COMMENTARY | Rethinking Psychiatry to host Dr. Karen Hixson Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. for an event accessible virtually or by phone
Dr. Karen Hixson will offer a radical mental health perspective in her talk, “Our Collective Mental Health During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” at Rethinking Psychiatry’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 6, from 7 to 9 p.m. Due to the current pandemic, you can join this meeting online or by phone, but not in person.
Hixson is a mental health provider in Portland, Ore. She believes that mental health is not just an issue of personal responsibility, and that mental health care needs to use a social justice and anti-oppression lens in order to avoid replicating harmful power dynamics. Instead, Hixson believes it should be a vehicle for individual and collective liberation. She is a founding member of Empathy Riot!, an organization of mental health providers that shares these values.
The current pandemic has exposed and worsened many inequities in our system. It has confirmed what many have been saying for years — that our capitalist system and American emphasis on individualism have failed us and put our whole world in danger.
Marginalized people have certainly been disproportionately affected, while some people in positions of power are profiting off others’ misery. Despite these glaring inequalities, the pandemic has negatively affected everyone in some way.
Many people report feeling overwhelmed and demoralized in this time. Some say the pandemic is making long-standing mental health challenges worse and triggering past personal and historical traumas, even ones that don’t seem related to the current situation. Others experience feeling more lonely and disconnected than ever, unable to access needed services, cut off from their usual social outlets, or out of work and facing economic stress of unknown dimensions. Some people are terrified, others are outraged, and most are overwhelmed by the complexity and uncertainty of the situation. All of these feelings are normal and understandable reactions.
Rethinking Psychiatry offers this event because of what a difficult situation this is. Hixson will facilitate an interactive discussion on how to manage this struggle with harm reduction techniques and radical mental health perspectives in mind. She will talk about ways to meet ourselves where we’re at, rather than feel pressured to perform productivity and wellness. And, we will discuss ways to ground ourselves in our values and practices of mutual aid to support our collective well-being in this challenging time.
Rethinking Psychiatry is a grassroots, volunteer organization that is part of a larger movement working to promote healing and choices in and beyond our mental health care system. Rethinking Psychiatry is based in Portland and has been around for nearly a decade. We host monthly events (September through June) on various mental health topics, with guest speakers who share our values of rethinking psychiatry, creating community, educating and activating for choices. We believe in questioning the dominant paradigm of mental health care, while respecting individuals’ rights to make their own informed choices.
This meeting will be free and open to everyone. We regret that having an online/phone in meeting may be a barrier to some people who do not have internet access or who have limited phone access. We recognize that libraries and other organizations that provide free internet access are currently unavailable. We seek to be as accessible as possible, though the current circumstances make this challenging. We will record the talk and post it online for free.
We hope to see or hear you at our online/phone in meeting from 7 to 9 p.m on Wednesday, May 6, for this empowering discussion.
For more information, and to access the link to the online meeting, visit Rethinking Psychiatry.
For more information about Dr. Karen Hixson and Empathy Riot!, visit her website and Empathy Riot!
Rachel Levy is a social worker in Portland and a core member of Rethinking Psychiatry. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at rethinkingpsychitary@gmail.com.
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