You are LUCKY Johnny that You didn't Spend your Youth having Nervous Breakdowns and Caught by Insanity.   What I am saying and I shall Reiterate is that many of Our Psychiatric Patients are often some of the Brightest and most able of Candidates.  And yet to be diagnosed with a Mental Illness is like your Spirit being put into a Rubbish Bin.  Would it not be an Intelligent move to focus on finding Secure Employment for these people rather than let them naively flounder like a boat with no rudder in Hostile Communities.  Wouldn't it be a far Superior Option and one where Humanity takes a Step forward in the Treatment of the Mentally Ill that We give them a "Train-line" so to Speak.   Groom people for Work and Employ and only then use Medication in the Equation.  I feel I Slipped into an Abyss when I was Diagnosed and the fear was Palpable.  It has been a Nightmare ever since with People Looking Down on me with Judgement ever since.  People NEED to feel a Part of the Community or Anger Breeds in the Shadows.  I am Guilty and a Peace Activist so I can only warn that leaving People to bumble along against the Weight of Stigma is Cruel.  We Breed Dangerous People if we leave people as Train-wrecks at the bottom rung of Society.  We must Act more Constructively and get People into Sheltered Employment or such like and give People HOPE please.

Uenuku Dancers

I look to my Etching and I sometimes Surprise myself.  As I come from Te Awamutu Uenuku, the Guardian of the Rainbow, has Special Significance to me.  Those Years were the Summer of my Life.  

It was such a Privilege to go to the National Party Cuppa.  Still have the Blue Nail Polish on.   They are doing a Good JOB.  Seamless Politics.  Impressive

Billboard Vision 1980

Thankfully I'm Alive
My Uncle Milton
Reminds me
That I Should 
Thank God
For every Day
That I
Should
Be Proud
For I had a Son
It would be So nice
To form a Trust
called after Mervyn Hope Campbell
Called the Hope Foundation??
Whereby
Newly Diagnosed
Psychiatric Patients
Would find Opportunity
Of Employment
I'm a Train-wreck
And more or less
A Career Beneficiary
Which Usually
One would have
Good Reason 
to Condemn
But my Idea of a
Humane Solution
For those that
Present with Mental Illness.
Would be FIRST
Employ
And then 
And only Then…
Medicate
Ad Lib
I have born
The Consequence
Of Using Medication Alone
To treat the Patient
And in my Estimation
It is a Cruel
Stigmatizing
Regime
We are not Rats and Bunnies
But the Mentally Ill
Are Also Human
We must want
For Every Human Being
What We want for Our Own Children
And that is Acceptance
In Our Own Communities
That is my Prayer
For the 
Future
Of Psychiatry

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Train Wreck

I wouldn't rather
Live any other Life
For the Lessons
Of Compassion
I have Learnt
Every Day
I hope to
Get Up
And tinkle
Iris
Our Mascots
Legs
It's a Joy
To be Alive
I Hope to
Look into
A Granddaughters Eyes
One Day
And Know that
She will
Be Safe
I have
Too many times
Seen the Inside
Of Mental Institutions
Give them
Hope
Guidance
And Employment
And You will
Keep
Both Society
And the Psychiatric Patient
Happy
And a Happy Society
Is a Healthy One

Uenuku

It is Unfortunate to live One's Life as a "Train-wreck".  Sometimes I wish I could go back to Pine Cone Mansion at Te Awamutu and Relive my Life from there.  I had the Great Privilege of meeting my Local M.P. Scott Simpson and the Minister of Arts and Attorney General Chris Finlayson.   It's got to be Good that the Country has been Protected from Financial Ruin by a Banker and a Good Gang.  

I think, however, that it would be the most Marvelous Experiment if We took Distressed Youth from Broken families into Employment and training so they don't get lost in the Poverty Trap.   If We taught them the Arts and Cooking and Gardening and Music Skills and Paid them as opposed to Medicate and leave to their Own Devices at the Bottom Rung of the Ladder indefinitely.  I wonder that a Trust could be set up to Help People build up their Confidence and Self Esteem by Employing them at an Honest Rate of $15 per Hour and Directing them in whatever proves to be their Forte.   Especially in the Coromandel Area there is Scope for more Lodges and Tourism.  I'd Weave Stars and Bake Cakes because that is all I'm Good at these Days.  But I would so love to See Young People getting a Chance at a Good Start in Life.   If there was a Control Group that was given only Medication and another that was paid an Honest Wage whilst Bettering themselves I think my Idea, as a Pilot Scheme, would Romp in.  The Days of "Ad Lib" Psychiatry must Accept that a more Humane Approach would be to Encourage rather than proffer Glib Platitudes.  As a Society, PLEASE, may we come to the Conclusion that Constructive Intervention would be far more beneficial than Long Term Unemployment and all the associated Anti Social Behaviour.  It doesn't Bare thinking about how off Beam I became but We must, as a Nation, and as a World, find a better way to Redeeming Our Youth before We strike Catastrophic Consequences in some cases.

I Rant

But I am Passionate
That there must be Hope
For the Mentally Ill

PLEASE

I When I Argue I Argue
For the Child
That I was
Not the Woman
That I Am
Please
Ensure
That Victims of
Crime
Do not
Become
Increasingly Victimized
Even in the Noble Profession
Of Psychiatry
It is not for Psychiatrists
To Judge and Demonize
The Patient
We Should As a Nation
And as a Compassionate World
For isn't that how We would
Wish to Remember
Ourselves
We cannot go on
Casting Out
The Mentally Ill
As if they were
Some sort of Cast System
That puts Us on the Lowest Peg
Of the Ladder
For Eternity
What We must do
As a Humane Society
Is Plot a Path of Employment
for Them
So that they can Maintain
A Semblance
Of Dignity
In the Community
I Know Vincent Van Gogh
Would have His Fists
Bared for me
And a Tribunal
Especially for Psychiatric Patients
Is a must
We must be 
FORWARD
Thinking
PLEASE
I argue
for myself
As a Thirteen Year Old
Don't let them
Fall by the way
To be taken 
Advantage Of
Are We as a Nation
Going to offer
Psychiatric Patients
Work Rehabilitation 
Before We continue
To Medicate
Ad Lib
Are We Compassionate
Or Dispassionate?
Have We removed
Ourselves
From Their Suffering
As a way of
Coping
That is the Future of Psychiatry
To find People's
STRENGTHS
And not
Underline their 
Weaknesses
And Condemn
I am a Shining Example
Of Why We
Must Not
Rely only upon
Medication
To treat the Patient
And then Scoff at
From behind Pedestals
I was a Brilliant Piano Player
And Good Sports Woman
Perhaps We could put aside
A Whole Island
For the Mentally Insane
Where Nobody
Laughs
And Nobody
Condemns
It is So Boring
Attacking the Weak
And being Indifferent to 
Their Plight
Psychiatry
Must Shake Itself Down
And not allow
The Victimization 
Of Psychiatric Patients
To Continue
PLEASE