Do we actually have "Parental Rights" if they are not preserved or defended?

It has been said that parental rights and family values are traditional "American values."  What are 'Parental Rights'?  Are parental rights protected because these rights are defined and codified within civil and administrative law?  When parental rights are diminished, altered, or revoked and a parent's Substantive and/or Procedural Due Process rights were not effectively preserved or observed, there is often no recourse available. This can happen without some parents even realizing that is what has occurred. It is not  uncommon for a  parent's rights to be violated as a matter of course when individuals and families come into contact with Child Protective Services, and or mental health and substance abuse treatment providers.

The average person working within these human service professions receive little to no training on how to preserve or protect the rights of people they will be serving; and just as importantly, how to avoid violating the person's rights out of ignorance...In my experience, social service and mental health professionals do not have even a basic understanding of what a client's individual rights are; nor do they have a minimal awareness of the fact that not observing the effective mechanisms codified within the law meant to preserve and defend those individual rights, means these rights are not effectively preserved; but are in fact violated with impunity. The impact this can have on any child should be of a concern to all of us, as these are people working for us.

The mandate of Child Protective Services is to preserve and foster a family's unity, with the understanding  that a family is the primary social unit within our society and that absent abuse or neglect, a parent has the right to raise a child according to the parent's self-determined morals and values. CPS is mandated to support this by providing social services which assist families who are in crisis, and also by providing foster care when children who are in immediate danger and must be removed due to parental abuse or neglect.  One of the most troubling aspects of this program is the statistic that children removed by 'child protective services,' are abused and killed at a higher rate than those who are not removed from their families. In recent years, parents who are do not consent to giving a child teratogenic drugs has resulted in CPS action, and the removal of children to enforce a prescription of psychotropic drugs; clearly an abuse of power and authority.

This is an ongoing and growing problem caused by the failure to inform/educate individuals who are state employees or state contractors how to perform the legal duties required of them and an abject failure to hold mandated reporters responsible when they fail to file reports with Law Enforcement they are required by law to file. The failure is specific to known or suspected instances of abuse or neglect which victimizes children or vulnerable adults who receive services through DSHS programs. State employees compound the crime by failing to refile the reports they are mandated by law to file. Failure to report is a gross misdemeanor crime. The individuals who commit this crime keep their jobs; the victims are left to tend their injuries with a brutal realization that they are not protected from harm. Supposedly, this is done in service to the state, to protect it from potential liability.

In this instance, "the state" is everybody except the victim(s). This strategy is hardly serving us as a society, it isn't consistent with how potential liability should be defined in such a scenario. Most obviously, allowing people who have failed to act in defense of a child and who fail to report abuse or neglect crimes, should not be in a position of any responsibility; such a person is in fact, a liability. Unless of course, society acknowledges that this approach is used because it serves to protect state employees who increase the state's potential liability for the damages caused by these same employees' ethical and criminal failures. The effect is to protect primarily agents of the state who are putting us at risk of further liability because they lack the fortitude to perform their jobs they are paid to perform. Specifically, taking care of children and vulnerable adults, directly or by performing jobs in support of that mission.

How many times have we heard that Child Protective Services or Adult Protective Services employees have failed to make legally mandated referrals to Law Enforcement for criminal investigation? Has there ever been any criminal investigations and prosecutions for this abject failure?  It seems that the only way anyone is held accountable is by the victim filing a lawsuit. Other than being legally compelled from outside of DSHS, I have never heard of a person experiencing any consequences such as losing their job or being prosecuted for Failure to Report, have you?  The lack of accountability for state employee's or assignee's  failure to perform  the legal duties required of the job; is a liability to the state. It is the individual's ethical and legal failure, which becomes the state's justification to cover up such failures which puts more children and vulnerable adults at risk, so that DSHS can avoid being found negligent and liable for damages.  This strategy ensures that children and vulnerable adults will be victimized and harmed, disabled and killed. Once they are victims, the victims are perceived as be a liability to be avoided. They are not treated as victims to whom the state owes a duty to protect from further harm, nor are they treated as crime victims and provided help to recover.

