Category Archives: CS/X movement

October 25, 2009 · 6:52 pm

Sunday Brunch

Appetizer

Playing with Hugh

Or, rather, hue (and contrast, and saturation etc.). All these taken in the past week or two. Click for real size, which is big, btw.

I call this one “very close to fall”.

: Oregon Rainforest- Silver Creek trail

: Ground Foliage

Looking Up

More woods in rain

Bird, tower, moon- composit of several pictures

The J Complex (what's left of it) as envisioned by Prince

“General Pictures, Sir!”

35 year old picture of me

From:

MindFreedom Oregon News Alert – Please Forward
http://www.mindfreedom.org/oregon

MindFreedom International News – 22 October 2009
Ray Alert #22 – Unite for Real Mental Health Advocacy
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray – please forward

Today is Victory Day for Ray Sandford!

No More Forced Electroshock for Ray, Ever!

Today, Ray Sandford of Minnesota phoned the MindFreedom office with
some very good news:

It is official.

After more than 40 involuntary, outpatient electroshocks (also known
as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT), Ray has won.

The court agreed to his change of guardianship. Ray’s new guardians
support his right to say “no” to intrusive procedures such as
electroshock.

Ray made this comment for MindFreedom International members and
supporters, who have backed his campaign for almost exactly one year.

“I’m a bit overwhelmed. This is wonderful! I’m very thankful. Without
your help I probably would still be sitting somewhere getting more
forced electroshock. So thanks a lot to and your group. Praise and
thank the Lord, amen!”

Said David Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International, “Ray’s courage
and laser focus led to a campaign that proves the ‘mad movement’ is
alive and well. The sheer level of people power had to break through.
I know some feel discouraged by the immense oppression of sanism.
Think of Ray. There is an ancient Persian saying: ‘No one is tired on
victory day!'”

THE SHORT STORY OF RAY’S VICTORY DAY

MindFreedom is encouraging all of Ray’s supporters to celebrate this
week, especially this Tuesday, 27 October 2009.

One year ago this week, on 27 October 2008, Ray Sandford first phoned
up the MindFreedom office. He had asked his local library about
organizations that support human rights in mental health. The
reference librarian gave him MindFreedom’s phone number.

Ray phoned up the MindFreedom office. He said that every Wednesday
morning he was escorted from his group home to a hospital for another
involuntary forced electroshock, under court order.

MindFreedom International investigated and kicked off a public
campaign that became global. Issuing 21 alerts, MindFreedom’s campaign
activated thousands of people who peacefully but passionately
contacted elected officials, held protests, mailed Ray stationery
supplies, won extensive media coverage, visited him, and much, much
more. At least one elected official said they felt ‘inundated.’

But MindFreedom also found that Ray’s oppression was systemic and deep.

MindFreedom volunteers identified and listed on the MFI web site more
than 30 agencies and individuals receiving taxpayer money to
supposedly help Ray. Only a few agencies helped Ray, and most actually
opposed his rights. Because MFI’s web site is so popular, many of
those who oppressed Ray can “Google themselves” and discover their MFI
listing near the top.

Ray’s last forced electroshock was on USA tax day, 15 April 2009.

By coincidence the 15th of April was also the date of the very first
forced electroshock, back in 1938 in Italy, when the subject cried out:

“Non una seconda! Mortifierel” which means in Italian, “Not another!
It’s deadly!”

On 13 May 2009, Ray was escorted all the way to a hospital bed. He was
prepped for another forced electroshock. Because of outrage, hospital
authorities cancelled Ray’s shock at the last second, and he was sent
home.

More victories quickly followed.

Ray’s psychiatrist quit because he said his insurance company was
concerned about all the public attention. MindFreedom helped Ray find
a new psychiatrist supportive of Ray’s human rights.

Ray’s family joined in the campaign. MindFreedom organized a YouTube
video with Ray and his Mom, begging for the shock to end. Ray’s
guardians, an agency under the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA), tried to stop the video from going public, but it got ought.

Ray’s family found a better attorney. Ray found great pleasure in
firing his ineffective court-appointed attorney.

Several concerned Minnesota agencies formed an “ECT Work Group” to
change the law in Minnesota. Two MindFreedom representatives serve on
the committee, but are asking for more than just minor reform.

“SINGLE, SMALL VOICE IN THE FACE OF A MEDICAL GIANT.”

And today, Ray’s final victory is in place: Ray successfully replaced
his general guardians who had supported his forced electroshock.

One of Ray’s new guardians, Daryl Trones, announced:

“MindFreedom has just won a substantial victory! Today I received an
‘Acceptance of Appointment” from Ramsey County District Court
regarding the changing of guardianship for Ray Sandford. Ray no longer
will be subject to ECT treatments. The powers of Successor
Guardianship include the power to ‘withhold consent for treatment of
service, including neuroleptic / psychotropic medications,’ under
Minnesota Statute 524.5-314.”

Daryl, Ray and his family want to thank all of Ray’s many supporters.

Said Daryl, “My appreciation to all the MindFreedom members and
volunteers and especially to David Oaks who orchestrated requisite
forces and passions to pull Ray Sandford from harm’s way. MindFreedom
now bas a successful case study outlining the necessary steps to
extricate persons subject to forced electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Congratulation to MindFreedom Staff and Members and most of all to Ray
Sandford who one year ago was just a single, small voice in the face
of a medical giant.”

Supporters should finally be able to postal mail to Ray Sandford
directly without delay.

You may postal mail your congratulations to Ray here:

Ray Sandford
Victory House
4427 Monroe St.
Columbia Heights, MN 55421-2880 USA

You can read the history of Ray’s successful campaign at:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

Utne Reader magazine periodically names “50 Visionaries Who Are
Changing Your World.”

A psychiatric survivor activist is named as one of these visionaries
in Utne’s November/December 2009 issue, which hits the stands now:

David W. Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International, an independent
nonprofit for human rights and alternatives in mental health.

Utne’s listing of David Oaks also zings ABC-TV’s recent national news
coverage of the “mad pride movement,” which has been widely criticized
by activists.

~~~~~~~~~~~

For Utne’s listing of David Oaks, and to make a public comment, go here:

http://www.utne.com/Science-Technology/David-Oaks-Director-MindFreedom-International.aspx

or use this link:

http://bit.ly/utne-oaks

~~~~~~~~~~~

For Utne’s entire list of 2009 visionaries, starting with the Dalai
Lama who is on the cover, go here:

http://www.utne.com/Politics/50-Visionaries-Changing-Your-World-Hope-2009.aspx

or use this link:

http://bit.ly/utne-vision

~~~~~~~~~~~

Said David Oaks, “Utne is one of the few media leaders to acknowledge
the ‘mad movement’ to deeply change the mental health system. Utne’s
recognition is really of our whole movement’s vision. This shows we
are still connected to all the other movements for social and
environmental justice, just as when our movement first started. Can we
have a nonviolent revolution now?”

Another Suspicious Death Inside Oregon State Hospital

According to the below MindFreedom Oregon Exclusive Report, another
psychiatric patient died inside Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon
under suspicious circumstances on Saturday, 17 October 2009.

The man — known here as “Patient M” — had apparently been
complaining repeatedly for a month about chest pain, which staff had
allegedly dismissed because of his psychiatric diagnosis. Instead of
medical care, staff reportedly just gave him more psychiatric drugs.

After the patient died, the report says he was left undiscovered all
day by staff who were supposed to be checking on him regularly.

The below is based on several anonymous reports from patients on ward
50F with access to telephones, who took great risk to speak out.
Because of a long pattern of abuse and neglect in Oregon State
Hospital (OSH), this information is offered immediately in the public
interest, but has not yet been investigated by authorities. Each
allegation needs to be investigated before confirmation.

At the bottom are ways you can speak out to demand an investigation,
and also demand support for a state-wide voice for Oregon’s mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

Patients supplying this news did not ask to be anonymous but patients
at OSH have reported retaliation for getting information out in
public. For example, this past week a minimum security patient was
allegedly moved, in shackles, to a more restricted area after he spoke
with Salem reporters about his lawsuit against Oregon State Hospital.

MindFreedom calls on the Governor, the US Dept. of Justice and the
media to immediately investigate the below allegations, especially the
RED FLAGS marked in this report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCLUSIVE REPORT to MindFreedom Oregon

“The medicine is not working.”

The Passing of “Patient M” on Ward 50F in Oregon State Hospital
(OSH)

Over one month ago, “Patient M” had a fellow patient — “R” — help
him write a special letter to the ward medical officer.

In the letter Patient M complained of his chest pain, stomach pain and
trouble breathing.

Instead of medical treatment for the chest pain, because of his
psychiatric diagnosis Patient M was given more psychiatric drugs as
staff felt he needed them, known in medicine as “PRN.” These
psychiatric drugs were often minor tranquilizers, usually Ativan
(lorazepam) or Klonopin (clonazepam). The psychiatric drugs were
administered whenever he complained of pain.

Two weeks ago, Patient M spoke directly to the Ward Medical Officer
and said that, “The medicine is not working.” He continued to complain
of chest and stomach pain with difficulty breathing. [RED FLAG] He
continued to be given “PRNs.” He was not given a pain reliever, heart
medication or any cardiac testing.

This past week, Patient M has told everyone on the ward who would
listen that he was in serious pain. Other patients were already very
worried about his health. He continued to receive tranquilizers when
he complained.

Last Thursday and Friday — 15th and 16th of October — were
particularly bad. [RED FLAG]

Patients say it’s important to know that it is policy that all
patients be checked for “location and condition every hour.” For
example, in a widely-publicized escape a month ago, staff had not been
checking on the patient.

Saturday morning, 17 October 2009, Patient M got up for breakfast, and
he was known as a man who never misses a meal. Some said eating seemed
to be his greatest enjoyment, and he was always the first person to
get his food. Because he is sloppy, he got his food delivered to him
outside the kitchen.

At 8:30 am he was given his morning meds. He told the nurse that his
chest hurt “really bad” and he had trouble breathing. He was given his
usual psychiatric drug PRN.

Patient M went to lay down.

A nurse checked at 9:30 am and saw he was lying down. He seemed okay.

Patient M resided in a very over-crowded room typical of the “50
building” at OSH. A short time later one of his roommates said his
eyes were rolled back. “But sometimes he sleeps like that” because of
the PRNs, said one roommate.

No staff checked his condition for the rest of the morning. [RED FLAG]

Lunch on 50F is served between 11 am and 11:30 am. Staff brought his
tray down to his room. They called his name and there was no response,
even though it is well known that he always eats. [RED FLAG] Staff
left, and took his lunch back to the kitchen.

Mid-afternoon a roommate shook his foot to see if he’d wake up. There
was no response. No staff looked in on him to check his condition all
afternoon. [RED FLAG]

Dinner time, 4:30 pm, staff called into his room to announce the meal.
No response. Patient M did not get up for food. Staff did not bother
to bring a tray down for him. No staff checked him.

His roommates complained of the stench of “shit” in the room. This
odor was probably from the natural course of a person who is lying
dead for hours as their bowels evacuate. Staff still stayed out. [RED
FLAG]

Finally, at 7:45 pm OSH medication staff went to his room to give him
his evening pills. This time he was checked. He was so dead cold, no
attempt was made at resuscitation. Some patients believe he was in or
past rigor mortis at this point.

Between 7:45 and 8 pm, patient eye-witnesses allege several things
happened. The room was sealed. Staff were called into what one person
called a “bubble” to speak privately.

Based on patient reports: “It was quiet for a few minutes. Then the
staff became very active. We could see through the nurses’ station
windows that they were handling documents, making photocopies. We
heard one staff say, ‘We’ll need six more of those.’ Then we could see
staff shredding originals of documents they had just photocopied. By 8
pm things had returned to normal. The body was carried out later.”

Over the weekend Patient M’s soiled bed and personal area were left as
is in the crowded room. “The smell was unbelievable,” said one witness.

On Monday morning, 19 October 2009, two days after the death, at the
ward meeting, patients complained about the unsanitary conditions in
this room. Staff took out the bed, bedding and sanitized the area. As
of that evening there was no counseling about the death, and no extra
help provided to other patients on that ward.

No memorial was suggested until patients brought it up at the ward
meeting.

Patients were questioned at the meeting about “What do you know?” and
“What will you report?” One patient referred to the meeting as an
“inquisition.”

Patients around the hospital heard about the death only by word of
mouth.

Many are reportedly saddened.

Because of the request by patients, a memorial is planned.

– end –

~~~~~~~~~~

ACTIONS * ACTIONS * ACTIONS

Please forward this alert to others who support human rights in mental
health.

