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Conference Archives
Confessions of a non-compliant patient by Judi Chamberlin
To Be a Mental
Patient
by Rae Unzicker
NARPA's 2011 Annual
Rights Conference
Philadelphia, PA,
September 2011
Conference Schedule:
Word format PDF format
Materials and handouts
now online
for
NARPA's
2010 Annual
Rights Conference:
Atlanta, GA, September 2010
Choice Not Force
●Guardianship/Forced
Treatment/Restraint
●Recovery and Peer Run
Programs
●Force
and Coercion:
Beyond the Institutional Setting
And...
NARPA's
2009 Annual Rights Conference:
Phoenix, AZ, September 2009
●Advocacy
for Rights in a New Era
●Guardianship/Forced
Treatment
●Recovery/Alternatives
to Medical Model Treatment
Advocacy & Legal Strategies for Challenging Times
NARPA - NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RIGHTS PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY
Occupy the American Psychiatric Association May 5th in Philadelphia, PA On May 5, 2012, MindFreedom International is holding its Occupy the American Psychiatric Association protest at the APA annual convention in Philadelphia.Save the Date!
NARPA AT 30:
Celebrating Our Past, Creating Our Future
September 5-8, 2012
The Millennium Hotel
Cincinnati, Ohio
For 30 years, NARPA has provided an educational conference with inspiring keynoters and outstanding workshops. We learn from each other and come together as a community committed to social justice for people with psychiatric labels & developmental disabilities.Click
here for the Request for Proposals
Submission deadline is April 1.Conference begins Wednesday evening & ends noon Saturday
***SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE***
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is providing financial support to individuals who are current or former recipients of mental health services, in order to enable these individuals to develop or improve advocacy skills from information available at the conference.
Click here to download the scholarship application (Word format)
Scholarship application deadline: May 29, 2012
Check this page for updates.
NARPA‘s mission is to promote policies and pursue strategies that result in individuals with psychiatric diagnoses making their own choices regarding treatment. We educate and mentor those individuals to enable them to exercise their legal and human rights with a goal of abolition of all forced treatment.
NARPA is an independent organization, solely supported by its members. It is a unique mix of people who have experienced psychiatric intervention, advocates, civil rights activists, mental health workers, and lawyers -- with many people whose roles overlap. NARPA exists to to protect people’s right to choice and to be free from coercion, and to promote alternatives so that the right to choice can be meaningful. Read about NARPA's history of human rights advocacy, check out the ADA Case of the Week archives, and more.
Connecticut Supreme Court Holds Lawyers, Conservators Accountable In Probate Cases: "The ruling has far-reaching implications for our troubled probate court system. It means that a court-appointed lawyer...cannot ignore the wishes of a client."
NARPA joins the California Coalition Advocating for Rights, Empowerment and Services (CARES) in opposition to AB 1569, currently pending before the California Assembly Health Committee. AB 1569 would re-authorize involuntary outpatient commitment under AB 1421 ("Laura's law", referred to as "assisted outpatient treatment" by proponents) for six years and would eliminate all state oversight of such programs. (Click here to download a copy of the CARES letter to the Health Committee Chair.)□ Are Psychiatric Medications Making Us Sicker? - Several generations of psychotropic drugs have proven to be of little or no benefit, and may be doing considerable harm.
□ Robert Whitaker on the New York Times' In Defense of Antidepressants:
"... the American public has been treated to yet another dose of misinformation."
□ NARPA's statement on the Arizona tragedy□ Disability Rights New Jersey has filed a federal lawsuit regarding the involuntary administration of medication to psychiatric patients in New Jersey's public and private hospitals. The lawsuit alleges that the current procedures, which do not provide for an independent review in the event of a challenge to the need for involuntary medication, violate individual rights and fail to conform to present standards of good clinical practice.
Click here for of the complaint.
Click here for the opinion denying protective order.