Children's Administration in effect, acts 'in loco parentis' for children and adolescents in state care, indeed they are the arbiter of who becomes a ward of the state, and who does not. When a child in state care is prescribed drugs and given the drugs without Informed Consent first being obtained from a parent; who is authorizing this be done?  If a child then sustains an iatrogenic, or "physician caused" injury, becomes disabled from the adverse effects of the drugs prescribed which have well-documented potential risks for causing chronic impairments and life-long disabilities; who is responsible? 3-year old drugged in TX
13 year old dies

I know the answer to that. No one is responsible, not the federally funded research psychiatrist, and not Children's Administration; the state pretends there is no need for accountability for harm done by agents of the state. It's impossible for me to pretend that professionals shouldn't be responsible for the harm they've carelessly caused my son.  My son is disabled as a direct result of the state's criminal negligence. According to one of the state's attorneys, the state fulfills some of it's mandated duties; but others require citizens to take legal action against the state. Not the most ethical perspective for a legal advisor responsible for ensuring state designees preserve the individual rights of their clients. This ineffective method serves more often to effectively deny a client any recourse once their rights are violated.  It's as if I've been informed DSHS employees are allowed to violate State and Federal Law, and are allowed to violate a client's individual rights in a Court of Law with impunity. When there is cause to believe crimes were committed, e.g. A well-documented written report detailing how 2 Officers of the Court and 2 mental health professionals used fraud and perjury as "evidence" in Superior Court obtaining a Court Order against a client who was seeking hopitalization---The state has a legal duty to conduct a criminal investigation on behalf of the victim.

After a criminal complaint was filed, the department  proceeded to deny it owes my son, any legal duty. The state has also proceeded to defend the criminal acts of it's designees, the Desigated Mental Health Professional, the psychiatrist, the Deputy Prosecutor, and the Assigned Counsel for the client. The state had a duty to refer a Criminal Complaint to Law Enforcement; and did not. I know I'm more than a little disgusted by the fact that public servants in the state's publicly funded social and mental health "service systems" are obviously enabled to routinely avoid being held accountable for their obviously negligent criminal conduct. I know that as a MadMother, it's more than horrifying to know there is no accountability for ethical and criminal failures of the people whom we entrust to protect children and vulnerable adults who are served by the social services "safety net."

It's not the veracity of the excuse offered in the AAG's message that most troubles me, it is the purpose of the message, i.e. to (again) deny any legal duty to a client victimized by the state's designees, no duty to investigate the Felony Crimes reported. My own perceptions are biased, but I believe my opinions are ethically and legally sound. The state's employees and it's assignees have repeatedly caused my son harm; and whether their actions were merely careless, or criminally negligent, the state enjoys an undeserved immunity. I know that no crime committed by public servants which victimized and injured  my son that I have reported has ever been investigated by Law Enforcement. That tells me that not filing legally mandated reports with Law Enforcement is the rule, not the exception--it explains why unethical behavior is so as common as it is...

There is no way in hell I will become complicit in the crimes which victimized my son. I believe to be silent in some instances is to be complicit. The major flaw in the accountability system for DSHS programs in this state, is that there isn't one. There is no accountability within DSHS; true accountability requires ethical integrity; it should not require a citizen having to take legal action against the state.

I've been living a nightmare for almost twenty years, virtually from the moment I discovered my son was victimized. My horror is compounded by the knowledge CPS had received several credible reports alleging children in the foster home my son was assaulted in, were being abused; prior to his placement there. The damage to my son has been further compounded by the criminal manner employees of the state and it's contracted "service providers" have "provided services" to my son and my family, more often than not, the services were not what was recommended or needed, and caused all of us further harm.
photo credit: weprocessweserve.com

Child Endangerment In the Custody of the State

Gabriel Myers (Credit Family Photo)

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. 

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. 

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." ~ Elie Wiesel

via hope4kidz

via The National Coalition on Child Protection Reform:


"At the heart of the criticism of family preservation is one overriding assumption: If you remove a child from the home, the child will be safe. If you leave a child at home the child is at risk. In fact, there is risk in either direction but real family preservation programs have a better record for safety than foster care.


