{"content":[{"text":"Ronald Bassman, PhD \n Executive director, MindFreedom International \n Board member, Disability Rights International \n United States \n Because of my own past diagnosis of schizophrenia, my \n treatments with insulin comas, electroshock, massive doses of \n Thorazine and Stelazine, I have spent much of my life trying to \n understand troubled and untroubled altered states, many of which are \n called madness. I have wondered how we can support the \n disempowered marginalized among us who must deal with ableism, \n sanism and various misconceptions about disability. Many of us have \n painfully learned that once you are perceived as not adhering to the \n appearance, actions and roles associated with being normal, you are a \n prime candidate to be captured by a purportedly benevolent health \n system. Too quickly we learn that being in an institution can cost us the \n loss of our personal agency.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.093965,"width":0.757497,"height":0.36644}},{"text":"The highly disproportionate amount of Illness and deaths from \n Covid in congregate settings shines a light on how institutions cause \n people to lose their value. For the residents, learned helplessness is \n central to their survival. Institutions stifle a person’s development, \n break the spirit, and work against having access to our natural \n resilience.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.489495,"width":0.723531,"height":0.14351099999999994}},{"text":"In the United States and in most countries around the world, \n when someone is hurting emotionally, is confused about life, feels \n trapped and alone, it is likely that she or he will be confined to a \n psychiatric institution and forcibly drugged. Removing a person from \n her or his community is not helpful, ultimately resulting in more harm \n than good. And with Children who are our most vulnerable and in the \n process of developing into who they can become, the damage of living \n in an institution is profound. The isolation from the life of community \n that is in the ethos of congregate living is anathema to a quality life.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.662096,"width":0.7483069999999999,"height":0.21760800000000002}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}