Mariya: My name is Mariya. I am a life-long artist and have engaged in a range of visual and performing arts since childhood. At the age of 12, I became involved in the disability inclusion movement and have since participated in a range of grass roots and community initiatives fostering universal accessibility.

I have mental health disabilities and have been incarcerated in the involuntary psychiatric system. Though I question mental health labels and constructs, my diagnosis of BiPolar and Borderline Personality Disorder as well as identifying as someone who has experienced psychosis, are important to me as tools to understand my own particular challenges, to connect with others and to access services for individual healing, despite my belief that collectively healing is also part of personal well-being.

I also have a diagnosis of substance use disorder, a condition that I believe is largely socially constructed.  

What many people don't know is that most people who use substances do so in complete privacy. It is often not until other layers of oppression (such as poverty, disability, mental illness, incarceration, etc.) overlap with substance use, that it becomes a diagnosis or concern that interferes with life. Once it does however, the impact is substantial.

For many years, I used pharmaceutical stimulants along with occasional recreational drug use with no challenges. When my mental health required hospitalization however, use of substances became diagnosed as substance use disorder.

With this diagnosis comes a host of challenges. Firstly, with SUD, prescriptions are contraindicated. This limited me to use of illicit stimulants. Further, SUD opens one up to high levels of systemic scrutiny. My experiences with this have been a big part of my activism and organizing in ethical drug policy, safe supply and drug user rights.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Nursing Science and formerly practiced as a mental health nurse. I decided to leave nursing as a career due to professional licensing practices that deny individuals with a mental health condition medical privacy.

Mariya: I am a settler of Hungarian, Anglo-Saxon heritage and have lived on the unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories for my 37 years of life.

Mariya: When I hear the word Community, my initial image is a community functioning to support holistic well-being for its members. In these environments, I define community as a network of individuals connected by genuine connection, laughter, and reciprocity amongst individuals or groups who share common cause, goal or lifestyle.

This image of community, however, is idealist and can be hard to find or create in our current day capitalist system, at least in the communities that I am part of, given that marginalized people are often struggling with basics. In these spaces, the real impacts of the weight of the system are close to the surface and as such, people often have limited resources and are in crisis. My definition of community can also be a group united in a struggle.  

I am an organizer in Mental Health community aiming to change the laws for people detained involuntarily under the mental health act as well as addressing other systemic issues faced by people with psychiatric diagnosis. This community is comprised of individuals who have lived experience of involuntary detention in the psychiatric system, as well as groups aimed at addressing these issues.

I am an advocate and support worker in the disability inclusion community, which has its roots in the closure of Woodlands in 1981…This community has dispersed somewhat in the years since deinstitutionalization.

I am an activist and community member part of numerous groups in the DTES, who make up a community of self-advocates and activists addressing the drug war and homelessness.

I am a clown in clowning community, which is local and international via online spaces. I am a certified clown from The Clown School in L.A.

Mariya: The philosophy of inclusion and the Inclusion movement have always been central to any organizing that I have been responsible for facilitating. Intersectional and particularly Mad queer organizing has also impacted my work.

Mariya: My involvement in community organizing began when i was 12, in 1999 when I became involved with a youth project that was part of the shift of resources over to inclusion-based initiatives in the 80's. The program supported 20 youth in social and recreational setting. 10 youth had disabilities and support needs and 10 youth were typical, and there were youth who fit somewhere between those polarities. I eventually graduated to facilitating the program and in 2007, along with a group of folks from this project, we used this model to implement changes in high school communities, to promote inclusion for students with and without disabilities. This model also incorporated art as a vehicle for creating connection through community art projects, such as murals.

My work with individuals, families, and systems to promote Inclusion continued in the form of Advocacy for many years

I eventually returned to post-secondary and earned my BA in Nursing science as a way to expand my interest in making systemic change for people with disabilities by working in the psychiatric system.

I worked as a Registered Nurse on the mental health system in the DTES and it wasn't long before I realized that creating change within the system in the ways I wanted, was not possible. This is when I began attending actions in the DTES for everything from water and land protection, homelessness and drug policy reform. It was after being part of a series of Safe Supply actions that I realized that community organizing was where I wanted to be.

Through community connections in the DTES, myself and several other individuals with lived experience with involuntary psychiatric detention and identified as having a mental health diagnosis, incorporated a non-profit SPIRIT [Society of Pillars for Individuals Receiving Involuntary Treatment], that aimed to build a sense of community among this fractured, highly stigmatized group of people who share a traumatic experience. SPIRIT was not a place where people were expected to talk about the particulars of their experience but to share in positive experiences where sharing would be able to emerge naturally should anyone feel inclined. We did this by focusing mainly on collaborative art projects and joining in solidarity with other community movements.

Mariya: I worked as a Registered Nurse in the mental health system before I realized that creating change within the system in the ways I wanted was not possible. In 2018, I left my position and cofounded Society of Pillars for Individuals Receiving Involuntary Treatment, which was intended to be a place of community for Individuals who had experienced the mental health system involuntarily.

Founding the organization was myself and other self-identified women who had the life experience of involuntary treatment. Our group started out as an unofficial weekly meeting and eventually We incorporated a non-profit. We incorporated a non-profit rather than establishing a co-op or unofficial network particularly so we were eligible for the possibility of funding.

We connected with other organizers in the Mad queer movement in the US who had started building alternatives to the mental health system including support networks of allies who are able to step in during a mental health crisis with specific and personalized support strategies. Our connections with Mad queer organizations have been in the US. Locally there are no official groups building support networks in this way.

Additionally, we are connected with Health Justice, a Canadian Association for Mental Health program aiming to change laws guiding the mental health Act.

