To be or not to be: professional or consumer?

from Beyond Meds:

I had a sobering experience the other day which makes me wonder
about how I will proceed when I move on with my career. I was not “out”
when I practiced social work and I was highly regarded and respected in
general. The one instance where I did out myself I was treated like
crap and badly.

The other day I made a comment on a blog of someones who is very
well known in the internet world as a “bipolar expert” but this person
themselves is a consumer who is also pro-pharma and in general in tight
with the pharma hos that control this world.

For more of this interesting post, go to Beyond Meds.....

Will Ramstad have role in Obama administration?

from MinnPost.com:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After 18 years in Congress, Minnesota Republican Jim
Ramstad is going out on a high. But thankfully not the kind of high
that marked the lowest point in his life, when he woke up in a Sioux
Falls, S.D., jail cell 27 years ago in an alcoholic stupor.
 
He
was a 35-year-old state senator at the time, charged with disorderly
conduct and resisting arrest after a night of drinking. It wasn't the
first time he'd blacked out during 12 years of abusing alcohol, a habit
that began during his senior year in college. But he was determined to
make sure it was the last time.
 
He decided to stop drinking
and to devote his life to helping others recover from chemical
addiction, which he says is a matter of life and death for nearly 30
million Americans.

The decision launched him on a crusade that has culminated with the
enactment of landmark legislation he championed to give recovering
alcoholics like himself and those with mental illnesses in their
families the same access to health insurance and treatment as those
with physical illnesses.
 
The legislation, officially the "The
Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction
Equity Act of 2008," was passed by Congress and signed into law by the
president on Oct. 3, as the 110th Congress recessed for the fall
elections before returning for a final lame duck session this week.

If we have to go back to nursing homes we will lose the will to live. Living on my own I have the responsibility to take care of myself. I'm free from dictators. I can go anywhere I want to go. I can go to bed when I want to.

from Pennsylvania Mental Health Issues:

I never cease to be amazed at how many people will come up with fear
based reasons for not allowing a mental health related building to be
in their neighborhood.  I’ve seen first hand what these people can be
like, and as a mental health consumer, it is both frustrating and
degrading to hear that I’m not wanted in someone’s neighborhood because
I happen to have a mental illness.   I commend those who are willing to
stand up and say that they have had no problems with other similar
facilities, I only wish there were more like you out there. At any rate
I found this in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette it was printed on November
20, 2008 it can be found in it’s original format at the following
address …. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08325/929149-55.stm

The Lives They Left Behind

from suitcaseexhibit.org:

When Willard Psychiatric Center in New York's Finger Lakes closed in 1995, workers discovered hundreds of suitcases in the attic of an abandoned building.  Many of them appeared untouched since their owners packed them decades earlier before entering the institution.

The suitcases and their contents bear witness to the rich, complex lives their owners lived prior to being committed to Willard.  They speak about aspirations, accomplishments, community connections, but also about loss and isolation. From the clothing and personal objects left behind, we can gain some understanding of who these people were before they disappeared behind hospital walls.  We can picture their jobs and careers, see them driving cars, playing sports, studying, writing, and traveling the world.  We can imagine their families and friends.  But we can also see their lives coming apart due to unemployment, the death of a loved one, loneliness, poverty, or some other catastrophic event.

Mental Health Consumer Providers: A Guide for Clinical Staff

from Rand (of all places):

Consumer providers (CPs) are individuals with serious mental illness
who are trained to use their experiences to provide recovery-oriented
services and support to others. There are several demonstrated benefits
to employing CPs: They can serve as role models, voice and broker the
needs of consumers, provide information and motivation, and mentor
others (including potential CPs). CPs can have a variety of roles,
including, among other things, assisting clients, providing support
services (such as skills assistance and transportation), providing
liaison services, dispelling possible stigma or bias toward clients,
and augmenting overburdened mental health systems. Despite these roles
and benefits, there are also challenges to and misconceptions about
employing CPs, such as staff concerns, organizational issues, and
perceived barriers related to the abilities and competence of CPs. As
mental health providers turn to CPs to augment current services, it is
useful to review these issues through the lens of hiring and
integrating CPs into provider teams. This guide is intended to be an
easy-to-use reference for agencies that are seeking to strengthen or
expand consumer involvement, employers who are considering hiring CPs,
consumers who are interested in applying for CP positions, and
advocates for CP involvement in mental health care. The information and
recommendations presented here are the result of interviews with
relevant stakeholders at Lamp Community, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit
serving the mental health needs of the homeless and formerly homeless;
interviews with national experts; and a review of current literature on
the subject.

Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.

Full Document

(File size 0.5 MB, 2 minutes modem, < 1 minute broadband)

Kennedys meet with Bush at White House

from SouthCoastToday.com:

Sen. Edward Kennedy and other key lawmakers who
championed mental health parity legislation met Thursday with President
Bush at the White House for a ceremonial signing.

Kennedy,
D-Mass., and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, were part
of the private Oval Office event. GOP Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico
and Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota were also on hand.

The
Oval Office event was a ceremonial signing of the Paul Wellstone and
Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
that prohibits discriminatory restrictions on mental health and
addiction treatments. Wellstone is the former Minnesota senator who
championed the bill for many years before his death in a 2002 plane
crash.

Brainline,org

from Brainline:

This site is supported by the Defense Centers of Excellence.  It is intended to support veterans and other people with brain injuries, ptsd, and other issues.  Lots of stuff!

Nursing home administrators face an unexpected ethical (and legal) dilemma when admitting new residents to skilled nursing care. The Nursing Home Care Act undercuts a traditional notion of informed consent in such a way that many residents may be admitted to a nursing home without ever consenting to treatment, or having a meaningful surrogate consent to their treatment. This is clearly an issue of nursing/medical ethics, as well as a font of potential legal liability for providing unauthorized care. American health care law is predicated on the notion of patient autonomous-direction. Within this notion exist a number of inter-linked rights: the right to self-determination, the right to give consent before treatment, the right to information forming the basis of consent and many others. Curiously, in senior care, as in perhaps no other major area of American health care law, the status of patient autonomous direction, especially with respect to consent before treatment, is less sacrosanct, the exceptions more numerous. This is especially true in the legal quagmire of involuntarily placing adults in nursing homes. I am most familiar with the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act and it will thus form the background of this discussion, but the Illinois Act is not dissimilar to Nursing Home Care Acts in many other states, at least inasmuch as the acts address the issue of involuntary admission. Clearly involuntary admission of a resident to a nursing home presents moral and ethical issues most families are not experienced in dealing with, not to mention attendant feelings of guilt for the family members and likely betrayal for the patient herself. However, for the health care provider, the nursing home, the struggle is a balance between determining the self-interest rights of the resident and the interests in rendering care.

from MindFreedom:

First the good news.

Within days of MindFreedom launching its Ray 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:

Lawmakers, Advocacy Groups Call For Elimination Of Two-Year Waiting Period Before Disabled U.S. Residents Can Qualify For Medicare

from Medical News Today:

Lawmakers and more than 75 disability advocacy groups have begun
lobbying Congress and the future administration of President-elect
Barack Obama to eliminate the wait time the disabled face in qualifying
for Medicare, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12). Current rules require a two-year waiting period for people the Social Security Administration has deemed too ill or disabled to work before they are eligible for Medicare benefits (CongressDaily, 11/12).

According to the AP/Chronicle,
at any given time, about 1.5 million people who are disabled are
waiting to qualify for Medicare coverage. About 40% are uninsured at
some point during the waiting period and 25% are uninsured during the
entire two-year period, the AP/Chronicle reports. While
some people rely on Medicaid in the interim, others "end up depleting
their savings on private insurance and medical bills," according to the
AP/Chronicle (AP/San Francisco Chronicle,
11/12). In some cases, "the gap in coverage leads patients to forgo
treatment, resulting in more expensive care after insurance kicks in,"
according to Lee Grossman, president of the Autism Society of America (CongressDaily, 11/12).

