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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
Conference Archives
Confessions of a non-compliant patient by Judi Chamberlin
To Be a Mental
Patient
by Rae Unzicker
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NARPA - NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RIGHTS PROTECTION AND ADVOCACY
◄
2010 ANNUAL RIGHTS
CONFERENCE ►
September 8-11, 2010
Hilton Atlanta
255 Courtland St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Choice, Not Force
Three Conference Tracks include:
●Guardianship/Forced
Treatment/Restraint
●Recovery and Peer Run
Programs
●Force
and Coercion:
Beyond the Institutional Setting
Additional Information and Registration Form here
Conference begins Wednesday evening and ends
at noon Saturday.
CLEs and CEUs
will be offered. Check here for updates.
or e-mail narpa@aol.com for more
information.
Scholarship application
and information
Open the above link to learn more about a limited
number of scholarships from CMHS.
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.
□ 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. 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.□ 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.
◄ 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.
Report 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.
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.
