> >part of a larger challenge: Minneapolis has too many buildings. That's the problem but there .may be some creative ideas out there which could make this part of the solution.
Well Mind:
Some of us have had a very creative solution for a long time, just waiting for a building and for the powers that be to become aware of the need for those among us who have somehow picked up a label of “mental illness” to have a safe place to live away from people who are disturbed by people who seem “different” from them. Some of us may have delusions or hallucinations; then again, some of the drugs forced on us cause delusions and hallucinations. Those are listed on rxlist.com and on the package inserts, and in the PDR available at libraries.
Once labeled, we are denied all civil and human rights and lose our health, jobs, possessions, and sometimes our lives as a result of the drugs forced on us.
The counties and the courts make it easy to get convictions, er-commitments so that a landlord, a disappointed lover or predator, or an illegally appointed Conservator can get control over us.
We propose to set up a safe house and alternative crisis hostel for people who want a place where they can live free of the Hennepin County Case Managers coming to their door every day to watch them take their “medications” which have the same molecules and the same mechanism of action as the street drugs, but they are known to be more addictive and to cause more lifelong disability.
In previous times and in other countries, where the psych drugs are not available or too expensive, people recovered and went on with their lives at a rate of 64% or 87% compared with the US recovery rate of 18%.
The establishment of a safe house would require the approval of the county because it administers the Medical Assistance money of the state and federal government. The county requires everyone to be on an “appropriate” level of “medications.”
This could be done.
On Wed, 25 Feb, Chris Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>* Maybe it is time for Minneapolis to become a consolidated city and county… San Francisco >and I believe Baltimore made this change…Denver, Colorado…Milwaukee. ..
On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, "Steve Cross" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>The Mayor has asked some good questions about where there may be opportunities for different levels of government to save money through sharing of resources.
On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, "Fredric Markus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>Creative re-use strategies will help. The Ramar building (formerly Hennepin County) is being converted to residential use… the Centennial office building (also Hennepin County) usta be a vo-tech high school?… Whittier Coop is a large converted school building… a charter school on Blaisdell in what usta be a community mental health clinic. African American Family Services… usta be Franklin National Bank. Blind, Inc. now lives in a restored Pillsbury Mansion… the Sears complex. Sabathani … usta be a school building. "Usta" should be in the dictionary - it gets a lot of use.
Well Mind: People believe that families have their best interests at heart. However, they forget about sibling rivalry. Consider Dr. E Fuller Torrey who propounds on much disinformation and what little he knows about “mental illness.” He has his sister isolated in a group home in New Hampshire. He goes up to see her every two weeks and takes her out to dinner, but why has he placed her so far away from family and friends? In Minnesota, families have a place on all the boards and making decisions instead of allowing people to direct their own health care in accordance with their civil and human rights, the US Constitution, and international law.
The New York Times report shows that the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) families continue to be duped into lobbying on behalf of pharmaceutical companies and organized psychiatry--industry's partners in deception. Although psychotropic drugs have not proven to be effective for recovery, nor do they lead to quality of life improvements for patients, NAMI channels its energies (with funding from Eli Lilly) into preventing states from applying a rational cost/benefit analysis to determine what psychotropic drugs taxpayers should pay for. Neither Lilly nor NAMI care about depleting state Medicaid funds and thereby denying poor people proven life-saving treatments.
The Times also reports that Medicaid expenditure for prescription drugs has escalated to $27.5 billion. These costs are up 19% from last year. Antipsychotic drugs, such as Eli Lilly's Zyprexa, eat up more of state Medicaid budgets than any other drugs…NY spends $4 billion a year--of which the largest chunk in the first 10 months of 2003 went to Eli Lilly--$205 million for Zyprexa. NY has a forced drug law, the same as Minnesota has.
Although Zyprexa is anything but a "wonder drug" its sales have made it Lilly's most profitable product, thanks largely to aggressive marketing and the lobbying efforts of NAMI and its chapters. A NY Times business reporter showed that the combined efforts of Lilly and NAMI have made antipsychotics "the third rail of Medicaid politics." Here in Minnesota, the Lilly representative is consulted regularly by the Minnesota Mental Health Advisory Council. Well Mind is denied a representative on the Council.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has been forced to admit that they cannot produce scientifically-valid evidence:
1) that clearly establishes the validity of 'schizophrenia,' 'depression' or other 'major mental illnesses' as biologically-based brain diseases.
2) for a physical diagnostic exam -- such as a scan or test of the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc. -- that can reliably distinguish individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs), from individuals without these diagnoses.
3) that any psychotropic drug can correct a 'chemical imbalance' attributed to a psychiatric diagnosis, and is anything more than a non-specific alterer of brain physiology.
4) that any psychotropic drug can reliably decrease the likelihood of violence or suicide."
5) that psychotropic drugs do not in fact increase the overall likelihood of violence or suicide."
6) that some psychiatric drugs are linked to structural brain changes."
One third of the operating budget of the APA comes from the drug industry. In addition, the drug industry funds, directs, and analyzes many drug studies. Psychiatric journals publish so-called scientific reports of these drug studies that are ghost-written by industry employees or marketing firms. Industry largesse binds many psychiatric practitioners to the industry.
When will the reporting and disclosure rules governing medical research come under stricter supervision and oversight under a newly constituted enforcement authority?
A letter-writer in The Wall Street Journal on February 25th apropos of the accounting fraud scandals that engulfed corporations the likes of Enron and WorldCom cites the case of the HealthSouth Corp. and its former CEO. Among the numerous allegations lodged by the SEC against the CEO is a claim that in 2001 he received a bonus of at least $6.5 million, which was based on inflated earnings.
It is solely on the basis of trust in the claim that their professional acts and advice are founded on medical science that society grants psychiatrists such extraordinary authority. They act with impunity to force psychoactive drugs or electroconvulsive “treatment” upon unwilling individuals. They incarcerate persons who have been brought in on specious excuses and labeled.
A few people have left the state to avoid being forced on an overdose of drugs that would keep them from their jobs and paying taxes. Most people are unable to get away and complain to us that they can’t work, as they used to, because of their doctor and the entire system.
Louise Bouta Kingfield Well Mind Association of Minnesota 4003 Pillsbury Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55409 Phone: 612-823-8249 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wellmindminnesota.org REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
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