Among the groups supporting the elimination of the wait period are the American Cancer Society, the Alzheimer's Association, the National Association of People with AIDS, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Medicare Rights Center. In addition, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has said he supports ending the waiting period (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12). Legislation
Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) are sponsoring companion bills (HR 154, S 2102)
that over 10 years would gradually eliminate the waiting period and
would establish a system to immediately grant coverage to people with
life-threatening illnesses, the AP/Chronicle reports. Green said, "Every year, we'd reduce it by a few months, so we get down to a level that's manageable for folks."

Bingaman
and Green are hoping to get their bills included in a larger health
care overhaul package that Obama likely will pursue once in office. If
attaching the bill to a larger package is unsuccessful, Green and
Bingaman plan to introduce the bills independently, according to the AP/Chronicle (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12).

Green
said that funding is the largest impediment, adding, "We haven't
crossed that bridge yet to see where we'll get the offsets. That will
be something we'll have to deal with" (CongressDaily, 11/12). According to the AP/Chronicle,
researchers estimate that eliminating the wait period in one step would
cost about $9 billion annually, which is why Green and Bingaman have
proposed a gradual elimination. The AP/Chronicle reports that the cost would be offset in part by a $4 billion savings from Medicaid (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12).

Follow up on MindFreedom’s action alert against Ray’s involuntary ECT

from MindFreedom:

One of the toughest times is when I talk to someone who is about to have involuntary electroshock. 

Ray Sandford talked to me before his involuntary electroshock the other day. And then again today, Wednesday afternoon, I talked to him after his electroshock. 

He told me he was told today was his 33rd electroshock in this series, which may mean he has been receiving "maintenance" electroshock for more than six months. 

Meanwhile, Jeremy in our office found an example of a court order in 2002 in Minnesota precisely on involuntary  electroshock. While client personal information was removed, and it does look legitimate, we did not get this directly from the court so we cannot vouch for its authenticity. 

Judge for yourself:

http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Depression/ect/news/minnesotaforcedshock.asp

Note that in number 3 of the "facts" is the statement that persistent memory loss can be "fully mitigated" by relearning information, a totally unscientific statement. Of course, plenty of scientific studies show that even newer types of electroshock can result in persistent memory problems that are impossible to "fix." That a finding of "fact" in a court order could be so bizarrely unscientific shows the astounding power imbalance for people on the receiving end of electroshock, who often lack aggressive and professional legal representation.

Art plays vital role in recovery

from The Times-Herald.com:

Michael McCartan said he hopes he's stretching his acting experience.

McCartan, director of St. Clair County Community Mental Health
Authority, plays greedy banker Henry Potter in the CMH Players' stage
production of "It's a Wonderful Life."

The acting group is one of
the arts programs offered by Community Mental Health, said marketing
coordinator Jim Bloch, who has produced each of the group's seven plays
since it was formed in 2004.

"For years I've been reading about
the impact of art on people with mental illness," Bloch said. The
actors are a mix of CMH staff, community actors and consumers -- or
users -- of the agency's services.

The plays always have been
well-received in St. Clair County, Bloch said, but this is the first
time both St. Clair County shows -- Thursday night and tonight -- sold
out before opening night. Additional performances are scheduled in
Lapeer and Sanilac counties.

Bloch said he wants the experience to have a good effect on the actors.

The Art of Recovery: Exhibit explores other side of trauma through art

from Traverse City Record Eagle:

TRAVERSE CITY -- They say, "no man is an island, no man stands alone."

In an effort to demonstrate this in a tangible form, Northern Lakes
Community Mental Health will present its second annual "Art of
Recovery: The Human Journey" art show.

"I had the idea that really as humans we all kind of share this
universal experience that everyone suffers, we all go through something
that's traumatic," said Shawn Semelsberger, 23, one of the original
organizers of the event.

"I know for a fact that most people are going to go through trauma
in their life or have experienced trauma," she said. "There's all these
different things that humans experience and that having to go through
something and recovering from it and that process is not unique to
someone that has a mental illness."

