Mad In America: Science, Psychiatry And Social Justice

This week on MIA Radio, we interview Chris Hansen. Chris started working in New Zealand as an activist after a psychiatric hospitalization 20 years ago.  She has provided advice and media comment locally, regionally and nationally, including work with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission and Ministry of Health.  She was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as working as a board member for the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry.  For the past 12 years, she has worked with Shery Mead developing Intentional Peer Support and is currently in the role of director. In this interview, we talk about Chris’s personal experiences of the mental health system and how Intentional Peer Support approaches contrast with mainstream psychiatry.  In the episode we discuss: How Chris was working in the mental health system, before herself experiencing a psychiatric hospitalization. How she experi