Advocacy Unlimited came to Connecticut Valley Hospital to give a presentation to the inpatients here. From that single meeting, a movement of sorts has spring forth, bringing empowerments and advocacy skills to much of the in-patient community. I was honored to be a member of the first Advocacy Unlimited class that was offered here at CVH. Since that first class, AU has graduated several people who reside at CVH. There have been many positive results from Advocacy Unlimited involvement here at CVH. People who have been in treatment here for years on end have begun to advocate for themselves and for others. Some of the people who graduated from the AU course at CVH had already been advocating for others before they took the course, but AU provided those special people with more information and more avenues to pursue to continued in this strain. We at CHS are a special breed of psychiatric survivors. Most of us, in addition to having a mental illness, and in additional to being held as psychiatric inmates, are actually acquitted doing our time in a mental institution under the guise of "treatment". Some the treatment is valid, but many of the groups that we are required to attend have nothing to do with life on the outside world. Many of us are left wondering about the relevance of much of our treatment. We also have no ideas as to whom we will be transitioned back into the community. All we know is that it takes several years, even when we have been asymptomatic for years. All that we can surmise is that we are/being punished for committing crimes for which we have been found not mentally responsible for having committed. It is a surreal life, living inside of a mental institution. It is a positive step that Advocacy Unlimited has been encouraged to teach classes for us here at CVH. It provides intellectual stimulation and a taste of reality in a place where being treated like children is the status quo.

During my 14 plus years of my current hospitalization the stated goal of my treaters (and my hearts desire) has been my eventual reintegration back into the society that I left behind on January 2, 1991 the date of my crime. And the first thing that is required of me is to show clinical stability over an extended period of time to be considered for the transition process to being. I've achieved this requirement and not the elongated transition process that was envisioned at the beginning of my commitment begins in earnest. The most recent installment of the reintegration process that will take me back into society took place Friday January 27th 2006 when I participated in a transitional leave planning meeting with my treatment team and my friends Jon & Kathleen. It was an inspiring meeting that left me with a sense of hope that eventual goal of my returning to society in sight.

AU Education Course CHS of 2006 02/03/2006 History of the Recovery Movement I started to speak out when I was being abused. I was treated like a piece of dirt a nobody and I was in treatment. They would shoot me with medication at least three or four times in a period of 24 hours. I found a few times when they tied me up in a straight jacket and was thrown in a bed tied down. So it was tuff, would get out and get in fights and this went on for weeks. Then I was sent home and got on cocaine, my best friend died on it and I came back for another clean out. I'm glad now that I'm off drugs. My Dad saw me getting very weak and couldn't keep a job or have anything to do with the family. The future looks good because I want to have a family and start to lead a clean life, all the politics I don't know but a statement like a spill over effect from corrections/criminal justice system to see people in more positive light instead of therapeutic light is understandable because that is a disturbing trend.