The Governor has not responded to e-mails. Please telephone.

PHONE GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI AT (503) 378-3111

In a civil but strong way, in your own words:

1) Ask the Governor to personally investigate suspicious deaths at
Oregon State Hospital.

2) Ask the Governor to support the state-wide voice of mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors.

~~~~~~~~~~

BACKGROUND on OSH & MORTALITY:

Oregon State Hospital has a long history of suspicious deaths.

OSH is nationally famous when its secret discolored copper canisters
were revealed that contain the ashes of some 5,121 patients who died
between 1913 and 1971. The identification of many of the patients is
lost.

See the Time Magazine article on Jan. 2009 about OSH ash cans here:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1869177,00.html

For more photos of the canisters go to this web site from July 2009:

http://thephotobook.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/david-maisel-library-of-dust/

or use this link:

http://bit.ly/osh-ashes

Mortality and people in the mental health system continues to be a
national controversy today in the USA.

A major study by the National Association of State Mental Health
Program Directors showed that people who use the US public mental
health system die about 25 years earlier than the general public:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/death

One possible reason provided in the study is the over-use of
psychiatric drugs, including multiple prescriptions, but this factor
is often omitted or downplayed by those in the mental health system
discussing these deaths.

Instead, the mental health system today is promoting “integration” of
physical and mental health as the answer to this mortality rate.
“Integration” is now a major buzz word in mental health.

Sound good?

Unfortunately, there’s no definition of this “integration.” Is this
the “integration” of psychiatric institutions into the community, as
mandated by the Olmstead Supreme Court decision? A draft of Oregon’s
plan to implement Olmstead does not emphasize the importance of
supporting the voice of mental health consumers and psychiatric
survivors.

In some places this “integration” buzz word has simply meant increased
prescription rates of psychiatric drugs in clinics that had previously
focused on physical health. Sad about your heart condition? There may
be a psychiatric drug prescription waiting for you, too.

People with psychiatric labels continue to be among the most
disempowered Oregonians.

How can this “power imbalance” change without a voice?

Since the exact month Governor Ted Kulongoski took office, Oregon
became one of the few USA states to provide zero — 0 — funding for
the state-wide voice of mental health consumers and psychiatric
survivors. For more than seven years, there has been zero state
funding for any of those activities — a newsletter, conference,
office of mental health consumer affairs.

Nothing.

During tough times, people with psychiatric labels are supposedly hit
hardest. That’s when we should be supporting the voice of mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors the most.

However, apparently based on advice from his closest staff, Governor
Kulongoski continues to recommend zero for this state-wide voice each
budget.

You can read about the Governor’s legacy of “zero” for mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/zero

~~~~~~~~~~

TWO ACTIONS:

1) PLEASE forward this covered-up news to all interested people.

2) PHONE GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI AT (503) 378-3111

Be civil and strong, ask for investigation of deaths at OSH, and for
his support of a state-wide voice for mental health consumers and
psychiatric survivors.

~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL ACTIONS:

US Department of Justice (DOJ) is supposed to be investigating Oregon
State Hospital.

In your own words, ask that all appropriate results of investigations
by DOJ of OSH be made public, and also be provided to you.

You can e-mail DOJ here:

AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Or for more DOJ contact info, go here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/contact-us.html

You can also e-mail or postal mail Governor Kulongoski, contact info
is here:

http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact_us.shtml

Please also bring this to the attention of any interested media.

If you did not receive this alert directly from mindfreedom-oregon
news service, you can get on this free, public alert system here:

http://www.intenex.net/lists/listinfo/mindfreedom-oregon-news

For more info about MindFreedom Oregon go here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/oregon

Update:

Autopsy was supposed to be done Friday- I have heard nothing. Key information would be stomach contents, since the hospital claimed he had all his meals that day (whereas eyewitnesses say he was left dead in his room all day).

From Librivox- free audio books

(click to play)

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 01, Walt Whitman – America

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 02, William Butler Yeats – The Lake Isle Of Innisfree

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 03, William Butler Yeats – The Song Of The Old Mother

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 04, Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 05, Robert Frost – Birches

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 06, Robert Frost – The Gift Outright

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 07, Gertrude Stein – If I Had Told Him A Completed Portrait of Picasso

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 09, William Carlos Williams – The Red Wheelbarrow

A Century of Recorded Poetry, Vol 1, 19, Langston Hughes – The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

Have fun, be safe, eat as much candy as you want.

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Filed under CS/X movement, mindfreedom news, mp3, pictures, poetry

Tagged as CS/X movement, human/ inhuman behavior, Mad News, Mental Health treatment, mp3, pictures, poetry, sound bites

May 15, 2009 · 4:40 pm

Mad Liberation by Moonlight

Re: Looney Radio 5/15/09

Mental Health consumer-talk-radio
Tonight, Friday night, 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.-
May 15th, 2009
KBOO 90.7 FM or streamed on the web: kboo.fm
Call in at 503-231-8187 to be on the radio (or show up at the studio).

Please set your alarm if you aren’t up at that time- we need your voice.
There are people listening
(all over the world, by internet)
Call in at 503-231-8187

Archived shows are available at
https://rickpdx.wordpress.com/mad-liberation-by-moonlight-archives/

KBOO 90.7 FM or on the web at kboo.fm (note the repetition)

The next Full Moon is June 7th.
With any luck at all next month’s show will be June 12th- the Friday following the full moon.
Be well,
Rick

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Filed under CS/X movement, Mad Radio

Tagged as Mad Liberation by Moonlight, Mad Radio, mental health, MLBM Radio, Recovery

April 29, 2009 · 4:23 pm

News from MindFreedom

Just sharing-

1 May 2009 – This Friday!
State Capitol Rotunda, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

May Day for Ray: Protest Forced Electroshock of Ray Sandford

Join MindFreedom International in protesting the ongoing forced
outpatient electroshock of Ray Sandford of Minnesota wherever you
live: Vigil, write letters to the editor, speak out! If you can get
to Minneapolis/St. Paul you can join MindFreedom activists David W.
Oaks of Oregon and Al Galves, PhD, of New Mexico in several days of
protests, vigils, news conferences and activism.

See ‘Gateway to Ray Campaign’ for info, including downloadable flyer
and news release:

http://mindfreedom.org/ray

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 May 2009
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Say No to Electroshock

Comite Pare-chocs is holding a gathering on Mother’s Day to protest
ECT, highlighting the fact that it is used much more frequently on
women than on men.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 May 2009
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

‘Stop Shocking Our Mothers and Grandmothers!’

The Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA) is organizing a
protest that will take place in Toronto, this Mothers Day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 May 2009
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Electroshock Protest

Another Mothers Day protest against ECT is being organized by the
International Campaign to Ban Electroshock (ICBE).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 to 15 May 2009
San Francisco, California, USA

Two Seminars Presented by Ron Unger

Two seminars, led by Ron Unger LCSW, will be held just before the
protest of the APA convention in San Francisco. The first seminar on
May 14 will be an introduction to cognitive therapy for psychosis,
which is a psychological approach to helping people who hear voices
or have beliefs so ‘far out’ that most mental health workers would
propose drugs as the only possible treatment. The second seminar on
May 15 will focus on the relationship between ‘psychosis’ and trauma,
a relationship usually denied by the mental health system which
instead attempts to convince people they have a strictly ‘biological
illness’ or ‘biochemical imbalance.’ Ron is coordinator of
MindFreedom Lane County Affiliate in Oregon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15 May 2009
San Francisco, California, USA

Free Meeting Before the APA Protest

MindFreedom will hold a free reception in advance of the protest of
the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Come to meet other MindFreedom members, socialize, organize, boost
your spirits, maybe make some signs, and get informed!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17 to 18 May 2009
Moscone Center, San Francisco, California, USA

Nonviolent Protest of the American Psychiatric Association

When the American Psychiatric Association holds their large Annual
Meeting in 2009 in San Francisco, once more MindFreedom International
will be there to greet them with a nonviolent protest, this time
complete with skits that will be YouTubed. Sunday, May 17 at 1 pm,
and Monday, May 18 at 10 am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
30 May 2009
Cork City, Ireland

‘Stop Shocking our Mothers and Grandmothers’

MindFreedom Ireland is holding a peaceful protest against ECT this May.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
22 June 2009
Dunstan Hall, Norwich, United Kingdom

Critical Psychiatry Network Conference 2009

The Critical Psychiatry Network is hosting its tenth annual
conference, entitled ‘Promoting the critical mental health movement.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

13 to 19 July 2009
Everywhere!

Mad Pride Week!

Mad Pride events are again planned in Europe, Africa, North America
and more. Hold your own Mad Pride event, small or large, wherever you
are and let MFI know.

While you can hold Mad Pride events at any time, The City of Toronto
in Ontario, Canada has proclaimed July 13 to 19 2009 as MAD Pride
Week! Ruth Ruth of Friendly Spike Theater, who is chair of the
MindFreedom International Mad Pride Committee, said MAD Pride
Organizers in Toronto will be holding an exhibition, theater events,
an Annual Bed Push Parade and more. Planning meetings are every
Friday afternoon at 3 pm from now until June.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 to 12 September 2009
Phoenix, Arizona, USA

NARPA 2009 Annual Conference

The next conference of the National Association for Rights Protection
and Advocacy (NARPA), which was a founding organization of the
MindFreedom International coalition, is scheduled for September.

For more info:
http://www.narpa.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 to 10 October 2009
Syracuse, New York, USA

ICSPP 2009 Conference

The International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology,
Inc. (ICSPP) is a sponsor group of MindFreedom. This is an excellent
conference, especially to network dissident mental health
professionals critical of the current psychiatric system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
28 October 2009 – 1 November 2009
Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Alternatives 2009 – Save the Date

This is an event funded by the US federal government. From their
publicity material: This is the largest national annual mental health
conference organized by and for people with psychiatric labels. Each
Alternatives conference offers technical assistance on peer-delivered
services and self-help/recovery methods. Deadline for scholarship
application to federal government: 5 June 2009.

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Filed under CS/X movement, Mental Hell Treatment, mindfreedom news

Tagged as C/S X Movement, Consumer/ Survivor Movement, events, links to information on mental health and recovery, Mad News, mental health news, MindFreedom, news

April 16, 2009 · 10:29 pm

MLBM Announcement

Re: Looney Radio 4/17/09

Mental Health consumer-talk-radio
This Friday night, 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.-
April 17th, 2009
KBOO 90.7 FM or streamed on the web: kboo.fm
Call in at 503-231-8187 to be on the radio (or show up at the studio).

Please set your alarm if you aren’t up at that time- we need your voice.
There are people listening
(all over the world, by internet)
Call in at 503-231-8187

Archived shows are now available at
https://rickpdx.wordpress.com/mad-liberation-by-moonlight-archives/
We’re running a week late again this month due to my son’s birthday (this time)

last weekend.