"And even when families don’t get special help, two huge studies have found that children left in their own homes typically do better than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care.


"To understand why, one must first understand one fundamental fact about foster care: It’s not safe.


"On every measure, children left with their own homes did better than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care. And that was true even though birth families generally got only the conventional “help” offered by child welfare agencies, not the exemplary interventions supported by NCCPR. 16


"When University of Minnesota researchers compared children left in their own homes with comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care, they too found that the children left in their own homes did better, even when the birth families got little or no help at all. 17" here


via The Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study:

“Most children in foster care, if not all, experience feelings of confusion, fear, apprehension of the unknown, loss, sadness, anxiety, and stress. Such feelings and experiences must be addressed and treated early to prevent or decrease poor developmental and mental health outcomes that ultimately affect a child’s educational experience and the quality of adulthood. Systemic orientation for all children entering foster care is proposed as a preventative intervention that addresses associated experiences of children in foster care.” here

Intervention currently means prescription of teratogenic, psychiatric drugs, this is a no substitute for meeting the physical, emotional and social needs of children and adolescents. In reality, the effects of the drugs often prevent them from learning to cope with not having their needs met; and prevents recovery.   

It is entirely understandable that a child removed from their family feel traumatized, and may have behaviors that are difficult to deal with. It is traumatic in and of itself to be taken from a familiar environment and placed in an unfamiliar environment with strangers. Children’s feelings are expressed through their actions; behavior due to feelings of confusion, loss and anxiety is often disruptive and perceived as dysfunctional. The behavior often is the natural response to the traumatic effects of being placed in strange surroundings; it is an attempt to cope. The trauma is made worse when child welfare workers prevent the child from having contact with parents or other family members; it amounts to intentionally causing unquantifiable emotional damage to a vulnerable confused child who has been removed from their home.


In the case of this child, Rachel, who was not abused or neglected and only exhibited behavioral problems as a direct result of Child Welfare’s removal from her home, feelings she was not helped to cope with about events which were beyond her ability to control or understand. She was instead, further traumatized by multiple placements and drugged with dangerous drugs in an effort to control her undesirable behavior that was a logical and natural consequence of what was done to her. The cause of her behavior was not addressed. I am certain given her age, she would have felt as if she was being punished—and in reality she must have felt rejected by the adults who were ‘taking care’ of her. This effectively invalidated her emotional distress and at her age, the events would have in all likelihood been perceived by her to have been her fault. Events which were beyond her ability to understand and cope with, caused her to misbehave and instead of addressing the root cause of her difficulties she was drugged with dangerous drugs to extinguish her behavior which was in all reality her desperate attempt to cope!


How can it have been in Rachel’s best interest to neglect a child’s emotional need for security and attachment by denying visits with her parents? Instead of addressing the cause of this pre-schooler’s emotional and behavioral difficulties, she was given neuroleptic drugs not FDA approved and not without very serious risks for harm. Child Protective Services operates in a manner that is detrimental more often than not. Children are removed from parental custody without Substantive Due Process, violating both the child’s and the parent’s Constitutional Rights.


Why this child was removed? Child welfare policy clearly states, “The removal of a child from biological parents requires a substantiation of maltreatment (sexual, physical, or neglect), not just an exposure to it (Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, 2003). Maltreatment, such as neglect, and the removal from parents (foster care) are traumatic events that can affect the immediate and future developmental and mental health of children (Bowlby, 1998) Child welfare and foster care programs are not effectively protecting the children removed from their homes—six times as many children are killed by caregivers in foster care the than are killed by family members. Child Welfare authorities acknowledged that Rachel had been neither abused or neglected. Sadly, she's been neglected and abused by people who had a duty to protect her.


