Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart
The American mental health system is broken beyond repair. Rather than trying to tweak a system which fails everyone, it is time to commit to a bold vision for a better way forward. This podcast explores the American system against the plumb line of an international best practice, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), in Trieste, Italy. The 40-year old Trieste model demonstrates how a community-based treatment system upholds the human rights of the people served. The Trieste story is anti-institutional and models the therapeutic value of social connection. Topics will address contemporary challenges in the American failed mental health system as contrasted with the Italian approach toward accoglienza – or radical hospitality – as the underpinning of their remarkable culture of caring for people. Interviews will touch upon how the guiding principles of the Italian system – social recovery, whole person care, system accountability, and the human right to a purposeful life – are non-negotiable aspects if we are to have any hope of forging a new way forward in our American mental health system. This podcast is curated and hosted by Kerry Morrison, founder and project director of Heart Forward LA (https://www.heartforwardla.org/). Heart Forward is collaborating with Aaron Stern at Verdugo Sound as the technical partner in producing this podcast (https://www.verdugosound.com). Kerry Morrison is also the author of the blog www.accoglienza.us.
Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart
Unglamourous expertise: Recovery from acute psychosis to reflections on system change. A conversation with Lee Davis, Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board
Lee Davis is currently the chair of the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board. In her official bio, she indicates that she is a Civil Engineer and Journeyman Electrician by profession. She comes to her work on the Advisory Board as a woman with lived experience of a mood disorder.
In this interview, we explore three themes about which Lee is passionate:
1. The case for involuntary treatment
2. The lack of capacity in our so-called continuum of care
3. Her assertion that the failure to invest in the requisite infrastructure to treat people and promote their recovery is morally wrong and socially debilitating
In addition, we explore Lee’s extraordinary life journey, about which she writes with remarkable vulnerability in her blogs.
Being Bipolar. Maybe it is my unisex name. Maybe it is… | by Lee Andrea Davis | Medium
Other organizations she references in this interview:
Alameda County Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill
Articles about the February 2022 sleep-in organized by FASMI with which Lee was involved.
Oakland: Protesters sleep on sidewalk, demand mental health care (mercurynews.com)
Link to the annual report for the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board