly advice like
"try to shake yourself," or "We all get blue Mondays"
(but what do you do about blue months or years?)
The training is great- you learn a lot, but its also
great craic. It isn't just what you learn, but the confid-
-ence you find in yourself. Since I left school, even
before as things got so bad, I felt different from others,
not good. I even knew that I was intelligent, but that
did seem to matter. After the major breakdowns and
times in hospital, my confidence was destroyed.
At long last, after some really hard work over
the past three years by Mervyn and Paddy in
particular, we have an office up and running with
staff including Regoinal Advocates. Do people realise
that we elected a Steering Group in Derry at the Voices
conference in 1999, we hadn't a penny, not even to
reimburse people for bus fare for attended meetings.
This had to be begged or borrowed( we drew the line
at stealing!) Hats off to all those who believed in it,
gave up time with their families, attended meetings
when they didn't feel well enough or the weather was
terrible. We really ACHIEVED something, and we've
only just begun.
About three times a year, not matter what I try to
do to stave it off, I get severe depressions. I can't do
anything for 3 weeks at least. My friends in IAN are
there for me, supporting me, keeping me going through
the darkest hours.
We are at an exciting time now. With Regional
Advocates in place, advocacy is getting into the
hospitals and day centres througout the land. Small
groups are forming, with plans for advocacy training.
With more advocates trained, we can all do something.
And don't forget we need non-advocates to support the
Advocates!
FINALLY: Why am I involved? Self-defence! We need each
other. If there aren't peer advocates to defend me if I get ill
then who will? If the Irish Advocacy Network isn't there to
push for changes in legislation and practice, who will be? I
can get very ill just as anyone else, and I want to do my utmost
to ensure I'm not detained and given ECT against my will.
The way I see it, we all hang together, or we all hang
seperately!
Poets Corner
Twelve Different Lifetimes
Twelve different lifetimes,
and twenty-seven years,
One hundred empty vodka bottles
and forty million tears,
Far too many lonely nights
and not enough good friends
Countless miles on empty roads,
that only brought dead ends.
There were times I slept with strangers
in badly lit hotels
Curled up as they left quietly
with their exotic smells,
There were times I kissed the crashing waves
in the naked light of dawn,
Times I couldn't find my soul,
There were times I lost it all...........................
Groover
I will still be living
Long after my death
I will scream defiantly
With my last breath
The last one standing
With my back to the wall
I will get back up
When all around me fall
I will not be quiet
As the rage burns inside
I will not run away
I will not hide
I will not be a phoenix
That continues to rise
I refuse to be a victim
In anyone's eyes.
My soul is eternal
And I know I am strong
I will defy anyone
Who says this is wrong,
I declare war on those
Who poison my mind,
Because I have a power
That cannot be defeated..........
Groover