A Message from ISEPP's e-Blogger Maria

Hello,

My name is Maria Mangicaro and I am a 3-year member of ISEPP who volunteers by maintaining the ISEPP – ICSPP websites, blogs, Amazon Bookstore, Youtube Channel,  Facebook Fan Pages, as well as contributes to the ISEPP Bulletin (considering the transition from ICSPP to ISEPP, many of these sites are still “work in progress”).

I also help promote ISEPP’s annual conferences and events of ISEPP members / conference presenters by posting information on event sites, conference listing sites and through free press release sites.

If you are a member of ISEPP, or a conference presenter and would like to contribute a post to the blog, please feel free to contact me through this link.  Willing volunteers are also welcome to contact ISEPP for opportunities that will contribute to the continued success of the Society.  If you do not have the time to volunteer but have a website and are interested in helping, please consider linking to ISEPP and submit your website for a reciprocal link or request to be listed under Places Offering Help on the main website.

For those of you who do not know me, I am among the many Society members who are not mental health professionals.  Like many of the other non-professional members who took an interest in ISEPP, my passion for advocacy stems from personal experience.  Earlier this year I shared my recovery experiences through an e-patient narrative that was published in the Journal of Participatory Medicine linked here.

I am also a member of the Society for Participatory Medicine, another society-based organization that welcomes both medical professionals and nonprofessionals alike to advance the Participatory Medicine movement.

“Participatory Medicine is a movement in which networked patients  shift from being mere passengers to responsible drivers of their health, and  in which providers encourage and value them as full partners.”

For many reasons individuals who suffer from symptoms of severe mental illness are at a disadvantage to become informed, educated and empowered patients.

While the internet is a key factor for many patients to become enabled, engaged and empowered in their healthcare options, the rate of empowerment for the vast majority of mental health patients may come at a much slower pace because of the marginalized population who are in jails, prisons, psychiatric wards, or homeless.

E-blogging, blogging about empowerment concepts, is one way of contributing towards being a voice for those who can not speak for themselves.

As a mental health consumer advocate, I feel it is important to support the professional members of the Society who have created a strong advocacy platform that not only includes the voice of the consumer, but has a history of advancing best-practice psychiatry by protecting the rights of consumers to be educated, informed and empowered.

While I was not able to attend this year’s conference, I was thrilled to be able to follow the events through fellow blogger Switchboard Susan’s Tweetchat and interaction with U.K advocate Carolyn Anderson who kept busy re-tweeting the conference updates throughout the three-day event.   I am also happy to hear the outpour of positive feedback and will be posting more to the blog as they come in.  Organizing and preparing for such a dynamic conference through volunteer effort coming from across the country is not easy, so there is always uneasiness in the anticipation of a mixup or two.

For those of you who participated in the L.A. conference I would like you to know that a member of ISEPP has volunteered to write-up a review on the documentary Crooked Beauty that was slated to be screened during the conference.

The film’s director, Ken Paul Rosenthal was at the conference and I am glad that we had  his participation.  Like many of you I am familiar with the Icarus Project and look forward to a future screening of Crooked Beauty.

Thank you for taking the time to visit the ISEPP Blog and please check back for more clips of past conference videos to be posted along with future conference and event information.

Sincerely,

~ e-Blogger Maria

“If you’re not blogging, your voice isn’t heard for advocacy” ~ D.Hernandez, Twitter

“Crooked Beauty, Ken Paul Rosenthal’s poetic documentary that chronicles TIP co-founder Jacks Ashley McNamara’s transformative journey from psych ward patient to pioneering mental health advocacy.”

“Rosenthal’s recently completed social justice documentary, Crooked Beauty  explores a new healing culture and political model for living with madness as a tool of creativity, inspiration and hope. He continues to present Crooked Beauty screening lectures and workshops in peer support networks, hospitals, universities, art schools, symposia, and jails worldwide. His current in-progress project, Courting Gesture (c.2011), explores the nature of
touch in the digital age.”

“This inspiring movie will lead you to think anew about what it may be like to experience ‘madness’, and the best pathways to recovery.”

Robert Whitaker, Author of Anatomy of an Epidemic and Mad in America

“A must-see experience for anyone entrusted to provide mental health care and all who care about relieving mental anguish and distress.”

Joe Behen, PhD, Director, Counseling, Health & Disability Services, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

For screening presentations, workshops, and interviews at:

• Mental health community centers, clinics and hospitals
• University psychology and counseling departments
• Documentary film and art programs
• Local and campus-based Icarus Project chapters
• Independent bookstores and collectives
• Local radio shows and podcasts
• Symposiums and film festivals that focus on mental health and social justice

please contact: info@crookedbeauty.com