MindFreedom International NEWS RELEASE - 14 July 2004
http://www.Mindfreedomm.org - please forward
MAD PRIDE EVENTS IN 4 NATIONS
BUSH PLANS TO SCREEN ENTIRE USA FOR
PSYCHIATRIC DRUGGING IS OPPOSED
Each July is MAD PRIDE month to celebrate human rights
and alternatives of psychiatric survivors, which means
everyone.
With President Bush announcing plans to screen the entire
USA population for potential psychiatric drugging, this is
very good timing, indeed. (See news articles and links at bottom.)
Mad Pride 2004 events include:
* A 72 hour camp out in front of the State Capitol
in Albany, New York, USA by people labeled "mentally ill."
* A week of theatrical events in Toronto, Canada by
Friendly Spike Theater.
* Music events in London.
* Psychiatric survivors laying a wreath on the
actual Bastille in Paris.
* "Official launch" of a global nonviolent revolution,
complete with ribbon cutting and recreation of the
Bastille, in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
PROTESTERS SAY: "STOP THE BUSH PUSH TO DRUG USA!"
A number of participants are making Bush the object of
their Mad Pride peaceful events this year.
That is because the Bush Administration is promoting
a plan to screen the entire USA population for "mental
illness," and pushing psychiatric drugs on those labeled.
Two whistleblowers in Philadelphia -- an investigator
and a psychiatrist -- have lost their jobs to blow
the whistle on drug company corruption in the mental
health system, and both are suing.
For more information see recent news articles, this
one from the NEW STANDARD NEWS
articles at bottom].
~~~~~~
NEW STANDARD NEWS
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=614
White House May Be Planning Nationwide Program to Diagnose, Drug Kids
by Christopher Getzan
Jun 27 - A new plan by the Bush administration to test the nation's public
school population for mental disorders and treat them with controversial
drugs has raised an alarm among some medical science watchdogs and members
of the mental health community.
The White House is expected to announce a mental health and disability
initiative that recommends the screening and treatment of the country¹s K-12
students. The plan is based on a Texas program a government whistleblower
has called "a Trojan horse" for pharmaceutical companies.
As first reported by bmj.com, the website for the medical news weekly the
British Medical Journal, the plan is derived from findings by the
President¹s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a committee of doctors
and mental health care professionals established in 2002. Published by the
New Freedom Initiative (NFI), the report recommends states start testing for
and treating mental disorders as early as possible, focusing on students,
who can be easily accessed in the public school system.
The mental health component of the plan is based on the Texas Medication
Algorithm Project (TMAP), which was engineered during Bush¹s tenure as
governor. An algorithm is a flow chart that helps psychiatrists identify and
medicate a patient¹s condition.
The New Freedom Initiative reported that "despite their prevalence, mental
disorders often go undiagnosed," and recommended a screening program for
"consumers of all ages," including pre-school children. The commission found
that schools are in a "key position" to influence the phenomena of young
children being "expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for
severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders." To do so, the NFI
said that "state-of-the-art treatments" were in order, and praised TMAP for
showing "results in better consumer outcomes."
The NFI plan "doesn't have the Orwellian goal of drugging the populace for a
political purpose; it's the Orwellian goal of drugging the populace for an
economic purpose." -- Allen Jones, whistleblower The American Psychiatric
Association, which itself receives some funding from drug companies, has
hailed the commission¹s conclusions as a sound preventative approach to
dealing with mental illness.
Critics of the plan, however, point to strong connections between the New
Freedom Commission on Mental Health and the pharmaceutical industry, and
they contend that the plan will be a financial boon to drug companies while
compromising the mental health of the nation¹s children.
Holistic mental health advocate David Oaks, director of MindFreedom, a
coalition of groups that campaigns for people diagnosed with psychiatric
disabilities, says the issues of child mental health are not only more
complicated than just testing for disorders and putting kids on drugs, but
also colored by powerful societal pressures and millions of dollars in drug
revenues. Oaks says the president¹s plan amounts to little more than "No
child left undrugged."
"It's very unimaginative. The idea sounds good: get help for the kids," Oaks
said. "But the mental health machine tends to label, label, label." The
labeling, said Oaks, all too often stigmatizes children as "abnormal."