KBOO 90.7 FM or on the web at kboo.fm (note the repetition)

With any luck at all next month’s show will be May 8th- not following the full moon, but within 24 hours of it (the moon is actually full on the 9th, which is technically when the show happens- don’t worry about it).

Be well,
Rick

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Tagged as CS/X movement, Mad Liberation by Moonlight, Mad Radio, mental health

April 16, 2009 · 4:12 pm

Ray Update from MindFreedom

MindFreedom News – 15 April 2009
Nonviolent Revolution in Mental Health
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray – please forward

Ray Sandford Declares “Guarded Victory” for MindFreedom Ray Campaign

Because of Public Pressure, Ray’s Psychiatrist May Quit Case

The bad news is that this morning, 15 April 2009, Ray Sandford of
Minnesota had another involuntary, outpatient electroshock, also
known as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT.

The good news is today’s forced electroshock could be Ray’s last.

Maybe.

Ray Sandford called the MindFreedom office this afternoon to say that
because of growing public pressure, Ray’s main psychiatrist Dean K.
Knudson plans to quit as Ray’s psychiatrist. Dr. Knudson has been
ordering the forced electroshocks.

If Ray is quickly assigned a new psychiatrist more sensitive to Ray’s
human rights and need for humane alternatives, then Ray could be free
of his ongoing forced electroshocks. Ray has had more than 40.

Dr. Knudson had scheduled Ray’s next forced shock for 30 days from
today. The court order allowing Ray’s forced electroshock does not
mandate the psychiatrist to prescribe it.

Ray said that his general guardian, Tonya Wilhelm of Lutheran Social
Service, told Ray in a phone call today that she had talked to Dr.
Knudson personally. According to her, Dr. Knudson’s insurance company
expressed concern to him about the enormous grassroots campaign that
MindFreedom is building to stop Ray’s forced electroshocks.

RAY CAMPAIGN TO CONTINUE

“Tonya told me that because of all the controversy, Dr. Knudson’s
insurance company may force him to stop being my psychiatrist,” said
Ray. “Absolutely this is a guarded victory. I want to be sure to
thank people for their diligence, and for everything they’re doing to
support me.”

David W. Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International commented,
“Today is USA Tax Day. If Ray’s supporters keep it up, it looks like
taxpayers may get a break, and not waste their money torturing Ray
any more.”

The Ray Campaign will continue, said Oaks. “We need to stay vigilant
about Ray’s rights, make sure Dr. Knudson quits, and help Ray find a
better lead mental health professional pronto.”

The Ray Campaign also raises a question: How many other Ray’s are there?

Said Oaks, “It is proven beyond a doubt that there are others
throughout the USA and internationally who are getting electroshock
over their clearly expressed wishes. Every USA state and every nation
needs a ‘Ray Law’ to stop this nightmare forever.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACTION ACTION ACTION

*** PLEASE SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF THE RAY CAMPAIGN’S “GUARDED VICTORY”!

Forward this alert to appropriate places on and off Internet!

*** LEARN ABOUT THE RAY CAMPAIGN!

For background including Ray Frequently Asked Questions, Ray’s Web of
Links, YouTube video of Ray and his mom, National Public Radio
coverage, how to participate in campaign, and more, see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

*** UNITY WORKS!

MindFreedom International unites to take action for a nonviolent
revolution in the mental health system.

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March 19, 2009 · 4:53 pm

Study 15

From the Washington Post:

A Silenced Drug Study Creates An Uproar

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 18, 2009; A01

The study would come to be called “cursed,” but it started out just as Study

15.

It was a long-term trial of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The common wisdom

in psychiatric circles was that newer drugs were far better than older drugs,

but Study 15’s results suggested otherwise.

As a result, newly unearthed documents show, Study 15 suffered the same fate as

many industry-sponsored trials that yield data drugmakers don’t like: It got

buried. It took eight years before a taxpayer-funded study rediscovered what

Study 15 had found — and raised serious concerns about an entire new class of

expensive drugs.

Study 15 was silenced in 1997, the same year Seroquel was approved by the Food

and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia. The drug went on to be

prescribed to hundreds of thousands of patients around the world and has earned

billions for London-based AstraZeneca International — including nearly $12

billion in the past three years.

The results of Study 15 were never published or shared with doctors, even as

less rigorous studies that came up with positive results for Seroquel were

published and used in marketing campaigns aimed at physicians and in television

ads aimed at consumers. The results of Study 15 were provided only to the Food

and Drug Administration — and the agency has strenuously maintained that it

does not have the authority to place such studies in the public domain.

AstraZeneca spokesman Tony Jewell defended the Seroquel research and said the

company had disclosed the drug’s risks. Since 1997, the drug’s labeling has

noted that weight gain and diabetes were seen in study patients, although the

company says the data are not definitive. The label states that the metabolic

disorders may be related to patients’ underlying diseases.

The FDA, Jewell added, had access to Study 15 when it declared Seroquel safe

and effective. The trial, which compared patients taking Seroquel and an older

drug called Haldol, “did not identify any safety concerns,” AstraZeneca said in

an e-mail. Jewell added, “A large proportion of patients dropped out in both

groups, which the company felt made the results difficult to interpret.”

The saga of Study 15 has become a case study in how drug companies can control

the publicly available research about their products, along with other

practices that recently have prompted hand-wringing at universities and

scientific journals, remonstrations by medical groups about conflicts of

interest, and threats of exposure by trial lawyers and congressional watchdogs.

Even if most doctors are ethical, corporate grants, gifts and underwriting have

compromised psychiatry, said an editorial this month in the American Journal of

Psychiatry, the flagship journal of the American Psychiatric Association.

“The public and private resources available for the care of our patients depend

upon the public perception of the integrity of our profession as a whole,”

wrote Robert Freedman, the editor in chief, and others. “The subsidy that each

of us has been receiving is part of what has fueled the excesses that are

currently under investigation.”

Details of Study 15 have emerged through lawsuits now playing out in courtrooms

nationwide alleging that Seroquel caused weight gain, hyperglycemia and

diabetes in thousands of patients. The Houston-based law firm Blizzard,

McCarthy & Nabers, one of several that have filed about 9,210 lawsuits over

Seroquel, publicized the documents, which show that the patients taking

Seroquel in Study 15 gained an average of 11 pounds in a year — alarming

company scientists and marketing executives. A Washington Post analysis found

that about four out of five patients quit taking the drug in less than a year,

raising pointed doubts about its effectiveness.

An FDA report in 1997, moreover, said Study 15 did offer useful safety data.

Mentioning few details, the FDA said the study showed that patients taking

higher doses of the drug gained more weight.

In approving Seroquel, the agency said 23 percent of patients taking the drug

in all studies available up to that point experienced significant weight

increases, compared with 6 percent of control-group patients taking sugar

pills. In 2006, FDA warned AstraZeneca against minimizing metabolic problems in

its sales pitches.

In the years since, taxpayer-funded research has found that newer antipsychotic

drugs such as Seroquel, which are 10 times as expensive, offer little advantage

over older ones. The older drugs cause involuntary muscle movements known as

tardive dyskinesia, and the newer ones have been linked to metabolic problems.

Far from dismissing Study 15, internal documents show that company officials

were worried because 45 percent of the Seroquel patients had experienced what

AstraZeneca physician Lisa Arvanitis termed “clinically significant” weight

gain.

In an e-mail dated Aug. 13, 1997, Arvanitis reported that across all patient

groups and treatment regimens, regardless of how numbers were crunched,

patients taking Seroquel gained weight: “I’m not sure there is yet any type of

competitive opportunity no matter how weak.”

In a separate note, company strategist Richard Lawrence praised AstraZeneca’s

efforts to put a “positive spin” on “this cursed study” and said of Arvanitis:

“Lisa has done a great ‘smoke and mirrors’ job!”

Two years after those exchanges, in 1999, the documents show that the company

presented different data at an American Psychiatric Association conference and

at a European meeting. The conclusion: Seroquel helped psychotic patients lose

weight.

The claim was based on a company-sponsored study by a Chicago psychiatrist, who

reviewed the records of 65 patients who switched their medication to Seroquel.

It found that patients lost an average of nine pounds over 10 months.

Within the company, meanwhile, officials explicitly discussed misleading

physicians. The chief of a team charged with getting articles published, John

Tumas, defended “cherry-picking” data.

“That does not mean we should continue to advocate” selective use of data, he

wrote on Dec. 6, 1999, referring to a trial, called COSTAR, that also produced

unfavorable results. But he added, “Thus far, we have buried Trials 15, 31, 56

and are now considering COSTAR.”

Although the company pushed the favorable study to physicians, the documents

show that AstraZeneca held the psychiatrist in light regard and had concerns

that he had modified study protocols and failed to get informed consent from

patients. Company officials wrote that they did not trust the doctor with

anything more complicated than chart reviews — the basis of the 1999 study

showing Seroquel helped patients lose weight.

For practicing psychiatrists, Study 15 could have said a lot not just about

safety but also effectiveness. Like all antipsychotics, Seroquel does not cure

the diseases it has been approved to treat — schizophrenia and bipolar

disorder — but controls symptoms such as agitation, hallucinations and

delusions. When government scientists later decided to test the effectiveness

of the class of drugs to which Seroquel belongs, they focused on a simple

measure — how long patients stayed on the drugs. Discontinuation rates, they

decided, were the best measure of effectiveness.

Study 15 had three groups of about 90 patients each taking different Seroquel

doses, according to an FDA document. Approximately 31 patients were on Haldol.

The study showed that Seroquel failed to outperform Haldol in preventing

psychotic relapses.

In disputing Study 15’s weight-gain data, company officials said they were not

reliable because only about 50 patients completed the year-long trial. But even

without precise numbers, this suggests a high discontinuation rate among

patients taking Seroquel. Even if every single patient taking Haldol dropped

out, it appears that at a minimum about 220 patients — or about 82 percent of

patients on Seroquel — dropped out.

Eight years after Study 15 was buried, an expensive taxpayer-funded study

pitted Seroquel and other new drugs against another older antipsychotic drug.

The study found that most patients getting the new and supposedly safer drugs

stopped taking them because of intolerable side effects. The study also found

that the new drugs had few advantages. As with older drugs, the new medications

had very high discontinuation rates. The results caused consternation among

doctors, who had been kept in the dark about trials such as Study 15.

The federal study also reported the number of Seroquel patients who

discontinued the drug within 18 months: 82 percent.

Jeffrey Lieberman, a Columbia University psychiatrist who led the federal

study, said doctors missed clues in evaluating antipsychotics such as Seroquel.

If a doctor had known about Study 15, he added, “it would raise your eyebrows.”

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February 27, 2009 · 7:27 pm

Grist

for the mill. Obtained from various web locations.

Concerning Premature death associated with bipolar disorder

Evidence of premature death for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder comes from a study published in Psychiatric Services (abstract available). This study adds to previous warnings discussing risk factors contributing to chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. The authors reviewed 17 published studies (between 1959 and 2007) involving more than 330,000 people.

October 20, 2008

Antipsychotic meds and heart disease

An NIMH study (n=1125) comparing antipsychotic medications and cardiac heart disease found the “risk for CHD differed significantly among the medications.” Risk, marked by elevated cholesterol, was highest for those taking olanzapine (Zyprexa, Zydis) and quetiapine (Seroquel). A decreased risk was noted for those taking risperidone (Risperdal) and ziprasidone (Geodon). Cardiovascular disease is a contributing factor to the shorter life span of people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

January 16, 2009

Sudden death associated with anti-psychotic drugs

Researchers from Vanderbilt University say the rate of sudden cardiac death is twice as high (29 versus 14 per 10,000) for people taking anti-psychotic medication than for those who aren’t. Based on analysis of 15 years of Medicaid data from Tennessee, authors of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/3/225) conclude that despite expectations that they differed, first and second generation anti-psychotic drugs have similar, dose-related risks.

