All successful social change movements in the United States have contained three groups of people: activists, whose own experiences of oppression make them passionate about bringing about social change; lawyers, who use the law to make society respect people’s rights; and storytellers, who carry the meaning of the social movement to the wider population.
These were the opening remarks of John Jones, president of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA) to their annual conference (www.narpa.org), which this year was held in Hartford. Mr Jones encouraged us to think about these three groups of people in terms of the social movement to increase the rights, and power status, of people who have psychiatric diagnoses.
Alternative Routes to Mental Health Recovery 