She said the art show is designed to bring people together who have
suffered and survived traumas like cancer, family death, rape, domestic
abuse, divorce or other such losses.

Renovate, add artists and create energy

from Freep.com:

Put creative people on blighted blocks and good things start to happen.
In post-Katrina New Orleans, for example, young artists are leading a
cultural uprising. The KK Projects in the long-neglected St. Roch
neighborhood have turned dilapidated houses into contemporary art
installations.

No disrespect to the Big Easy, but no place has more creative juice
than the D. Southwest Housing Solutions Corp., a nonprofit that has
developed 400 units of affordable housing, is building on that energy
at one its southwest Detroit projects.

After buying the Whitdel, Southwest Solutions asked the Contemporary
Art Institute of Detroit to help restore the building. The exchange led
to a partnership. CAID now uses the 1,500-square-foot Ladybug Gallery
in the basement for exhibitions, including video art, sculpture,
paintings and drawings. A ceramic studio will provide art education and
workshops to neighborhood children and other residents.

CAID also
makes tenant referrals. Whitdel is open to anyone with an income of no
more than 60% of the area median, or $29,300 for a single person. But
Southwest Solutions seeks painters, musicians, writers, sculptors and
other artists. They now occupy 10 of the units and make the place
special.

SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press

Gerald
Butler plays his flute in the Whitdel's lobby, where he says the
acoustics are great. The apartments in the newly renovated building in
southwest Detroit have become home for several artists.

When I first walked into the lobby last month, tenant Gerald Butler,
a 53-year-old flutist, was playing "Amazing Grace." He played it from
the heart. For the first time in his adult life, he has a real home.

Butler
feels blessed but, after a lifetime of letdowns, accepting the good can
be as hard as facing the bad. The one-bedroom apartment he moved into a
month earlier was still practically empty. Most of his stuff sat in a
shelter and he was almost afraid to move it. After decades of living on
the streets and in homeless shelters and relatives' basements, Butler
still couldn't believe his new life would last.

"You're almost afraid to hope," he told me. "I can't believe that last February I was on the street, freezing."

Butler,
who has battled alcoholism and mental illness, learned to value his
life and take responsibility for it. He works as a street outreach and
peer support specialist and also as a musician in his five-piece
Recovery Band. He has played around the state, including performances
at the Gem Theatre and Detroit Yacht Club. Clean for 13 years, Butler
now earns enough to make the $455-a-month rent.

About PTSD From Punishment Used As “Treatment” In People With Autism But Applicable to Punishments Used As “Treatment” In People With Psychiatric Labels

from CHARLOTTESVILLE PREJUDICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS WATCH:

As we learn to listen to people with autism, to their families and to their friends, evidence is growing that, in certain extreme circumstances, behaviors typically explained away as newly-emerged symptoms of the person’s autism may in fact indicate something else: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

The general public may have heard of this disorder occurring among Vietnam veterans, Bosnian civilians, or even the young witnesses to the recent spate of schoolyard shootings. In the book Trauma and Recovery (NY: Basic Books, 1992), Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., describes the origins and consequences of PTSD:
“The human response to danger is a complex, integrated system of reactions, encompassing both body and mind. Threat initially arouses the sympathetic nervous system, causing the person in danger to feel an adrenalin rush and go into a state of alert. Threat also concentrates a person’s attention on the immediate situation. In addition, threat may alter ordinary perceptions: people in danger are often able to disregard hunger, fatigue, or pain. Finally, threat evokes intense feelings of fear and anger. These changes in arousal, attention, perception, and emotion are normal, adaptive reactions. They mobilize the threatened person for strenuous action, either in battle or in flight.

As Dr. Herb Lovett observed, “People who have been hurt in the name of therapy may not understand their plight any differently than survivors of cult abuse or sexual abuse. A common feature of post-traumatic stress syndrome is the flashback in which a person acts as if a memory is present reality…. every time they recall their previous maltreatment, unless their panic and rage are recognized as a function of stress, they are likely to be further stigmatized as `impossible to serve.’” (p. 208, Learning to Listen, 1996).

