If you haven’t heard about the Village Shalom shooting yet, it happened. This time it’s my own community. I performed my Chocolate Fairy poem at a show at the Village Shalom retirement center a couple of years ago. I just applied for a grant fund from Bike4theBrain, the nation’s largest mental health themed bike ride in the country. The bike ride director, Ken, works in the community garden at Village Shalom. I’ve been working at an advocacy level with their community to create a “stigma-reduction” campaign. I’m signed up to be a guest tomorrow at their community seder a few miles from the Jewish Community Center where the shootings happened.
And the next chapter goes on to say something like, “So you need speak in a way that people can understand. There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language it’s not going to do me much good. And being a prophet, bringing truth to the word, is a lot more important than speaking random words.” So please be nice as you bring your advocacy efforts into my community and help us through this media frenzy for the Village Shalom shooting. These are people I have to work and have been working with every day.
I would really, really like your help bringing the word of complete mental health recovery into our community when the media is going to be making a zoo out of this thing. These are ways you can share the real truth about mental health care in a way that people who need to hear it will be able to act on it. And check out my poem at the end.
1. Call up a friend in need. One of our guest bloggers pointed out that the violence is about people that needed help that didn’t get it. Start small, start with an auntie, neighbor, friend, student, churchmate, etc., who is struggling. Ask them what you can do to help. Here are four ways to start that conversation. Four questions among friends from Paul Komarek, who has a whole list of mass violence data here.
What have you accomplished since the last time we met?
2. Join the national mental health dialogue project in Kansas City and in your own city. I’m the one who started Kansas City’s project and it’s going well. Our action plan has been released and it’s not just a recruiting tool into the mental health system like other cities are making. Seattle might be the next lead city and I desperately need to get some psych survivors on their committee, so let me know if you know Seattle people.
The Kansas City national mental health dialogue brought over 360 people together for an all day event.
4. Join #talktextact April 24, less than two weeks from now. Form a small group and give some honest mental health info to national decision makers. Do you want to know why the Feds don’t talk about complete mental health recovery? Because they don’t know the data. Join these official input opportunities and tell them instead of fighting back about the forced med data manufacturers who don’t want to hear from us. We can help 10 people who want help in the time it takes to help one who doesn’t.
5. Help improve mentalhealth.gov. Go through the website and fill out the three question survey at the bottom of each page. Do as many pages as you can tolerate. They say they want more blogs submitted, too. The blogs need to go through a partner organization like the National Empowerment Center or the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care (click the name for their contact forms). So if you’re a mental health blogger or write here, send a one paragraph description of how your blogs would improve the accuracy of that website, and send links to your five best blogs.
6. Ask the media to stop covering these events. They don’t cover suicides because of the copycat factor. Yet these events have the same problem, angry people who want to go out a hero. My friend Paul Komarek points out that these events are just another form of suicide. Contact your local news source today and ask them to revise their suicide exclusion policy.
7. Learn the real connection between psych meds and violence. Try ssrrstories.com for a start, or look at other blogs here on this site.
8. Connect with peer advocates in Kansas City. I know tons of people who would be glad to help you add peer input and complete mental health recovery information to your event. There are at least 8 reasons people in recovery know more academic outcomes literature than mental health providers. Let us improve your program. Read my poem below. I’m number two, so I try harder. I’m still a bit backed up on efforts because of my traumatic brain injury, but I’ll get to you, I promise.
9. Always keep your mind open about emotional distress. Challenge your assumptions. Learn something new every day.
For my friend and Jewish adopted dad Ken Braiterman who is dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. His final advocacy efforts to defy the mental health system are published here. Ken can still take visits and phone calls, contact me if you wanna contact him.
Or that I just needed a friend.
Till, one day, I walked into frisbee golf, a drinking, moving party and my woes didn’t matter.
Of their passions, and I built a team. I swept up my friend Ken who became the closest of all.
So we weren’t alone anymore, my workaholic coach telling me to stop and get out.
Get out again, get out of your mind, have some fun and come back to fight again another day.
he still played against them.
instead of tearing them all down and building a different sequel.
of talents and joys and beauty and new ways to contribute to creation.
Our broken wings restored by new visioning, our people integral to this world’s missioning.
That message overcomes any of the sickness and devastation they can pass out.
But wisdom to know the difference? And serenity to accept the people we cannot change?
We got the faith in recovery that could move mountains and we’ve not been heard.
This poetry language a gift that’s gotten nowhere without love.
Because I couldn’t figure out how to love the people who harmed me.
Tired of hurting the harmers in hopes they’ll wake up, and convert, challenge their assumptions.
When they just did their best, they cared so much but I finally learned I couldn’t trust their caring.
That love doesn’t give up, and like Ken always believed in me, I can believe in me till the end.
Beautiful, Corinna. Thanks for all your good work, and great suggestions. There is something out there anyone can do to spread the message.