Obviously, parents using illicit drugs is not something to be condoned. It is equally plain that granting Police powers and broad authority to Child Welfare workers who either ignore or do not even know or understand Due Process of Law is a Constitutional Right that they have a duty to preserve when "protecting children." In this case Child Welfare workers were grossly negligent and did not protect her; they traumatized and grievously harmed her.  It was acknowledged the reporter states that neither neglect or abuse was suspected; yet she was removed from her parents' custody, and an attempt was made to terminate her parents' rights--absent abuse and/or neglect that Federal Law requires for the state to deprive parents of their parental rights...  

I am only speculating, but I would be willing to bet this child was put on drugs because the Federal Child Welfare program allows for a higher rate of reimbursement for 'special needs' children; Rachel was worth more drugged.  The attempt to terminate her parents rights if successful, could have 'earned' the child welfare system of Texas $6,000. from the Federal government.  This sort of exploitation of children is happening in every state.  The other thing that I noticed in this report, is due to the initial removal from her parents as an infant, the child welfare department got into trouble for their neglect and for not following up on a Judge's order to seek medical attention for Rachel---It is my personal experience that child welfare workers retaliate against parents who have been successful in having them personally, or the child welfare department in general, accountable for past negligence.

Former Georgia State Senator, Nancy Schafer, prior being slain along with her husband in their garage; was on a mission to address the criminal manner in which state child welfare workers through the Federally-funded Child Welfare System removes children form their homes while abdicating their legal duty to preserve the Individual Rights to Procedural Due Process of Law of the children and their parents. Advocating for the abolition of CPS, Schafer rightly declared that matters of Law, i.e. the investigation of suspected criminal behavior; is best left to Law Enforcement. Officers of the Law are trained to conduct investigations, while preserving Individual Rights to Procedural Due Process of Law. Child welfare workers are not trained in investigative techniques, and do not seem cognizant that they are violating the rights of the children and their parents by failing to conform even to their own guidelines and policies while exercising what are in effect, police powers.  As is all too common, in this case, those involved removed a child who was not in imminent danger.  Worse, once they had legally kidnapped Rachel they did not even attempt to meet her fundamental emotional and developmental needs. Child Welfare abused and neglected Rachel after taking her from parents whom they knew did neither... 

Sadly, Rachel's  case is not unique.  On the 6th of this month I posted "The failure to protect foster children and children on Medicaid."  Those of you who read this blog regularly know that my son Isaac was abused, neglected and used in Drug Trials without consent; and he is now profoundly disabled.  What happened to my son, and what was done to Rachel is more than a failure to protect; it is the deliberate infliction of harm. In my son's case, Child Welfare workers violated both our Constitutional Rights; and no one has ever been held accountable.  More than a million dollars in Child Welfare and Medicaid Fraud were committed; I'm lucky my son is alive. Trust me, I am grateful. But, I am angry to have learned that what was done to my son was no anomaly. It has been devastating to discover it's being done to children every single day in every single state onf the Nation; and only in an infinitesimal number of cases is anyone ever held responsible.  This has to stop--it is destroying families.  It is literally disabling and killing children.  These crimes are being committed by public servants who are acting on our behalf.    Nancy Schafer videos 

In cases of neglect and abuse that result from a child welfare staff's actions/inaction, we allow the  people to keep their jobs and give them pensions for their 'service.'  Psychiatric drugging of children in distress is criminal--as both my son's and Rachel's cases clearly illustrate. How many children are we going to allow unethical professionals to drug to death with impunity?  How many are we willing to allow to be disabled, because we are sure it's not our problem to solve?  We have, as a society paid a steep price for allowing mental health and social service systems to exploit children in distress.  But the price we pay is nothing compared to the price paid by the children who are now dead.  It is negligible in comparison the price my son continues to pay for the crimes committed which victimized him as a child. The toll continues to climb with the passage of time.  Because he is an adult who is disabled because of the crimes committed against him as a child, he is vulnerable and can not effectively protect himself. What horrifies me is the people who are directly responsible including those who committed felony crimes are or were public servants working for Yakima County, the State of Washington and Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health. I don't want revenge or retribution. It would not help my son who is 6'3" and 280 pounds to feel safe; I want my son to be able to trust people, not just his family.  I don't believe he will be able to feel safe without Justice being served.  I don't believe he's safe; and that's a heavy burden for a mother to bear...    