"We're not happy to say the least," said Patricia Weathers, president of
Ablechild: Parents for Label and Drug Free Education. "It's going to
increase the drugging of children."
Oaks says he believes the template for the NFI's plan originates in the kind
of extreme treatments misdiagnosed patients suffered in "the back wards" of
clinics and asylums of the past, like forced drugging or electroshock
therapies.
"This been going on for years," said Oaks. "The psychiatric model the past] has been mainstreamed. And now, the system's coming for all of
us."
Labeling, says Weathers, places a great deal of stress on families to raise
a "normal" child. "It's almost like a parent is beaten down. You want child] in a mainstream school, not in a special needs school."
Weathers said her own son was dismissed from the public educational system
because of her refusal to continue to drug him at the school system's
request after school officials diagnosed him as having ADHD.
"Parents are losing their children" to drugging and labeling regimens, she
says. "We need to look at the underlying causes, and not be so quick to
think a child has mental problems.
"Instead of saying having trouble reading, and giving him an
educational resource, they say, Œoh well, he's ADD¹," she said. In the case
of her son, Weathers said he had physical conditions, among them anemia,
that may have been hindering his educational progress.
Criticism of the NAI plan, or at least the blueprint for it, has not been
limited to the grassroots. In 2002 Allen Jones, a former investigator for
the Office of the Inspector General in Pennsylvania, had been looking into
the propriety of an off-the-books account that originated within the
Pennsylvania Department of Mental Health. According to Jones, when he went
to the New York Times and bmj.com with accusations that the drug company
Janssen may have been attempting to influence the formation of a TMAP-style
test and treat plan, he was told to "quit swimming upstream." When he
refused to quiet down, he was fired, he added.
In a whistleblower report posted on the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights¹
website, Jones elaborated on his charges, and explained that during its
pilot stage, TMAP was packed with doctors who had strong ties to the drug
industry. Jones said that ties to the drug companies gave them a financial
incentive to recommend expensive, brand name drugs,
rather than cheaper comparable medicines.
Jones also writes that a number of the New Freedom Initiative for Mental
Health Commission members were linked to TMAP's founding or are advocates
for the program's expansion in states like Maryland and Ohio.
The NFI plan, said Jones, "doesn't have the Orwellian goal of drugging the
populace for a political purpose; it's the Orwellian goal of drugging the
populace for an economic purpose."
Nationally, pharmaceutical companies have been generous in doling out
campaign contributions to the former Texas governor and his party. According
to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical industry has given
President George W. Bush $764,274 so far this election cycle, making the
president the number one recipient of campaign donations of either party
from the pharmaceutical industry.
Number two and three respectively are New Jersey Congressman Mike Ferguson
and North Carolina Senator John Burr, each of whom are situated on the
Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittees on Health, which oversees
mental health and research, biomedical programs, Medicaid, and food and drug
policies. Presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has also
received campaign contributions from the industry, with just over $149,000
in donations.
This mix of money and politics is hardly helpful for members of the mental
health issues community and their advocates, said Oaks. Instead, he said,
"Imagine the whole environmental movement funded by the oil industry."
- end -
~~~~~~~~~~~
Other news articles on this breaking story:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2004/07-12-2004/insider/education.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/9095033.htm?1c
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39078
www.psychrights.org/
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7457/69
Also see http://bmj.bmjjournals.com late today, 8 July 2004,
for news about the latest whistleblower to speak out,
a psychiatrist in Pennsylvania who has lost his job and is suing,
because of harm done by children by drug company corruption.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACT NOW:
Ask your elected leaders to hold an investigation of
psychiatric drug company corruption and domination in
government agencies.
Also, what about you and your family?
What will you do if and when you are screened?
If Bush plans to screen the entire population for mental health
problems.... Don't you think it's about time you joined
MindFreedom International? We unite 100 grassroots groups
to defend human rights of people in the mental health system.
Join MindFreedom now! All are invited!
MindFreedom is totally independent, and not connected to any
government, mental health provider, church or drug company.
The majority of MindFreedom members have personally experienced
coerced psychiatric procedures, and are ready, willing and
able to resist mental health system human rights violations.
For more info about MindFreedom go to:
http://www.MindFreedom.org.
To join now go to:
http://mindfreedom.org/join.shtml
MAD PRIDE!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please forward this news!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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