Lived experience narratives as social justice
AAS Conference, April 28th 2017, 2:45 PM
Authors: Vega, Bryan, Collins, Spencer-Thomas
Summary |
Authors (Twitter) |
- Contact with someone with lived experience has best chance of addressing stigma
- Skilled speakers with lived experience of suicide attempts and loss, we can challenge stigma and silence
- Becoming a change agent
- from a purely private life of safety and low responsibility for others
- into blended life mixing personal passion and the public domain
- start with a period of reflection on the opportunities and potential consequences
- messaging guidelines to constructively inspire others
- advocates that are most successful find ways to integrate the suicide topics into everyday conversations
- think creatively about how to bring the issues into their classrooms, workplaces, and faith communities
- present to local community groups, organize town hall meetings and write letters to the editors
- educating elected officials, collaborating with the media, testifying at public hearings and organizing community rallies
- empower those who have suffered to publicly embrace their full identity
- going public with a personal story about suicide also carries risks:
- realities of backlash are tangible
- people may gossip and potentially try to discredit the messenger
- shift the blame from the sources of distress to the victims themselves
- develop new stories over the lifecycle of their suicide prevention engagement
- people recently affected by suicide
- people ready to start sharing their story
- change agents experiencing burnout and fatigue
- veterans ready to pass the torch onto the next generation
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Eduardo Vega
(@evega_mhdignity) |
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Heidi Bryan
(@heidibryan) |
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Stan Collins |
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Sally Spencer-Thomas
(@sspencerthomas) |
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Twitter commentary