Short Videos of the International Peer Respite/Soteria Summit

From Jim Gottstein at PsychRights,

This is to let you know the International Peer Respite/Soteria Summit (Summit), with which I am involved, recently arranged for the incomparable Daniel Mackler to edit its over 20 hours of videos into short clips: 

Edited videos from the International Peer Respite/Soteria Summit. 

By way of background, the Summit was hosted by Rethinking Psychiatry and MindFreedom International on the five Sundays of October, 2021, bringing together an extraordinary group of some 500 people from 32 countries and 40 states to share wisdom and learn about Peer Respites and Soteria Houses.   Here are Google AI descriptions of Peer Respites and Soteria Houses.

Peer respites are voluntary, short-term, residential, non-clinical programs designed for individuals experiencing mental health crises or intense emotional distress.

Staffed entirely by peers with lived experience

These home-like environments offer a preventative alternative to hospitalization, focusing on recovery, peer support, and voluntary engagement. 

Soteria houses are community-based, non-medical residential facilities that serve as a gentle alternative to psychiatric hospitalization for people experiencing acute mental health crises, particularly psychosis. Unlike traditional hospitals that often rely heavily on medication and rigid authority, Soteria houses emphasize a “being with” approach—providing a safe, homelike environment where staff and residents live as equals to navigate the crisis together.

Presenters included people with hands on experience founding, staffing and running Peer Respites and Soteria Houses as well as people who have lived in them.  

The videos have been organized into various playlists. 

• Personal Stories of Psychiatric Harm and Help: Alternatives to Hospitalization (7 videos)
• Peer Respite Series — Peer Respite Homes as Alternatives to Psychiatric Hospitalization (19 videos)
• The Soteria Series — Soteria Houses as an Alternative to Psychiatric Hospitalization (29 videos)
• The Subject of Medications and Alternative Treatments to Psychiatry (15 videos)
• The Value in “Being With” People Who Are in Crisis or Extreme Mental States (9 videos)
• The Importance of Sleep in Relation to Extreme States/Psychosis (4 videos)
• The Value of Peers in Mental Health & the Dangers of Clinicians and Coercion (14 videos)
• The System Recognizing the Value of Soterias and Peer Respites (6 videos)
• Playlist of all edited videos from Soteria / Peer Respite Summit 2021 (52 videos)

As the Report on Improving Mental Health Outcomes (Report) documents, the current mental health system reduces the recovery rate of people diagnosed with serious mental illness from a possible 80% to 5% and reduces their lives by 20 years or so on average, all the while catastrophically diminising the quality of most people’s shortened life.  The Report also lays out what should be done instead, including Peer Respites and Soteria Houses.  In my view, peope who watch even a few of these short videos will come to understand the value of Peer Respites and Soteria Houses. 

I think some of them even have potential to become popular on social media

We think these videos can add an important dimension to our efforts to bring non-coercive, humane, life enhancing help to people who are experiencing mental states that are labeled mental illness.  It would be great if you could share them with people and groups you know, especially including Social Media. 

Other than Facebook, I don’t have large followings on social media, but have posted it on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok & LinkedIn.   The most important thing is to bring these videos to the general population, not just to people who already agree with us.  The one I started with is  “How Afiya Helped Me” — A Peer-Run Respite House as an Alternative to Psychiatric Hospitalization. 

I would would love to hear how and where you are sharing these videos and what the response has been.

Please email me at jim.gottstein@psychrights.org to let me know.

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