March 29, 2007

Medication choices for treating bipolar

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study (N=366) appearing in the on-line New England Journal of Medicine reports that, as an adjunct to mood stabilizers, anti-depressants added no more benefit than a placebo to people diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Work was conducted by a consortium of medical schools in the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health.

http://www.miwatch.org/

Article

Premature Mortality From General Medical Illnesses Among Persons With Bipolar Disorder: A Review

Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D. and Wayne Katon, M.D.

The authors are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. Send correspondence to Dr. Katon at Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Services, BB-1661 University Hospital, Box 356560, Seattle, WA 98195 (e-mail: wkaton@u.washington.edu).

OBJECTIVE: Despite recent evidence that patients with bipolardisorder are at increased risk of premature mortality resultingfrom general medical disorders, there has been no systematicreview of published studies. The authors reviewed the literatureto determine whether there is evidence of increased risk ofmortality from general medical causes among patients with bipolarspectrum disorders. METHODS: MEDLINE was searched from 1959to 2007 with a focus on bipolar disorder and medical mortality.Published studies in English with more than 100 patients wereincluded. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were identified involving331,000 patients with bipolar disorder, affective psychosis,affective disorder severe enough to require inpatient psychiatriccare or treatment with lithium, or schizoaffective disorder(that is, bipolar spectrum disorders) meeting the inclusioncriteria. Compared with age- and sex-matched control sampleswithout mental illness in the general population, mortalityratios for death from natural causes and from specific generalmedical conditions, such as cardiovascular, respiratory, cerebrovascular,and endocrine disorders, were significantly higher among patientswith bipolar spectrum disorders in most studies. This findingwas more consistent in larger studies with more than 2,500 patientswith bipolar spectrum disorders. Cumulatively, cardiovasculardisorder appeared to be the most consistent cause of excessmortality in larger studies. CONCLUSIONS: The available evidencesuggests that bipolar spectrum disorders are associated withincreased premature mortality secondary to general medical illnesses.Unhealthy lifestyle, biological factors, adverse pharmacologiceffects, and disparities in health care are possible underlyingcauses for this excess mortality.

JournalWatch: http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2009/114/1

Antipsychotic Drugs and Sudden Cardiac Death

Both typical and atypical agents doubled risk for sudden cardiac death.

The latest evidence linking antipsychotic drugs to sudden cardiac death is provided by a retrospective cohort study based on data from Tennessee Medicaid. Vanderbilt University researchers identified 93,000 adults (age range, 30–74) who used antipsychotic drugs between 1990 and 2005; about half used typical agents (most commonly haloperidol or thioridazine), and half used atypical agents (most commonly clozapine, quetiapine, olanzapine, or risperidone). These patients were matched by age and sex with 186,000 controls.

The rate of sudden cardiac death was twofold higher among current users of antipsychotic drugs than among nonusers (about 29 vs. 14 sudden deaths per 10,000 person-years). This significant doubling of risk was noted with both typical and atypical agents. These findings were strengthened by several additional analyses: A dose-response pattern was noted; risk for former (i.e., noncurrent) antipsychotic drug users was similar to that of nonusers; and findings from a propensity analysis (which minimizes the influence of potentially confounding factors) mirrored those of the initial analysis.

Comment: This study provides additional evidence that both typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs elevate risk for sudden cardiac death. A plausible mechanism exists: Antipsychotic drugs block repolarizing potassium currents and can prolong the QT interval. In a strongly worded editorial, the writers advocate sharp reductions in use of these agents for off-label indications (e.g., behavior control in dementia patients) and suggest that patients undergo electrocardiography before and shortly after starting these drugs (to detect QT prolongation).

— Allan S. Brett, MD

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine January 14, 2009

Citation(s):

Ray WA et al. Atypical antipsychotic drugs and the risk of sudden cardiac death. N Engl J Med 2009 Jan 15; 360:225.

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February 8, 2009 · 10:23 pm

News from MindFreedom and other discussions

It’s been a while since I posted information from MFI or other mental health consumer discussion, so, here, from old to newer; have a full bowl-

NY Times says minor reform is not enough, but stops short of calling
for what is needed: Laws that criminalize extreme psychiatric
corruption. Please forward. See BOTTOM for actions, including
nonviolent protest, you can take.

~~~~~~~~~~
New York Times Editorial – 4 January 2009

No Mugs, but What About Those Fees

New pharmaceutical industry guidelines should stop most drug
companies from distributing a wide range of trinkets and office
supplies designed to keep their brand names before doctors as a
subliminal inducement to prescribe high-priced drugs.

The new code, which kicked in on New Year’s Day, bars the free
distribution of everything from pens to coffee mugs and staplers by
some 40 drug companies that have agreed to the restrictions. That may
seem like small potatoes, but in the aggregate the promotional
products probably cost about $1 billion a year, as Natasha Singer
reported in The Times. The updated rules are the industry’s latest
attempt to restore public confidence that doctors are prescribing
medicines in the patient’s interest. The code still has too many
loopholes.

Although it prohibits company sales representatives from providing
restaurant meals to health care professionals, it allows the sales
teams to continue providing modest meals in professional offices
while pitching their products. It allows companies to continue paying
for so-called continuing medical education for physicians while
correctly leaving the selection of content, speakers and study
materials to conference organizers. There appear to be no loopholes
in bans against providing free tickets to the theater, sporting
events or resort junkets.

None of the steps yet contemplated by industry or professional groups
would completely sever the medical profession and many individual
doctors from their far more disturbing financial ties to the drug
industry.

Over the years, prominent physicians have received hefty fees for
conducting research, consulting or giving “educational” speeches
touting the virtues of drugs to their colleagues. The new industry
code would limit consultants’ fees to “fair market value,” but
critics believe that still leaves far too much room to pay individual
doctors handsomely.

Two investigations now under way at prominent universities show how
much more needs to be done to aerate undisclosed conflicts of interest.

A prominent psychiatrist at Emory University is accused of taking
large payments from a drug maker – and misleading his university
about the amounts – while heading a government study of the company’s
antidepressant drugs. Three psychiatrists at Harvard whose work
fueled an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs to
treat children are accused of failing to report large payments from
the drug makers, most of which they had not disclosed to their
institutions.

Congress needs to pass legislation that would force all drug and
medical-device companies to report a wide range of payments to
doctors through a national registry so that all conflicts are known.
This is a reform that the industry itself now seems willing to
accept. Better yet, the medical profession needs to wean itself
almost entirely from its pervasive dependence on industry money.

~~~~~~~~~~
** ACTION ** ACTION ** ACTION **

Please forward

~~~~~~~~~~
You may e-mail letter to editor of *LESS* THAN 150 WORDS to The NY
Times here: letters@nytimes.com. Include your contact info. Letters
referring to a recent NY Times editorial have a better chance of
being run.

~~~~~~~~~~
Link to editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05mon1.html

http://tinyurl.com/nytimes-psychiatry

~~~~~~~~~~
MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Thought financial industry corruption was bad? Psychiatric industry
corruption kills kids.

Put psychiatric abusers behind bars. MindFreedom calls for new laws
and enforcement of current laws mandating prison time for extreme
psychiatric human rights violations.

Join nonviolent protests of psychiatric drug money corruption in
front of American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting Exhibit Hall
at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, or WHEREVER you are, 17 to 18 May
2009. Info about this and other events:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/events_sf

