Beyond “Bad Manners”: The Power Relations of “Consumer Participation” in Ontario's Community Mental Health System

Abstract

This article describes the work of the legislation subcommittee of the steering committee responsible for the implementation of the Graham Report, Ontario's current blueprint for community mental health. It describes barriers to psychiatric survivor participation in the subcommittee's 1990 provincial consultation, including professional/bureaucratic characterization of survivor actions during the event as "bad manners." I argue that this naming is an act of power. Conflicts arose because the two groups operate from different behavioural codes in which the pivotal issue, acted out indirectly in all kinds of interactions, was whether and how deeply to include personal experience and emotions as forms of knowledge. The cultural dimensions of "consumer participation" must be more broadly recognized and more consciously considered if this policy is to remain viable, particularly in a time of major economic restructuring.