Friday, July 23, 2010

Journalist Bob Whitaker is "Re-Confirmed" as Keynote for Alternatives 2010 - Government and SAMHSA reacts to public outrage




Journalist Bob Whitaker is "Re-Confirmed" as Keynote for Alternatives 2010 - Government and SAMHSA reacts to public outrage
The conference will be held Oct 2010 in Anaheim Ca. - sometimes with a little targeted harassment, demeaning correspondence, and public pressure applied, the people's voice is actually heard - This isn't walking on Water, but when you can get a government agency to do anything pointing in a positive direction, it's damned close to a miracle.


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Message from mindfreedom

MindFreedom International VICTORY - 23 July 2010
Unite to Win Human Rights in Mental Health
http://www.mindfreedom.org - please forward
[to get off this public news list see bottom]

UPDATE - 23 July 2010

Victory!

Journalist Bob Whitaker is "Re-Confirmed" as Keynote for Alternatives
2010

Whitaker is Critic of Psychiatric Drug Company Claims in His Book,
"Anatomy of an Epidemic"

Thank You MFI News Readers! MFI Alert 48-hours Ago Called "Effective"

by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

What a difference two days and a MindFreedom International alert can
make?

What a difference a MOVEMENT can make!

While there's no guarantee public attention helped, there has been a
sudden change today:

This morning, author Robert B. Whitaker has been "re-confirmed" as
keynote speaker at the annual federally-funded Alternatives 2010,
which has brought together hundreds of mental health consumers and
psychiatric survivors for 25 years. His new "Anatomy of an Epidemic"
has significant criticisms of claims by the psychiatric pharmaceutical
industry.

Bob told MindFreedom, "It does go to the sense that this is a consumer/
survivor conference. They can set the agenda. That's the way it should
be, in terms of self-empowerment. They should choose who they want to
hear from. It's a nice step forward."

Congratulations everyone -- especially those who do good work in the
"system-funded" world and have the courage to invite a critic of the
dominant paradigm. We know your job is tough, and we appreciate your
effort.

At the same time, this is a great teaching moment in the importance of
supporting and remembering the independent psychiatric survivor
activist movement, including MindFreedom International.

Below this brief timeline of recent events is how YOU can thank the
Obama administration, and encourage more support for deep change in
mental health care.

TIMELINE:

** June 2010: Robert Whitaker is confirmed as keynote speaker of
Alternatives 2010.

** 15 July: His confirmation is withdrawn by organizers, citing
concerns by high-level federal officials. Bob was told he was not
going to keynote.

** 21 July: MindFreedom issued a public alert, "What About Bob?"
copied BELOW. Many of you quickly responded by contacting President
Obama and SAMHSA (I'll post some on the MFI blog). A SAMHSA phone
operator could guess the topic before a caller even said it!

** 23 July: Today, Whitaker is re-confirmed as keynoter of
Alternatives 2010. An anonymous source said the MindFreedom alert was
"effective."

~~~~~~~~~~

*** NEW ACTIONS *** NEW ACTIONS *** NEW ACTIONS ***

1) THANKS!

Too often, activists are seen as complainers. Here's a chance to give
some APPRECIATION.

Please use the White House web form here to send THANKS, and
encouragement for more:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

SAMPLE MESSAGE -- please limit yours to 2,500 characters. Your own
words are best:

THANK YOU President Obama for your administration support today for
the self-determination of mental health consumers/psychiatric
survivors to choose journalist Bob Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an
Epidemic, to keynote Alternatives 2010, which is an important annual
conference funded by SAMHSA. Now it's time to do even more. We
encourage you and your staff to support the availability of more non-
drug, effective, empowering choices in mental health care.

If possible, please copy your thank you message by e-mail to SAMHSA
director Pam Hyde at Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov, and to MFI for public
use at news@mindfreedom.org

2) FORWARD THIS GOOD NEWS!

Many blogs, Facebook pages, e-mail lists, etc. are talking about the
MFI alert from two days ago. Please spread this good news.

3) READ BOB'S BOOK!

You can order Whitaker's book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" at discount
from MindFreedom's MAD MARKET, and benefit MFI's human rights work:
http://www.madmarket.org

MindFreedom will also have an exhibit booth at Alternatives 2010 with
Bob's book, see you there!
Posted by Stan at 10:00 AM
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