Bluebird has been involved in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement since it began in the 1970’s.  It was at that time that she was in California, having left her three children and husband because of her extensive sadness and withdrawal from living.  She went to a residential treatment program that offered promise in “re-parenting” but quickly realized that she was in a repressive punitive program and left.  Her life then took many different directions; she worked in psychiatric hospitals as a nurse while healing in a variety of settings, including her affiliation with the “Network Against Psychiatric Assault”, an organization of ex-patients that protested harmful treatment and practices in mental health facilities.

 

Her work at a hospital in Berkeley, California, gave her insight into the treatment that allowed for seclusion and restraint, but not for touching or healing alternatives. Thus, her dream to create comfort rooms took seed.  She immediately started to actualize her dream, connecting her professional nursing experience with her commitment as a mental health consumer.

 

Years later, she has served as a regional Office of Consumer Affairs Director in Broward County, Florida; has worked at South Florida State Hospital as a resident advocate, and most recently as an advocate with the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, the Protection and Advocacy System in Florida, always combining her nursing background with advocacy.

 

She helped to develop comfort rooms at South Florida State Hospital in 1998 and since then has provided training on how to develop comfort rooms in many state hospitals throughout the country.  She is a faculty member of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors training institute on reduction/elimination of seclusion and restraint under the direction of Kevin Huckshorn in Alexandria, Virginia.

 

Bluebird sees the development of “Comfort Rooms” as being only a part of what needs to happen to create healing alternatives for people in our mental health system. She believes in the need for “appropriate touching” and is one of the few people in the country who trains on how to incorporate this basic need.  She talks about trauma informed care from the perspective of understanding trauma through the stories of women and men who have experienced abuse and trauma.

 

In addition to her work on comfort rooms she is nationally recognized for her work on creating dialogue between staff and consumers and has written a manual on Participatory Dialogues for the federal government.  She now goes on hospital units conducting dialogues and role plays that have been widely successful.

 

She believes also, that ART is an important component of healing and she talks about ways to promote art; as well she has produced many talent shows at conferences, particularly the Alternatives Conference, that is held annually for a large consumer audience.

 

Bluebird has received many awards for her work both nationally and locally, most recently the EPIC (Exceptional People Impacting the Community) in June 2006, for her work in Broward County.   At her EPIC award ceremony she was described as “dedicated and committed to those in need, in which she persistently challenges the system, breaking down barriers and walls to enhance Broward County’s service system and improve service delivery in the mental health community.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Gayle Bluebird