Rae Unzicker Papers 1967-2000

ArchivalResource

Rae Unzicker Papers MS 818., 1967-2000

Rae Unzicker Papers 1967-2000

http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/umass/mums818.html

An important figure in the fight for civil rights for mental health patients, Rae Unzicker spent over 30 years advocating for change in the mental health care system. Committed at the age of 14, Unzicker knew firsthand the stigma and damaging treatments that came with mental health care. Once she was released, Unzicker's road to recovery was long, but after several suicide attempts and stays at other treatment facilities, she ultimately counted herself--along with her friend Judi Chamberlin, an early leader in the movement--a psychiatric survivor. Like Chamberlin, who grounded her advocacy in her personal experience, Unzicker argued for psychiatric patients to have the same rights as ordinary citizens, and she worked to expose the inhumanity in treatments used by mental health doctors, calling for a complete overhaul of the mental health system. Her advocacy reached the national level, when President Clinton appointed her to the National Council on Disability (NCD) in 1995, and two years later she was elected president of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA). Unzicker was widely known for her public appearances, conferences and speeches, and her writings, including numerous articles and contributions to the book and to the NCD report . Rae Unzicker died at her home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 22, 2001 at the age of 52, after a long battle with cancer. Although a small collection, Rae Unzicker's papers document her activities as a leading advocate for the rights of mental health patients, including drafts and abstracts of speeches and videotaped appearances, correspondence and feedback related to workshops and conferences, a press kit, resources for mental health care (such as articles, poetry, and worksheets), and newspaper clippings. The most important materials, however, are her writings. It is through her poems, scripts for advertisements, newspaper articles, and her full length memoir, , that Unzicker's story and voice are preserved. Beyond Bedlam: Contemporary Women Psychiatric Survivors Speak Out From Privileges to Rights: People Labelled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves You Never Gave Me M & M's

4 boxes; (2.25 linear ft.)

eng,

Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries