History of the Consumer Movement

Can, the subject of my documentary, has been active in the consumer movement, which is something I was not familiar with until I started shooting this film. He is among the very few Asian Americans are involved in this flourishing social and political effort started by former psychiatric patients whose experiences with the mental health system were less than favorable. There is a growing National Network of Consumer/Survivor groups. Some of them are the National Empowerment Center (http://www.power2u.org). Though there is stigma in the Euro-American community, there tens of thousands of Caucasian American consumers who are open about their psychiatric histories and experiences as mental patients. In contrast, there are probably about less than 10 Asian Americans out of about 7 million Asian Americans who are active in the consumer movement, a disproportionately low number. Because the lifetime prevalence rate of mental illness which is 47% in the general population is the same among Asian Americans, approximately half of the 14 million Asian Americans has, had or will have a mental illness in their lifetime. This is one area that Asian Americans are grossly underrepresented and underserved. The low numbers of Asian Americans utilizing mental health services and appearing in patient populations reinforce the model minority myth that Asian Americans are usually socio-economically mobile and do not have mental illnesses, which we know to be false.

Because of the lack of Asian American mental health advocates who are engaged in policy-making efforts, there are a lack of state and federal resources going to services for Asian Americans. In many states and in our Federal government, mental health policies are shaped and formed with input from consumers as well as professionals.

From the website of the National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer Survivor Organizations (nsmhcso.org): "NCMHCSO was built on the foundation laid by the courageous work of those who started the mental health consumer/survivor movement in the early 1970’s. Those early
leaders were people with diagnoses of mental illness, who were inspired by people who
were finding strength, courage and power by joining together to work for human and civil
rights."

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the consumer movement:

There is a growing movement throughout the United States (and the world) of people calling themselves consumers, survivors, or ex-patients--who have been diagnosed with mental disorders and are working together to make change in the mental health system and in society. The consumer movement grew out of the idea that individuals who have experienced similar problems, life situations, or crises can effectively provide support to one another. According Sally Clay, one of the leaders of this movement, The Consumer/Survivor Communities began 25 years ago with the anti-psychiatry movement. In the 1980's, ex-mental patients began to organize drop-in centers, artistic endeavors, and businesses. Now hundreds of such groups are flourishing throughout the country. Our conferences (many sponsored by NIMH) have been attended by thousands of people. More and more, consumers participate in the rest of the mental health system as members of policy-making boards and agencies. When it began, there was an initial hostility toward the mental health system, but the consumer movement has evolved into a recovery model that encompasses everyone involved in caring for people with mental disorders.
From around the country, people who had been in treatment for schizophrenia and other forms of serious mental illness began coming out of the shadows and identifying ourselves. We were no longer willing to remain hiding, quietly suffering the ridicule and hostility that too often characterize people's reactions to serious mental illness. Slowly, we began to organize, forming local, state, and then national organizations for recovering persons and our allies. We advocated, trying to regain our rights as human beings. For the most part, the more articulate consumer-advocates felt that professionals, who so readily dismissed our point-of-view when we had been patients, were not to be trusted. Many of us felt we could make it "on our own." And why not? All of us had been diagnosed with having serious mental illnesses...About twelve years ago, however, some consumer-advocates began to suggest that many of us, particularly those who were most disabled, could not so easily make it "on our own."We suggested that most of us did indeed need other people: family members, friends, and often the help of experienced mental health professionals.Frederick J. Frese The importance of the consumer movement has been recognized and documented by mainstream mental health, such as in the Surgeon General's Report.