Psych Observer - Exposing Bad Psychiatry

NEWS RELEASE — immediate release
MindFreedom International & California Network of Mental Health Clients
Contact: David Oaks (541) 345-9106 or Delphine Brody (916) 443-3232,
Ext. 19

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YOU MAY DOWNLOAD PDF of a two-page flier and below news release about
protest here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/apa
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Mental Health Clients and Psychiatric Survivors to Lead Protest of
APA Annual Meeting

Protesters Say: “Our Creative Support Will Overcome Psychiatric Corruption!”

When: *This* Sunday, 17 May 2009, 1 PM Where: Moscone Center, San Francisco

When psychiatric drug companies open up their famously lavish exhibits
inside the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting at
Moscone Center, mental health clients and psychiatric survivors plan
to hold a “Nonviolent Festival of Resistance” directly in front, with
speakers, music and free refreshments.

The protest is part of a growing “Mad Pride” movement that has been
seeking change in mental health care for 40 years, and is finally
gaining more public attention, such as in a recent two-page feature in
Newsweek (2 May 2009, page 54, http://www.newsweek.com/id/195694). The
Sunday, May 17 event is co-sponsored by nonprofit groups MindFreedom
International (MFI) and California Network of Mental Health Clients
(CNMHC). The action is completely independent, with no connection to
a protest the day before by the Church of Scientology’s organization
Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).

Delphine Brody, a protest organizer with CNMHC, said, “We intend to
celebrate the healing power of peer support, and wellness/recovery-
based alternatives to the ‘medical’ model upheld by a psychiatric
profession that has sold out to the drug industry. Psychiatric
corruption kills. But mad pride heals!” Protesters are calling on the
public to join in with costumes, props and signs, and hope to create a
YouTube video of the street theater.

David Oaks, Director of MFI, from Oregon, said, “Martin Luther King
often called for us all to be ‘creatively maladjusted’ to overcome
injustice and embrace dignity and freedom. We mental health clients
and survivors of psychiatric abuse have a resiliency that can help a
world in crisis. All are welcome to join us!”

Ashley McNamara with Bay Area Radical Mental Health Collective, one of
the protest endorsers, said, “In a world where we are overwhelmed by
so much violence and catastrophe, on scales both personal and global,
I find it astounding that the ‘medical experts’ favor biological
diagnoses and pharmaceutical treatments above all other ways of
understanding mental distress and engaging in healing.” The protest is
also endorsed by the Social Accountability Work Group.

Mental health workers, family members and the general public are all
invited to participate in the legal and peaceful festival. San
Francisco mental health counselor Matthew Morrissey said, “I’m
protesting against the APA’s insistence on reducing the meaning of our
thoughts and feelings to brain diseases and also for the adoption of
safer, more empowering alternatives.”

Other confirmed speakers include: Larry Belcher, Executive Director,
CNMHC; Frank Blankenship, psychiatric survivor organizer from Florida;
Leonard Roy Frank, activist, author & electroshock survivor; Al
Galves, PhD, of New Mexico: psychologist, mental health consumer,
author, MFI board member; Ellen G. Levine, PhD, MPH., Psychologists
for an Ethical APA; Ron Unger, mental health counselor from Oregon;
Sally Zinman, long-time client/survivor activist; and many more.

For more information phone David Oaks at (541) 345-9106 or Delphine
Brody (916) 443-3232, Ext. 19. E-mail to action@mindfreedom.org.

By MindFreedom News
NAMI has admitted to a US Senate probe that a majority of their funds
over the last five years, 56 percent on average, have been from drug
corporations. NAMI has agreed with the probe to immediately begin
quarterly postings to their web site with a list of drug company
donations and amounts.

MindFreedom obtained a letter sent last week by NAMI executive
director Michael J. Fitzpatrick to “NAMI Leaders and Members.” The
letter is a response to the probe of NAMI by US Senator Charles
Grassley (R-IA) initiated on 6 April 2009.

