Mad Students in the Social Work Classroom? Notes From the Beginnings of an Inquiry

Can Health Care Reform End Stigma Toward Mental Illness?

“…Joseph not only advocates that our profession redouble its welcome of survivors for professional roles, he also invites in "anti-professionals" to fight forced treatments with force. Reid and Poole (2013) echo these sentiments in their call for AntiOppressive Practice to de-pathologize mental illness and expose the "oppressor" who hides in most of us, client or worker. Summers (2013) adds professors and recommends a de-pathologized welcome of "mad" students into social work education where their narratives of their experiences of stigmatization can serve to inform and teach classmates, academics, and educational policy makers.…”

“…Reid and Poole (2013) reported that such programs often teach counselors-in-training from an us-and-them perspective that creates distance between helpers (us) and "helpees" (them); they added that many clients of MH services respond to such marginalization by succumbing to or rising against the dynamics of what they perceive as oppression (p. 212).…”

‘We barely survived’: Social work students’ mental health vulnerabilities and implications for educators, universities and the workforce

“…Growing evidence indicates that university students may represent a high-risk population for psychological distress and mental health issues (Martin, 2009;Reid & Poole, 2013;Orygen Report, 2017). According to Landstedt et al (2017, p. 340), definitions of mental health often "are broad and complex" but can include psychiatrically defined conditions, psychological and emotional distress and "the more socially framed term mental wellbeing."…”

Theoretical dimensions for interrogating the intersection of disability, immigration and social work

“…In addition to ableism, sanism, as developed in the work of Poole et al (2012) and Reid and Poole (2013), enriches the analysis of the construction of the Other in terms of disability, because as the authors contend, sanism is a more specific concept to refer to the marginalization experiences of people living with mental health histories. Perlin (1992) utilized the term sanism in his examination of what he called 'prejudice' in the legal system: 'Sanism is as insidious as other "isms" and is, in some ways, more troubling, since it is largely invisible and largely socially acceptable … Sanism is a form of bigotry that "respectable people can express in public" ' (pp.…”