Empowering Alliances in Pursuit of Social Justice: Social Workers Supporting Psychiatric-Survivor Movements

Abstract

Abstract This article reviews historical and current examples of harmful and forced treatments as well as scientific discrimination that have been applied to people diagnosed with mental illness. It discusses anti-psychiatric social action in North America from 1970 to the present. A review of social work's foundations in social justice, empowerment, and person-in-the-environment perspectives highlights the congruencies and communal benefits for both the social work profession and psychiatric-survivor movements. Through this discussion, it is apparent that the professed values of the social work profession are actually more compatible with psychiatric-survivor movements than with any allegiances to the biomedical model of psychiatry. Keywords: social justicehistory of mental illnesspsychiatric-survivor movementscritical social workmental health services Acknowledgments Some portions of this article were presented at the 2010 Annual Social Work Research Symposium, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, April 16, 2010. Notes 1 These are not mutually exclusive categories, nor are they referred to in any particular order. 2 I use this period and geographic area to limit my unit of analysis and to coincide with my position and professional experiences related to this project.