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I REALLY NEED YOUR INPUT with this..please.ALL

Posted by Jay-Bravest_Face on February 20, 2008, at 22:43:45

Okay, this is kinda long, so please stay with me. :-) After feeling so well for the past while, and applying for jobs and not getting them because I didnt quite have the exact education or experience, I am going back to university. (This post is about a ton of things as you will see, so I didnt post it on the students board.)
Hopefully I will get into the program..lolI should..actually Ive been told Id have no problem getting in. I already have a degree in social work, but need better specialization.
This would only take less then two years of part-time study. Its a major in Disability Studies. I have worked mostly in this field for the past 20 years, with people who have developmental, mental health, and what they call dual-diagnosis disabilities.

One bit of my concern, though, is the political nature of the course content, and my personal beliefs. I recently had a chance to dive right into the program content, go through course outlines, see what kind of research they where doing, etc. One, is that they refer to mental health consumers as survivors, and seem to have an anti-psychiatry slant
to a fair bit of their material. It seems like they believe we are still in this 60s mentality where they took mentally ill people and locked them in a padded room, constantly fed them thorazine or Haldol, and gave them constant shock treatment. But, maybe my addition will be good. Maybe it will challenge me to go in there and say my bit, present my research to the contrary, especially as a mental health consumer myself. Someone who has taken many, many medications, and found some that worked well enough to bring me able to go back to university and hold down a full-time job at 38 years old.

The second issue I have is around a more complicated area. It involves those with both physical and to an extent, developmental disabilities. There is some very strong opposition from some leaders in these communities to certain medical and scientific practices. One of them is around stem cell and genetic manipulation research. Basically, they feel just leave us alone and accept us, when scientists are looking into possible genetic cures (or some variation) on everything from cerebral palsy to autism and developmental handicaps (aka retardation). Myself, I am appalled by this opposition, and have such deep faith in science, and in absolutely awe-inspiring tools like stem cell research. We should be so lucky to have gifted scientists who discovered and conduct such research.

It seems to me, the argument from the disability community (or some leaders in it) is that accept us as we areperiod. Yes, I agree with that, no problem. But, if they had these kind of stem cell cures for mental illness, and we said leave us alone, wouldnt it be a slap in the face to all of the hardship we place on our families, and hence our community, our medical service, etc? Do people with physical disabilities not have an obligation, if the opportunity arises, to lose the chains of their disability, and give a bit more then they previously where not able to society? I know that sounds a bit cold, but I dont think asking very much at all. Id like to hope not that some people dont like the simple idea of identifying with their label as disabled. I personally certainly dont.

The final issue is around euthanasia. (wow..we are not getting heavy here, eh?..heh..lol.) I dont see these issues as black and white. In regards to abortion, I have personal experience in losing a child, (not to abortion of course) but I can still be objective. So, their belief around euthanasia is that even if a person is suffering terribly from a disability, everything in the world should be done to make them live a long, long life. By terrible disability, I mean one that puts a person in deep physical anguish and pain. They even refer to a website they have, called Im not dead yet. Personally, I think it is cruel to force somebody to have to live with such pain. I had a friend who odd on heroin and was in a coma, no signs of coming out after two weeks on life support, and his family made the collective decision to take him off it. I know, it is a personally touchy issue, but I dont like how people who believe in rational euthanasia are put-down and called names. It truly hurts.

AnyhowId really love some input. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Best,
Jay


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poster:Jay-Bravest_Face thread:813834
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