NATIONAL
ALLIANCE FOR MENTALLY ILL HOLDS A PRO-FORCE CONFERENCE
TOMORROW IN OREGON PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS WILL LEAD A VIGIL AND
NEWS CONFERENCE TO PROTEST THIS BIASED EVENT
ACTION:
*YOU* CAN PROTEST *ON-LINE* WITH E-MAIL!
TOMORROW, Friday, Oct. 27,
Support Coalition International is doing a vigil and news
conference in front of a National Alliance for the Mentally
Ill conference in Portland, Oregon to protest the way NAMI is
pushing for more and more forced psychiatry. AT BOTTOM you'll
find the text of a HANDOUT and a NEWS RELEASE being used in
the vigil, protest and news conference.
ACTION:
YOU CAN USE E-MAIL TO JOIN THE PROTEST! THIS ACTION IS FREE,
AND TAKES JUST 30 SECONDS!
Act now!! If you'd like to join
in the protest via e-mail, you are encouraged to write a
*civil* e-mail message to two leaders at NAMI: The Oregon NAMI
state executive director Warren Karmol and NAMI's new national
director of public policy Andrew Sperling (appointed Oct. 18,
2000): E-MAL TO: <WKarmol1@aol.com>
and <andrew@nami.org>
SAMPLE MESSAGE:
Use this sample message if you
wish, or put it in your own words:
"I object to the way
NAMI's 'Law and Mental Health conference' in Portland, Oregon
is promoting a biased agenda of more and more forced
psychiatry. This event is repressing the voices of mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors and critics of
forced psychiatry. I look forward to your response."
[Your name, contact info]:
_________________
[If you wish, you can send a
copy of your message to protest sponsors at: office@MindFreedom.org]
You can also contact NAMI via
phone and mail, info at: http://www.nami.org/poc.htm
HAND OUT FOR
VIGIL:
Why hold a protest vigil
outside this "Law and Mental Health Conference"?
Vigil/news conference: Friday
October 27, 2000 -- 11 am In front of Doubletree Hotel Lloyd
Center, Portland, Oregon
*** WARNING: This
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill conference is hazardous
to the emotional and physical well being of people diagnosed
with psychiatric disabilities.This event promotes a biased
agenda of more and more forced psychiatry.
*** Nothing about us, without
us! NAMI has frequently excluded and repressed the point of
view of mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors, and
all those critical of more forced psychiatry. This repression
is reflected in the planning of this conference, in most of
the workshops, and especially in the choice of keynote
speakers.
*** What about equal time for
those critical of forced psychiatry? NAMI publicly claims it
has cut ties with the controversial extremist group Treatment
Advocacy Center, one of the main groups pushing nationally for
more forced psychiatry. But this event's keynote speaker is
TAC's executive director. A speaker from the
nationally-respected Bazelon Center is attending this
conference, but was not offered equal keynote time.
*** The conference organizer
Jason Renaud states that some flaws could not be addressed
because he was approached too late. However, this event's
extreme bias should not have happened in the first place.
Also, we have raised these issues since this summer with both
Jason and chapter president, Phil Chadsey. From the very
start, many months ago, Phil claimed the conference was a done
deal, and nothing would change. It hasn't.
*** NAMI Oregon publicly claims
it is only working on "parity" legislation. But NAMI
representatives at the legislature's interim session have been
promoting legislation for more and more forced psychiatry,
including quadrupling the commitment time, making it easier to
commit, hiring "monitors" to enforce trial visits,
etc. What is the real NAMI agenda? Actions speak louder than
words. And this biased conference speaks volumes!
*** The NAMI board vote of
"no confidence" of director Laurie Flynn reveals
hidden turmoil. A healthy family communicates, it doesn't
repress dissent. NAMI continues to maintain a policy of
secrecy about psychiatric drug company donations. Mother Jones
magazine (12/99) found drug companies gave NAMI $11.74 million
in just 30 months.
*** Families who are
dissatisifed with the current "mental health system"
deserve to have a voice. These families say their troubled
loved ones deserve more than the bang of a judge's gavel and a
prescription. These families say their loved ones deserve more
than chemical prisons. These families demand change, now...
including from NAMI.
NEWS RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS CONFERENCE AND VIGIL TO PROTEST FORCED PSYCHIATRIC
DRUGS
Event date/time: This Friday
October 27, 2000 -- 11 am
Event location: In front of
Doubletree Hotel Lloyd Center 1000 NE Multnomah, Portland,
Oregon, USA
PORTLAND, OR -- Survivors of
involuntary psychiatric drugging and their supporters will
hold a news conference and vigil in front of an event they say
is promoting the practice. The National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill (NAMI) is holding their "Law and Mental
Health Conference" on Oct. 27 & 28, 2000. The sole
lunch keynoter on Friday will be Mary Zdanowicz,
director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, one of the main
organizations nationally promoting an increased use of
involuntary psychiatric procedures.
"This NAMI conference was
created without involvement from the mental health consumers
or psychiatric survivor movement," said David Oaks,
director of Support Coalition International, and one of the
workshop presenters at the conference. "The presenters
are primarily doctors and attorneys who are promoting a biased
political agenda of more force, more force and still more
force. This event is toxic for survivors of human rights
violations in the 'mental health system.'"
Support Coalition will hold a
news conference and vigil at 11 am., on Friday, October 27,
2000, in front of the NAMI conference at the Doubletree Hotel
Lloyd Center, in Portland, Oregon. "NAMI tells the media
stories about how supposedly dangerous we are to others and
ourselves. Our vigil remembers the many people killed and
damaged by forced psychiatric drugging and other
procedures," said Oaks. A delegation of vigilers will
then nonviolently enter the conference to ask for equal time
to tell the other side of the story presented by Mary
Zdanowicz, at her noon keynote. "Her keynote, the
workshops on involuntary treatment and mental health courts,
the lack of a fair balance, all add up to promoting more
forced psychiatry. The human rights perspective has been stuck
into two token workshops," said Oaks.
NAMI leaders attorney Phil
Chadsey (President of Multnomah County NAMI) and psychiatrist
Gene Minard are both publicly promoting bills for the next
Oregon legislative session which will expand the state's
capacity to give involuntary psychiatric procedures. Support
Coalition is helping introduce bills for a model advocacy
system, and to delete an involuntary outpatient commitment law
from Oregon's books.
Support Coalition International
is a non-profit alliance of nearly 100 grassroots groups in 14
countries working for human rights and alternatives for people
diagnosed with a mental disability.
Vigilers and media are invited
to a pre-event gathering on Thursday, October 26, 2000, at
5:00 pm, at the Oregon Advocacy Center office, 620 SW 5th, 5th
FL, Portland, Oregon. (The vigil is not affiliated with OAC.)
-- end --
[PLEASE RE-DISTRIBUTE THIS
HUMAN RIGHTS ALERT TO ALL APPROPRIATE PLACES ON AND OFF THE
INTERNET.]
DENDRITE is a public Internet alert system about human rights in psychiatry, sponsored by Support Coalition
International, sending out notices to thousands of concerned people, many of whom take ACTION NOW!
Support Coalition International is an independent non-profit federation of more than 70 groups in 11 countries united
to WIN campaigns for human rights in the "mental health system." For info on Support Coalition, see the web site:
www.efn.org/~dendron
