Origins Of TCI-Asia

"As people with psychosocial disabilities in interaction with existing social and political systems, we are at cross roads. What is our political identity, is it as a ‘user / survivor of psychiatry’, a ‘person with psychosocial disability’, or both? Do we go to health department or to disability department, or both, but taking which issue where? We aspire to be led by the framework of CRPD, but is Article 12 more relevant in our context, or Article 19, and do we have to prioritise on this? Contrary to popular worldwide faith, there are many countries in our region which do not have a mental health legislation. Our countries also do not have services, and we are at cross roads here also: which way to go, towards law, or towards policy, or both? Towards institutions, towards community development? How do we relate to the broader mental health agenda? Do we, rather, drop that agenda, and enter the Development agenda? We lack a vision for a robust social model; what to substitute a regime of force, with; and what are the alternatives. Are there CRPD compliant practices in Asia? Are there common concerns in the global south?

The international cooperation agencies such as WHO promote what they think is best, often based on existing legislation and policies in OECD countries and emerging economies, with all-encompassing mental health values, policies and practices system led by health professionals and authorities. While there are been some opening towards users group and how to adapt these systems to take into consideration the CRPD, they are far from compliant and still promote practices that can be highly detrimental to rights of persons with disabilities. The user survivor movement has been led by OECD countries, and voices from the global south are inaudible.

And finally, we have the big question of being able to participate fully and effectively to represent our interests within the larger disability advocacy scenario. In many countries this implies careful but steady efforts to stimulate the emergence and capacity building of self-help and advocacy groups of persons with psycho social disabilities."

With these concerns, the Bapu Trust for Research on Mind and Discourse, Pune (www.baputrust.com) started to anchor and support, at first, peer exchanges, and then, the regional movement, ‘Transforming Communities for Inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities, Asia’ since 2012. The vision of the movement, led by persons with psychosocial disabilities is broad, including-