::

STIGMA, how it hinders recovery.

from Hearing Voices Networks Australia:

The Stigma around hearing voices, in particular Schizophrenia is severe. the SANE guide to stigma states

“Stigma causes harm in lots of ways… It blights the life of people with mental illness, cause stress and unhappiness in the lives of their friends and families too, and damages society as a whole.”

It discourages help seeking, makes recovery harder, and promotes discrimination.

A New Zealand in depth report called “FIGHTING SHADOWS” on the excellent Like Minds Like US site, outlines these effects in detail. Not only does the stigma manifest in the way others treat those diagnosed with an illness, but can have a devastating effect on the people who “accept the stigma”. That is Selfstigmatise. Beleive the stigma, and thus lose all hope. The research says this

“

Self-stigma is an issue that most people with experience of mental illness would recognise, seeing it either in themselves or in other people. It is generally believed that self-stigma arises from internalising the negative messages and behaviour that people with experience of mental illness receive from others. In other words, the concept of selfstigma seems fundamentally and inextricably linked to the concept of discrimination”

Human Rights Alert: Involuntary Electroshock

MindFreedom International -- 7 November 2008
Human Rights Alert: Involuntary Electroshock
http://www.mindfreedom.org - please forward

   If it's Wednesday, then Ray Sandford is Getting
   Escorted from His Home for Another Forced Electroshock

   Minnesota Resident Gets Involuntary Electroconvulsive
   Therapy (ECT) On A Weekly Ongoing *Outpatient* Basis

   ACTION: How You Can Easily E-mail Minnesota Governor

   by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

The past Wednesday morning after the historic USA election what were
you doing?

I know what Ray Sandford, 54, was doing.

Each and every Wednesday, early in the morning, staff shows up at
Ray's sheltered living home called Victory House in Columbia Heights,
Minnesota, adjacent to Minneapolis.

Staff escorts Ray the 15 miles to Mercy Hospital.

There, Ray is given another of his weekly electroconvulsive therapy
(ECT) treatments, also known as electroshock. All against his will.
On an outpatient basis.

And it's been going on for months.

Ray says the weekly forced electroshocks are "scary as hell." He
absolutely opposes having the procedure. He says it's causing poor
memory for names such as of friends and his favorite niece. "What am
I supposed to do, run away?" Instead, Ray phoned his local library's
reference desk to ask about human rights groups, and the librarian
referred him to MindFreedom International.

Ray called me at our office here at MindFreedom International about
two weeks ago. At first I wasn't sure I believed him.

Of course, MindFreedom International has documented proven cases of
electroshock against the expressed wishes of the subject all over the
world, including in the USA. MindFreedom succeeded in having the
United Nations World Health Organization call in writing for a global
ban on all involuntary electroshock.

But this is the first time I've been on the phone with someone
getting court-ordered forced shock while living out in the community,
on an outpatient basis.

This is the ultimate double whammy.

I confirmed Ray's story by calling two staff at Victory House as well
as his court-appointed conservator, Tonya Wilhelm of Luthern Support
Services of Minnesota.

Ms. Wilhelm said, "We are following the letter of the law." She said
the State of Minnesota had secured a variety of court orders that
require Ray to have forced electroshock against his expressed wishes.
Ms. Wilehlm says it's all legal and she can't do anything about it.

Krista Erickson, chair of MindFreedom's Shield Campaign, sees it
differently. "This is terrible. This is a serious human rights
violation that should stop. I hope MindFreedom members and supporters
speak out. Even if Minnesota is following the letter of the current
law, the law ought to be changed. And Ray has not had the legal power
to appeal to higher courts."

I pointed out to Conservator Wilhelm that the public -- when they
find out about forced electroshock -- is passionately opposed to
their taxpayer money being used to force such brutality on citizens.
Ms. Wilhelm did let slip that what is happening to Ray -- involuntary
outpatient electroshock -- is not that uncommon in Minnesota.

