IS COMPASSION A RADICAL IDEA?

At times and by some, when I have shared ideas about a more humane and compassionate mental health system I have been looked upon as a radical. These are not radical ideas but common sense ideas. They are ideas based on our human potential to love and be benevolent. Force and coercion never solve problems, it only creates more trauma. I sadly see this in the children's mental health system where children are vulnerable and have no voice. I have seen the abuses firsthand. Mental health services have become not about mental health and well being but about control through drugs. If a person shakes and convulses because of the drugs, too bad, we will force you because we 'know what is best for you' Giving people a sense of empowerment and choice and building a relationship is what truly helps in recovery, the Soteria project proved this. But there is much money to be made in drugs, compassion does not pay. We want a quick fix or we want not to be troubled by disturbing people. Sedate them, what value do they have anyway? This is how our present society operates. I see this in some families where they seek to create their model child through technology (drugs) but destroy the child and his spirit in the process. What is normal? As Laing statedn normal man has killed millions of his fellow normal men. Hopefully in time we can come to the realization that compassion is not a radical idea, it is rather a noble idea and the best quality of being human.

Dan L. Edmunds,Ed.D.