To: Private List
From: "northcoast_com" <starfish@northcoast.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:23:09 -0700
Subject: [CCQS] some animals are more equal
Hi
Orwell (Animal Farm) had it that "some animals are more equal than others." DMH has been heard in the corridors describing the client stakeholder involvement in MHSA thus. A similar policy FWIW also obtained during the Network Re-Alignment process 1995 and beyond. It seems to be a pragmatic expression of how behavioral management policy is to be embraced.
Martin Luther King, Jr. calls for the reorganization of "behavioral science" so that "creative maladjustment" will be fostered based on the values of "freedom and dignity." [I put a
link to his 1967 speech on the list website.] Our movement has a long history with "freedom" including the CNMHC focus on the advocacy for "choice." However we are less advanced in the area of "dignity" so that "some animals" which is the going system alternative still has a lot of play.CCQS was set up by arrangement between some advocates for Social Accountability and the CNMHC. Choice [yes!] but "Quality Services" (QS) too. The QS is in the direction of the advocacy for "dignity." That advocacy has had only a limited play on this list, even though the list moderation has been *quite sensitive* to this concern.
Today the Network's direction is shifting and (hopefully, presumably) maturing. There is a growing concern to put the "quality services"/"creative maladjustment" thing 'on the table'. This list should not remain stuck on the accommodation between "choice" and QS that it started with. Rather it is challenged to restructure itself in order to interact more effectively with the direction towards "dignity."
Andrew Phelps
who helped to organize the original arrangement for this list