Reflections on the social model of distress or madness: how to make the social model of disability accessible to people with mental health challenges
| Pages | 231-237 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-06-2016-0018 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| Author | Angela Kinn |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Reflections on the social model of distress
or madness: how to make the social
model of disability accessible to people
with mental health challenges
Angela Kinn
Angela Kinn is a Senior Peer
Recovery Trainer at Recovery
and Wellbeing College, Central
and North West London NHS
Foundation Trust, London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between recovery approaches and the
social model of disability developed within the broader disability movement.
Design/methodology/approach –Personal narrative and reflective account written from the perspective of
a senior peer trainer with reference to selected literature.
Findings –It is important to embracea social model and rights-based approachwithin recovery approaches.
Originality/value –An original viewpoint on the perspective of a peer trainer linking recovery approaches to
the social model and rights-based approach developed within the broader disability arena.
Keywords Recovery, Rights, Lived experience narrative, Social model of inclusion
Paper type Viewpoint
When I started working as a Senior Peer Trainer at the Central and North West London (CNWL)
Recovery and Wellbeing College I brought with me an awareness of the very powerful influences
which had inspired and instigated my own recovery. These were the mental health recovery
movement, 12 step self-help and disability rights. These movements, whilst apparently separate,
were all essential catalysts in my recovery journey. It is the Disability Rights Movement in
particular that has given me the awareness that I have not been on one recovery journey, I have
been on two, the first is my internal journey, the second is my journey in the world.
My adult life has had three chapters. The first chapter of my internal journey was ten years of
deterioration and progressing mental health problems which was followed by the second
chapter; ten years of chaos, giving up and defeat. Thankfully, the last eight years have been years
of transformation, acceptance, adjustment and becoming the person who I was supposed to be.
My parallel external journey started with ten years of desperately holding on to “normal life”with
housing, employment and relationships constantly at risk and then ultimately collapsing. In the next
ten years I experienced almost complete social exclusion living in sub-cultures comprising of
dangerous places, “shut off and oppressive”parts of mental health services and necessary
compensations like freedom passes and day centres which came with a hefty exclusion price tag.
In this period of my life I assumed the identity of a psychiatric patient as my other life roles quickly
evaporated. In the last eight years I have been rebuilding my life and relationships. Overcoming
exclusion barriers and finding emotional and social environments in which my long-term mental
health difficulties, and I, are accepted, has been a constant challenge in my recovering years.
DOI 10.1108/MHSI-06-2016-0018 VOL. 20 NO. 4 2016, pp. 231-237, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308
j
MENTALHEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
PAG E 23 1
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