Systemic oppression in mental health and substance use services In addition to understanding culture and the ability to explore the lived experiences of the people who certified peer specialists support, they must also be able to recognize the connection between a person’s culture and background and the role that plays in deciding which supports they would like to connect with. All systemically marginalized communities have experienced oppression due to the design of the mental health and substance use services system and the population for which they were created. This is not to say that each individual member of a systemically marginalized community has been personally harmed by service systems. The systems have led to oppression of communities at large. When working with people who are members of systemically marginalized communities, certified peer specialists must recognize and understand how this oppression comes into play when navigating through the service systems. The systemic oppression at play in the mental health and substance use services system can have an impact on systemically marginalized community members in many ways, for example: • Invalidation and denial of the accuracy of one’s insight and lived experience in service systems to a higher degree than their counterparts, also known as gaslighting. • Misdiagnoses occur 3-4 times more in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. • People who are incarcerated have limited access to services of any kind, including proven effective approaches to care and treatment. • The expectation that transgender people will thrive in therapeutic environments when sorted into services for a gender with which they do not identify. • Indigenous communities being denied equal access to culturally specific and relevant supports. • Lack of accessibility of services for communities experiencing disability, resulting in far fewer support and treatment options due to disability. • The real and sometimes perceived threat of being deported if attempting to access services while undocumented.
30
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online