SOCIAL ROLE VALORIZATION WORKSHOP SUMMARY

Jen Banathy
May 12, 2010

As an individual who has experienced the stigma attached to mental illness, I was eager to attend the Social Role Valorization (SRV) workshop organized by the Georgia Advocacy Office. The basic premise of SRV is that people are much more likely to experience the “good things in life” (Wolfensberger, Thomas, & Caruso, 1996) if they hold valued social roles than if they do not. Therefore, the major goal of SRV is to create or support socially valued roles for people in their society, because the resources and norms of society that leads to the good things in life are more available to a person holding societally valued roles.

The content of the workshop clarified what tends to happen to people in our society who are labeled with something that others as a whole don’t positively value. The label could refer to any physical, mental, or social condition. In my case, being diagnosed with a mental illness profoundly impacted my life in that I truly began to believe that there was something horribly wrong with me because of the negative assumptions and judgments society as a whole makes about the mentally ill. I found that my life was being defined by my impairment and because of that narrow focus my wounds were growing in number and severity rather than healing.

My abilities were constantly marginalized and I found myself being excluded from numerous opportunities, such as a productive school and work life, that people in more valued social roles have access to in order to live meaningful lives. I was subjected to low expectations and put on a different path from my peers. It didn’t take long before I was buying into those imposed limits and began to see myself as disabled. I became consumed by personal insecurity and began to see myself as a liability and a burden instead of a contributor to society and began to believe that there was no value to my life and that I did not deserve to live.

Years passed as I continued to spiral downward and I became overly familiar with the revolving doors of the mental health system. Hospitalizations, day treatment programs, medications, and therapy filled my life with an emptiness that I could see no end to. After nearly fifteen years of struggling to live day by day, I came to the conclusion that some drastic changes must occur in order for me to find any happiness. I was forced to change my perceptions and render more positive judgments about myself and my future. My road to recovery was extremely perilous and painful; however, my perseverance and desire to live a good life led me along the right paths.

I am fortunate now to be working as a Certified Peer Specialist at the Peer Support and Wellness Center in Decatur, GA. I am able to share my recovery story with peers who are experiencing many of the same wounds I experienced as a person with a mental illness diagnosis. Many of my peers have experienced being distanced from the regular and normative pathways of life and have experienced the social exclusion common to the mentally ill, both of which can relate to a total loss of freedom and can lead to disastrous consequences.

Having shared these experiences, I am able to understand and identify with my peers and help them articulate what their vision of a good life is and assist them in their recoveries. The SRV workshop presented well documented strategies for lessening the negative effects of the labels attached to those in devalued societal roles and increasing the likelihood that the devalued will have access to the means essential for experiencing the good things in life. To quote Johnetta B. Cole, “We are for difference: for respecting difference, for allowing difference, for encouraging difference, until difference no longer makes a difference.” I no longer deny or hate my difference; I see it as a vocation and a gift I have been given to share.