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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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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJpvNHqXm0[/youtube]

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

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What would you do if your child was mentally screened at school and diagnosed with mental disorders without your permission? That happened to this mother, Teresa Rhoades

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6AFRhVe8aE[/youtube]

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Despite protests calling for a ban on the treatment, electroshock therapy is frequently used by Canadian psychiatrists to treat severe depression.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) estimates that last year, the procedure, which dates back to 1938 and involves passing electrical currents though the brain to trigger seizures, was used more than 15,000 times in the country.

The figure has remained virtually unchanged since 2002, CIHI says, showing that the popularity of the procedure remains strong.

A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last week shows the procedure is commonly used to treat drug-resistant depression in seniors.

However, critics of the procedure believe its usage should be stopped, and it is a painful procedure that leads to brain damage.

On Sunday, about a dozen protesters rallied in Ottawa, calling for a ban of the procedure.

Protest organizer Sue Clark-Wittenberg had electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) 35 years ago, and says it has kept her from getting an education and a good job.

“The bottom line is electroshock always damages the brain. Electroshock always causes memory loss,” she says.
ECT survives calls for ban

Dr. Nizar Ladha, a psychiatrist based in St. John’s, has been using ECT for three decades. He says the procedure does induce seizures, but they’re not painful and don’t cause convulsions.

“As an effective and lifesaving treatment, it rates right up there with the discovery of penicillin,” he told CBC News.

Ladha says he has seen ECT help fight depression and prevent many suicides.

The Canadian Psychiatric Association argues that ECT is safe and effective, though the Canadian Medical Association says it can cause memory loss.

But Dr. Paul Breggin, a New York-based psychiatrist, is in a minority of psychiatrists who says the procedure should be banned.

“We’re treating human beings as if they are a very crude machine which can be battered back into shape.”

Still, Dr. David Goldbloom, a psychiatrist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, predicts it will become even more popular, having survived numerous calls to ban it and two provincial inquiries.

“Each time the conclusion is the same — that the balance of evidence supports retaining this to try to help people with depression.”

URL: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/05/12/electroshock-therapy.html

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXC6b0xy4ts[/youtube]

URL: http://ottawastart.com/story/7716.php

The International Campaign to Ban Electroshock (ICBE) is holding a peaceful protest against the use of electroshock on Sunday, May 11th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Parliament Hill meeting at the Centennial Flame

Electroshock Protest in Ottawa on Sunday, May 11th, on Parliament Hill from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m – meeting at the Centennial Flame

Contact Person: Sue 613-721-1833

“Stop Shocking our Mothers and Grandmothers”

The International Campaign to Ban Electroshock (ICBE) is organizing a peaceful protest against the use of electroshock in Canada and is asking all governments in Canada to put a moratorium on the use of electroshock.

Electroshock is also known as ECT, shock therapy, shock, and electroconvulsive therapy. 60% of ECT is given to women over 60 years of age.

ECT has been proven to cause brain damage 100% of the time. See www.breggin.com for more info.

The American Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Psychiatric Association say ECT is safe and so are the ECT machines, that is not true at all.

The ICBE deems ECT to be barbaric, unethical, inhumane, and an atrocity.

130 hospitals in Canada give ECT. Most of the local hospitals in Ottawa give ECT.

Political prisoners are given ECT as a form of torture.

Sue Clark-Wittenberg, the director of the ICBE was forcibly given ECT in 1973 at the age of l7 years old. As a result of having had ECT, Sue suffers from permanent memory loss and has difficulty learning new things. Sue says “no one should have to go through what I did. ECT is a crime against humanity” Sue’s mother Theresa also had ECT.

The ICBE website URL is: icbe.wordpress.com

The ICBE email address is: icbe2008@gmail.com

The statistics for ECT given yearly are:

Ontario – 14,000 ECTs given yearly

British Columbia – 46,000 ECTs given in the past 5 years

UK – 50,000 ECTs given yearly

USA- 100,000 Americans get ECT yearly.

Worldwide – 1 to 2 million people get ECT yearly

Websites with info on ECT:

www.breggin.com, www.ect.org, http://endofshock.com, www.banshock.org, http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca, http://capacanada.wordpress.com, icbe.wordpress.com

Please come out and support our worthy cause on May 11th.

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