We are sharing this report, written by SRN member, Pauline Alexander, of an online conference organised by US based The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis: ISPS-US 2025 Annual Conference: Bridging the Divides.
ISPS Conference Chicago 2025
I attended this conference online Saturday, November 8th. The two presentations that interested me were Psychosis and Race with speakers Jonathon Metzl and Candice Nunn Telfort.
They were presenting about how, historically, it was women who were locked away in asylums with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 50 years on, the assumption that most diagnosed with schizophrenia were Black violent men.
If you look at the statistics, this is not a true picture.
Typically, those diagnosed with schizophrenia who do not leave their homes, who are more likely to be victims of violence rather than inflict are invisible so are therefore invisible.
I have a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, but the first part of the phrase is heard and noted when someone with a mental illness commits a murder. The facts are that many more ‘normal folk’ will kill.
My thought on this were why and who becomes invisible.
The phrase ‘The louder you shout, the more people will hear’ resonates in my mind.
The other presentation was Navigating the Role of Peers within systems by Carina Iati and Jeannie Bass.
They discussed alternative ways of treatment that were more humane than incarceration and forced or coerced medication.
The conclusion was that professionals were not ready to accept lived experience as a credible source of knowledge. They discussed the hierarchy of medicine and the structural barriers within the system.
They have co-produced a book, available next year to help professionals to consider their bias and work with those with Lived experience.
This was the most impressive as the presenters were not against professionals but willing to collaborate with them to better patient experience.
By now it was late and my eyes were popping out of their sockets, so I made my way to bed.
Pauline Alexander
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