Wednesday, March 2nd @ 6:30 PM
This event will consist of a screening of “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum”, followed by a discussion. The film covers the founding, running, and eventual co-optation of the Mental Patients’ Association (MPA). Ideally, the film will facilitate critical comparisons between the MPA and the current climate of service organizations in Vancouver, and explore the possibilities for bottom-up organizing around issues of mental health care.
Vancouver’s MPA was formed in 1970-1971 as a grassroots response to de-institionalization and tragic gaps in community mental health. Inverting traditional mental health hierarchies, the group put former patients and sympathetic lay supporters in charge. MPA provided homes, work and a sense of belonging and self-determination to ex-patients.
38 Blood Alley Square 