Mariya: The goal was twofold when we founded SPIRIT. The initial "goal" when we had the idea to start an initiative was changes to the involuntary mental health system. Because it's a system, changes are complex and we didn't have a shared idea about what changes we agreed we wanted made, or how to make them so our second "goal" was to create a safe space where these issues could be discussed.  

Because mental health and the system are both complex topics that can be emotionally charged as well as challenging, We decided not to create a group that would necessarily talk directly about these issues as a focal point but wanted to design an environmental that would foster connection and naturally create a safe space for these topics to come up, if and when it was natural to do so. As such SPIRIT was foundationally a community arts and social program, meaning we fostered community through art and social activities.

Mariya: We regularly come together to engage in a variety of activities such as cooking, creating art or joining with other local groups in community action, such as safe supply actions annually, supporting actions opposing the Wet'suwet'en pipeline and others. Another group, Health Justice was founded in 2020, I believe, and they have the goal of changing the mental health laws. They are taking a direct approach of interviewing individuals about their experiences to move toward change and many of our members have shared their stories with them through an unofficial partnership.

We created a mural as a part of a collective community mural project that is displayed on Main between Hastings and Cordova. We also have partnered with local performance artists to present a live show about the mental health system.

Mariya: Art is our way to creating a community space to share common goals and struggles.

Mariya: Occupy for Safe Supply 2019- a series of Actions at the offices of a range of government officials, calling them to adopt Safe Supply policy on a provincial level

National Day of Mourning for Overdose Deaths 2021. SPIRIT organized an event in the DTES for 300 attendees to mourn the number of deaths and call upon the government to adopt different drug laws. SPIRIT used clowning to disrupt potential police involvement. We did so by lightheartedly redirecting police officers away from protesters.

National Overdose Awareness Day 2020. Located in the DTES. SPIRIT organized a participatory mural to commemorate those who have died in the crisis.

Carnegie Community Action Project- Who does regular actions and initiatives geared toward addressing Homelessness and poverty. SPIRIT has made a number of banners that have been used in actions.

Community Mural Project in 2021. Numerous grass roots organizations came together to address the challenges of the Covid outbreak in the DTES, we made murals of our individual organizations and displayed them in various spots around the DTES. Ours is located on the east side of Main Street between Hastings and Cordova.

Heart of the City Festival 2020. I participated in the Illicit performance, Illicit In Space. This is when we performed a piece about the trauma of involuntary detention.

Mariya: The mural displayed at Main at Hastings and Cordova is a proud piece for our members. A group of 4 of us worked with a local activist and artist who offers pastoral support to individuals in the DTES.

Mariya: Physical accessibility has been easy at our events due to many of these events being held outdoors or in buildings with elevators. We have chairs to ensure people who can't stand can take part.

Because many of our attendees are dealing with homelessness, we always have water and snacks available.

SPIRIT pays particular focus to using accessible language. Our goal is to create a safe space to discuss mental health and ensuring we are not recreating any shame that is so perpetuated by society at large.

We hire ASL interpretation at larger events where there will be speaking, such as our Mental Health Workshop that we held in the DTES.

People tend to react with appreciation for the Mental Health Perspective because it is missing from many social justice movements due to the complex nature of addressing this systemic issue.

Mariya: Events pertaining to drug laws are typically well attended and well covered in the news but there is still no sizable response from the government. Small amounts of illicit substances have been decriminalized as of this year, but Safe Supply continues to be realized.

Art is at the foundation of our community. We continue to gather to create art, poetry, make food, participate in performing arts, all as the backbone of SPIRIT.

Mariya: SPIRIT is opposed to utilizing the mental health act to include drug users. We are in support of an implementation of Safe Supply of illicit substances as well as the decriminalization of illicit substances. Furthermore, many who end up in a psychiatric facility with substance use patterns, are living in chaotic situations, homelessness and violence. Stigma around drug use has people associate drug use with mental health decline and chaos when in fact, drug use is also common within middle- and upper-class communities but is invisible as people aren't struggling. We support systemic responses to homelessness and poverty and drug policy, not increased coercion and incarceration.

Grassroots efforts for us are predominantly in the form of creating community, gathering perspectives and sharing knowledge with our partnered organizations. This raises awareness about these issues.

We also contribute to other related causes that are part of systemic violence such as Safe Supply Policy change and groups addressing Homelessness and Poverty.

Mariya: There are ranging opinions on many of the factors involved in involuntary treatment. Some people don't believe it should exist and others think it should but with changes.

The changes that are emerging as important to people are:  

The removal of police from the Mental Health process.

The ability for patients to refuse medications

For an independent organization to be present during an involuntary intervention, to provide patients their rights.

For freedoms on units to be expanded such as being able to use a phone.

It's very clear that access to accessible counselling would greatly diminish the need for coercive interventions when things have moved into crisis mode.

One alternative to psychiatric intervention during a mental health crisis is a model used by Mad Queer organizers in the US and this includes implementation of safety teams who know the individuals' particular needs and wishes during this time and is a support system that can lessen the person's need for an involuntary hospitalization or to make the experience less stressful by facilitating psychiatric help in a voluntary way to avoid the trauma of police involvement and detention.

Another alternative is the creation of a new program that removes police from the process of Mental health apprehensions and wellness calls and replaces them with a team of medical and counseling staff. There is a successful program like this in Portland Oregon, called Cahoots.

Mariya: We are currently connected to Health Justice to continue pursuing legal changes to the mental health act.

We will continue using art as a way to create an inclusive and safe space to share perspectives on mental health both personal and systemic.

I am currently taking clowning lessons and hope that clowning is a way for me to increase my comfort in performing so we can continue bringing the mental health perspective to Illicit performances. Clowns are also notorious for exposing the truth in a silly way and clown performance is great for political actions. There are other political clown groups internationally.