Mad Students in the Social Work Classroom? Notes From the Beginnings of an Inquiry

Abstract

In this article, we introduce a pilot project at a Canadian school of social work, a project that asked whether this expressly anti-oppressive school was really open to Mad students (or those with mental health issues). Using principles of community-based participatory research, we interviewed eight students who identified as having had experiences with mental health issues and asked them to speak about their experiences in the classroom. Working with the data, we co-voiced next steps for pedagogy, research, and action around madness and social work.

Keywords:

• anti-oppressive practice
• madness
• education
• community-based participatory research

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the funding support of a seed grant from the Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, and the participation of students in the School of Social Work at Ryerson.

Notes

¹Mad is a political way in which psychiatrized students can take back language that has been used in the past to oppress them (Reid, 2008). For Jennifer, to identify as Mad is to identify as someone who has used mental health services (of all kinds) and come out the other side not “cured” but political and proud of my madness. Mad people see madness not necessarily as a problem that needs treatment and but as a difference to be explored: “I don't need fixing, I need you to fix your attitude towards my difference and support me.”

²Sanism (or mentalism) is the subjugation of people who have received mental health diagnoses or treatment. Like racism, sanism may result in blatant discrimination, but will be most commonly expressed in insults and indignities known as micro-aggressions (see Poole et al., 2012).

³Forming is a way of documenting the moment an individual with a suspected mental health issue comes into contact with the police or the medical system. Under the Mental Health Act in Ontario, there are numerous forms that dictate the terms of an individual's condition and (in)voluntary admission. Some of these forms lead to hospitalization and a police record.

⁴Apart from inviting students who self-identified as having mental health issues, the recruitment process did not include traditional questions about disability, race, class, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. However, some participants offered additional information about identity, including being queer, being physically disabled, or being from a particular cultural background.

⁵As is explained by Siebers (2008), being “out” about one's experiences of oppression—whether linked to identities of race, class, gender, disability, or sexuality—involves pieces of one's identity that are both concealed and difficult to disclose. The safety to be out about one's mental health experiences is interconnected with the practices and experiences of discrimination in the surrounding environment.

⁶We discussed various ways to position participants in the text without identifying them. For this article, we have followed mental health researcher Nick Crossley (2004) and given participants a number based on when they were interviewed.