#WhatWENeed in Pakistan - Mainstreaming Disability to Create Inclusion

STEP (Special Talent Exchange Program) was conceived and initiated in Pakistan by persons with disabilities themselves in 1997. As a cross disability organization, STEP is committed to mainstreaming disability in development through empowering individuals and organizations of persons with disabilities as well as sensitizing society about rights based approach. (See their strategic goals.)

Some of their major contributions include (i) creating employment and livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities, (ii) pioneering Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction in Pakistan (iii) introducing Inclusive Education for girls with disabilities in KP (iv) ensuring participation of persons with disabilities in electoral and political processes (v) promoting accessibility of infrastructure, ICT and communications (vi) advocacy and lobbying for the rights based policies, frameworks and legislation at national, regional and international platforms (vii) developing referrals for health and rehabilitation (viii) research and publication (ix) direct support for assistive devices

See here a video created by STEP on #WhatWENeed in Pakistan!

Comments

Is ‘mental health’ contrary to human rights?

Blog contributed by : Tina Minkowitz Founder/President Centre for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry When we go to a doctor’s office we may feel nervous, apprehensive. We worry about test results, we worry about whether a treatment might do more harm than good. We put our trust in the practitioner provisionally and hope she is trustworthy and competent. But ‘mental health’ visits can be something else entirely. Only in ‘mental health’ can a doctor end a consultation by advising your family to have you locked up under the supervision and control of medicalized wardens, where you will be forced to take mind-numbing and mind-disassembling drugs. ‘Mental health’ and social failure ‘Mental health’ diagnoses, especially when consultation is initiated by someone other than the person herself, amount to a stamp of social failure, and set in motion a cascade of events leading to delegitimizatio...

Link between Diet and Mental Health - Role of a Nutritious Diet on Mental Well-Being

The link between diet and health is a well established one. Previous research has shown that there is a well established connection between a diet high on pro-inflammatory foods and depression. The benefits of having a rich, well-balanced diet on our well being and as an additional and alternative form of recovery is widely practiced at the Bapu Trust and is one of the core elements of the Seher program's 8 point framework intervention. Recently on Mad in America in an article titled "Study Explores Connections Between Diet and 'Serious Mental Illnesses'", Bernalyn Ruiz wrote about a recent letter to the editor published in World Psychiatry where data taken from the UN Biobank study highlighted the link between poor diet and severe mental illnesses. The suggestion made by the authors of the letter to the editor was that “further consideration should be given to increasing consumption of nutrient‐dense foods that are known to reduce systemic inflammation.” ...

A Response to the Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development

Blog post contributed by Akriti Mehta More than ten years after the publication of a series of articles published in the Lancet [1] that heralded in the age of global mental health, a report of The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development [2] was released at the Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit [3] in London. It seeks to reframe mental health and place global mental health within the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals [4] suggesting future paths. It is commendable that the leaders of the Movement for Global Mental Health, many of whom have authored this report, acknowledge the importance of social determinants of mental health. The continued opposition to long-term institutionalisation is welcome. Furthermore, the focus on a life course approach is promising. Most importantly, the report stresses the need to move beyond just ‘treatment gaps’ and to recognise the importance of Sustainable Development Goals. ...

#WhatWENeed

Search This Blog