Biscuits!

NEW POST: My wife would like to help you make biscuits. #Biscuits #OhNomNomNom #recipeshttps://t.co/t3XYbxwZdu pic.twitter.com/qCObL4ydPu

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) November 19, 2018

I'm still figuring out the relationship between my blog and posts on my patreon site. My wife and I are so grateful for all the love and financial help in this difficult moment, so she wrote up her biscuit recipe. It's amazing (she's a pro). Happy eating. Post open to all (but if you had 2$ a month to spare to support my writing and her recipe development, we'd be grateful).

SUPPORT: Psych Ward Reviews

Psych Ward Reviews is Kit Mead's "Yelp for Psych Wards," a crowdsourced database of experiences and outcomes in psychiatric wards around North America. Crowdsources, but not crowdfunded. Mead has been doing this work on their own, and it's time for that to change. Join me in supporting Psych Ward Reviews on Patreon. 

Here's the origin story from The Establishment:

When I arrived at my first psychiatric ward, at George Washington University, I was crying. Instead of helping me to alleviate stress, the hospital gave me sedative pills to make me quiet. I took the pills, terrified of being seen as noncompliant — I had read so many stories about people’s experiences. These places almost always view us as noncompliant if we want alternatives to the treatment plan.

A more recent psych ward stay, at Georgetown Hospital, felt safer; Georgetown staff actually seemed to care, did their jobs to try and make me feel less distressed, and listened to me when I rejected the idea of adding an extra medication. And the medication they gave me finally felt like it was working. When I talked about the difference in treatment quality with my friend Sara Luterman, an autistic advocate and editor of NOS Magazine, their response got me thinking. They said, “There needs to be a Yelp for psych wards.”

It occurred to me that there was not anything quite like a Yelp for psych wards — no system with patient-based ratings gathered in one place. While reviews of psychiatric units of hospitals do exist on Yelp, they are inconsistent and scattered; there was no single review site, created with the explicit purpose of creating change and emboldening psych ward patients, and certainly no such site run by a former patient herself.

The work is incredibly important, will support further research, and might - with support - change the conversation around how we treat acute mental health needs.

Join me in supporting Psych Ward Reviews on Patreon.

SUPPORT: The Disability Visibility Project

The Disability Visibility Project (DVP) was created by Alice Wong during the 25th Anniversary of the ADA. With no resources other than a partnership with Storycorps, Wong carved out a critical space in the disability rights movement that has pushed these powerful ideas: Be visible, be present, tell your stories, demand to be heard, support others in doing the same.

Later, Wong teamed up with Gregg Beratan and Andrew Pulrang to create #CripTheVote, a powerful online activist network of people working to politicize and organize disabled individuals and communities.

The DVP NOW HAS A PATREON AND YOU SHOULD SUPPORT IT (if you do Patronage, which many of you do!). Wong writes:

Your donation will help make stories accessible and shareable. Take a listen to some oral histories by disabled people from the Disability Visibility Project™ (transcript in link):
https://soundcloud.com/alice-wong-60/dvp-on-patreon

Instead of rewards, your contribution will sustain the Disability Visibility Project™ and allow it to expand and grow. All of the content is free. Your donation will do the following:

Support Disabled Writers
Support Accessible Media
Support Disability Culture and History
Support Disability Media
Support Original Work and Activism

Here are some examples of what your donation will pay for:

Guest blog posts by disabled writers.
Transcription of audio and video for accessible media.
Community-based projects and events highlighting disabled lives.
Disabled artists, educators, and writers to create curricula and other materials for research, cultural, and educational purposes.
Freelancers to assist with audio production and other activities for the DVP website.
Monthly fees associated with web hosting, cloud storage, and multimedia (specific amounts here).
Events and presentations about disability history, culture, and activism.
Depending on the fundraising goals reached, a DVP podcast that will feature a roundtable discussion on the critical issues facing disabled people today.
My time, energy, and labor. I will be focusing on the DVP full-time starting January 2017.

Note that last bullet point. Wong has done all this without resources as a part-time job. It's time to help her make the leap to full-time community organization and leadership.

I'm going to make a Patreon account for the first time and donate. Join me.