mental health - accountability

     If we are to accept the spiritual premise that "...the meek shall inherit the earth..." we know that they will not be found amongst the arrogant and vain-glorious poseurs who ~ with pomp and bombast ~ assert themselves as leaders but who are, in truth, just power-lust perverts.
     In stark contrast are those brave souls who, oppressed and reviled, call for establishing "new traditions" which offer guidance and direction for how leaders ought to manage themselves. Some may scoff at seeking wisdom from madmen but there are times when wisdom is excoriated, and the wise, are in those times, dismissed as delusional and insane. Such as the times we live in now. It behooves us, therefore, to pay heed and listen to the meek ...and the Mad

from the Accountability Caucus
     The Accountability Caucus is a group of mental health client activists who are working to upgrade the California clients movement by constructing a new tradition based on accountability. We stand for these objectives/principles as our initial talking points:

     1. Constructive activity, not attack politics, based on the recognition that ours arises as a wounded community;
     2. Development of an alternative program for client activism that stresses personal responsibility and competence in meeting the challenges of empowerment;
     3. Specifically, this alternative is a micro-empowerment program, which strengthens client involvement through:
     A. recognizing triggering behavior and upholding suitable ethical standards for such;
     B. fighting discrimination by insisting that people treat us like reasonable beings;
     C. defending the meaningful role of personal sensitivity and empathy; and
     D. opposing an excessively or solely biological approach in favor of a humanistic, spiritual, client-driven model; and
     4. Advocacy against the values of tokenism and in favor of the empowerment values which help us hold to account the oppression of the client culture.

     We believe that clients are persons of quality whose mental health issues and experiences express both talent and personal challenge. We deserve respect based on our capacities, our resilience, our abilities, and our contributions.
     We urge clients who share these principles to join with us and to help re-center client activism in California around the new tradition of accountability. We will organize as a fellowship of involved, reflective, watchful persons seeking serious dialogue with other parts of the clients movement.

---

First posted at Short Notes on 2005 August 24. For More Info: Accountability Caucus, Social Justice, Andrew Phelps' Accountability Writings and Kenneth J. Gergen's Transformation of Identity Politics |