~~~~~~~~~~
Read more about USA Congressional investigation of psychiatric
profession here, including past NY Times articles and editorials:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psych-drug-corp/congress

~~~~~~~~~~
To thank USA Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for leading the
congressional investigation use this web form:

http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

MindFreedom News – January 2009
http://www.mindfreedom.org – please forward

Another forced electroshock for Ray. ZAP BACK!

Join global nonviolent resistance ONLINE!

This Saturday, 10 January 2009, 2 pm ET, 11 am PT click into:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidwoaks

Live Free MindFreedom Mad Pride Web Radio – Special ZAP BACK SHOW.

Ray will be woken up early in his “Victory House” group home near
Minneapolis again this morning, Wednesday, 7 January 2009.

Ray Sandford is scheduled for another forced electroshock.

Under a court order and over his expressed wishes, he’ll be escorted
the few miles to Mercy Hospital, put under anesthesia, and given
another “electroconvulsive therapy” or ECT through his brain.

Ray says, “It is scary as hell every time I go.”

Today, involuntary electroshock continues for Ray and many others all
over the world.

New York Times Article:

Lilly Said to Be Near $1.4 Billion U.S. Settlement

By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON
Published: January 14, 2009

Eli Lilly, the drug company, is expected to agree as soon as Thursday to pay $1.4 billion to settle criminal and civil charges that it illegally marketed its blockbuster antipsychotic drug Zyprexa for unauthorized use in patients particularly vulnerable to its risky side effects.

Today’s Business: Gardiner Harris on the Eli Lilly Settlement
Related
Plea Agreement (U.S. v. Eli Lilly and Co.) (Findlaw.com>

Details of the agreement were provided by people involved in the negotiations.

Among the charges, Lilly has been accused of a scheme stretching for years to persuade doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to two categories of patients — children and the elderly — for whom the drug was not federally approved and in whom its use was especially risky.

In one marketing effort, the company urged geriatricians to use Zyprexa to sedate unruly nursing home patients so as to reduce “nursing time and effort,” according to court documents. Like other antipsychotic drugs, Zyprexa increases the risks of sudden death, heart failure and life-threatening infections like pneumonia in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis.

The company also pressed doctors to treat disruptive children with Zyprexa, court documents show, even though the medicine’s tendency to cause severe weight gain and metabolic disorders is particularly pronounced in children. Over the last decade, Zyprexa’s use in children has soared.

The case is being prosecuted by the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Patricia Hartman, a spokeswoman for the office, declined to comment.

Angela Sekson, a Lilly spokeswoman, said she could not comment on the status of the Zyprexa negotiations. Last fall, the company, anticipating a settlement, had set aside $1.4 billion for that purpose.

The amount of the settlement is a record sum for so-called corporate whistle-blower cases, which are federal lawsuits prompted by tips from company employees or former employees. In this case, the whistle-blowers have not been publicly identified.

Lilly executives have for years insisted that the company’s Zyprexa marketing efforts were legal and appropriate. When asked whether she could repeat those assurances, Ms. Sekson said, “It would be inappropriate for me to comment further right now.”

It could not be confirmed on Wednesday whether the company would acknowledge wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Without a settlement, Lilly risks being barred from participating in the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs — a huge part of its business — even though such bans are almost unheard of for big drug makers because their products are considered so essential.

In the United States, most of Zyprexa’s sales are paid for by government programs because so many of those taking Zyprexa are indigent or disabled. Zyprexa had sales of $4.8 billion in 2007, making it the biggest seller by far for Lilly, whose revenue that year was $18.6 billion. Depending on dosage, the drug can cost as much as $25 for a daily pill.

The settlement may have little impact on how doctors actually use Zyprexa, because physicians are free to prescribe drugs as they see fit. But drug makers are barred from promoting drugs for uses not specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Zyprexa has F.D.A. approval only for the treatment of schizophrenia and the mania and agitation associated with bipolar disorder.

Zyprexa has generated more than $39 billion in sales since its approval in 1996, making it one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world.

And despite mounting concern about Zyprexa’s risks and the negative publicity surrounding the legal case, sales were $3.5 billion for the first nine months of 2008, 2 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2007. Prescriptions for the drug actually declined, but Lilly raised prices on the drug enough to increase its revenues.

Zyprexa was initially received as a significant advance over an earlier generation of antipsychotic drugs. But a series of landmark studies in recent years have cast doubt on that long-held view and suggested that Zyprexa is no better than older drugs that sell for far less.

A government study published in September, for instance, found that Zyprexa was no more effective in children than an older medicine but caused more serious side effects. The children receiving Zyprexa gained so much weight during the study that a safety monitoring panel ordered that they be taken off the drug.

In December 2006 articles in The New York Times detailed hundreds of internal Lilly documents and e-mail messages among top company managers that showed how the company sought for years to play down Zyprexa’s tendency to cause weight gain and metabolic disorders, including diabetes, while promoting unapproved uses.

One 2000 e-mail message, for instance, described how a group of diabetes doctors that Lilly had retained to consider potential links between Zyprexa and diabetes had warned the company that “unless we come clean on this, it could get much more serious than we might anticipate.”

After those articles were published, Lilly threatened to seek criminal contempt charges against Dr. David Egilman, a Massachusetts physician and associate clinical professor at Brown University, who made the documents available to The Times. In September 2007, Dr. Egilman agreed to pay Lilly $100,000 in return for the company’s agreement to drop the threat of criminal sanctions.

On Wednesday, Dr. Egilman said he felt vindicated by the imminent settlement. “I’m glad Lilly is acknowledging their wrongdoing,” he said. “Patients and doctors now know more about the side effects of the drugs they take.”

The government’s case will remain sealed until at least Thursday, when a judge is expected to approve the settlement. People involved in the negotiations say that prosecutors pressed for a resolution in the waning days of the Bush administration to avoid having to get another set of approvals from new bosses at the Justice Department in Washington.

While the settlement is intended to resolve all pending government claims, it is unclear whether all states, which are parties to the case through the federal-state Medicaid program, have agreed to the terms.

Some of the claims and evidence in the government’s case are similar to those made in a pending California state whistle-blower lawsuit in which Jaydeen Vicente, a former Lilly sales representative, described years of what she said were illegal Zyprexa marketing efforts.

Ms. Vicente and other Lilly sales representatives distributed a Lilly study contending that elderly patients who were prescribed the drug “required fewer skilled nursing staff hours than patients prescribed other competing medications” and reduced “caregiver distress,” the lawsuit states. Zyprexa often induces sleep in patients.

“In truth, this was Lilly’s thinly veiled marketing of Zyprexa as an effective chemical restraint for demanding, vulnerable and needy patients,” the lawsuit states.

In October, Lilly agreed to pay $62 million to 32 states and the District of Columbia to settle consumer protection claims related to Zyprexa. It has also paid the state of Alaska $15 million to settle a separate suit and agreed to pay $1.2 billion to 31,000 Zyprexa plaintiffs. Some private Zyprexa claims remain unresolved.

MindFreedom News – 14 January 2009
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray – please forward

Another forced electroshock for Ray Sandford today.

Decision: Protest the mental health system, or not?

by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

As I e-mail out this message, Ray Sandford is being escorted again
this Wednesday morning, 14 January 2009, from his group home near
Minneapolis, Minnesota to Mercy Hospital for another involuntary,
maintenance, outpatient electroshock under court order.

There is a decision each and every one of us needs to make.

It is the same decision Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks
and thousands of others in the civil rights movement had to make.

To protest, or not?

One of my resolutions for 2009 is to nonviolently protest.

Ray — summoning that unstoppable human spirit that always impresses
me in so many psychiatric survivors — asks us to protest.

Survivors of electroshock human rights violations on the MindFreedom
“Zapback” e-mail list, where the Ray Campaign is being coordinated,
also say it’s time to protest the mental health system.

There are many ways, times, places and reasons to protest.

But it begins with a decision.

Ray’s forced electroshock today is not a fluke.

Ray’s forced shock is not because the mental health system lacks
money, though good programs need more resources.

Ray’s forced shock is not because of a few “bad apples” in the mental
health system.

Ray is surrounded by an array of taxpayer-funded agencies and
professionals who are charged with protecting and helping Ray.

Ray has had court hearings represented by a court-appointed attorney.
He has a conservator, general guardian and a guardian ad litem.
Minnesota legal advocacy, ombudsman and mental health consumer groups
are well aware of Ray’s shock. Minnesota’s Governor Pawlenty has
received hundreds of complaints. MindFreedom filed a torture
complaint with the United Nations.

The headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
[ELCA], whose six Synods in Minnesota own Ray’s guardian agency
LSSMN, say they have been inundated with hundreds of complaints.
Their official response: They’re not in charge of Ray’s shock, though
we never said they were. We asked ELCA to stand up publicly against
forced electroshock, they refuse.

Ray’s forced shock is a sign and symptom of how extremely oppressive
today’s mental health system remains, and how so much of our society
is complicit with this oppression.

Ray’s forced shock is an excruciatingly painful lesson and wake up
call to us all about an oppression so deep, it is seldom named: sanism.

Ray’s courage has educated so many people. Because Ray called the
MindFreedom office this Fall, many people now know forced
electroshock exists, and that psychiatrists sometimes give ongoing
“maintenance” electroshock. Many now know electroshock is often given
on an outpatient basis.

Many people now know that even Americans living in their own homes,
which are supposed to be our “castles,” out in the community, without
being convicted of any crime, can be court ordered to receive such an
invasive, potentially-irreversible procedure.

Now we know.

Don’t let this knowledge become normal. As MLK said, show your
“creative maladjustment.”

When I was an activist in the peace movement, there was a saying. “To
know, and not to act, is not yet truly to know.”

Reading about this on the Internet is not enough.

Each of us needs to decide and prepare:

Protest or not to protest?

When it’s time for a forced shock, Ray is told because preparation
must begin.

The day before, all food is removed from his fridge because to get
ready for anesthesia he cannot eat for a number of hours.

Then early in the morning staff wake him up and he is brought to the
hospital. Ray is put under anesthesia, and electricity is run through
his head inducing a convulsion. He wakes up with more memory and
cognitive problems.

Ray has had more than three dozen and he says, “It is scary as hell
every time I go.”

Ray’s forced shock is not because of a lack of public attention.

Hundreds have spoken out against this ongoing forced shock. Last
month, Ray’s plight was aired on National Public Radio. Ray’s own
elderly mother, a retired psychiatric nurse, has recently pleaded
with Ray’s psychiatrist to stop (since Ray is under guardianship, she
has no official say).

Most recently, Ray was sent to a neurologist for a check-up, but that
did not stop his shock.

The only change this past month is that instead of weekly
electroshock, Ray is now on a complicated pattern of every other
week, followed by every third week, back to every other week. Instead
of receiving his maintenance electroshock last Wednesday as Ray at
first expected, his shock is today.

Why are we surprised?

Based on the hard-won lessons of so many other groups that have
organized for their basic human rights, how can we expect real change
without protest?

In my 33 years in this field, I have seen many colleagues begin to
work in organizations and agencies that are funded by the mental
health system, and many of them are doing tremendously helpful and
crucial work. This work must continue, it’s a sign of hope.

Today it is common to hear mental health system leaders claim this
system’s values have changed to:

* Mental health consumer self-determination.

* Client empowerment.

* Advocacy and human rights.

* Recovery.

* Consumer-driven trauma-informed peer-delivered services.

And again, there are signs of hope.

But we ask:

Why is Ray Sandford getting involuntary maintenance electroshock this
morning?

Why is there a mental health “Abu Ghraib” operating before our very
eyes?

Why does forced electroshock and forced psychiatric drugging continue
in other states in the USA?

Why is forced electroshock growing internationally?

In my study of history, minor reform of psychiatry is not a solution,
minor reform is one of the problems.

Minor reform fuels more of the same.

When you hear a simple call for “more money” for the mental health
system — without addressing the required fundamental change, watch out!

Remember Ray.

Truly, we need a nonviolent revolution in the mental health system.

Historically, nonviolent revolution requires nonviolent protest.

So there is one question now:

Protest, or not?

Protest begins with a decision. I hope you make that personal
commitment.

If you agree it is time for protest, please forward this to a
colleague and add in your own words, “I agree, it’s time.”

Remember Ray.

– David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

For links to latest news, Ray Campaign blog, and frequently asked
questions about the “No More Shock For Ray Campaign” go here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 – POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

Crazy is not even the word for it:

Old news from an unknown source:

“A new generation of drugs is needed,” said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “It is clear from this data that antidepressants are not the answer.”