But when Ms. Wilhelm found out we at MindFreedom are issuing one of
our public human rights alert to you and others, at Ray's repeated
request, she said something chilling.

Ms. Wilhelm claimed she had a legal right to stop MindFreedom!

Ms. Wilhelm told me, "Only I can give you permission legally to say
anything publicly about this."

I pointed out we are not a medical facility, and that if she falsely
claims we're doing anything illegal then this is defamation. Which
really is illegal.

Ms. Wilhelm laughed loudly in the phone, said "let our lawyers talk,"
and hung up on me. I hope she hung up to read the First Amendment.

Let's disobey Ms. Wilhelm!

Spread Ray's alert far and wide! Speak out against this electrical
torture, now!

Because... Remember... While the world marvels at the power of USA
democracy:

If it's Wednesday morning, then Ray Sandford is being led from his
home -- which is supposed to be his castle -- to get another weekly
forced procedure that can cause brain damage and wipe out memories.

- David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

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

Mind your freedom. Disobey Ray's conservator now!

Forward this alert to all appropriate places on and off the Internet,
IMMEDIATELY!

And take the *below* actions. Thank you. Ray and I are counting on you!

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

     * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * *

You can do this in a moment. It's free! DO IT NOW!

E-mail your firm but polite message to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

SAMPLE MESSAGE -- your own words are best:

"Investigate the weekly involuntary outpatient electroshock of Ray
Sandford. Every Wednesday morning, MindFreedom says Ray is brought
from Victory House in Columbia Heights, Minnesota to Mercy Hospital
for forced electroshock. Stop all forced electroshock today! Taxpayer
money should not fund torture!" [Your name/contact.]

E-mail address: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

Or use this handy web form:

http://www.governor.state.mn.us/contacts/Forms/askthegovernor/index.htm

or this link:

http://tinyurl.com/mn-governor

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

     * * * ADDITIONAL ACTIONS TO SUPPORT RAY! * * *

1) E-mail a complaint to Luthern Social Services of Minnesota (LSSMN)
about Ray's conservator.

Sample message:

"Investigate allegations that LSSMN employee Tonya Wilhelm tried to
stop a public human rights alert by MindFreedom International about
her client, Ray Sandford, who is receiving weekly outpatient
involuntary electroshock at Mercy Hospital in Minneapolis. If
verified, please reprimand, fire and replace Ms. Wilhelm, and please
place this in her permanent personnel record. Please support human
rights." [Your name/contact.]

Use LSSMN's web page:

http://www.lssmn2.org/contact_lss.htm

Or phone Luthern Social Services at: (218) 726-4888

You can copy your message to headquarters of The Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA):

info@elca.org

 From 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."

More at:

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe.aspx

2) E-mail a complaint to Allina Hospital and Clinics, owner of Mercy
Hospital.

Sample message:

"Investigate allegations that your patient Ray Sandford of Victory
House is receiving involuntary outpatient electroconvulsive therapy
against his will each Wednesday at Mercy Hospital."

Use this web page:

http://www.allina.com/ahs/help.nsf/page/contact

Or phone: (763) 236-6000

3) Ray is open to visitors and supportive postal mail:

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

MindFreedom will print out and mail to Ray some of your e-mail
messages to the Governor and others, and put some on the web. E-mail
a copy of what you write to news@mindfreedom.org.

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

AND ONE MORE THING!

Say "no" to mental health system censorship!

Disobey Ray's conservator now!

PLEASE forward this public human alert to all appropriate places on
and off the Internet, IMMEDIATELY! Thank you!

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

More info:

See the latest news and updates at the MindFreedom website at:

http://www.mindfreedom.org

Plenty of data on electroshock on the MindFreedom web site, click here:

http://tinyurl.com/zapback

Watch upcoming blog entries by David W. Oaks, MFI Director:

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

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

NONVIOLENTLY ZAP BACK against forced electroshock!

NOW are you ready for nonviolent revolution in mental health?

Join, renew, and support MindFreedom TODAY!

Be part of the MFI Fall 2008 Support Drive, click here:

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


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/