News Release: A Fast for Human Rights
and Choice in Mental Health Begins 16 August 2003Hunger Strikers Encourage Supporters to Contact American Psychiatric Association, National Alliance for Mentally Ill & Surgeon General
PASADENA, CALIF: On Sat., 16 August 2003 five former mental patients and a dissident social worker from throughout the United States will arrive in Pasadena, Calif. to begin a hunger strike to press for human rights and choice in Psychiatry: Fast for Freedom in Mental Health.
They charge that the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry are medicalizing an ever-widening spectrum of human emotion and behavior for financial gain and self-interest, and are willing to deceive the public while they too frequently stigmatize, humiliate, and harm their clients in the process.
"The government gives virtually total support to a quick-fix, pill-pushing model of mental health at the expense of alternative, less invasive ways of helping people in emotional distress," asserts David Oaks, hunger striker and Executive Director of MindFreedom Support Coalition International.
The hunger strikers will subsist on a liquid only diet until the American Psychiatric Association (APA), The Surgeon General, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) respond to seven challenges sent to them concurrent with this news release.
GO TO www.MindFreedom.org for the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health Statement, photos, cover letter, bios, announcement and more news.
Fourteen mental health academics and practitioners stand ready to review and reply to responses to the strikers' challenge. One, Loren Mosher, MD, former head of schizophrenia studies at the National Institute of Mental Health said, "What we are dealing with here is fashion, politics, and money... I want no part of a psychiatry of oppression and social control."
"The targets of our fast have muddied the waters of mental health for too long," said Mickey Weinberg, hunger striker and MindFreedom board member. "It's time they come clean. They claim science is on their side. We're just saying, 'prove it.'"
LOCATION OF FAST:
Ahiah Building; 277 N. El Molino Ave.; Pasadena, CA 91101 USA. Parking available in front. Solidarity fasts are encouraged internationally.
WHO:
Hunger Strikers
- Vince Boehm (Wilmington, DE),
- Krista Erickson (Chicago, IL)
- David Gonzalez (New York, NY)
- Sayama (Hemet, CA)
- Mickey Weinberg (Pasadena, CA)
Review Panelists
- Fred Baughman, MD (CA)
- Peter Breggin, MD (NY)
- Mary Boyle, PhD (United Kingdom)
- David Cohen, PhD (FL)
- Ty Colbert (CA)
- Pat Deegan, PhD (MA)
- Thomas Greening, PhD (CA)
- Albert Galves, PhD (NM)
- David Jacobs, PhD (CA)
- Jay Joseph,PhD (CA)
- Jonathan Leo, PhD (CA)
- Bruce Levine, PhD (OH)
- Loren Mosher, MD (CA)
- Stuart Shipko, MD (CA)
HUNGER STRIKERS ENCOURAGE ACTION
Supporters of the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health are encouraged to e-mail a civil message to the directors of the three offices that are named in this hunger strike.
E-mail to:
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Copy to:
[email protected]SAMPLE MESSAGE - your own words are best:
Please respond to the requests from the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health, and keep me informed about your answers. Thank you.
Name:_____ Contact info: _______
OTHER ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE
You can also write, fax and phone using this contact information:
James H. Scully, Jr., M.D., Medical Director
American Psychiatric Association
1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1825
Arlington, Va. 22209-3901 USA
phone: 703-907-7300 extension 1-8532-# [pound key]
fax: 703-907-1086Rick C. Birkel, Ph.D., Executive Director
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Colonial Place Three
2107 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22201-3042 USA
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: (703) 524-7600
TDD: (703) 516-7227
fax: (703) 524-9094
Richard Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S.
The Surgeon General
Office of the Surgeon General
5600 Fishers Lane
Room 18-66
Rockville, MD 20857-1750 USA
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: 301-443-4000
fax: (301) 443-8590