I have given the thumbs up to Minds on the Edge on Facebook, which as anyone who participates on the social networking site knows, means when there is something that this page posts, it is added to my News Feed. I was reading my feed yesterday and saw the following:
"Minds on the Edge panelist, author, advocate, Pete Earley recently received scathing comments on his blog by people who are adamantly against assisted outpatient treatment, medications, psychiatry and who do not believe there is such a thing as Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder. How do you address those critics? (Pete -- keep up the great work. We appreciate your advocacy and passion.)"
My first thought was this program, or at least the administrator of it's facebook page, has come to the defense of Pete Earley by trying to discredit and minimize the importance of the consumer/survivor movement. This is a program that is purportedly trying to address issues that admittedly are complex and emotionally charged, treatment of and for the "mentally ill." This person is not concerned with how some of the current language used by the advocacy movement 'for the seriously mentally ill' is representative or even respectful of the people who are consumers of psychiatry, and/or psychiatric survivors to describe their varied experiences.