Click here for the opinion regarding motion to dismiss.□ Making a Killing: Clinical trials have become marketing exercises for Big Pharma -- and cash-strapped universities are helping make the sale — The Sept.-Oct. 2010 issue of Mother Jones sheds light on how drug manufacturers manipulate clinical trials
to make their drugs look good - sometimes at the expense of patients' lives.□ UN Calls Shock Treatment at Massachusetts School "Torture"
- See ABC News' report and read Mental Disability Rights International's full report on the Judge Rotenberg Center. Update (May 2011): Founder and director of Massachusetts “Shock School” resigns after being indicted on criminal charges. MDRI's Report concludes with an "urgent appeal" to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, demanding the US end the torture of people with disabilities immediately. And see the Op-ed in the Washington Post, "Disabled children at Mass. school are tortured, not treated" (10/2/10).□
Pfizer too big to nail — Federal prosecutors say the world’s largest pharmaceutical company is too big to fail. When Pfizer was caught illegally marketing a drug that was taken off the market, the feds agreed to charge a shell company which exists solely for the purpose of pleading guilty and taking the heat off Pfizer. A report from CNN's Special Investigations Unit.□ Poor Children Likelier to Get Antipsychotics - New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows.
◄
Kim Darrow (1946 - 2011) ► Remembering a remarkable lawyer, naturalist, and civil rights heroReport of the National Council on Disability:
" From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves" -- With a link to the full report as well as information about how to order a free copy.
◄ Judi Chamberlin (1944 - 2010) ►
□
Confessions of a non-compliant patient□ Listen to npr Morning Edition story (1/19/10) □ Boston Globe remembrance (1/20/10)
□ Washington Post , New York Times, and □ PR Newswire
□
FDA proposal to reclassify electroshock machines - and deem them safe in the absence of scientific evidence. Public comments were due by January 8, 2010. Learn about the FDA docket, find out how to view public comments online, and get additional information here. For background, see "The FDA’s Regulation of ECT (Shock Treatment): A Beginner (or Refresher) Course."□ Crazy Like Us: The Americanization of Mental Illness - In recent years, American ideas about psychiatric disorders have spread around the globe. Is that really good for the world’s mental health? Read this article by Ethan Watters from the New York Times.
□ Read an essay sharply critical of the psychiatric industry, published in the medical journal, The Lancet. The article reviews two books: The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment by Joanna Moncrieff and Side Effects: a Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial by Alison Bass. Read the article here.
□ Read the NY Daily News story, "Kings County Hospital doctors, nurses facing charges in Esmin Green death-by-neglect case." And read the NYC Department of Investigation's report.
□ Listening to Madness - Why some mentally ill patients are rejecting their medication and making the case for "mad pride" (a May 2009 Newsweek piece on Will Hall and the Icarus Project)
□ "Tremors in the System: the help you want or the help you get" - a new 23 minute film by Nora Jacobson features long time NARPA member and supporter Marj Berthold and her experiences in the Vermont mental health system.
□ Big Pharma Gone Wild: How Risperdal, a drug meant for treating rare psychiatric disorders, became the seventh best-selling medicine in the world.
□ UN: Forced Psychiatric Treatment is Torture
□ Maine's medication law challenged A new federal lawsuit, filed by the Disability Rights Center of Maine, challenges the constitutionality of a new law that allows patients in psychiatric facilities to be medicated against their will. The lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of an 83 year old woman, alleges that the law violates due process rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; The law fails to provide patients with adequate notice of a hearing or an opportunity to be heard before being deprived of their liberty. The lawsuit also claims that patients may be forced to take drugs that can cause death or have devastating and irreversible side effects, especially in elderly patients. Read more here.
□ Prozac.org: how the pharmaceutical industry works behind the scenes to shape public policy and push drugs. An article by Ken Silverstein from Mother Jones Magazine.
□ The Needs of People with Psychiatric Disabilities During and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Position Paper and Recommendations - A report of the National Council on Disability, prepared and drafted by Susan Stefan and Ann Marshall of NARPA.
The Rights Tenet Update -- The online version of NARPA's Rights Tenet newsletter. With coverage of the battles against forced drugging laws, the "parity" controversy, the Supreme Court vs. the ADA, etc.
The New York State Office of Mental Health is promoting the psychiatric drugging of children: Haldol, Adderall, and Dexedrine for 3 year olds, lithium and Depakote for 2 year olds? See this booklet - a Q & A on using medications with children with mental disorders - published by the State of New York for parents of young children.
