Enabling meaningful participation

Tom Todd
Editor, CEMH human rights and mental health blog.

I’m delighted to have been invited to participate, with Critical and Ethical Mental Health (CEMH), in sharing some ideas through this new blog platform. 

There are many ways that you can participate in society, and I’ve come to appreciate the importance of having platforms for facilitating meaningful ways to contribute to change and improvement initiatives.

In Scotland, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has been encouraging adoption of the PANEL Principles, for those interested in taking a Human Rights Based Approach to activities, for a number of years now, the acronym standing for Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination,  Empowerment and Legality. They have shown that by adopting these principles, organisations can contribute to enhancing wellbeing in society.

At its most basic, of course, participation in something can be quite passive: you can be active in dentistry by having a filling done, for example. However, with respect to mental health care, a few people and organisations have stood out for me as being enablers of what the SHRC refers to as meaningful participation.  And during the last two years, I’ve particularly enjoyed working with them in various capacities. To name just a few: at CAPS Advocacy in Edinburgh, as a volunteer with the ‘Experiences of Psychosis’ group; at Queen Margaret University, as a participant on the short ‘Mad Studies’ MPHI course; with Miranda Fricker at CUNY, who supported me when I was trying to refine ideas about practical applications of philosophical concepts; and with Jon Jureidini, in a number of ways.

All of these opportunities have had one thing in common: the sharing of knowledge and ideas. And it has become apparent to me how powerful a medium writing can be in that regard.

Within the CAPS group we’re able to share ideas through poetry or prose. For the Mad Studies course we had an option to submit ‘photovoice’ pieces each week to facilitate group discussions. At the same course I was encouraged to read about Miranda’s work on Epistemic Injustice, and to read more widely in general to acquire other knowledge. And I took time to learn about some illusions associated with evidence-based medicine. I even participated informally in the continuing professional development of some interested nurses, a couple of pharmacists, and a few others working in the mental health care system in my local area, by passing on copies of Jon and Leemon’s book.

The invitation to write a blog post for CEMH took place after I sent Jon a copy of my submission to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review in May of last year. He took the time to read it and suggested that I could also consider writing a shorter article on aspects of it, possibly for publication on the CEMH site.

I accepted his offer to work with me on it, and after a few drafts, had put something together that we thought could be useful to share with others.

Somehow, the option of publishing on the CEMH website took a back seat, and the article, in slightly different forms, ended up being published as a blog by ‘Mad In The UK’, and as a first person account in the journal ‘Psychosis’, after active and meaningful participation with yet more people who I didn’t know a couple of years ago.

I know from experience now that blogging can offer an effective platform for people to get to know each other, and to stimulate creating things together. I’ve learned a lot from reading blogs by other people, and I’m delighted to have been offered the chance to write a short one here.

I hope that others might also be encouraged to participate by submitting their own contributions.    

See also: Tom's recent opinion article on Medical Assistance in Dying and Psychiatric Influence.