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.
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