By Lilith Finkler

This month, psychiatric consumer / survivors around the world celebrate Mad Pride. What began in downtown Toronto in 1993, is now an international phenomenon. I am proud to belong to the original group of psychiatric survivor organizers.

Mad Pride is certainly a public celebration. It is a time to share our talents, inspire creativity and co-operation. Mad Pride is also a time to link psychiatric survivor activism to other movements for social justice. For example, Pride Day originated in Parkdale, partly as a response to the lack of affordable housing and crowded, hazardous living conditions in many boarding homes. The keynote speaker that first year was Ron Wilson, a boarding home tenant who testified against his operator at a public hearing. Ultimately, the boarding home was closed and Ron moved to a better place. Psychiatric survivors certainly have good reasons to consider affordable housing.

People living in poverty also demand improved living conditions. Affordable and accessible housing is a key social determinant of health. Some psychiatric survivors may need medication to stay healthy. BUT medication is not enough. We need quality housing too. When psychiatric survivors march along Queen Street and demand clean places to live, we can invite poor people's groups and tenants' associations to march with us. Mad Pride has helped psychiatric survivors to feel strong and united. Working together in groups means we can accomplish things we might not be able to do alone. Many of us used to rely on psychiatrists or social workers. Now, we know we can also rely on one another. Experiences of solidarity reinforce the idea that psychiatric survivors constitute a community, a group with a common identity and set of values. As we become more solid in who we are, we can reach out to members of other communities so we can be stronger still.

For example, we can work with Black organizations to address community policing, since both our communities have suffered in the criminal justice system. We can reach out to members of the blind community since some psychiatric survivors have blurred vision and need an alternative to print communication. We can build alliances with immigrant advocates. Some applicants are declared medically inadmissible to Canada. Similarly, if our psychiatric history is known, we may be refused entry into other countries we wish to visit.

The women's movement has long demanded that women have the right to control our own bodies. Psychiatric survivors can mention this feminist demand when we oppose forced medical treatment. Members of First Nations and physically disabled persons share a history of institutionalization in residential schools. These groups are likely to be sympathetic to the psychiatric survivor demand for control over our own living spaces. The psychiatric survivor movement, in turn, can support First Nations demands for cultural and political sovereignty. We can be allies to gays and lesbians as their pride day offered a model upon which we could build when organizing the first Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day.

There are many links between the psychiatric survivor liberation movement and other movements for social change. When we march for justice for ourselves, we can link our experiences to those of others who are also oppressed, put down by society. As we become effective allies, we can build a stronger, more cohesive community committed to the liberation of all people.