home • the institute • examples of resilience • staff • resources

The Joshua Tree Center for Ex-Patient Studies

Our Mission

The Joshua Tree Center for Ex-Patient Studies is a grassroots academic center run by and for people who have been diagnosed with mental illness. The Center's mission is to improve the economic, social, psychological and cultural well being of people diagnosed with mental illness through ex-patient directed research and study. The Center supports research and study that:

• Expands knowledge of recovery, resilience, empowerment and healing
  
  
• Creates new resources including self-help materials
  
  
• Amplifies the voice and supports initiatives of people of color, women, children and youth, and gay men and lesbians who have been diagnosed with mental illness
  
  
• Discovers, interprets and preserves the historical perspective and collective heritage of people receiving services in mental health systems
  
  
• Investigates problems and proposes solutions to the forces that oppress people diagnosed with mental illness

The Symbol of the Joshua Tree and the Moth

The Joshua Tree grows in the High Desert of the Southwest. In an environment that many view as lifeless and barren, this tree has evolved unique adaptations that allow it to survive against the odds. Yet despite its solitary and rugged stature, this desert tree is utterly dependent on the tiny white yucca moth to pollinate it: "One night soon the yucca plant will bloom and a yucca moth will find it."*

The Joshua Tree and the tiny white moth symbolize the delicate interdependence of life. Nothing stands alone. We are all related. Like the Joshua Tree those of us who have been diagnosed with mental illness are often seen as solitary figures on the margins of society, left to survive in the sometimes barren deserts of mental health programs. A closer look reveals that we are resilient and fully human. We do not stand alone because our fate is intertwined with that of the human community. The Joshua Tree Center for Ex-Patient Studies is a grassroots academic center where those of us who have been diagnosed with mental illness can explore our individual and collective experience, discover our strength and resilience, share our wisdom, and grow in our understanding of how to achieve full social and economic integration into American society.

Resources

Read this paper by Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D.:
Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hope | text-only available

View the Senior Director's website about ex-patient leadership in restoring forgotten cemeteries at the nation's state hospitals: http://dsmc.info

*Hauth, K.B. (1996). Night Life of the Yucca: The Story of a Flower and a Moth. Roberts Rinehart.