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~ Plato

"Your children are not your children..." Do you know what your parental rights are?

Marianna, Kahlil's Sister. Painting by Kahlil Gibran

On Children

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, 

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, 

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, 

and He bends you with His might 

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, 

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran

via parentalrights on youtube:

Overruled: Government Invasion of your Parental Rights (Official Movie)

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

"The Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen's liberty without justifiable cause and due process."  H.L. Mencken 

 quotes from "Quotationary" by Leonard Roy Frank; link to website. 

parentalrights.org

via Nancy Schafer playlist:

Nancy Schaefer "The Unlimited Power of Child Protective Services"





published as 'Parental Rights Under Attack' November 18, 2011 and January 17, 2012 with 'Overruled'

Kahlil Gibran via katzanddogz.com 

It's More Than Enough For Me

one day old

I am a single parent of two adult sons; my youngest son spent more than half of his childhood from the age of six until the age of seventeen in locked psychiatric wards; there are times to this day that the grief takes all of the wind from me, and I struggle to even stand upright.  I find myself holding my breath; because I'm afraid that if I breathe, I will start to cry, and once I cry----how will I ever stop?  There was and is so very much to grieve...The experiences themselves have not so much knocked me down; as they have beat any confidence I have in my fellow man out of me.  I am grateful beyond belief to have my son at all.  I voiced for the first time aloud at the beginning of April,  a precious truth for me: Every Day is Mother's Day.  I know I'm lucky my son has survived.  It is, I believe, a miracle and a blessing he is alive at all.

I cannot describe how humbled I have been by the last several months, nor can I describe to anyone how truly horrifying it has been to discover that the practice of psychiatry is as corrupt and unethical as it is.  The publicly funded mental health system, which includes the federally funded child welfare system, (CPS and foster care) violate the Constitutional Rights of the children and families it 'serves' as a matter of course.  I am more than horrified, I am disgusted.  At one time, I believed that my son's mistreatment by psychiatric and social services professionals who treated him as if he is "less than" human; and used him in drug trials was some kind of fluke, accident, travesty, or anomaly.  I now know it is common.  Knowing this makes it so much worse...

The primary purpose appears to be to expand the market for psychiatric drugs to ensure pharmaceutical industry profits.  Whether or not those "treated" are harmed by the psychiatric drugs, in real world practice, these negative outcomes of psychiatric patients is not a story that is told with accuracy; if told at all.  Only the biased story which supports the biological disease model is put forth.  I know it is the way things are done.  I am painfully aware that psychiatric drugs have caused my son grievous harm; have traumatized and disabled him.  I am at a loss to understand how the psychiatric profession has gotten away with this...


The drugs used are teratogenic.  Psychiatric drugs in all classes can cause iatrogenic illnesses and physiological dysfunction; decreasing the quality of life, and increasing risk of fatality---How was a profession built on fraud, corruption and outright lies about the safety and efficacy of it's "treatments" be given so much unearned trust and absolute power? Power to obtain Court Orders and to use the Police as agents who deliver their unwilling patients to locked facilities?  Civil Commitment investigators/petitioners are not required to conform to the Rules of Evidence when seeking to detain and involuntarily commit individuals they target; Standard Court Procedures are not followed; Effective Assistance of Counsel is not provided.  The Police, whose duty is to protect and to serve, become agents of psychiatry compelled by Court Order to deliver unwilling patients to locked facilities.

Antidepressants and neuroleptic drugs are two classes of psychiatric drugs that are now some of the most prescribed drugs.  These drugs are widely prescribed "off-label;" in spite of the overwhelming evidence that neither of these classes of drugs was therapeutic for the majority of people who took them in drug trials conducted to gain their FDA approval. Antidepressants and neurolelptics can cause dependence; and both have serious risks, including disability and early or sudden death.  Adults who take neuroleptic drugs long term, die an average of  25-30 years early; from drug induced illnesses; although the deaths are usually classified as natural.  Neuroleptics and antidepressants can cause debilitating illnesses, heart damage, brain damage, neurological impaiments, all obviously, horrifying traumatic iatrogenic injuries.

