[van-announce] Media Release: Mental health: Our Lost Voices.

[mirth at resist.ca]

Date: April 18, 2008
Media Release: Mental health: Our Lost Voices.
The Mental health political Action Group’s response to crisis in the
mental health system.

The Mental Health Political Action Group is a peer run grassroots
organization that has come together to take action against mental health
stigma, the violence directed at people with mental health issues and the
lack of human rights that we experience first hand within the mental
health system.
As a group we are sending out this media release in response to the high
level of media attention around the so called “mental health crisis” that
was brought up publicly by the releasing of the recent police report;”
Lost in Transition”.

Over the last few weeks we have heard from police, health officials and
government all speaking out about mental health. What has been missing
from this debate have been our voices. Of ten the best and most
knowledgeable people to comment on a crisis are those directly involved in
it. It is with this in mind that we raise our voices so that they will be
heard at all levels of government

•        We demand accountability from  Sam Sullivan to address this critical
situation with a concrete plan of action and to address why the motion to
establish a  mental health advocate to the city was defeated

•        We believe that the promised $110 million in the federal budget
proposed
for mental health research projects would be better spent supporting
existing services and providing people with homes

•        We demand an overhaul of the mental health system that treats us
with
dignity and that does not strip us of our basic rights

•        We are demanding more respite care and more reintegration
services that
assist people in transitioning back in the community.

•        We demand stable and positive living conditions and not just more
workers in substandard hotels as George Abbot proposes

•        We reject George Abbot’s proposal for warehousing people in the
Willingdon Centre for the mentally ill and addicted chronic offenders. We
demand that other dignified means of treatment must be available for
people who slip through the cracks of the system.

As one member our group commented, “The mental health act is used as a
bludgeon against the poor and vulnerable in our society.”

Media Contact:
Lisa: 778-329-7720                Megan : 604-724-6917
Email: mhactiongroup at resist.ca