Dr. Insel admits that another major treatment outcome evaluation study sponsored by NIMH, “Effectiveness of Adjunctive Antidepressant Treatment for Bipolar Depression,” the largest study yet, confirms that the widespread practice of prescribing antidepressants lacks clinical justification. The drugs were of no value for the treatment of depression thereby challenging US psychiatrists’ aggressive use of combined psychotropic drugs. U.S. psychiatrists’ “strongly held beliefs about the efficacy of antidepressants in treating bipolar depression” is not supported by evidence. The practice can be traced to the influence the drug industry has on U.S psychiatry.

The randomized, placebo controlled study was conducted at 22 major research centers participating in the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD). It focused on patients diagnosed with bipolar I and II who were treated with any mood stabilizer approved by the FDA with and without an antidepressant. Of 366 patients enrolled in the study, 179 were randomized to mood stabilizer and the antidepressant, Paxil, and 187 were randomized to mood stabilizer and placebo. The study was published online in The New England Journal of Medicine, March 28, 2007, and is available free: [Link] Eighteen of the 20 investigators have extensive financial ties to drug manufacturers.

Patients who were randomized to placebo rather than the antidepressant fared better in all outcome measures-except the switch to mania which was reported a fraction of a percent higher among placebo patients-20 (10.7%) compared to 18 (10.1%) of patients on mood stabilizer and Paxil. However, the validity of this outlying finding is uncertain. In his accompanying editorial, Dr. Robert Belmaker point out: “Patients who had become manic in response to antidepressants in the past would not have enrolled in the trial, casting doubt on whether the drugs are safe for all bipolar patients.” [Link]

Another confounding element–which is almost always a problem in psychiatric research–is prior exposure to the drugs: Dr. Belmaker notes: “Almost 90% of the patients in the study by Sachs et al. were using a mood stabilizer at randomization. Thus, the study does not address the possibility that antidepressants can cause mania in patients with bipolar depression in the absence of a mood stabilizer.”

And the STEP-BD authors report that some patients were also taking an antidepressant at the time of randomization which was tapered by 50% the first week and withdrawn by second week. Clearly the effects of prior exposure to these drugs and the effect of tapering (i.e. withdrawal symptoms) may bias the results. Nevertheless, the findings are clearly against use of antidepressants in this population.

Table 3 provides the primary and secondary outcome results of the 26 week study. The primary outcome was “durable recovery” defined as 8 weeks of euthemia (non-depressed). The result: 42 of 179 patients (23.5%) achieved “durable recovery” on mood stabilizer + adjunctive antidepressant compared to 51 of 187 patients (27.3%) on mood stabilizer and placebo.

Results of secondary outcomes: “transient remission” defined as 1 to 7 weeks of non-depression: 32 patients (17.9%) achieved “transient remission” on mood stabilizer + adjunctive antidepressant compared to 40 (21.4%) on mood stabilizer and placebo. Discontinuation because of adverse effects: 22 (12.3%) on stabilizer and antidepressant compared to 17 (9.1%) on stabilizer and placebo.

Finally, an unclear secondary outcome criteria “treatment effectiveness” defined as “50% Improvement from baseline SUM-D score* without meeting DSM-IV criteria for hypomania or mania.” No indication of a duration criteria is given. The finding: 58 (32%) of patients on mood stabilizer and antidepressant compared to 71 (38%) patients on stabilizer and placebo.

The authors acknowledge: “we did not study a “pure” placebo group (one in which no active psychotropic medication was administered) and hence cannot establish the effectiveness of treatment with a mood stabilizer alone.”

Dr. Insell got it half right: “It is clear from this data that antidepressants are not the answer.” However, why does it follow that “A new generation of drugs is needed” ???

What disorder of the imagination do mainstream psychiatrists in the U.S. suffer from that they cannot fathom a world beyond the “next generation” of drugs-all the more so, in light of the evidence that the second generation antidepressants and antipsychotics have proven not only no better than the first generation, but arguably worse ?

MindFreedom International – 6 February 2009
Mind Your Freedom in Mental Health
http://www.mindfreedom.org – please forward

Four (4) very brief MindFreedom news items for a nonviolent
revolution in mental health:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1) Academy Award and Forced Electroshock

Ray Sandford of Minnesota has now had as many or more forced
electroshocks as the fictional character portrayed in the Academy
Award-nominated film _Revolutionary Road_:

Thirty-seven (37).

Ray Sandford, though, is a real human being.

Involuntary outpatient electroshock re-started for Ray Sandford, and
is slated to continue indefinitely.

Unless everyone acts.

Last week MindFreedom reported that Ray Sandford postponed one of his
series of forced maintenance outpatient electroshocks because of a
health problem.

Ray phoned the MindFreedom office with the sad news that his doctor
approved him for another involuntary electroshock, and Ray received
it yesterday morning, 5 February 2009.

It looks like thousands upon thousands of united people are needed to
unite to stop involuntary electroshock for Ray, and many others. Let
that include you!

For more info on the Ray Campaign to Stop Forced Outpatient
Electroshock, see this gateway:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2) “Have a Heart – End Forced Electroshock” Show!

Next Guest on MindFreedom Mad Pride Free Live Web Radio:

Mary Maddock of Ireland — Electroshock survivor, author, and
community organizer.

On Valentine’s, Saturday, 14 February 2009, tune in for live free
Internet radio with MindFreedom, and guests that include Mary
Maddock, co-author of the book _Soul Survivor_. Mary is a MindFreedom
International board member who survived forced electroshock.

You can call in live using either your computer or telephone. We’ll
have the latest news about the Ray Sandford campaign.

Time: 11 am Pacific USA, 2 pm Eastern USA, 7 pm [1900] London UTC/GMT

More info on how to tune in every “Second Saturday” in 2009:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/radio

Get Mary’s book at MindFreedom’s Mad Market at http://www.madmarket.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3) Australia Electroshocking Toddlers

Australia is now electroshocking toddlers, including 55 children aged
four and younger, and two kids under the age of four, according to
news reports.

Read essays and news items here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock

In that folder you will find:

a) Essay by dissident psychologist Bruce Levine on Australia
electroshocking young children:

http://tinyurl.com/kid-shock
or
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock/
electroshocking-toddlers

b) Essay by dissident psychiatrist Peter Breggin on same:

http://tinyurl.com/breggin-australia
or
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock/
breggin-australia-electroshock

c) Australian news story on electroshocking kids, with statistics:

http://tinyurl.com/child-shock
or
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock/child-
shock-therapy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4) World Health Organization leader praises MindFreedom International
and Executive Director David W. Oaks

In its legal handbook, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for
zero use of involuntary electroshock over the expressed wishes of the
subject:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock

WHO is the official health organization of the United Nations.

Benedetto Saraceno, MD, Director, Department of Mental Health and
Substance Abuse at WHO said some very positive words about the work
of MindFreedom International, and MFI director David W. Oaks, here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us/david-w-oaks

From the Independent:

Voluntary psychiatric patient fights for

freedom

By Tim Healy
Wednesday January 21 2009

A WOMAN yesterday asked the High Court to order her release from a psychiatric hospital, claiming her detention is not in accordance with the law.

The 69-year-old woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder, was admitted to the hospital on December 9 after being arrested by gardai.

She challenged this and yesterday a High Court judge ruled she had been lawfully detained at the hospital.

But the woman had taken separate proceedings, which opened yesterday, seeking her release when the hospital decided she should remain after she had agreed to be a voluntary patient.

The woman became a voluntary patient after an order committing her involuntarily was revoked on December 19 by order of a Mental Health Tribunal.

Last Thursday, the hospital refused to discharge her because it was not satisfied this would be in her best interests. The hospital invoked a provision of the Mental Health Act giving it power to detain voluntary patients.

Last Friday, the woman brought a second set of proceedings claiming the hospital has no power to do so because the MHT had already found she was not suffering from a mental “disorder” as required under law before a person can be committed involuntarily.

The case continues.

– Tim Healy

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Filed under CS/X movement, Links: Recovery, Mental health recovery, mindfreedom news, wellness and systems change

Tagged as Consumer/ Survivor Movement, CS/X movement, links to information on mental health and recovery, Mad News, mad pride, mental health news, Mental health recovery, MindFreedom, news

December 25, 2008 · 11:53 pm

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First- I want to introduce you to a service offered by someone I know.

From her web page:

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Other things:

MindFreedom News- The Ray ECT Campaign

By David Oaks

23 December 2008

Dear readers of the MindFreedom News Public Alerts:

Ray Sandford phoned the MindFreedom office this morning, as he does
most days.

As you probably know, Ray has received about 35 involuntary
electroshocks. MindFreedom’s Ray Campaign has activated hundreds of
people like you to support Ray. This won Ray national publicity and a
new hearing last week.

Ray gave me the bad news that the judge ruled against him. Again.

That means Ray is scheduled for another of his every-other-Wednesday
involuntary electroshocks tomorrow, 24 December 2008.

Christmas Eve.

Ray says, “I’m really disappointed in that.” Ray thought that maybe
his family’s holiday get togethers would delay this week’s forced shock.

But Ray said that instead of the gathering, “I’ll be having tacos
with my aunt tonight to celebrate Christmas.”

So tomorrow morning Ray will be woken up early in his group home, and
escorted to a forced shock.

Ray told me this morning:

“It’s a painful awful experience. Every time. It takes away memory
viciously. It is scary as hell every time I go.”

Ray says he always objects.

“I say, ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this,’ which
I’ve known since the first time. Everyone figures I’m totally nuts.”

Ray is not giving up.

So we are not giving up.

We ask that you not give up.

Eye-witnesses at Ray’s hearing, held in a dreary hospital basement,
knew he did not have much of a chance.

Ray’s court-appointed attorney, Jon Duckstad, refused to call any
expert witness to testify for Ray’s side. (See MFI Blog for more on
the hearing.) Mr. Duckstad has refused to respond to any offers of
help from MindFreedom, including a number of skilled attorneys we’ve
found who offered to assist for free.

Ray is keeping his spirits up.

Ray is so grateful to MindFreedom members and supporters for speaking
out. Ray is proud that even a relative in Alaska heard him oppose his
forced shock on National Public Radio (click on http://
www.mindfreedom.org/ray to hear that, and read more about Ray).

I am deeply impacted by Ray’s ongoing psychiatric torture out in the
community.

All abuse is bad, but severe outpatient abuse is traumatizing to all
of us, like me, who have experienced mental health system human
rights violations. It means none of us are safe, even in our homes.

MindFreedom International – please forward
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray
Human Rights in Mental Health – Ray Alert #8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas Eve 2008

What Would Jesus Do About Forced Electroshock?

An Open Letter to the Lutheran Church [ELCA] from MindFreedom
International [MFI]

by David W. Oaks, Executive Director, MFI

As we send you this, we understand Ray Sandford of Minnesota is
receiving another involuntary electroshock this Christmas Eve
morning, 24 December 2008.

As you know, your agency Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota
(LSSMN) is charged with being General Guardian for Ray. This is a
reply to your recent misleading public statement about the
MindFreedom Campaign to End Ray Sandford’s Forced Electroshock
(copied at bottom).

Regularly for months — presently every other week — attendants wake
Ray up early in his group home, Victory House. He is escorted the few
miles to a hospital. Under court order and against his repeated and
clear objections, Ray is put under anesthesia, electricity is run
through brain head, and he is given another electroshock, also known
as electroconvulsive therapy or ECT.

Ray has received about 35 so far.

Ray calls our office most days, and it’s always good to hear from
him. He told me yesterday, “It’s a painful, awful experience. Every
time. It takes away memory viciously. It is scary as hell every time
I go.”

Ray says he always objects. “I say, ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t
want to do this,’ which I’ve known since the first time. Everyone
figures I’m totally nuts.”

One day Ray asked his local library about groups working on human
rights in mental health, and Ray contacted MindFreedom International.
Ray asked us to start a public campaign to support his right to say
“no” to electroshock.

I had hoped your church would be an ally in Ray’s campaign. Instead,
I have found you to stand by silently with arms folded, or even worse
your spokespeople appear to at times oppose Ray’s campaign.

In my 32 years of human rights activism, Ray is one of the most
focused individuals I’ve ever encountered in his persistent and
reasonable requests to end his forced electroshock. The fact that his
forced shock is outpatient and ongoing is especially outrageous.

Ray’s heroism has moved me and many others. Countless people have
responded to support the Ray Campaign, and Ray reached millions of
people on National Public Radio.

On 16 December 2008, the “Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America” [ELCA] issued a reply to a number of people who have
expressed concern about Ray as a result of MindFreedom’s human rights
alerts. (See below.)

It is significant for ELCA to issue a public statement about a
MindFreedom International campaign. With more more than four million
baptized members, ELCA is the largest Lutheran denomination and one
of the largest Christian denominations in the USA. We at MindFreedom
are eager for dialogue with ELCA.

Unfortunately, Miriam L. Woolbert of ELCA’s Communication Services
replied to those contacting ELCA that groups like MindFreedom are
“misdirecting you and many other people.”

Ms. Woolbert did not provide any example or quote of such
“misdirecting.” Her main points appear to be that ELCA is not a
“participant” in any involuntary electroshock, and that ELCA cannot
speak about Ray because of confidentiality.

MindFreedom’s alerts never claimed that ELCA is in charge of the
involuntary electroshock of Ray. MindFreedom International encourages
people to contact ELCA to ask you “to stand with Ray.”

Even if ELCA representatives feel you cannot speak specifically about
Ray, we ask ELCA to stand shoulder to shoulder with all their agency
