Members of the Radios Desate of the Hospital Braulio Moyano Y The Colifata of the José Tiburcio Borda Hospital they associated stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness to “the lack of information in society”, whose “devastating” consequences are counteracted with social spaces that invite “to be part, have a voice and participate”.
? National and World Mental Health Day
Radio Desate and La Colifata ? The voice of the “coliphates” who speak of stigma and misinformation
✍ Maria Clara Olmoshttps://t.co/muNdtIq6cv pic.twitter.com/MqcQLH6sAQ
—Telam Agency (@TelamAgency) October 10, 2022
Gathered by Télam, and as in their radio projects, the interviewees make the space their own and as “communicators of their struggles” take the opportunity to expand on “the sadness, loneliness, anger and devaluation” that it generates in them the stigma, the importance of spaces where “feel useful and capable” and the role of support networks.
Here are some of the testimonies obtained by Télam:
CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ, 60 years old (Historian and radio worker Desate del Moyano and La Colifata del Borda).
“There is tremendous misinformation about mental health and the Law (26,657) that we have. The media do not clarify the population, they misinform”.
“They think we can’t work, that we can’t study. When I got the externation I thought about continuing my studies and some professionals told me not to. It’s ugly to feel that we are not capable, just because we have a mental illness. (… ) One strives to get ahead, to be included in society and, when we do, we are discriminated against for having had a mental illness (…) We need people to support us and our hope of getting ahead. sense, the radio saved me, it’s my family”.
FERNANDO AQUINO, 51 years old (Worker of the La Colifata radio station).
“We seek to put our face in society so that the stigma and discrimination are less, that they know us, although it seems that there is more and more hatred among people. (…) Now it seems that certain politicians are ‘mentally ill’ ‘, it seems that using a disorder now is a hate word, an insult. It’s all backwards. (…) The thinking that people outside (of the psychiatric hospital) have is not right. They teach us that people who are in a psychiatric hospital it is dangerous and we learn that. There are many people who are still under that perspective. (…) It happens to us all the time: you are talking to someone and you say that you have schizophrenia and it totally changes the attitude, the vision about you for all the assumptions they can make. We are ‘the failed ones,’ we are worthless. (…) The radio fights precisely for that and shows that we are useful people, capable of doing many things. To have mental health, we need to have a job. , friends, a house, containment. We always have to fight twice as hard, because we know that it costs us a little more because of discrimination and stigma, and we always have to show our ability.”
JOSÉ “EL UTÓPICO”, 59 years old.(Host of the program An Ideal World on La Colifata radio).
“The radio is important because with the radio one can show love to others from the confinement in which one is. The radio also makes visible the problems that we usually have. (…) One barrier we have is that they assume that we are not normal, that we cannot love the other, but the radio rescues you, gives you a voice. It helps you a lot to go out, to have an important reason to fight and be better. (…) Many people think that people with mental illness It is dangerous, that they enter a psychiatric hospital and you find horrible things, and nothing is further from reality. Generally we are capable of loving without conditioning more than others who are free. “
JULIUS CAESAR, 49 years old (Artist, writer and worker in the radio La Colifata).
“There are those who say that art heals. I believe that art, and in this case radio, is a tool to provide inclusion, work and gives voice to all of us in the face of stigma and discrimination. I work with colleagues to Through art and in the face of violence against mental illness, we claim other perspectives and make visible that the violent ones in all this are them”.
LEONARDO VILLAFAÑE, 53 years old (Worker at La Colifata radio station).
“At first I thought I wasn’t doing anything good, but when I adapted to La Colifata I realized that I had achieved something in myself and that I really liked talking on the radio, telling things. It’s a nice job. (…) It’s find a kind of family that talks to me, loves me, I feel good there. There are many ugly things, it is important to have people who are kind to us.
