PHOTO/KATHY POWERS
By Kathy Powers, Advocacy is my therapy
CHICAGO, IL — Stigma 101: the mark of disgrace that sets a person apart. To comprehend what this looks like to an observer, picture a middle-aged woman shabbily clad who laughs, cries and talks too loudly to herself outside. What do you think or do? Most people try to avoid her or call the police because they feel unsafe. If you know that woman is there every day, do you choose another route? What if she is your mother?
To understand what it might feel like being this lady, imagine shark music sounding in your personal background constantly, with voices talking to you and events happening around you like a dream. This mixes in with real people looking strangely at you, avoiding you, yelling at you, police arresting you. You don’t know why this happens. You can’t tell what is real. As time passes, the shark music, the real and unreal voices get lurid, violence escalates, on your side and theirs. You end up beaten, robbed, hospitalized, jailed or dead. Repeatedly.
Chicago: Big Mamma: One would think that public health professionals who deal in the treatment of mental illness would understand that a positive, deescalating approach does more good than harm. In Chicago’s Department of Public Health (CDPH), where people do not have private health resources, one realizes that discrediting of persons with mental illness symptoms metaphorically demonstrates the disgrace for mental illness by the image shown. How does Chicago stigmatize its clients? First, it demoralizes its clients by showing them no dignity, voice, nor participation in their treatment plans due to “lack of funding.”
The Lawndale Behavioral Clinic (LBHC) is a perfect metaphor. The signage on LBHC defies the very posture that a treatment center could take. The buildings inaccurate signage, with faded, incorrect, outdated information from at least 2006, and the appearance of “Mental Health Center” purposely whited out, “to protect patient’s privacy,” says Tiosha Goss-Bailey, Deputy Commissioner, Clinical Services.
If only the city of Chicago would stop stigmatizing mental illness by boarding up treatment centers in generally forlorn warehouses like its patients, the fight for mental health justice could begin. A society which provides health care for all its people could begin with a colorful sign that reads: “Mental Health Inside. All Welcome!”
Kathy Powers is a lifetime Chicagoan. At 50, Kathy speaks out as the voice of the people. She became a revolutionary activist whose lifelong fight raises unheard voices. She is the Health Care Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
Terrific article, Kathy, and a very sad picture. It’s up on the Illinois Single-Payer website as well, but it deserves an even wider audience.
Our country’s morals are in the toilet. We’re at the verge of the new Gilded Age, where the mentally ill and poor will be warehoused, locked up in prison or killed by the police who serve the 1%. Rich people “shouldn’t have to be subjected to looking at mental illness or poverty” mentality. Time for a new Storm the Bastille, if you ask me. We’re literally living in an Oligarchy, and it infuriates me.
Thank you for your comment, Kathleen Brophy. I agree with you about the mentality that keeps “undesirables” out of sight. I comfort myself to remember that it’s the 1% who seem to have this attitude, and that 99% of us do not agree.
We may not have the money. We have the passion and commitment to reverse this mindset that mainstream media loves to exploit at-risk persons.
I think that early education and awareness about mental illness is key to changing this. Revolution, Kathleen, Revolution! I won’t shut up about the inequities. I hope you continue to raise your voice, too.
Update: The Lawndale Chicago Mental Health Clinic was finally relocated to 1111 S. Western Ave., Chicago. It’s not exactly in Lawndale; it’s in the Medical District, but it is very close to the old location. Thank goodness!
Update: The Lawndale Chicago Mental Health Clinic was finally relocated to 1111 S. Western Ave., Chicago. It’s not exactly in Lawndale; it’s in the Medical District, but it is very close to the old location. Thank goodness! It’s accessible and clean.