Phyllis Vine is the author of Fighting for Recovery, An Activists’ History of Mental Health Reform and President of the Board of Directors of Gould Farm in Massachusetts. She will speak at Hopewell’s Exploring Mental Health Series on October 6, at 5:30. The event is being held at Glidden House in University Circle (Cleveland) and will also be zoomed. Visit here for more information.
In Fighting for Recovery, Phyllis Vine reveals how grassroots activists confronted medical authority, entrenched politicians, and the stigma associated with a psychiatric diagnosis while they built alternatives to replace stagnant services. Pointing to their own lived experiences, which included success, achievement, and opportunities, they spread hope through their example. Among the new models of peer services, crisis services, and community support, people with lived experience have opened doors to wellness and well-being.
Phyllis Vine has focused on advocacy, writing and reporting about mental illness throughout her career. With a master’s degree in public health, she taught the history of health care for over two decades to graduate students studying health advocacy. In addition to Fighting for Recovery, she has published three previous books, including Families in Pain, which describes the experiences of families seeking a better life for relatives with mental illness. Her work has appeared in many diverse peer-reviewed journals.
This is a great book for:
A friend or family member of someone with serious psychiatric diagnoses, to understand the history of mental health reform.
A person struggling with their own diagnoses, to learn how other patients have advocated for themselves.
An activist in the peer-services network: social workers, psychologists, and peer counselors, to advocate for change in the treatment of psychiatric patients at the institutional and individual levels.
A policy maker, clinical psychologist, psychiatric resident, or scholar who wants to become familiar with the social histories of mental illness.