I was told by a psychiatrist in response to posting a psychiatric summary documenting the drugs and dosages given to my son in a two month period that, "No psychiatrist would see anything wrong" with how my son was 'treated;' he further stated that, "any parent who objected would at best be perceived as 'ill-informed' and at worst, as 'impaired' themselves."    In effect, using my boy as a guinea pig in drug trials while housing him in a disgusting and filthy environment for over $600. a day, and there's nothing wrong with it. I assure you, that the effects the drugs had were terrifying to him---I know when my son is terrified.  I saw his terror-filled look; I am haunted by the memory of it to this day.  I can still hear the echo of my son begging me to rescue him.   I remember being treated like I was crazy when I protested.  How dare I question the Quack Master Jack.


There was no questioning "Quack Master Jack's Authority."   While participating as an  investigator in the TEOSS drug trials, this "lead researcher" drugged my son into a state of profound disability.   Jon McClellan was one of the investigators funded by the  NIMH trialing neuroleptic drugs not approved for pediatric use.   Quack Master Jack needed no one's consent but his own--he had no one's consent but his own.


I remember thinking, "why does it look like my son is going die?"

I knew then, and I know now the 'treatment' has more in common with Science Fiction, than it does with medicine in the Hippocratic tradition.  The 'treatment' was ineffective, which is really no surprise.  Neuroleptic drugs have repeatedly been shown to be ineffective for the majority of people with symptoms of psychosis.  The neuroleptic drugs cause iatrogenic illnesses, disability and early death.  Nevertheless, psychiatry insists that these drugs are 'necessary medical treatment' and must be used by force for those who refuse. The drugs are what psychiatry uses; patient safety and drug efficacy do not matter; what matters is that one never question or doubt psychiatric authority.

The 'treatment' did nothing but cause my son physical illness, and further traumatize him. The drugs used in psychiatric "treatment" are known to be ineffective, the "treatment" is not based on Science--it is not Evidenced-Based Medicine; it is not supported by or derived from accurately reported clinical trial data.


In reality, psychiatric drug treatment protocols, like the psychiatric diagnoses themselves, are developed by consensus which is a pseudo-democratic political process. Psychiatrists vote diagnoses and treatment protocols into existence. Ultimately, the drugs used for a particular psychiatric diagnosis and the "Practice Parameters" psychiatry develops for each diagnosis are not derived from or supported by scientific data; but are based on subjective opinions voted on in a quasi-democratic political process know as consensus.  Why would psychiatry develop treatment protocols based on a consensus of subjective opinions and not the Clinical Trial data?  Psychiatry uses subjective opinions as a substitute for empirical data because the data does not support the use of psychiatric drugs.


Neuroleptic drugs have very serious, even fatal risks.  The drugs are "effective" for only a minority of people to whom they are prescribed.   Psychiatry ignores the Science, and the existing evidence-base and proclaims the drugs to be safe and effective; in spite of the scientific record not supporting this conclusion.  Students of psychiatry are taught a false history of psychiatry.  Students are not taught what is known, but what is believed, assumed or hoped to be true about the diagnoses themselves.   Students are not taught about what is known about the actual  effects of the drugs either.   The use of psychiatric drugs is not based on ethically conducted research with an unbiased reporting of the results.  As a result, psychiatric treatment using drugs is not scientifically valid, and is not therapeutic for many. Drugging of psychiatric symptoms is the only "medical treatment" that is carried out whether it's effects are therapeutic for an individual patient, or not.  Psychiatry claims to be a medical specialty, yet does not adhere to the scientific method and does not seem to even pay lip service to the Ethical Guidelines of the Medical profession.  Psychiatry ignores altogether the Nuremberg Code; with impunity.

I know that the statement that no psychiatrist would see anything wrong made by the psychiatrist in reference to my son's treatment is wrong.  l am grateful to know there are psychiatrists who do not "treat" humans in distress this way.  It is particularly disappointing this statement was made by a psychiatrist who apparently does not believe that a parent's duty and Constitutional Right to act on a child or adolescent's behalf should only be diminished or infringed upon to prevent abuse or neglect.

