MindFreedom International News – 12 December 2009
Unite for a Nonviolent Revolution in Mental Health
http://www.mindfreedom.org/ – please forward

Six (6) *brief* news alerts for independent mental health
advocacy and alternatives:

Read about: Poor kids more likely to be put on powerful psychiatric
drugs… NAMI board member resigns in protest over drug money
scandal… In one hour from NOW: MFI Web Live Web Free Radio
begins…. MindFreedom Journal mailed to current members in next few
days… Last month for your comment to FDA to stop permanent
electroshock deregulation… Last minute Mad Pride gifts…

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(1) New York Times: Poor Children FOUR (4) TIMES More Likely to be
Given Neuroleptic (Antipsychotic) Psychiatric Drugs

Today’s NY Times, 12 Dec. 2009, exposes the outrage that children on
Medicaid are four (4) times more likely than kids on private insurance
to be put on the super-powerful neuroleptic psychiatric drugs,
popularly known as “antipsychotics.”

Read the article here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/youth-mental-health/antipsychotic-kids

Research has already shown that African Americans of all ages are far
more likely to be put on these powerful psychiatric drugs than whites,
including court-ordered forced drugging.

In the last decade, alarming medical research has mounted indicating
that long-term high-dosage neuroleptics are linked to significant
shrinkage of the frontal lobes, the part of the brain which is thought
to make us human, the same area of the brain targeted by the infamous
lobotomy.

While MindFreedom is pro-choice on people’s taking prescription drugs,
the evidence for neuroleptic-induced brain damage are almost never
disclosed to patients, their families, the media or elected decision-
makers.

These “inconvenient truth” brain damage medical studies — confirmed
by repeated animal studies, brain scans and autopsies — are now well
known throughout the medical field, but are almost never explained to
the general public, who are often the ones to pay for these expensive
prescriptions.

In the middle of the biggest health care debate in USA history, here
is a concern that ought to unite both left wing and right wing.

So why haven’t the big mental health advocacy organizations like NAMI
warned the public about this? Read on….

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

(2) NY Times: NAMI Board Member Resigns Over Drug Money Scandal

Earlier this week, on 8 December 2009, The New York Times reported
about psychiatric drug company influence in major nonprofit
organizations.

The NY Times article reported that a board member of NAMI, the large
mental health advocacy group, resigned in protest over the undue
influence.

H. Richard Lamb, a professor of psychiatry at University of Southern
California, was a NAMI board member since 2005. At the time, NAMI had
a policy of keeping their high level of psychiatric drug money secret,
even from their own members.

However, earlier this year a Senate investigation forced NAMI to
reveal that certainly more than half — and as much as two-thirds,
says the NY Times — of their money was secretly from psychiatric drug
companies.

Professor Lamb resigned in public protest, saying he was “shocked to
learn that approximately half of NAMI’s income comes from the large
pharmaceutical companies…” He said NAMI officials promised him
change. “However,” Dr. Lamb wrote, “very little has changed, right up
to the present day.”

To read the article, and more info about NAMI, click here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psych-drug-corp/nami/nami-h-r-lamb

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

(3) IN ABOUT AN HOUR….

…. from when this e-mail is sent, on Saturday, 12 December 2009….

The MindFreedom Mad Pride LIVE Free Web Radio show begins, for 90
minutes.

The theme: Your vision of a nonviolent revolution in mental health care!

How do we know when we have won?

Why not have this revolution in 2010?

Your calls are welcome on this live web radio show!

Co-hosts: Celia Brown, MindFreedom president, and David W. Oaks,
MindFreedom director. Both are psychiatric survivors.

Special guest: Ray Sandford, survivor of forced outpatient
electroshock, will check in and say hi!

HOW TO LISTEN AND CALL-IN LIVE

WHEN: Today, Saturday, 12 December 2009 – 90 minutes.

• USA: 11 am Pacific, 12 noon Mountain, 1 pm Central, 2 pm Eastern
• UTC/GMT: 7 pm [19:00]
• London/Dublin: 7 pm [19:00]
• Berlin: 8 pm [20:00]
• New Zealand: 8 am

AT THAT TIME CLICK HERE to listen and call in LIVE (or click after the
show to hear archives):

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidwoaks

Call-in Number: (646) 595-2125.

Can’t get to a computer with sound? Use the call-in number just to
listen! (Because of all the number of calls this year, more lines are
added for this show. This feature may change in 2010.)

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

(4) NEW MINDFREEDOM JOURNAL MAILED THIS WEEK!

The brand-spanking-new MindFreedom Journal #50 is now at the press.
Current MindFreedom members get mailed the first copies.

How about you?

What a coincidence — This is also the crucial end-of-year drive to
support MindFreedom International!

So THIS MOMENT is a great time to donate and make sure your membership
is up-to-date!

Join, renew, donate, or give gift memberships, now! Click here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

Yes, you’ll receive 16 pages packed with news, poetry, interviews, and
color photos of activism to change the mental health system and build
alternatives from all over the world.

But most important, by donating today you are part of a key
independent mental health activist coalition!

MindFreedom International has accomplished so much in 23 years.

With the tough economy, MFI is counting on *EVERY* supporter to dig in
and help today.

Please act now:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

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

(5) LESS THAN ONE MONTH to Say “NO” to Rubber Stamping the
Electroshock Device!

It is easier than ever for you to comment on the US Food & Drug
Administration (FDA) web site, and “no” to their proposed permanent de-
regulation of the machine used for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

But please act soon! Pro-industry comments are out-numbering critics
at this time!

And you only have less than one month from now to comment, by the
deadline of 8 January 2010!

It takes just a moment!

For background info go here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/fda-ect/

Or go directly to the FDA comment page about electroshock here:

http://bit.ly/FDAECT

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

(6) LAST MINUTE MAD PRIDE GIFTS?

It’s not too late to order a few MAD PRIDE GIFTS from MindFreedom
International’s MAD MARKET!

Just be sure to click your request for fast shipping.

All proceeds support MFI’s human rights activism.

Check out this new Leah Harris CD and new Dan Mackler DVD here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-arts/great-gifts

Or go directly to the Mad Market featured products page here:

http://www.madmarket.org/

And yes, a membership can be one of your gifts in the Mad Market!

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

SUPPORT MINDFREEDOM INTERNATIONAL TODAY!

YOUR membership and donation are CRUCIAL to MindFreedom
International’s campaigns for human rights alternatives.

Join or donate now:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

MindFreedom International is one of the few totally-independent
nonprofit organizations in the mental health advocacy field, with zero
funding from the mental health system, governments, drug companies or
religions.

Read about MindFreedom’s activism, then click on the Big Red JOIN
Button on the right:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/

YOU keep MindFreedom International fighting for human rights and
mental health alternatives!

Benefits include the award-winning print publication MindFreedom
Journal, and the next issue — number 50 — is now at publishers!
Members get theirs first!

Other benefits include special new web site for member networking at http://www.my-mfii.org/
, discount on http://www.madmarket.org/ books and gear, MindFreedom
Shield, member services office…

….And most importantly, you UNITE for a nonviolent revolution in
mental health!

Mind Your Freedom!

Donate, join now or renew early here NOW:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

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