National Empowerment Center

Articles and Information by NEC Staff and Affiliates

• Home Page
• Who We Are
• What We Do
• Online Store
• Consumer-Run Statewide Organizations
• Articles & Information
• Links
• Resources
• Videos
• In the News
• Crisis Alternatives
• Information Technology
• Medication Optimization
• Health Care Reform
• Events
• Recovery Stories
• Jobs Available
• Contact
• Alternatives Conference
• International Coalition

Follow Us!
 

We accept donations
through our secure
online store

• DONATE NOW!

To view PDF files,
download a free copy
of Adobe Reader

To view PowerPoint
presentations, download
a free copy of the

PowerPoint Viewer

| Book Reviews | Recovery | Self Help | Empowerment | Wellness | Social Integration/Social Inclusion |
| Legal | Trauma |International | Cross-Disability | Managed Care | Consumer/Survivor History Project |
| Emotional Distress and Crisis Response |

Articles Cross Referenced by Author
Articles in Other Languages

All articles below should print without color or navigation menus

BOOK REVIEWS

• Latest Reviews
• Voluntary Madness, by Norah Vincent - Review by Gayle Bluebird

RECOVERY

• Optimizing Medication in the Service of Recovery: Is There a Path for Reducing Over-Utilization of Psychiatric Medications? By Neil Falk, Daniel B. Fisher, and Will Hall (PDF, 3.09MB, 19 pages)
• Recovery Do's and Don'ts by Chuck Weinberg (PDF, 51KB, 3 pages)
• Empowerment is Vital to Dialogical Recovery
• Speaking from your Heart: Public Speaking and the Path to Recovery by the National Coalition on Mental Health Recovery (PDF, 165KB, 16 pages)
• How Do We Recover? An Analysis of Psychiatric Survivor Oral Histories by Oryx Cohen (PDF, 3.01MB, 13 pages)
• Enhancing the Effectiveness of Psychiatric Care and Other Services and Supports: Guidelines for Promoting Recovery Through Choice and Alternatives
• The Evolution of the Concept of Recovery by Daniel Fisher
• The Emergence of a Collective Recovery Consciousness: L’esprit de Liberation, Recobrar la Vida
• HOPE (Hope Is a Choice) by Mike Dailey
• Pink Hats for Wendy (Direct link to pdf, 27 pages, 73KB)
• Helping Oregon Community Mental Health Administrators Transform their Mental Health System
• Meds Alone Couldn't Bring Robert Back - Newsweek article 2/6/2006
• Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from mental illness
• Confessions of a non-compliant patient
• Healing and recovery are real
• The empowerment model of recovery: Finding our voice and having a say
• A New Vision of Recovery: People can fully recover from mental illness; it is not a life-long process
• Dan's healing and recovery tree
• Self-care and recovery
• How persons recovering and clinicians can promote self-managed care
• Someone who believed in them helped them to recover
• People can recover from mental illness
• A tale of two boys
• Healing from depression
• We've Been Misled by the Drug Industry
  • Auf Deutsch
• Psychiatrist To Discuss Recovery - Hartford Courant article published 4/6/05
• What Are the Characteristics of a Person Who has Recovered from Mental Illness?
• Stepping Stone crisis respite program will offer compassionate alternative
• Recovery Stories
  • Amanda Back
  • Rita Brooks, MS
  • A Peer From England's Story
  • Oryx Cohen
  • Renee Kopache
  • Will Hall
  • A tale of two boys
• Empowerment Model of Recovery From Severe Mental Illness:
  An Expert Interview With Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD
• Catherine Penney discussed how she recovered from schizophrenia to become a psychiatric nurse
• Revisiting Schizophrenia: Are Drugs Always Needed? New York Times article, March 21, 2006
• From Relief to Recovery (PDF - 432KB, 15 pages, published September, 2006)
• Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Based Statewide Consumer/Survivor Organizations (PDF 2,856KB - 105 pages)
• Spreading Recovery to Portugal, N. Ireland and England
• Intentional Recovery Planning, Creating Space for the Unique Journey
  1. Introduction (Word Document, 52 KB, 4 pages)
  2. Intentional Recovery Planning Presentation - Alternatives 2006
     • PowerPoint (51 KB, 16 pages)
     • PDF (58 KB, 16 pages)
• Living into Wholeness Handout Packet (PDF 7MB, 20 pages)
• An Inquiry about One Peer-Driven Curriculum to Train Peer Coaches: Reflecting on Power, Privilege and Supporting Each Other's Recovery
  • PDF Document (145KB, 22 pages)
  • PowerPoint Presentation (166KB, 22 pages)

