In this presentation at USPRA’s 34th Annual Conference, Dr. Fred Frese, himself a person with schizophrenia who was once put away as “insane”, describes some of what he sees as behavioral, linguistic, and attitudinal attributes, including those of mental health professionals, that continue to be barriers to recovery and integration for the members of this traditionally ostracized population.
I ran across his speech online about 6 months ago, it was added here on youtube in 2009, so that would be almost 3 years ago. Not exactly headline news of course, but I wanted to keep his talk, as I feel (he says this as well) people like him do exist and more likely in greater numbers than we can imagine. The social stigma placed upon schizophrenia is enough to shy away from mental health intervention. But, even he states, that after he became aware of his condition and learned to cope with it (which he admits did include prescribed meds) that his life has been managable, and of course as stated, he has fully employed for most of his working life.
I want to put this video where I can easily find it, sometimes I lose important saved bookmarks, using this and one other source to “save this” will keep me from having to spend a bunch of time trying to remember who he was, and more, I enjoy listening to his talk. I want to keep it handy. I have personal reasons which I don’t want to elaborate on here.
There are 5 parts on youtube of his talk at this conference, there are other venues in which he has spoken as well, not to mention the resources he shares of many other successful people in our communities who share his same mental health diagnoses of paranoid/schizophrenia.
thanks!
