Psychiatric survivors organize DC counterprotest against forced drugging

Web posted at 30-Apr-98 04:48 Central European Time

A simultaneous Counterprotest led by self-identified survivors of human rights violations in the psychiatric system, is scheduled for the same time and place, Saturday, May 2, 9 am to 1 pm.

The U.S. Center for Mental Health Services is spending $200,000 in taxpayer funds on their event, called "Walk the Walk," which unites some of the major industry groups promoting the "mental health system." For the U.S. government itself to fund a political march on Washington is said to be unprecedented.

Support Coalition International -- an independent alliance of 70 groups in 9 countries -- is leading the Counterprotest against forced psychiatry to counter "Walk the Walk", calling themselves part of a "Million Mad March." The Clinton Administration has decided to tolerate Counterprotesters in their midst as long as it's non-disruptive.

Counterprotesters -- outspent a thousand to one -- say they will use five-foot and ten-foot prop hypodermic needles, signs, speakers, performers and bullhorns to "break the silence" about the sharp rise of forced psychiatric procedures, especially court-ordered mandatory psychiatric drugging of people living out in the community, also known as "involuntary outpatient commitment." As many of 35 U.S. states, Vermont being the most recent, have passed laws forcing harmless people labeled "mentally ill" to be forcibly drugged in their own homes, or face incarceration.

Justin Dart, a leader of the disability movement who was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Martin Luther King Day by President Bill Clinton, has chosen to speak at the Counterprotest to voice his disapproval of forced psychiatric human rights violations. He will also call for reconciliation by both sides.

Counterprotesters Especially Angered about New Campaign by Parents' Organization

A focus of the Counterprotest is National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which is on "Walk the Walk" steering committee. While some individual members of NAMI support liberty concerns of psychiatric survivors, the leadership of NAMI has angered many advocates with a new campaign for more forced psychiatry. NAMI is primarily composed of parents of psychiatric survivors.

NAMI recently launched their "Treatment Advocacy Center" [NAMI-TAC] to greatly increase the number of Americans who would be subject to forced psychiatric drugs, both inside institutions, and even those living in their own homes out in the community. The leader of NAMI-TAC is E. Fuller Torrey, a controversial psychiatrist at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and major "pro force" proponent.

NAMI works closely with the Clinton Admnistration. Clinton appointed NAMI's executive director Laurie Flynn onto his National Bioethics Advisory Commission. NAMI's annual report shows more than half of their major corporate donors are drug companies, which have given millions of dollars to NAMI.

NAMI has already helped pass "involuntary outpatient commitment" laws in more than 35 states allowing courts to order people living at home, out in the community, to take psychiatric drugs against their will, even though critics maintain that these powerful drugs can kill, addict and cause brain damage leading to worse emotional problems than the person originally had. NAMI is also loosening commitment laws in many states, making it far easier to lock up some Americans. The NAMI-TAC board voted that a "primary" purpose of NAMI-TAC will be to increase forced psychiatry in the USA, to a far greater extent..

"No matter how people stand on other mental health issues, all but the drug company financed organizations like NAMI are with us on the issue of forced psychiatric treatment," said Vicki Fox Wieselthier, the SCI national organizer of the Counterprotest.

David Oaks, a speaker at the Counterprotest and co-coordinator of Support Coalition International, said, "The theme of the 'Walk the Walk' is that 'Mental Health Treatment Works.' We're saying: 'The Mental Health System is Broken.' Usually the leaders of the push for more forced psychiatric drugs stay in their board rooms and conferences. They have made a big mistake thinking they could 'hit the streets,' without any opposition!" Oaks is flying in from Eugene, Oregon for the Counterprotest.

CMHS is paying much of the taxpayer's $200,000 directly to a large public relations firm, "Hayes, Domenici & Associates" (HD&R) to spin-manage the event. The name "Domenici" refers to one of the PR firm's co-owners, the sister of Congressperson Pete Domenici. Congressperson Domenici is one of the most fervent supporters of funding CMHS, and traditional "mental health" system.

Adding to the controversial mix that day, a totally separate organization is holding its own independent protest across the street. An attorney for Support Coalition, David Atkin, has issued a letter advising that this second protest -- sponsored by the Church of Scientology's Citizen Commission on Human Rights -- has absolutely no link to Support Coalition's protest. Atkin stated, "Support Coalition does not have -- and never has had -- any linkage or relationship or connection to CCHR or to the Church of Scientology." Mental health industry proponents frequently try to dismiss all critics as "Scientologists."

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