top of page

SELF HELP

• Finding Our Voice: How Consumer/Survivor Advocacy is Transforming Mental Health Care: By Daniel Fisher and Lauren Spiro (PDF, 3.56MB, 20 pages)
• Intervoice Letter to Parents of Children who Hear Voices
• The Value of Depression
• The Contribution of Self-Direction to Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services
• Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities to Start a Small Business - Key to My Dream (pdf)
• One woman's wish for "Depression Screening Day" and "Mental Health Awareness Month"
• Another Look at Depression (pdf)
• Depression & Emotional Distress Bibliography (pdf)
• Nurturing Oneself in Depression (pdf)
• 10 Ways to De-Stress Your Life  
• Crisis Hostel: Alternative to psychiatric hospitalization  
• Afraid of the dentist?  
• Advance Directives are what you make them  
• Making Advance Directives work for you  
• Service dogs help people get back out into the community
• Moral Therapy  
• Personal Care Attendant (PCA) services available to people with psychiatric disabilities  
• Reclaiming your power during medication appointments with your psychiatrist
  • A brochure created from this article (PDF, 2 pages, 121KB)
  • Une brochure créée à partir de cet article, en français (PDF, 2 pages, 156KB)
  • Principles of a Recovery Model Including Medications (pdf)
• Stepping Stone crisis respite program will offer compassionate alternative
• Tardive Dyskinesia and Tardive Dystonia: where you can turn for help  
• Hearing voices that are distressing: Self-help resources and strategies
  • Spanish version  
• Hearing voices that are distressing: Self-help resources and strategies (Part two)
• Warm Lines: An alternative to hospitalization

EMPOWERMENT

• Madness and the Mental Health System by David Oaks
• Spiritual Emergence
• Interview with Judi Chamberlin by Leah Harris
• Wild Indians: Native Perspectives on the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians by Pemima Yellow Bird (pdf, 792KB, 10 pages)
• In Our Own Voice - African-American Stories of Oppression, Survival and Recovery in Mental Health Systems by Vanessa Jackson (pdf, 381KB, 37 pages)
• Georgia consumer activists restore cemetery at Central State Hospital
• Citizenship rights & psychiatric disability
• The Courant Report: When physical restraints kill
• Deadly restraint: Reform or abolish?
• Mental
• We are more than our disorder
• Judi Chamberlin is 1995 Pike Prize recipient - Honors those who have given outstanding service to people with disabilities
• Rights are universal
• Self-determination and independence versus force and dependency
• MindFreedom International: advocating for human rights and alternatives in the "mental health" system.
• You and Me
• A Working Definition of Empowerment

  top of page

WELLNESS

• Ensuring Social Inclusion by Focusing on Personal and Community Wellness (PDF, 633KB, 36 pages)
• Diet Rich in Processed Food Linked to Increased Risk for Depression
  www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711867
• Promoting Wellness on the Individual Level - a talk by Lauren Spiro (PDF, 35KB, 5 pages)

SOCIAL INTEGRATION/SOCIAL INCLUSION

• Connectedness and Citizenship: Redefining Social Integration by Norma Ware et al (PDF, 81KB, 6 pages)

top of page

LEGAL

• What is psychiatric malpractice?

TRAUMA

• Don Weitz's Story: Insulin Shock - A Survivor's Account of Psychiatric Torture (PDF, 31KB, 5 pages)
• The Human Impact of Seclusion and Restraint - Lauren Spiro (PDF, 68KB, 3 pages)
• Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Risk of Premature Mortality (PDF, 913KB, 8 pages)
• Anna's story: The effects of sexual abuse, the system's failure to respond and the emergence of a new, trauma-based paradigm
• Facts About Mental Health & Physical and Sexual Abuses
• Mental illness is a coping mechanism
• Coping with Tragedy

INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER/SURVIVOR GROUPS

• Hope and Recovery in Australia
• Daniel Fisher on Hope and Recovery - A series of radio programs recorded May 2008, in Australia
• Transcript of ABC Radio National's Perspective program featuring Daniel Fisher, May 7, 2008
• Recovering Humanity in South Korea: Nothing About Us Without Us
• Learning from Northern Europe
• Brazil's social movement to close mental asylums
• Consumer/survivors organize in Eastern Europe
• It's a small world after all: Self-help and mutual support groups in Israel
• On the road with Judi Chamberlin: Six countries in four weeks!
• What I did on my summer vacation, or, some thoughts on survivor activism worldwide
• Resonating in Japan
• Life Found in Translation - Magic Moment in Puerto Rico, Feb. 25, 2006
• Intervoice - Intervoice is an international organization dedicated to changing society's perception of people who hear voices.

  top of page

CROSS-DISABILITY

• Preserve our rights and programs through cross-disability coalitions and education
• Listening to consumer/survivors from the deaf community
• First, they call us names

MANAGED CARE

• Shared Decision-Making by SAMHSA (PDF, 308KB, 1 page)
• Managed care is really managed financial risk
• Having a voice in managed care: Consumer/survivors can influence the system
• Self-Managed Care: The most cost effective managed care

