We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health--Stories and Research Challenging the Biomedical Model - Paperback

by L. D. Green (Editor), Kelechi Ubozoh (Editor), Robert Whitaker (Foreword by)

25 unflinching stories and essays from the front lines of the radical mental health movement

Overmedication, police brutality, electroconvulsive therapy, involuntary hospitalization, traumas that lead to intense altered states and suicidal thoughts: these are the struggles of those labeled "mentally ill." While much has been written about the systemic problems of our mental-health care system, this book gives voice to those with personal experience of psychiatric miscare often excluded from the discussion, like people of color and LGBTQ+ communities. It is dedicated to finding working alternatives to the "Mental Health Industrial Complex" and shifting the conversation from mental illness to mental health.

Author Biography

L. D. GREEN is a queer and non-binary writer, performer, educator, and mental health advocate. They co-edited We've Been Too Patient with Kelechi Ubozoh in 2019, and authored Phoenix Song, published by Black Lawrence Press in 2022. Their work has been published on Salon, The Body is Not an Apology, Sinister Wisdom, Foglifter and elsewhere. A graduate of Vassar College, they earned their MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and have attended several artist retreats and residencies, including Lambda Literary and Gullkistan in Iceland. As professor of English at Los Medanos College in the San Francisco Bay Area, they teach composition, creative writing, and literature. They are collaborating with artist Jamie Kiemle on the Young Adult graphic novel Journey to the Enchanted Inkwell. At other times in their life they have been a poetry slam champion and a trumpet player for an activist brass band. For more info, visit: www.ldgreen.org.

KELECHI UBOZOH is a Nigerian-American writer, mental health advocate, and public speaker. She is the first undergraduate ever published in the New York Times. Her story of recovery is featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and the documentary, The S Word, which follows the lives of suicide attempt survivors (now on Amazon Prime). She has appeared on CBS This Morning with Gayle King, and has presented at Cornell and Yale. Ubozoh previously supervised mental health programs and led communication operations at a mental health nonprofit organization. Currently, she is a consultant and works with communities on system transformation. When she isn't working, she enjoys writing poetry and performing. Ubozoh's work is published in Argot Magazine, Multiplicity, Endangered Species, Enduring Values, and the forthcoming anthology Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narrative. In 2021 she was named a Mental Health Champion by the Steinberg Institute. For more information, visit kelechiubozoh.com.