#WhatWENeed is full CRPD Compliance on the inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities.

The #WhatWENeed campaign is a yearly campaign organised and led by TCI Asia Pacific. The campaign aims to collectively articulate the needs of persons with psychosocial disabilities and those with a \’mad\’ identity by providing a platform to voice the needs through a photo campaign, a critical blog space and supporting a collective and unified voice of persons with psychosocial disabilities from the Asia Pacific region.

History of Naming the campaign

After some exchanges with potential partners in Africa and Latin America and based on a spontaneous suggestion by Alberto Vasquez from Peru, #WhatWENeed for the Inclusion of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities was chosen for the campaign and suitable social media identities were created. This was also as a response to the Ministerial Global Mental Health Summit’s #TheWorldNeeds.

Objectives for the campaign

Since TCI Asia Pacific had been exchanging and participating more within the disability movement and did not have an instrument for engaging with the mental health systems around the world except tangentially. TCI believes that the World Mental Health Week needs to be reclaimed and moments created to address actors within that space. Even though regional, it is considered to be an important occasion to bring persons with psychosocial disabilities/users and survivors of psychiatry, supporters and strategic allies together from around the world.

During the World Mental Health Week, the constituency of persons with psychosocial disabilities and their cross disability supporters need to clearly say what they need and amplify the learning they had have – the western model of psychiatry based on coercion and offering little more than medication had been afailure.

The identity differences among regions is covered by a broad definition of persons who could contribute including users and survivors of psychiatry, persons with psychosocial disabilities and those who have self identified as persons with disabilities/persons with mental health problems/or other identities thereof.

TCI is also looking at the campaign to provide opportunity for energizing national advocacy in the Asia Pacific regions with full engagement from the emerging TCI Asia Pacific Fellows leaders and their national partners to strengthen their national advocacy efforts by putting out strong messages of Inclusion within Development.

The campaign challenges the medical model and will always favour full CRPD compliance while leaving it to different countries and contexts to decide their own positions with respect to psychiatric medication.

Links:
A Facebook page called What WE Need.
A Twitter TCI Asia Pacific account.