CONSUMER/SURVIVOR HISTORY PROJECT

• History of the Consumer/Survivor Movement by Gayle Bluebird (PDF, 77KB, 5 pages)
• The Ex-Patients' Movement: Where We've Been and Where We're Going
• Recovery Through Recognition of the History of Consumers and Survivors (this page contains links to pages listed below)
• It's About Time: Discovering, Recovering and Celebrating Consumer/Survivor History
• Do we need a survivor history of madness?
• Peter Beresford on the need for a survivor-controlled museum of madness
• Slide Show: Massachusetts Consumers/Survivors/Ex-patients Campaign to Restore State Hospital Cemeteries
• The Lives They Left Behind - Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, View online exhibit from the Community Consortium

EMOTIONAL DISTRESS and CRISIS RESPONSE

• The Danger and Opportunity in Crisis (PDF, 28KB, 3 pages)
• Responding to Emotional Crisis (PDF, 44KB, 3 pages)
• Helper Information: Beyond Pathology (PDF, 156KB, 4 pages)

top of page

ARTICLES IN OTHER LANGUAGES

French:

• Une brochure sur la base de l'article - Récupérer votre pouvoir pendant les rendez-médicament avec votre psychiatre (PDF, 156KB, 2 pages). Translation of a brochure based on the article - Translation of Reclaiming your power during medication appointments with your psychiatrist

German:

• 8/19/2001 New York Post article by Dr. Fisher (Translation of - A Look At . . . Coping With Mental Illness - We've Been Misled by the Drug Industry)

Icelandic:

• Trúin á bata (Translation of - Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from mental illness)
• Játningar óhlýðins sjúklings (Translation of - Confessions of a non-compliant patient)
• Lækning og bati eru raunveruleg (Translation of - Healing and recovery are real)
• Lyfin ein gátu ekki komið með Robert aftur (Translation of - Meds Alone Couldn't Bring Robert Back)
• Við erum meira en veikindi okkar(Translation of - We are more than our disorder)
• Vegvísir að bata (PDF, 944KB, 30 pages) (Translation of - PACE - A Recovery Guide) (PDF 7395KB, 36 pages)
• Geðklofi: Eru lyf ávallt nauðsynleg? (Translation of - Revisiting Schizophrenia: Are Drugs Always Needed?)
• Að heyra erfiðar raddir_Sjálfshjálp (Translation of - Hearing voices that are distressing: Self-help resources and strategies)

Japanese:

• How Consumers Step Up to Design a Truly Recovery-based Mental Health System, by Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. - Translated by Hiroyuki Matsuda (PDF, 315KB, 6 pages)
• Dialogical Recovery from Monological Medicine, by Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. (PDF, 322KB, 6 pages)
• Community Dialogues for Recovery and Wellness, by Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. (PDF, 236KB, 7 pages)
• Confessions of a Non-Compliant Patient by Judi Chamberlin (PDF, 8 pages, 266KB)
• Should Forced Medication be a Treatment Option in Patients with Schizophrenia? Judi Chamberlin debates E. Fuller Torrey, MD on Involuntary Treatment (PDF, 219KB, 7 pages)
• Promoting Recovery (PDF, 440KB, 36 pages) Translation of Promoting Recovery - Learning About Mental Health Practice. Daniel B. Fisher, 2008. Theo Stickley and Thurstine Basset. pp. 119-139. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• PACE - A Recovery Guide (4608KB, 29 pages) (Translation of - PACE - A Recovery Guide) (PDF, 7395KB, 36 pages)

Polish:

We want to thank Pawel Tomaszewski for treanslating these articles into Polish

• ZOSTALIŚMY WPROWADZENI W BŁĄD PRZEZ PRZEMYSŁ FARMACEUTYCZNY (PDF, 47KB, 3 pages) (Translation of - We've Been Misled by the Drug Industry
• WYLECZENIE I WYZDROWIENIE JEST REALNE (PDF, 123KB, 2 pages) (Translation of - Healing and recovery are real)
• WIARA W WYZDROWIENIE Z CHOROBY PSYCHICZNEJ JEST PODSTAWĄ POWROTU DO ZDROWIA (PDF, xKBm X pages) (Translation of - Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from mental illness
• ROLA PRACY W POWROCIE DO ZDROWIA (PDF, 65KB, 1 page) (Translation of - Role of Work in Recovery
• WYKAŻ SIĘ AKTYWNOŚCIĄ PODCZAS WIZYTY U PSYCHIATRY Patricia Deegan, Ph.D. (PDF, 41KB, 3 pages) (Translation of - Reclaiming your power during medication appointments with your psychiatrist By Patricia Deegan, Ph.D.
• Można wyzdrowieć po chorobie psychicznej (PDF, 124KB, 4 pages) (Translation of - People can recover from mental illness)

Spanish:

• Escuchando voces que deprimen: Recursos y Estrategias para ayudarse asi mismo (Translation of - Hearing voices that are distressing: Self-help resources and strategies)
• Guia para recobrar la vida (1681KB, 35 pages) (Translation of - PACE - A Recovery Guide) (PDF 7395KB, 36 pages)

top of page

Site by Tom Rogers Web Design  |  Internet Solutions