Carolyn Dallman Downes attended at one of our coalition meetings a couple of years ago. She was working on a documentary film about ODSP etc. and if memory serves, some of this stuff was eventually posted to YouTube. The following background information is not an endorsement of her activities; we are merely passing her notes along for your possible interest.
Description of the project
Author, Lawyer and winner of the "Courage to Come Back" award, Michael Armstrong,s life exemplifies courage and grace in the face of mental illness. "Stable in Bedlam" is a documentary about Michael's struggle to live his life to the fullest -- to have a home and a "family" and work that is meaningful and dignified.
A self-created man in many ways, Michael Armstrong is a tireless advocate on behalf of compassionate treatment for all psychiatric survivors. As an instructor on Mental Health Issues at the Canadian Mental Health Association, his was the face of the psychiatric survivor which informed and educated literally dozens of organizations in Toronto, including the Police Services Board, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the faculties of Social Work at the University of Toronto, Ryerson and Humber College, to name a few. He is one of the few people who can speak pragmatically and knowledgeably about what it is like to be actively psychotic.
Michael's perspective on mental illness is unique: although there is no denying that his psychotic episodes have limited him in certain ways, he chooses to see them as unique experiences which inform his deep and complex spirituality. These experiences came to form the basis of his book (also entitled: "Stable in Bedlam" ) and lectures; he sees himself, not as a victim of mental illness, but as someone who is more of an explorer in the realms of altered states. He refuses to be a victim of mental illness; he is more of a celebrant.
Michael's ability to live a full and complete life stands in direct contrast to that experienced by many other psychiatric survivors,
and no profile of him would be complete without addressing to some degree, the lives of those for whom he has advocated so passionately. His own insistence on performing meaningful work continually runs him afoul of a Welfare bureaucracy that seems determined to thwart his every effort at recovery and independence. His fight to manage a system that ironically is intended to support him is also contextualized within the larger question of how we, as a society, look on those who suffer mental illness |
