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May has been known as the Mental Health Awareness Month for many years

By Carole Willey

Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM) is followed by July 7– 15 known around the world as MAD PRIDE Week and during October the US celebrates the Disability Awareness Month and assigns the first week Mental Illness Awareness Week.  Many Washington mental health consumers are totally unaware of the 40-year movement known as the Consumers/Expatients/Survivors Movement understandably so because of the oppressive views our society.  I want our community to know of this movement in hopes to open discussions and dialogue of cross issues of movements collaboration on important issues of our times.

For the May issue I have submitted three separate articles. The first, “Crossroads to change campaign”, concerns the Mental Health Awareness Month.  The second article, which I have submitted to several websites national and international with Roger Calhoon’s permission, is titled “Exercising my freedom and rights in America today’.  Also in this issue is a reprint of Panagioti Tsolkas’ excellent article, “The Ecology of a Prison Nation” (Earth First!  June-July 2015). These articles show what is happening in our county, our state.

Cross movements of mental health and environmental healthcare reform, prison / jail reform, environmental / climate change, Idle No More, Black Lives Matter, and most importantly protecting Natives’ Movements are connecting, forming partnerships, and joining large social justice movements across our Earth to save us all.

Below is a campaign I started with the help of several local advocates and activists in 2010. I want WIP readers to be aware.  Knowledge, courage, boldness and gumption to merge for collective direct action is what we seek.  But our action with “conviction to let our beliefs move us to action”–FEJ that is needed most to promote and support a sustainable, consistent, on-going, varied actions to make true change toward reform and move society away from the views of the one percent to our collective’s—we are the 99 percent!

Carole Willey, BSW

© 2016

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