#CripTheVote Chat: Mental Health, Ableism, & Elected Officials

#CripTheVote Twitter Chat

Mental Health, Ableism, & Elected Officials

Sunday, December 3, 2017

4 PM Pacific / 7 PM Eastern

The co-partners of #CripTheVote, Gregg Beratan, Andrew Pulrang, and Alice Wong, are thrilled to have guest hosts Dior Vargas and Dustin Gibson join us for a discussion on mental health, ableism, and elected officials.

How to Participate

Follow @GreggBeratan @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @NotThreeFifths @DiorVargas

When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can follow along in real time here: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote

If you might be overwhelmed by the volume of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @DisVisibility’s account. Each question will tweeted 5-6 minutes apart.

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a Twitter chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc
https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets and Questions

Welcome to the #CripTheVote chat on mental health, ableism, and elected officials. We are excited to have guest hosts @NotThreeFifths @DiorVargas with us today! Our chat will be 75 minutes to give enough time for all our questions.

Please remember to use the #CripTheVote hashtag when you tweet. FYI: ableist language and mental health will be part of the conversation so please practice self-care if you become distressed.

If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #CripTheVote”

Q1 Community check-in. What a week (actually, what a year). How are you doing, especially in light of the recent vote by the Senate on the tax bill? #CripTheVote #TaxOnDisability

Q2 How do you define ableism? What are some examples of ableism in politics, including media coverage and conversations by and about elected officials? #CripTheVote

Q3 When people casually use ableist language such as ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’ to describe the current political climate or the behavior of politicians, why is this harmful to the disability community, especially people with mental health disabilities? How does this impact POC differently? #CripTheVote

On a similar note, check out this great article from @NOSeditorial by Ivanova Smith on intellectual disabilities & ableist insults/slurs: http://nosmag.org/stop-using-intellectual-disability-as-an-insult-trump/ #CripTheVote

Q4 Ableism is a anti-Black construct. What are some of the ways ableism and racism intersect and how can we confront ableism without being racist?

For more information, check out @talilalewis’s article on ableist language: https://medium.com/@talewis/disability-aint-for-ya-dozens-or-demons-10-ableist-phrases-black-folks-should-retire-d9f8483076e9 #CripTheVote

Q5 There is a lot of frustration and anger with the Administration and in particular the behavior & actions of the President. What are some constructive ways of resisting & protesting that aren’t ableist? #CripTheVote

Q6 Recently, 27 mental health professionals & psychiatrists published a book about the dangers of Trump. What's your reaction to these types of 'warnings' to the public? https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/diagnosing-donald-trump #CripTheVote

Q7 The Goldwater rule is the informal name of a rule by the APA that psychiatrists should not give professional opinions on the state of people they have not evaluated. Why is this rule important? Is there ever a time it should be breached? #CripTheVote  https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/03/apa-remains-committed-to-supporting-goldwater-rule

Q8 How does this type of public speculation and armchair diagnoses impact elected officials with mental health disabilities and other people with disabilities who may want to go into public service? #CripTheVote

Q9 The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is relied upon to provide common language for diagnostics. Is this a tool that we should be using? If not, why is problematic? #CripTheVote

Q10 How will legislation like the 21st Century Cures Act affect our community? What do laws like this tell us about politicians’ understanding of #MentalHealth & #Disability?  #CripTheVote

For more on the Act and the Murphy bill (which was folded into the Act): https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/wins-loses-21st-century-cures-act

http://autisticadvocacy.org/2016/03/asan-joins-letter-opposing-harmful-mental-health-bill/

This concludes the #CripTheVote chat on mental health, ableism, & elected officials. Thank you to our guest hosts @NotThreeFifths @DiorVargas!

Please keep the convo going. A Storify of this #CripTheVote chat will be up shortly.

You can find updates & info about our future chats here: http://cripthevote.blogspot.com/ Our next #CripTheVote will be on 1/21/18 about chronic pain & opioids with guest hosts @msdeonb & @alexhaagaard. Thanks again!

November 12, 2017 Twitter Chat: One Year Later

#CripTheVote Chat: One Year Later

#CripTheVote Chat: One Year Later

Sunday, November 12, 2017 - 7:00 PM Eastern

It has been a year and a few days since Election Day 2016. It’s probably safe to say that regardless of your political beliefs, the day’s outcome was a surprise to most of us. It’s also not too much of an ideological stretch to say that the year since has been fractious, disruptive, disturbing, and for many, including disabled people, frightening and threatening.

In this chat we want to give everyone a chance to look back at what their hopes and goals were regarding disability issues and culture before the Election … and also reflect on how they have changed or remained the same since then. Let’s vent, debrief, and support one another. Let’s also try to take a clear-eyed look at what’s actually happening, and discuss how to move forward into the second year of the Trump Administration, and all that comes with it.

How to Participate

Follow @AndrewPulrang @DisVisibility @GreggBeratan.

When it’s time, search #CripTheVote on Twitter for the series of live tweets under the ‘Latest’ tab for the full conversation.

If you don’t use Twitter, you can follow along in real time here: http://twubs.com/CripTheVote

If you are overwhelmed by the volume of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check the @DisVisibility account. Each question will tweeted there 5-6 minutes apart.

Check out this explanation of how to participate in a Twitter chat by Ruti Regan: https://storify.com/RutiRegan/examplechat

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc - https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Questions for the “One Year Later” Chat:

Q1: Community check in: How are you doing, one year after the 2016 Election Day?

Q2: How do you feel about the results from the election in various states this week? If you voted, how did it go and why did you vote? #CripTheVote

Q3: A year ago, what disability issues were you hoping would be on the agenda after Election Day? #CripTheVote

Q4: Which events or trends in politics in the last year surprised, concerned, or frightened you? #CripTheVote

Q5: Has your interest and activism changed this past year? If so, in what ways? What are you doing differently in your activism? #CripTheVote

Q6: In your view, what will be the top 3 disability-related issues for the next three years? #CripTheVote

Q7: What are you planning to do in the runup to the Midterm Elections on November 6, 2018? #CripTheVote

Q8: Why is it important to vote and become politically engaged during midterm elections? #CripTheVote