Celebrating Trailblazing Women In The Peer Movement & Mental Health Field

March is Women’s History Month and we are honoring and celebrating the vital role

of women in the peer movement and community life for people with psychiatric

disabilities. Women’s contributions to the peer support movement and mental health

field have long been overlooked. Take a look at these trailblazers!

Judi Chamberlin

Judi Chamberlin was an American activist, leader, organizer, public speaker, and

educator in the psychiatric survivor's movement. In 1966, she was hospitalized against

her will for depression after a miscarriage and was shocked by how she was treated.

The day she was told she would never be able to live outside of an institution is the

day Chamberlin decided to defy her prognosis.

She went on to join the Mental Patients Liberation Front in Boston, along with other

organizations run by people who identified as psychiatric survivors, including

MindFreedom and the National Empowerment Center. In 1978, she published

On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, a

foundational text for members of the Mad Pride movement.

In 1992 she received the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the

United States, National Council on Disability, and the David J. Vail National

Advocacy Award, Mental Health Association of Minnesota. In 1995 she received

the N. Neal Pike Prize for Services to People with Disabilities, Boston University

School of Law. She was a major contributor to the National Council on Disability's

report From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak

for Themselves, which was published in 2000. 

Photo courtesy of Mental Health America

Sally Zinman

Sally Zinman has been a pioneer of the mental health peer movement since

the 1970s. She was one of the founders who led the transformation of the

mental health care system in the U.S. to focus on choice, self-determination,

inclusion, recovery, and peer support. 

Zinman established one of the very first peer-run service programs, fought for

state and National patients’ rights policy and legislation, led the creation of the

first statewide peer organization, and was a champion of ensuring the full participation

of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

She is the recipient of the SAMHSA lifetime achievement Voice Award and the MHA

Clifford Beers award. MHA’s 2022 Clifford W. Beers Award will be presented to

mental health advocate Sally Zinman She inspired and guided many in creating

a just and healing world for people with lived mental health experiences.

Photo courtesy of Mindfreedom International 

Dorothy Washburn Dundas

Dorothy Washburn Dundas is a survivor of forced combined insulin

coma/electroshock, psychiatric drugging, seclusion, and restraint during her

teenage years in the early 1960s, Dorothy Washburn Dundas was labeled a

"schizophrenic" and forced to undergo combined insulinoma-electroshock "treatment." 

During this time she experienced and witnessed many atrocities and believes

that luck, determination, her own anger, and one compassionate advocate were

her best friends on the road to her survival and freedom. 

In 1967, Dundas received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology from Boston University

and later taught in the Boston Public Schools. She created op-ed pieces and a powerful

poster, “Behind Locked Doors,” from her hospital records to push back against abusive

psychiatric practices. She lives in the Boston area where she has raised her four

wonderful children.

Photo Courtesy of Fellowship of Reconciliation

Margaret Morgan Lawrence

Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence was an accomplished pediatrician and

psychiatrist specializing as a psychoanalyst. When her older brother died due

to a congenital condition, Lawrence decided to become a doctor. In 1932,

Dr. Lawrence applied and was denied admission to Cornell’s School of Medicine. 

She did not give up and was later accepted into the Columbia University College

of Physicians and Surgeons. At the time, she was the only African American student

in her class and only one of ten women in her class. In 1947 Dr. Lawrence and her

family returned to New York for her ultimate goal of being a psychiatrist. She was the

first African American to complete a residency at the New York Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Lawrence was also the first recipient of the Rockland County, New York’s

J.R. Bernstein Mental Health Award. Dr. Lawrence served for 21 years as the

Chief of Developmental Psychiatry Services for Infants and Children at Harlem

Hospital. She also served as the associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia

University College of Physicians and Surgeons, retiring from both positions and seeing

patients in 1984 at the age of 90. While battling racism and sexism, she set a standard

and an excellent example for all future doctors and psychiatrists.

Photo courtesy of Mad In America 

Celia Brown

Celia Brown was a psychiatric survivor and activist who made foundational

and ongoing efforts in mental health advocacy and the peer movement. She

served as the President of MindFreedom International. She was a longstanding

and deeply influential advocate for informed consent and an outspoken

international critic of forced treatment. 

Her advocacy and activism, born and bred in New York, took her from New Zealand

to Finland to Ghana, where her family had roots; in her work for NYS OMH, she

was key in developing the Peer Specialist Civil Service and facilitated training on

varied approaches to recovery. Additionally, she served as MindFreedom’s chief

representative to the United Nations (UN). During the UN Convention, she spoke

about the imperative role of human rights in any and all efforts moving forward.

She delivered a keynote address — on “Peer Support Facilitates Change: Improved

Quality of Life” — at the annual conference of the United States chapter of the International

Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS-US).

Brown worked on a human rights campaign to put psych survivors “on the map”

alongside those with physical disabilities. 

References

Biancolli, A. (2022, December 21). Celia Brown, R.I.P.: Psychiatric survivor, Pioneer, and global activist for change . Mad In America. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/12/celia-brown-psychiatric-survivor-pioneer-global-activist/ .

Crosby, E. (2022, August 30). Advocates laud the life and legacy of Sally Zinman . NYAPRS. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2022/8/29/advocates-laud-the-life-and-legacy-of-sally-zinman .

Harris, L. (2022, December 16). On human rights and surviving race: A conversation with Celia Brown . Mad In America. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/11/on-human-rights-and-surviving-race-a-conversation-with-celia-brown/   

Smith, S. (2019, April 23). Judi Chamberlin: Mad pride and the fight against institutionalizing women . Rooted in Rights. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://rootedinrights.org/judi-chamberlin-mad-pride-and-the-fight-against-institutionalizing-women/ .

Sally Zinman . Steinberg Institute. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://steinberginstitute.org/champion/sally-zinman/ .

Trwd. (2018, March 6). Judi Chamberlin: Her life, our movement . National Empowerment Center. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://power2u.org/judi-chamberlin-her-life-our-movement/ .

What is a peer? Mental Health America. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://mhanational.org/what-peer#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20%E2%80%9Cpeer%20support,other%20and%20work%20towards%20healing . 

Women's History Month: Pioneers in mental health . Compass Health. (2022, March 9). Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.compasshealth.org/whm-pioneers-mhx/ .

5 women who made an impact in mental health . Lehigh Center. (2022, March 25). Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://www.lehighcenter.com/history/5-women-who-made-an-impact-in-mental-health/#:~:text=Dorothea%20Dix,into%20the%20name%20Dorothea%20Dix .