In the 28 April letter, copied below, Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote, “As
reported to Senator Grassley, pharmaceutical companies contributed an
average of 56% of national NAMI’s budget annually for the period 2005
- 2009.”
Read the rest…

The essentials differences between a biological diseases and a mental disorder.

By Jon Burstein
April 24, 2009

MARGATE - State officials are investigating whether a 7-year-old boy who hanged himself in his Margate foster home had been given a powerful, mind-altering drug in violation of Florida law.

Three weeks before his April 16 suicide, Gabriel Myers was prescribed the drug Symbyax, which is a combination of the generic forms of the anti-depressant Prozac and the anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa, according to state Department of Children & Families records released Friday night.

But there was no court order in place for Gabriel to use the drug, the records show. Under Florida law, parental consent or a judge’s ruling is needed before a foster child can be administered a psychotropic drug.

Read the rest…

The Winnendon, Germany school shooting, which left 17 dead including the gunman, appears to be the latest in the chain of psychiatric drug-induced school shootings. A March 15 article in Scotland on Sunday, revealed that the shooter, Tim Kretschmer, “had been suffering from depression, even attending a clinic and receiving medication for the condition.”

With casualties from school or teen shootings now totaling 54 dead and 105 wounded, the mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says it is time to stop vested interests from spouting their usual propaganda about psychiatric drugs, and instead demand a federal investigation for the sake of public safety.

Read the rest…

Ray is a 55-year-old Minnesota resident who is regularly receiving “Involuntary Outpatient Maintenance Electroshock.”

Ray sandford FAQ

Please sign the petition to help Ray from having forced shock treatment http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-shocking-ray

To contact Governor Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, please write, phone, fax or e-mail.

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Telephone: (651) 296-3391
Toll Free:    (800) 657-3717
Facsimile:   (651) 296-2089
E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) A recent article published in the Melbourne, Australia paper Herald Sun has drawn attention to the ongoing psychiatric practice of using electroshock therapy on children as young as four years of age.

Electroshock therapy, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is the practice of applying electric shocks to the brain in order to induce seizures and modify behavior by damaging “problematic” portions of the brain.
Read the rest…

By Jennifer K. Woldt of The Northwestern

While a former psychiatrist who had inappropriate sexual contact with a female patient he was treating avoided a prison sentence, a judge said he has already faced substantial consequences for his actions after losing his medical license and his career.

Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Key withheld sentence and placed Charles D. Morgan, 63, of Neenah, on probation for six years Thursday for a conviction on two counts of sexual exploitation by a therapist. As a condition of his probation, Key ordered Morgan to serve nine months in the county jail and perform 200 hours of community service. An additional three months of jail time was imposed and stayed.

Read the rest…

“Inside Outside” is a work of hope created by former patients and film-makers Pat Deegan and Terry Strecker. The film depicts the lives of eight people with very significant histories of institutionalization, as they transition from nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals into the community. In the spirit of the President’s New Freedom Initiative and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision, the film carries the message that recovery and life in the community are possibilities even for people who are viewed as the most chronic or impaired. The film leaves audiences of professionals and people with psychiatric disabilities alike, cheering for these eight individuals as they make their journey from inside institutions to full community inclusion on the outside. Produced for the US Department of Health And Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services. This is Part 1 of 2 parts. Producer: Pat Deegan, Ph.D and Terry Strecker
Production Company: Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.

PART 1

PART 2

By Miriam Hill |Inquirer Staff Writer

Shortly after new antipsychotic drugs came on the market in the late 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration started to worry that they might trigger diabetes in some patients.

So in 2000, the FDA asked AstraZeneca P.L.C. and other pharmaceutical companies to share data on cases of new-onset diabetes and related illnesses in patients taking the drugs. London-based AstraZeneca, which has U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, told the FDA that patients and doctors had reported 12 new cases of diabetes and five cases of related illnesses among the 623,000 who had taken its antipsychotic drug Seroquel.
Read the rest…