Epistemic struggles: The role of advocacy in promoting epistemic justice and rights in mental health

Karen Newbigging and Julie Ridley

Social Science & Medicine, 2018, vol. 219, issue C, 36-44

Abstract: Advocacy for people using health and social care services is widely promoted but its theoretical foundation is under-developed and its impact poorly conceptualised. This paper explores the liberatory potential of independent advocacy, using Fricker's concept of ‘epistemic injustice’ as a framework. People experiencing mental distress are particularly vulnerable to epistemic injustices as a consequence of deeply embedded social stigma resulting in a priori assumptions of irrationality and unreliability such that their knowledge is often discounted or downgraded. The mental health service user/survivor movement is at the forefront of validating personal experience and narrative to secure a different ontological and epistemological basis for mental distress. A foundational strand of this is advocacy to enable people to give voice to their experience.

Keywords: England; Advocacy; Mental health; Mental illness; Epistemic; Injustice; Social justice; Human rights; Mental health law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:219:y:2018:i:c:p:36-44

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.10.003

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