I am a lawyer in Canada with exeprience working both with a legal
clinical on disability rights issues, and in the charitable health
sector. The bottom line for me is that every profession should be open
to anyone with the skills and interests. In terms of the comments from
your colleague, I guess would respond as follows:
-the disability rights movement is about dignity, choice and risk. It
is no less of a barrier to equal opportunity to pre-determine that
people should not take certain jobs on the basis of their disability
than if the employers refuse to hire. It is fair to raise the issue of
oppression and other concerns so that a person can make an informed
choice, but it is not fair to use that as a reason for maintaining
barriers, nor is it fair to assume that everyone sees these professions
as oppressive. The person with a mental illness will certainly have had
experience in the sector and have their own opinion of the profession.
-If you look outside of the mental health field, a lot of the disability
rights movement (I am a person with an invisible physical disability)
has been about finding ways for persons with disabilities to enter and
run the service sector to change the culture of that sector. That is
similar to the activities in women's rights movement where there was
pressure placed on the medical profession to open the doors to women
with the hope that rather than maintaining the culture, they would
improve it and create opportunities for better care. There is no reason
to think that a person with a mental illness who enters the health
professions cannot play a role in changing the culture.
-There are already may people with mental illness within these
professions - they either did not disclose when they went into the
profession or they developed a mental illness after they were employed.
To follow the argument that people should not enter into the field
because it helps sustain oppression,could lead to the argument that
people who become mentally ill should leave their profession.
-the biggest problem is having the profession accept a person with a
mental illness. There have been a number of instances where there is
clear discrimination. I have friends who are leaders in the
consumer/survivor movement who are moving into the mental health
professional roles who have had a great of trouble getting placements,
etc. because of concerns that they will "overidentify" or not be able to
separate their own experience from their professional obligations. This
is the issue that I hope the UK will tackle and provide leadership for
the rest of the world.
I would certainlty be interested in seeing what happens in the UK.
-----Original Message-----
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Philip Scullion
Sent: June 15, 2002 4:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mental health surviours becoming professionals?
Dear Colleagues
Would any care to explore this issue with me?
At last weeks SDS conference in Oakland I discussed
the issue of people with mental health problems /
experience moving on to joining one of the health care professions e.g.
Psychiatric nursing.
In UK the Department of Health are likely to publish a
positive statement encouraging this on the grounds of
equal opportunity in employment and the positive
contribution such experiences may bring to a role as a
health professional.
The RCN (London 3rd July) conference, in a few weeks
will be examining the role of health professionals in
the disability rights agenda- in essence I will argue
that one way of being with disable people on this
agenda is to open the way for them to become health professionals.
One respected colleague at the SDS however was fairly
adamant that the effect of a mental health survivor
becoming a psychiatric nurse for instance would be for
them to simply take on an oppressive role seen as characteristic of the
so-called 'helping profession' as whole.
View, experiences and research welcome.
=====
Philip Scullion
Senior Lecturer
Health and Social Sciences
Coventry University
UK
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