Decarcerating Care: Beyond Mandated Reporting

We are ...a community of mental health workers, clinicians, psychiatrists, current and prior users of mental health services, advocates, artists, and survivors of trauma and adversity, who are interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation.

Institute for the Development of Human Arts

Exploring how legal mandates inform mental health care, sharing strategies to
navigate carceral systems and provide non-coercive care

<h2>About the Series</h2>IDHA organized our first-ever <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/decarcerating-care" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/decarcerating-care" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Decarcerating Care</a> conversation in September 2020, in the midst of ongoing racial uprisings in the United States and globally. As abolitionists and organizers called to divest funding from the police and some advocated for reallocation to mental health care, IDHA sought to draw attention to the ways in which the mental health care system maintains white supremacist, racial hierarchies and operates on logics of surveillance, coercion, and control. In the two and a half years since, IDHA’s six panels have reached more than 14,000 people with urgent dialogue about alternatives to policing that are rooted in the lived experience of mental health service users and survivors, movement leaders, and disabled community members.We have thus far explored: the importance of <a href="https://youtu.be/q5O2kpQcyxs" title="https://youtu.be/q5O2kpQcyxs" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">taking policing out of mental health crisis response</a>; the ways in which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=149s&amp;v=EvlUjRirxFo" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=149s&amp;v=EvlUjRirxFo" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">“reforms” uphold the ongoing coercion of marginalized communities</a>; concrete steps and tools for <a href="https://youtu.be/zEgKF8xSJBI" title="https://youtu.be/zEgKF8xSJBI" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">decarcerating one's practice</a>; how to build <a href="https://youtu.be/KxdHhYcCEc4" title="https://youtu.be/KxdHhYcCEc4" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">community-based healing alternatives</a>; how <a href="https://youtu.be/fnb4QPjQwmE" title="https://youtu.be/fnb4QPjQwmE" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">systems of surveillance intersect</a> with mental health and disability; the ways in which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-psB9swtZM&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;ab_channel=InstitutefortheDevelopmentofHumanArts" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-psB9swtZM&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;ab_channel=InstitutefortheDevelopmentofHumanArts" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">institutionalization operates as a tool of social control</a>; and how the <a href="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2024/4/25/decarcerating-care-the-pathologizing-of-resistance" title="https://www.idha-nyc.org/events/2024/4/25/decarcerating-care-the-pathologizing-of-resistance" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">mental health industrial complex pathologizes acts of resistance</a>.<h2>About the Event</h2>The mental health and legal systems are intimately intertwined. For example, mental health practitioners and others are guided by legal mandates and/or workplace policies that may require them to report threats of harm to state actors. These mandates go by different names (e.g. mandated reporting, duty to warn, and duty to protect), and vary greatly by state. There is often a great deal of confusion about what these terms mean and what these policies look like in practice; as a result, many mandated reporters are compelled to overreport anything they think may be violence, harm, or abuse. The consequences are dire: these legal mandates erode the fundamental rights of those receiving services, decrease connection and trust, and are proven to make those seeking help less safe by forcing them into systems that aren’t designed to help them. People with marginalized identities are disproportionately impacted by these practices, particularly Black and Indigenous people of color, queer and trans folks, and disabled community members.On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, IDHA will continue the conversation with Decarcerating Care: Beyond Mandated Reporting. This eighth installment will delve into the nuances of how legal mandates operate in mental health care, and how “protective measures” can function to maintain entanglement with carceral systems. We will explore the complex terrain that care practitioners navigate, caught between ethical obligations and legal mandates, and the challenges to provide compassionate and non-coercive care while being deployed as an agent of the state. A panel of practitioners, individuals with lived experience, activists, and policy experts will offer diverse perspectives on how to navigate and resist the pressures of legal mandates in mental health, and how to practice in ways that prioritize autonomy, healing, and liberation. The discussion will focus on concrete tools and actionable approaches that center autonomy and are rooted in grassroots policy analysis.After registering via Eventbrite, you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to dial into the Zoom webinar. We will also send you a reminder email the day of the event.DonationsIDHA is a small organization that strives to meet the accessibility needs of our community to the best of our ability. Our events are by tiered suggested donation to ensure we can provide closed captions on our events and other programs, though we strive to never turn anyone away. The suggested donation for this event is $10, and we appreciate donations of any size for those who have capacity to give.AccessASL + CART will be provided in Zoom. If we reach maximum capacity (1,000 people), this webinar will also be broadcast live on IDHA’s Facebook page (note that the Facebook stream will have ASL interpretation visible, but not live captions). The session will be recorded and shared with all registrants. If you have any questions about access, please email us at contact@idha-nyc.org.<h3>Panelists</h3>Caroline Mazel-CarltonCaroline (she/her) has laid her head in a number of places, from Indiana jail cells to Texas psychiatric units, but now enjoys a freer existence as Director of Training for the Wildflower Alliance and member of the Board of Directors of the Hearing Voices Network-USA. Caroline’s passion is centering and exploring the experiences that are often the most silenced, such as suicide, trauma, and non-consensus reality states. Her work with “Alternatives to Suicide” and the Hearing Voices Network has been featured in a number popular media outlets such as the New York Times, Foreign Policy and O magazine. She has contributed to multiple academic publications on the topic of suicide and one book on her experience skating on a roller derby team as #18 “Mazel Tov Cocktail."Robyn MourningRobyn is a queer, Black biracial, neurodivergent healing steward, soul-artist and liberatory care strategist. Robyn earned a Masters of Science in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling and became a trauma recovery specialist in private practice. She has since retired her clinical practice to devote her healership to transformative &amp; healing justice and abolitionist movement work. As the Founder of Ominira Labs, Robyn aligns with mental health, healing, wellness and cultural care workers to create caring ecosystems that are rooted in community, justice and liberation. Robyn is the host of the podcast, Liberation Labs Radio that engages listeners in the praxis of cultivating liberated healing futures.Nicole NguyenNicole is professor of criminology, law, and justice at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Nicole ethnographically investigates the intersections of national security, war, and the helping professions. This research agenda contributes to, and draws on, grassroots struggles challenging racialized policing, war, and empire, particularly in collaboration with community organizations. She currently is examining how policymakers have coopted the language of trauma-informed care to advance domestic war on terror initiatives through the provision of mental health services.Shannon Perez-DarbyShannon is a core member of the Mandatory Reporting is Not Neutral Project and the founder of Accountable Communities Consortium. With nearly 20 years of experience Shannon centers queer and trans communities of color while working to address issues of domestic and sexual violence, accountability and abolition.Joyce McMillanJoyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, community organizer, educator, and the Founder and Executive Director of Just Making a Change for Families (JMACforFamilies). Joyce’s mission is to remove systemic barriers in communities of color by bringing awareness to the racial disparities in systems where people of color are disproportionately affected. Her ultimate goal is to abolish systems of harm – especially the family policing system (or the so-called “child welfare system”) – while creating concrete community resources. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qJfUqKfuQtzDdsHbcWNEXhYdwLnGsWWt/view" title="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qJfUqKfuQtzDdsHbcWNEXhYdwLnGsWWt/view" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Click here</a> to read Joyce’s full bio.Update as of 11/4: Nikita Rahman was originally listed as a panelist for this event, and is unfortunately no longer able to join us for this conversation.<h3>Moderator</h3>Reeti MangalReeti (she/they) is an undergraduate student at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is studying Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory and is curious about the way power structures shape people's perceptions and subjectivities. She is passionate about fostering a collective critical consciousness and finding alternatives to the biomedical approach to mental health.

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Decarcerating Care: Beyond Mandated Reporting

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