clients, like Ray, who are receiving involuntary electroshock. ELCA
could at least begin by expressing concern or joining in dialogue.

We continue to encourage all people who care to contact ELCA, and
ELCA’s local congregations, with strong but civil messages.

Because of ELCA’s misleading statement about the Ray Campaign this
action is especially urgent, including for those who have already
contacted you.

Most importantly, Ray is asking us all to take this action.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

* ACTION * ACTION * ACTION *

People may e-mail ELCA headquarters at info@elca.org or use their web
form:

http://archive.elca.org/mailto.asp?to=info@elca.org

We also encourage all concerned people in the USA to contact local
ELCA congregations, which they can find by entering their postal code
here:

http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Search/Find-a-Congregation.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~~~

MindFreedom Suggested Message to ELCA and Local Congregations [your
own words from the heart are best]:

I am not being misdirected by MindFreedom International or anyone else.

I am not saying you are in charge of anyone’s forced electroshock.

I am not asking you to break confidentiality of any client.

I am simply asking:

Will you stand now with Ray Sandford, and all those who are oppressed
by extreme psychiatric abuse?

What is ELCA’s position on the forced, outpatient, maintenance
electroshock of clients you and your agencies are charged to guard?

Why isn’t ELCA expressing concern about these human rights
violations, which amount to torture?

How can ELCA use this opportunity to seek dialogue on human right and
alternatives in the mental health system?

[your name & contact]

[Please copy your e-mail to news@mindfreedom.org; selected e-mails
will be published on the web and/or mailed to Ray.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more info the Ray Campaign see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

The MindFreedom Board of Directors includes several individuals who
have personally experienced the unimaginable horror of an involuntary
electroshock.

The board endorses this public statement to ELCA, and asked me to
quote from the famous letter written by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
in the Birmingham Jail on 16 April 1963.

Forty-five years ago, Rev. King was responding to church leaders who
discouraged his own activist campaign:

“…I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the
white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our
strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents,
refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its
leaders; and too many others have been more cautious than courageous
and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-
glass windows…

“So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with
an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo.
Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power
structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent
and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.”

[More excerpts below.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those who would like more detail about this exchange between
MindFreedom and ELCA about the Ray Campaign:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about Lutheran Church [ELCA] and Forced
Electroshock of Ray Sandford

*** How does Ray Sandford’s feel about Lutheran Social Services of
Minnesota (LSSMN)?

Ray has approved this alert, and asks everyone to contact the
Lutheran Church [ELCA]. Ray knows that their agency LSSMN is not
directly in charge of his forced shock. Ray said, “In some ways
Lutheran Social Services is compassionate and helpful. They’ve
visited me and are a support system. They manage my finances my
fairly. But Lutheran Social Services does not listen to me. They
don’t see you. They asked me to not do this campaign. They should
support the person who doesn’t want electroshock. Tell them I don’t
want shock!”

*** Does ELCA oversee Ray’s forced electroshock?

To repeat, ELCA is not directly in charge of Ray’s forced
electroshock. We can understand ELCA being sensitive to this
question. Media are starting to pay attention, and National Public
Radio covered Ray’s story.

The legal jargon can get complicated. On 16 December, television
station WCCO-TV in Minnesota mis-reported that Ray’s “guardian ad
litem” Terri Bradley, who is the court-appointed person specifically
and narrowly in charge of overseeing Ray’s forced electroshock, and
who testified in court for Ray’s forced shock, works for LSSMN. WCCO-
TV has since issued a public retraction.

Legally speaking, LSSMN is “general guardian” for Ray, but not
“guardian ad litem” specifically on the electroshock.

*** What has ELCA said about forced electroshock?

Representatives of Luthern Social Services of Minnesota (LSSMN), an
agency that is sponsored by ELCA, have refused to speak out about the
abuse of their clients like Ray by repeated, “maintenance” forced
oupatient electroshock.

On the contrary, LSSMN representatives, including their employee
Tonya Wilhelm, have sought to discourage Ray and advocates such as
myself from speaking out publicly about Ray’s abuse. My first contact
with Ms. Wilhelm ended with her laughing loudly, saying this would be
between our lawyers, and hanging up.

Helpful MindFreedom voluteers in Minnesota are now prohibited from
even visiting Ray. Ray is kept from a follow-up visit to the
Minnesota Center for Independent Living. Ray is not being offered
humane alternatives to electroshock. Mail sent to Ray is re-directed
to LSSMN for screening. LSSMN attorney George Borer wrote MFI on 1
December “emphasizing” that they do not consent to MFI disseminating
info that Ray provided for the campaign that they consider “private.”

In a newspaper report on 18 November, Eric Jonstaard, director of
LSSMN, did speak out about Ray to a reporter. Unfortunately, Mr.
Jonstaard took the opportunity to chastise MindFreedom for using
Ray’s full name in the Ray Campaign, as Ray has specifically and
repeatedly authorized MindFreedom and NPR to do.

For more info on the Ray Campaign see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

*** What is ELCA’s link to LSSMN?

Through his bravery, Ray has offered us all an opportunity to create
dialogue. Instead, Mr. Jonstaard seeks to distance ELCA from the
situation by saying that ELCA is “not related to the situation”
except for a “loose” sponsorship of LSSMN.

Not related?

Loose?

ELCA’s sponsorship of LSSMN is official, financial, legal, direct,
public and documented.

LSSMN’s web site states that LSSMN is “owned” by six Minnesota synods
of ELCA, and credits ELCA as one of its “primary” funding sources for
their 2009 budget of $90 million.

Owned? A primary funding source?

How is that “loose”? Perhaps a lack of close oversight is part of the
problem.

This dialogue should not be about technical quibbling. ELCA has a
deep moral obligation to address oppression of any of their clients,
or any human being for that matter. ELCA’s agencies receive millions
of dollars in scarce taxpayer funding to guard these clients.

In Minnesota alone, Mr. Jonstaard says that LSSMN is responsible for
800 “vulnerable adults.” How many have experienced involuntary
psychiatric drugging and electroshock? LSSMN’s Tonya Wilhelm told
MindFreedom’s David Oaks that involuntary electroshock of LSSMN
clients like Ray in Minnesota is “not uncommon.”

The moral failure of involuntary electroshock over the expressed
wishes of the individual is not only committed by the individual
flipping the switch, but by all those aware of the torture but who
remain silent.

*** What about Ray’s confidentiality?

First and foremost, Ray has repeatedly, consistently, and
passionately spoken out, as he puts it so clearly, for “No more shock
for Ray.” He has signed a release of information form. He approved
MFI and National Public Radio using his full name in a broadcast that
reached an estimated two million people. LSSMN’s attorney admits the
First Amendment protects the rights of this campaign.

The ELCA statement claims that “confidentiality” keeps them from
addressing Ray specifically. In MindFreedom’s opinion, agencies such
as LSSMN have the legal discretion and moral obligation to speak out
about abuse of their clients to legislators, media, and the public if
they choose. Ray has asked for LSSMN to do this.

At what point does confidentiality become cover-up?

However anyone interprets privacy laws, everyone admits it is
completely legal for ELCA and LSSMN to speak out in general to the
media and legislators about the policy of involuntary electroshock
itself, which can impact a number of their agency’s clients.

ELCA has addressed other tough issues over the years. For instance,
one of ELCA’s predecessor churches ordained female pastors as early
as 1970. ELCA publicly wrestles with other controversial topics
including abortion and homosexual pastors.

So what about joining a discussion about issues impacting people
diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities? Isn’t it time? Isn’t it past
time?

*** Isn’t ELCA right that this is a matter entirely up to the courts?

According to eye witnesses, and Ray himself, his most recent court
hearing on 16 December, held in a hospital basement, was a mockery of
justice. Ray was not able to secure a better attorney. His court-
appointed attorney, Jon Duckstad, who Ray says has barely
communicated with him, did not call one independent expert witness to
defend Ray, and has refused offers of free help from other attorneys.

Social justice requires not just courts, but a sense of individual
and group moral responsibility.

Washing ones hands as Ray is escorted to a forced shock on Christmas
Eve is not acceptable.

*** Where else can people raise concerns with the ELCA community?

You may choose to bring this matter up with your own faith community,
and ask them to begin to address these topics themselves and contact
local ELCA congregations.

Also, by coincidence, the next ELCA Churchwide Assembly will take
place 17 to 23 August 2009 in Minneapolis, the very region where Ray
is receiving his regular, outpatient, forced electroshock.

It is time for all religious organizations to dialogue about the
human rights and dignity of some of society’s most oppressed
citizens, people who experience psychiatric atrocities.

One would expect many of ELCA’s participants would want to lead the
faith community on the neglected social justice issue of human rights
in mental health, rather than silence public discussion.

To quote ELCA’s web site about their church:

“It’s a story of a powerful and patient God who has boundless love
for all people of the world, who brings justice for the oppressed.”

*** Why do you quote a civil rights leader such as Martin Luther
King, Jr. about psychiatric oppression?

The civil rights movement was the inspiration for many social change
movements, including the movement led by survivors of psychiatric
abuse that began in the USA in 1970.

Other relevant quotes by MLK from his letter from a Birminham Jail
include the following:

MLK:

“I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and
states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about
what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly,
affects all indirectly….

“An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and
natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law
that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statues
are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the
personality…

“You may well ask, ‘Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so
forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in
calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct
action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and
foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused
to negotiate is forced to confront the issue…

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s
great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White
Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate,
who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a
negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace
which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with
you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of
direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the
timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept
of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more
convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is
more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill
will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright
rejection.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the reply ELCA has been sending to many people who have
expressed concern about Ray:

Statement from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ELCA] About
Campaign Against Forced Electroshock of Ray Sandford

~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: Info@elca.org

Date: December 16, 2008 7:36:03 AM PST

Thank you for writing concerning a story you have heard or seen in
the public media. The ELCA is not related to the situation, except as
a sponsor of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, one of 280 such
organizations in the Lutheran Services in America network.
Sponsorship is a fairly loose term from a churchwide perspective, and
usually means that people in the area of the affiliated agency
represent the church on the agency’s board, and individuals and
congregations may also contribute some funding to the agency.

Here is a response from Lutheran Services in America which explains
the situation about which you are concerned:

To respond to your inquiry and comments regarding a recent story
about the medical situation of a vulnerable adult under a civil
commitment proceeding, who also has a court appointed guardian:

As a guardian, Lutheran Social Service has both a legal and ethical
duty to keep the specific details of clients’ care and treatment
confidential. While we can’t discuss the client specifically, we can
speak in general about how we carry out our work.

Lutheran Social Service is appointed by the court to serve as a
guardian or conservator to over 800 vulnerable adults in Minnesota.
We are court-appointed to take on this role when individuals lack the
capacity to make decisions about their affairs and there are no
family members who are either able or willing to take on that
responsibility.

A civil commitment is a separate proceeding in the State of
Minnesota. When a person is civilly committed, a decision to impose
electroconvulsive therapy (“ECT”) is a decision made by a commitment
court and not the court appointed Guardian. In the commitment process
someone, normally a health care professional, brings a petition for
ECT treatment for the individual. The individual is assigned an
attorney and a guardian ad litem (not Lutheran Social Service) who
act as advocates either to oppose or to consent to the petition. The
commitment court hears evidence from medical professionals and then
makes a decision on whether to impose the ECT treatment. The court
decision is then appealable by the client and the client’s attorney.
Under Minnesota Statute §524.5-313, a general guardian such as
Lutheran Social Service has no authority to impose ECT treatment
against the known conscientious, religious or moral beliefs of the
individual. The general guardian is not a participant in the civil
commitment process regarding the forced imposition of ECT treatment.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has a long tradition of serving
vulnerable children and adults, and careful systems are in place to
ensure that decisions are made with the person’s best interest in mind.

Sincerely,
Eric Jonsgaard, Senior Director
LSS Guardianship Options

I hope this helps you understand the situation, and that you will
tell whoever suggested that writing to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America might help make a difference that they are
