Chris Hansen - Making Connections Through Intentional Peer Support
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2017
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on MIA Radio, we interview Chris Hansen. Chris started working in New Zealand as an activist after a psychiatric hospitalization 20 years ago.
She has provided advice and media comment locally, regionally and nationally, including work with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health.
She was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry.
For the past 12 years, she has worked with Shery Mead developing Intentional Peer Support and is currently in the role of director.
In this interview, we talk about Chris's personal experiences of the mental health system and how Intentional Peer Support approaches contrast with mainstream psychiatry.
In the episode we discuss:
- How Chris was working in the mental health system, before herself experiencing a psychiatric hospitalization.
- How she experienced personal loss during the time that she was hospitalized.
- How Chris found that her experiences led to a realisation that she didn't want to work on the medical side of the mental health system and instead focussed her efforts on peer support.
- That Chris's experiences led to her becoming an activist, working locally, regionally and nationally in advisory and contract positions, including the NZ Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health.
- That peer support gave Chris the hope, the inspiration and the desire to recover from her traumatic experiences of forced hospitalization and treatment with psychiatric drugs.
- How involvement with advocacy for the abolishment of forced treatment led Chris to work with the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry.
- How Intentional Peer Support works to makes connections with and support those who struggle with their mental health.
- How IPS supports and trains a wide range of organisations such as the mental health services, the police and people in the disability sector amongst others.
- How peer support distinguishes itself from mainstream psychiatric or psychological approaches.
- That learning to reconnect with people is vitally important in recovery.
Relevant links:
Intentional Peer Support, a personal perspective by Shery Mead
Intentional Peer Support: Creating Relationships, Creating Change
Intentional Peer Support, upcoming trainings
To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com
© Mad in America 2017
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry and social justice. |
| 0:13.4 | Hello, this is James, and welcome to episode 25 of the Madden America podcast. This week, my guest is Chris Hansen. |
| 0:21.3 | Chris started working in New Zealand as an activist after a psychiatric hospitalisation 20 years ago. |
| 0:27.5 | She has provided advice and media comment locally, regionally and nationally, including work |
| 0:32.8 | with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health. |
| 0:36.0 | She was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons |
| 0:42.5 | with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the world network of users and |
| 0:47.2 | survivors of psychiatry. For the past 12 years, she has worked with Sherry Mead developing |
| 0:52.0 | intentional peer support, and is currently in the role of director. |
| 0:56.1 | In this interview, we talk about Chris's personal experiences of the mental health system |
| 1:00.0 | and how intentional peer support approaches contrast with mainstream psychiatry. |
| 1:05.3 | Chris, welcome. Thank you so much for chatting with me for the Madden America podcast. |
| 1:09.9 | To begin, I wanted to ask about you |
| 1:11.9 | and your own experiences of the mental health system, and then what led you into the peer support |
| 1:16.8 | movement? Well, needless to say, it was my own experience of getting locked up and ending up on the |
| 1:26.4 | sharp end of the needle. |
| 1:28.3 | And what happened for me was that I lost so much. |
| 1:34.9 | It just had such a pivotal effect in my life. |
| 1:40.8 | And a hospitalisation that was just over a month long |
| 1:45.2 | ended up in me losing my job, all my friends, |
| 1:50.4 | I ended up on benefits for a number of years. |
| 1:53.6 | One of my children ended up living with their father. |
... |
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