Sophie Littlefield

🚨 CALIFORNIA Gov. Newsom slashed funding for peer-run Warm Line by 75%. They provide what hospitals and cops can't: lifesaving peer support from someone who's been there. Tell Newsom our loved ones are NOT expendable:
📞 (916) 445-2841
#MentalHealthMatters #CaliforniaBudget #PeerSupport

‘Right’: Chris Cuomo Nods Along as RFK Jr. Claims Schizophrenia Can Be Cured by ‘Dietary Changes’ NewsNation host Chris Cuomo nodded in agreement with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claimed that not only is schizophrenia being cured, but that it is being done via di...

WTF, RFK Jr? www.mediaite.com/media/tv/chr...

3/3 The real story: Christine's heroic self-advocacy. Her research identified what doctors missed.

I'm sharing my letter as a template docs.google.com/document/d/1.... If you agree, let the @newyorker.com know!

#ResponsibleJournalism #SMI #schizophrenia #psychosis #MentalHealthAdvocacy

2/3 • Only 4% of autoimmune encephalitis cases-> "isolated psychosis" • Blood tests: 50% false positive rate • Zero peer voices about what recovery actually means

The article reinforces "sane/insane" binary. Mary's recovery described as "becoming sane" vs her "insane" identity.

1/3 🧵 Just sent @newyorker.com a scathing letter...

"Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn't," risks
convincing SMI families their loved ones need expensive testing for conditions affecting <5% of cases. This is dangerous health misinformation...

3/3 Families like mine don't want loved ones disappeared into institutions. Give them housing, healthcare, and dignity.

This order offers fear-mongering and forced treatment that research shows doesn't work.

Do better. Our loved ones deserve better. #LivedExperience #EvidenceBasedCare

2/3 Here's what they're not telling you:

- Only 25% of unhoused people have serious mental illness
- People with SMI are 14x more likely to be crime victims
- Housing First works - forced treatment doesn't

This is reinstitutionalization by another name

1/3 As an SMI mom and carer, I've got something to say about the White House homelessness order, which says moving unhoused people to "long-term institutional settings" will "restore public order."

The truth: this isn't about helping people. It's about hiding them. #DisabilityJustice #Homelessness

Living With Schizophrenia: What to Know About Autonomy We all have fundamental human rights related to our medical care

Great overview of patient rights and autonomy for people with schizophrenia. Dignity improves outcomes! #Schizophrenia #patientsrights schizophrenia.mental-health-community.com/living/know-...

3/3 But 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆. The risk of involuntary or coerced surveillance is high. No matter how well-meaning, courts, families, or insurers must not use this or any monitoring tool without informed consent.

#BipolarDisorder #PrecisionMedicine #PatientRights

2/3 ...which in turn could result in:

✅ 70% 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 in emergency room visits in testing
✅ 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 via smartphone app
✅ 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮 from repeated needle sticks
✅ 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 within narrow therapeutic window

1/3 Researchers at USC just developed the world's first wearable lithium sensor that monitors medication levels through sweat. For people with bipolar disorder who take lithium, this could mean an end to mandatory blood draws...

4/4 ...sometimes the answer is "this provider sucks and isn't helping me." That's not resistance - that's excellent self-advocacy. Might be time for a new provider.

It bears repeating...coercion is NEVER the answer.
#MentalHealthSupport

3/4 What works:

- Timing that respects THEIR energy patterns
- Shared planning tools they actually want to use
- Flexibility without shame
- If they don't want to go, LISTEN to why because...

2/4 "Missed appointments" usually aren't about resistance...but about appointments being too early, too stressful, too hard to remember, too patronizing, or flat-out unhelpful.

Collaborative care calendars work because they start with partnership, not pressure.

🧵 1/4 Schizophrenia Tip #17: Collaborative Calendar-Keeping 🤝

Most people with schizophrenia want to maintain their health, but need support systems that respect their experience AND their brains.

#CollaborativeCare #Schizophrenia

i'd go so far as to say that we should ALWAYS treat neuroscience as inexact until it isn't...which is a long way away

Amen. 💜

judging from the booming business for employment attorneys whose highest % repeat clients are those with disabilities...this miserable situation continues.

congratulations!

i've been hoping authors would expand their use of sensitivity readers to neurodivergence and invisible disability and i'm so glad it's happening 💜

every day i'm thanking my higher power I live in CA

if i understand this right, dunbar deserves props for the admission/retraction rather than letting his ego drive

i feel like identifying an 'inflammatory environment' might be key in other neuro-condition clusters too, right?

also might be time to dust off 'GIGO' from back in the day

- and never will be! The persistence of this trope is starting to really worry me. My guess is that more people believe 'robots will take over' than don't at this point.

Sacramento County's inviting comment on their Prop 1 plans.
30% of $ now goes to housing interventions (finally!) but vague "directing resources to those with the most significant challenges" needs clarification

#BehavioralHealth #Prop1 #PeerSupport

www.saccounty.gov/us/en/articl...

...and yet, when i went to a sleep doc, they were completely UNinterested in discussing how my neurodivergence might factor into my sleep issues UGH

ha thank you so much for this!!

thanks for putting this into words. i really appreciate, and use extensively, LLM because 1) i can insist all responses be evidence-based and 2) i don't have to, in parallel, asses the social factors which might modify the meaning of its response.