misdirecting you and many other people.

Miriam L. Woolbert
ELCA Communication Services

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above was sent by ELCA to a number of people in response to Ray
Alert #7 about National Public Radio coverage of Ray’s campaign,
which you can hear or read here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/alert-7-sandford

For more information on the Ray Campaign see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

Oregon Consumer/ Survivor Coalition

Health and disability forum

Hi All,

WowDHEC (Women with Disabilities Health Equity Coalition, www.wowdhec.org) is a dynamic non-hierarchical group that I belong to and we are gathering information for the Obama-Biden Team. Please join us on 1/30/08 in Portland for the forum. Men are welcome too!

If you can’t make it, please fill out the survey at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Qh2E4sc3d9ffNEp7CHyt9A_3d_3d

warm greetings,

Ann
www.bluepacem.com
evolve.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Are you a person with a disability or know someone who is?

Is it hard for you to be healthy, because of conditions in society and the health care system?

Well, here?s your chance to do something about it!

(For those that can?t attend, please fill out a short Health and Disability survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Qh2E4sc3d9ffNEp7CHyt9A_3d_3d)??

We would love to hear your opinions!

WowDHEC (Women with Disabilities Health Equity Coalition) http://www.wowdhec.org
is hosting a Health and Disability Forum to talk about the negative effects
of our health system on people with disabilities and to brainstorm solutions.?

We want to hear from as many voices within the disability community as
possible! We are a cross-disability group that includes people with visible and ?invisible? disabilities (mental health issues, cognitive disabilities, etc.)? Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible.?

This is urgent!?
Right now President-elect Obama is asking for feedback about how to improve our health system — and the Obama Transition Team is asking people around the country to hold community discussions through Dec. 31st.

What we learn from you will be shared with the Obama Transition Team and used to advocate for policy change locally and statewide.

Please join us and pass this along to others in the disability community.? To get a head count, an RSVP is appreciated, but not required.

To RSVP or if you have any other accommodation needs, questions or concerns,

contact Marcia
Muench at muenchm@ohsu.edu
or 503-494-2685.

____________________________________________________________________________
QUESTIONS

1. What conditions in your life do you believe affect your health? (for example, support from friends and family, your economic status, how you are treated by others, etc.)

2. What conditions make it harder or easier for you to protect your health?

3. What needs to change in your life conditions in order for you to be healthier?

4. What do you perceive is the biggest problem in the health system?

5. How do you choose a doctor or hospital? What are your sources of information? How should public policy promote quality health care providers?

6. Have you or your family members ever experienced difficulty paying medical bills? What do you think policy makers can do to address this problem?

7. In addition to employer-based coverage, would you like the option to purchase a private plan through an insurance-exchange or a public plan like Medicare?

8. Do you know how much you or your employer pays for health insurance? What should an employer’s role be in a reformed health care system?

9. Have you gotten the prevention health services you should have? If not, how can public policy help?

10. How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?

Marjorie McGee, M.S., L.P.C.
Director

Women with Disabilities Health Equity Coalition (WowDHEC)
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, UHN 50
Portland, Oregon 97239-3098
Ph.503-494-2685
Email: mcgeem@ohsu.edu (best)
www.wowdhec.org

EFT and Trauma

Emotional Freedom Technique

Studies show that up to 97% of those of us who carry a diagnosis of mental illness are trauma survivors. I asked 100 people who have been so labeled and all of them had significant trauma history with most being traumatized over and over again through the agencies and hospitals that are supposed to help them. I also asked each one:

“Have you ever received treatment for trauma as part of your mental health treatment?”

Out of 100 people I had 3 who told me they had formal treatment for trauma. Two said they had experienced EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitizing Reprocessing) and one said they had both EMDR and EFT (see below). I myself had very good results from EMDR but I have found EFT to be a much more useful tool because I don’t need a therapist to use it. I don’t even have to buy (another) self-help book.

EFT is a self-therapy that I have found especially useful in dealing with my own trauma history- Emotional Freedom Technique is available free, there is a free download-able manual, free ongoing information and forums. Download the manual here.

Pictures of Macaques:

or, haven’t you always wanted a monkey (click for full size)

Other pictures

bye for now

1 Comment

Filed under animated gif, CS/X movement, Mental health recovery, mindfreedom news, pictures, silly

December 16, 2008 · 5:25 pm

Interview with/ about Ray

Forced Electroshock-

Question: Is “forced treatment” really “treatment” or is it “Torture”?

This is an interview on NPR (click on link):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98273451

Background (mostly from MindFreedom):

Ray Alerts

(I apologize for repetitive information)

MindFreedom International – 16 November 2008
Ray Human Rights Alert #3: Please Forward

Now see a photo of Ray here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray

Media ought to ask, “What is Minnesota Governor Pawlenty’s
position on Involuntary Outpatient Electroshock (IOE)?”

Ray gets a one week reprieve.

First the good news.

Within days of MindFreedom launching its campaign on 7 November 2008
to stop the weekly involuntary outpatient electroshock of Ray
Sandford, his doctor has decided to “skip a Wednesday.”

Ray says that this coming Wednesday, 19 November 2008, for the first
time in months, Ray will not be escorted against his will, under
court order, from his Minnesota home out in the community to his 34th
involuntary outpatient electroshock.

So there’s a reprieve for Ray.

For one week.

The bad news is that Ray’s doctor said Ray’s forced outpatient
electroshocks will resume on Wednesday, 26 November 2008, the day
before the USA holiday of Thanksgiving.

Ray said his involuntary shock will then continue every other week.

We don’t know if the one-week reprieve is because of the MindFreedom
campaign, but we know MindFreedom News readers are having an impact.

Since the MindFreedom first alert went out nine days ago, on 7
November 2008:

*** Many people from all over the world have e-mailed and phoned
the offices of the Governor of Minnesota, along with social service
agencies, media, and the hospital where Ray receives his electroshock
against his expressed wishes.

*** For the first time, thousands of people are now aware of the
existence of IOE — Involuntary Outpatient Electroshock.

*** A few national and local media are now actively investigating.

*** Several advocacy agencies and human rights organizations are
expressing concern and getting involved.

*** Several volunteer attorneys are now in touch to provide
assistance.

*** Volunteers are visiting Ray and sending him their support,
and Ray tells us he is grateful. One volunteer took the photo of Ray
shown on the web version of this alert:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray

*** MindFreedom’s “Zapback” e-mail list is coordinating the
campaign.

*** A disability professor and her class of students have called
up Ray and are taking on his campaign as a project.

*** And more.

Thank you, everyone.

Keep up the pressure and the support!

KEEP IT UP!

First, keep phoning and e-mailing, especially if you have not so far.
Show there is national and international concern!

Here are the links to the original two MindFreedom alerts, which have
information about how to e-mail and phone the Governor of Minnesota,
and how to write or visit Ray:

7 Nov: Alert #1:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray-sandford

12 Nov: Alert #2 – Governor Phone-In Campaign:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/pawlenty-electroshock

16 Nov: Alert #3 – Link to this alert with photo of Ray:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray

SOLVE A MYSTERY!

Second, help MindFreedom answer the main mystery.

Despite all this public interest the question remains, “What is
Governor Pawlenty’s position on Minnesota laws allowing involuntary
outpatient electroshock?”

Is this Governor, who campaigns for “limited government,” for such
laws or against them?

Unfortunately, the Governor’s office has not responded to any of the
many e-mails or phone calls requesting his policy position. The
Governor’s office is immediately forwarding citizen inquiries to a
voice mail, and then not replying to the voice mail.

We need media to ask the Governor for us. Please forward this alert
to all media, small and large, from newspapers to bloggers.

Media can direct questions to:

Brian McClung
Director of Communications for Minnesota’s Governor
phone: (651) 296-0001.

Media ought to ask, “What is Governor Pawlenty’s position on
Minnesota laws allowing involuntary outpatient electroshock?”

Sometimes the Governor’s office is re-directing calls to the
Minnesota Department of Human Rights. At first that sounds good. But
this office says it is only focused on determining whether narrow
discrimination complaints are legally valid. A spokesperson said this
department makes no statements about policy.

This Minnesota agency said they are planning a major one-day human
rights conference and forum on 5 December. One barrier is the “forum”
costs $200.

For information on this Minn. Dept. of Human Rights, and their
“forum,” click here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/minnesota-human-rights-conference
or use this link:
http://tinyurl.com/mn-human-rights

You can also keep up with some of the latest developments about the
Ray Campaign on the MindFreedom blog by MindFreedom director David
Oaks, here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mfi-blog

Disclaimer: Because the State of Minnesota won’t reply, portions of
these alerts are based on Ray’s personal statements. By Ray’s own
admission, he now has severe memory problems. Therefore, journalists
may want to find a second source to confirm accuracy.

MindFreedom International – 24 November 2008
Ray Human Rights Alert #4: Please Forward

You Can Ask: Thanksgiving Reprieve?

MindFreedom Filing Complaint with UN Claiming “Torture” in Minnesota

The next forced outpatient electroshock of Ray Sandford is
scheduled for this Wednesday morning, 26 November 2008, the day
before the USA holiday of Thanksgiving.

Join an international campaign *NOW* to phone Minnesota Governor
Tim Pawlenty today and tomorrow, before the shock:

1) Ask the Governor to give Ray Sandford a reprieve from his next
forced electroshock.

2) Ask the Governor — who claims to believe in limited government —
if he supports laws in Minnesota allowing this torture: the
involuntary administration of electroshock therapy (ECT) of people
living out in the community?

A MindFreedom investigation revealed that Ray Sandford, 54,
complained of being escorted every week for months from his supported
living home in Columbia Heights, Minnesota to Mercy Hospital for
another course of electroshock over his objection.

After the first MindFreedom News international alert, Ray’s doctor
let him skip his forced shock this past Wednesday, 19 November.

This Wednesday morning, 26 November, Ray expects to be woken up early
once again to be escorted the 15 miles to what he is told will be his
34th involuntary outpatient electroshock under special Minnesota laws.

Meanwhile, MindFreedom is filing a official claim with the United
Nations calling Minnesota’s abuse of Ray “torture,” using a new
process and expanded definition by the UN.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

** ACTION ** ACTION ** ACTION **

Join in a MindFreedom international phone-in campaign!

Telephone Governor Pawlenty’s office *NOW* — and insist on talking
to a staff person.

Call any day, but especially call today and tomorrow, *before* Ray’s
scheduled electroshock this Wednesday.

From anywhere in the world phone (651) 296-3391.

From inside Minnesota phone toll free (800) 657-3717.

You have the best chance of reaching staff from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Central Time weekdays.

NOTE: Staff is directing many of these calls into voice mail.
MindFreedom is not aware of anyone actually getting a response to
this voice mail.

DO NOT GIVE UP! Politely but FIRMLY insist on on talking to a staff
person.

If you get redirected to voice mail leave a message, but call back
until you get an answer from a live person.

If you do receive any helpful information, e-mail it to
news@mindfreedom.org.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ray Campaign News Updates:

MindFreedom Filing Complaint with United Nations Alleging
“Torture” by Minnesota

This past Friday, 21 November, disability advocates met with Ray at
the Minnesota Center for Independent Living. Ray told advoctates he
very much supports this campaign.

During the meeting a teleconference was held with MindFreedom
President Celia Brown in New York City and MindFreedom Director David
Oaks in Oregon. Celia interviewed Ray so that MindFreedom may file a
human rights complaint under a new process with a United Nations
Special Rappateur. Because of recent developments, some types of
severe psychiatric abuse may now be considered torture by the UN.

Involuntary outpatient electroshock (IOE) is part of a trend to bring
the power of forced psychiatric procedures out into the community,
from the back ward to your front porch.

Mind your freedom: Your home is no longer your castle… it can
become your ward.

Electroshock itself has made a comeback throughout the USA, and
internationally, without adequate human rights protection.

You may read some of the many public comments that have been e-mailed
to the Governor at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/sandford-support-letters

For a full-sized photo of Ray click on his image here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray
MindFreedom International – Ray Alert #5
Win Human Rights in Mental Health – Please Forward!
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/alert-5-sandford

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ray’s Next Scheduled Involuntary Outpatient Electroshock is:
10 December — International Human Rights Day!

by David W. Oaks, Executive Director, MindFreedom International

This Wednesday, 10 December 2008, human rights activists all over the
world will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the signing of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

10 December is the UN’s official International Human Rights Day.

10 December is also the day that Ray Sandford is scheduled to receive
his 35th involuntary outpatient electroshock.

NEW ON WEB: Learn Ray’s story — Frequently Asked Questions About Ray
Sandford Campaign, click here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/sandford-faq

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Category Archives: CS/X movement

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Citation(s):

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Voluntary psychiatric patient fights for

freedom

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Interview with/ about Ray

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