Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

Housing, Community Involvement, & Schizophrenia

'My presence wasn't always welcome'

Lilith Finkler, is a Dalhousie University planner, who was recently given the "prestigious Trudeau Foundation Award to fund her doctoral research into opposition to group homes for people with mental illness." At the age of 17, Finkler was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And as a result, she spent time in two different psychiatric facilities. Finkler thinks that there's a misconception about the psychiatrically disabled population. For example, she states that, "there's an assumption that people with psychiatric disabilities are more violent than other people...But that (this has) never actually been proven in any sort of study...In fact, it's the opposite. People who have psychiatric disabilities are much more likely to be the victims of violence because they're so heavily drugged that they can't respond."

Such misconceptions have harmful effects. The psychiatrically disabled are often outcasts of the community, residing only in psychiatric facilities. Research has shown that (in developing countries) the deep involvement people suffering from schizophrenia and similar disorders have with their communities seems to have positive effects on both the quality of their life and their ability to manage their disabilities:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/001993.html

However, according to Finkler, opposing group homes for the psychiatrically disabled also poses some problems:

Opposing group homes for the mentally ill could shunt them out of a city entirely. "This is the really painful thing," she said. "If you oppose the development of a residence in one particular area, the people who are sponsoring it might not have money to go anywhere else."

Source:
http://www.hfxnews.com/