Reflections on ‘freedom to live a valued life’ - Dr Lynne Friedli
1. Reflections on ‘freedom to live a
valued life’
Dr Lynne Friedli
North Lanarkshire Council
The bigger picture: self directed support in
North Lanarkshire
8th November 2011
2. This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture.
Still treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing,
And invite them in. (Jelaluddin Rumi, 1207-73)
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
3. ‘Of the community, not just in it...’
‘Those most at risk are those without committed,
unpaid relationships in their life .
However good the service provider, people who
have no one in their life who is not paid to be with
them are vulnerable not only to abuse, but to gentle
neglect and complacency.’
Source: Julia Fitzpatrick 2010
Personalised Support
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
4. Source: Ingram Pinn, Financial Times
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
5. ‘The bigger challenge is to
transform the way disabled
people are viewed, valued
and included in society.’
Self directed support: the bigger picture
6. Return to the social....
And what I shall endure, you shall endure
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to
you......
Walt Whitman
Equity and Freedom Solidarity
Social to live a and the core
Justice valued life economy
I am, because we are...
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
7. "Christ yam,Whit are us auld men tae dae if ye ever leave us
- we're a divided frae yin anither. Kin ye no start up a Union
afore ye go? Fur divided we fall."
Archie Meek (91) to Tommie
Ritchie
Petition for the Redress of Grievances put
forward by the patients in Hartwood
Hospital, Lanarkshire 18 August 1971
Source: The Survivors’ History Group Pageant of
Survivor History http://studymore.org.uk/mpu.htm
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
8. ‘It gets so lonely
around here that I
phone myself
seven or eight
times a day, just to
see how I am’
Phantom Tolbooth
Declaration of Intent of the Mental Patients Union
•We proclaim the dignity of society's so-called mental patients.
•We challenge repressive psychiatric practice and its ill-defined concepts of 'mental illness'
•We state that the present appalling situation in 'mental health' primarily arises from
the acute problems in housing, unemployment and social inequality
•Mental patients in our society are treated as people with no human rights
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
9. Something to hold on to ….
I did not hear the bird sounds
They had left.
I did not see the speechless clouds.
I saw only the little white dish of my
faith, breaking in the crater.
I kept saying: I’ve got to have something
to hold on to.
Anne Sexton
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
10. All societies cater for the disabilities of the average
person
Martha Nussbaum
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
11. So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I’m at the
edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it’s
gonna take
To find dignity
Bob Dylan
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
13. Well-being depends on certain freedoms being upheld,
as well as on economic assets
Amartya Sen
Source: Jumpers for goal posts GRID Architects: forgotten spaces
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
14. Source: What if projects http://www.what- lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
if.info/20_vacant_lots.html
18. Keep on making waves -
without which
no tide can turn……
That’s it folks!
Self directed support: the bigger picture lynne.friedli@btopenworld.com
Editor's Notes
Born in Persia (now part of Afghanistan) – last year 800th anniversary of his birth. Lived most of his life in Turkey – but wrote in Persian, and hence is generally claimed by Iran.How we interpret mental distress – Rumi’s crowd of sorrows
Equality and human rights commissionDisability as a motivating factor in incidents of crime, bullying, anti social behaviour
At heart – this is about what hasn’t been valued - above all about assets outside money/market economyAnd that these are precisely the areas that are crucial to well-being: Social – core economy Solidarity – identifying common interests and mutual responsibility Collective – coming together (to change things, improve things, protect things)We’ve seen a recognition of the social nature of wellbeingWhich raises questions about what protects the social – the role of Equity and Social Justice
Hartwood Hospital in Lanarkshire. Its founding inspiration was Archie Meek (aged 91), a patient on a geriatric ward who suggested it to Tommie Ritchie, another detained patient, when Tommie was helping Archie shave. This was some time between 1969 and 1971, a few years before the London-based Mental Patients Union formed. Tommie Ritchie was also one of the founding members of the 1973 union and his records of SUMP are part of the union's archive. They include the initiating words of Archie Meek "Christ yam,", he demanded, "Whit are us auld men tae dae if ye ever leave us - We're a divided frae yin anither. Kin ye no start up a Union afore ye go? Fur divided we fall."
Scotland had pioneered user action in the United Kingdom. In 1971, SUMP, The Scottish Union of Mental Patients, was the first recorded mental patients' union. By 1974 there was a Federation of Mental Patients Unions. Now Glasgow mental patients lit the fire that became the Survivors Speak Out movement. Two of the service users, Tam Graham and Charlie Reid, became founding members of Survivors Speak Out in 1986. They used the tape-slide programme in group training and education workshops at a number of the early conferences where users started "getting a voice". Charlie Reid died in the early 1990s. He was so well known and respected in Glasgow that he subsequently had a day centre in Glasgow named after him.
Trends over time – shrinking of spatial boundaries – decline of adult free spaces