Memory and Legacy Work in Disability and Mental Health Activism in Poland and Romania

• In Event: Gender, Labor, and Disability Politics in Post-Socialist Contexts

Abstract

Eastern European countries face the challenge of reforming their disability and mental health services in line with international human rights standards, European Union guidance and developments in professional knowledge. Poland began the introduction of community-based mental health services in 2018 whilst Romania adopted nationwide deinstitutionalisation for adults with disabilities in 2023.

Against this backdrop, this paper analyses the goals of disability and mental health activism in Poland and Romania. Data comes from 29 semi-structured interviews with activists and parallel analysis of media and social media content conducted in 2024 as part of a larger research project on the transformation of disability and social services in Europe. Cases include the March of the Yellow Ribbon for mental health awareness in Poland, the first self-representative group of people with disabilities who have experienced long-term institutionalisation in Romania and the digital museum on the historical abandonment and institutionalisation of children in Romania.

Analysis highlights how activists’ work focuses on overcoming various system legacies: medicalised-bureaucratic approaches to disability and mental health, the prioritisation of professional knowledge over lived experience, and the associated positioning of persons with disabilities as passive ‘patients’ or ‘receivers’ of support. Recording memories and personal experiences of such systems is an important part of this campaign work to raise awareness and promote destigmatisation at different levels.

Author

• Michael Rasell, U of Innsbruck (Austria)