I know there are psychiatrists who would not agree with his statement, and would in fact see a whole lot wrong with how my son was treated.  Just because fraud and corruption are rampant and widespread in psychiatric research and practice, does not make the distortion of ethical medical  principles acceptable. Standard Practices used in psychiatry rely on consensus, seem to use consensus instead of data. Consensus is no substitute for factual data and information; and an opinion is not magically transformed into "evidence" because the opinion is shared by one's peers. Consensus is evidence of agreement; it is not evidence of medical validity.  

six years old

The lack of insight psychiatry has into the bind they put their patients in is truly frightening; to say the very least.  Psychiatry has convinced society that people with psychiatric diagnoses are not aware of reality and somehow, this erroneous belief justifies psychiatry treating them with dangerous and ineffective drugs as if they are not worthy of being treated with dignity or respect.  Our Nation's Institutions of Higher Learning doing psychiatric research have been funded by the pharmaceutical industry; psychiatry has somehow deluded it's practitioners into believing the people who are diagnosed with "mental illness" are incapable of recognizing when they are disrespected and invalidated.  Real concerns about the negative effects of psychiatric drugs from the patient or family members are attributed to sypmtoms of the diagnosis, are minimized, declared to be 'tolerable side effects,' or are ignored altogether.  


The attitude seems to be those who are labeled with a psychiatric diagnosis don't know what's 'good' for them; so what they experience, is not important.  How the treatment impacts the person, whether it is perceived as helpful or not; is considered to be unimportant. How can it be that a patient's perceptions and experiences are  not ever considered to be valid if the patient disagrees with the treating psychiatrist?  Nonetheless, a patient's perception is never as important as the patient's agreement to take the drugs exactly as prescribed; regardless of any actual benefit, or harm experienced.  The adverse effects and the potential for disability and death are not important; as long as compliance in taking drugs as prescribed is maintained.   How is it this is not recognized for what it is?  Using coercion and manipulation are an abuse of power and authority; the nature of these acts do not become 'therapeutic' because "it's for the patient's own good," and it is done under the guise of beneficence to provide "necessary medical treatment" Under Color of Law. 

My son is now a young man valiantly struggling to overcome the effects of outrageous abuse  and trauma his "medical treatment" has caused him; the 'treatment' amounted to repeated psychiatric assault and resulted in traumatic iatrogenic injuries from neuroleptic and other psychiatric drugs.  He is struggling to come to terms with the loss of cognitive and intellectual abilities.  He asked me in agony, "How could they take so much from me, Mom?"  There is no good or sufficient answer to this question; and the pain is, at times unbearable.  The damage caused to his spirit, is heartbreaking.  The damage done to his physical health and his continuing cognitive decline are in fact evidence of the criminal nature of his psychiatric treatment, and evidence of medical malpractice.  My son's "treatment" consisted of the law being repeatedly violated by the lead researcher in the State of Washington who was funded by the NIMH, and who works for the State of Washington as the Medical Director of the State's only psychiatric facility for children; and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington.  Not once have any of my complaints to the appropriate authorities in Washington State ever been investigated. 

I have no doubt that this is because it is the State of Washington that is ultimately liable. In my experience, the State of Washington protects the State of Washington; it does not act in defense of any victim unless forced to do so--even if the victim is a child or vulnerable adult.   The psychiatrist who did this to my son is still employed by the State of Washington, continues in his dual role as Medical Director of Child Study and Treatment Center and professor at University of Washington to this day.

People need to understand it is not an accurate or complete depiction in public service ads to "Bust the Stigma" of mental illness of how individuals given a psychiatric diagnosis experience life in the real world. More, people need to know it is not accurate to say the drugs are "safe and effective."  The anti-stigma efforts are not so much wrong, as they are biased, incomplete and inaccurate.  They neglect to even acknowledge there is a "potential" down side to getting a psychiatric diagnosis, and to treating symptoms associated with psychiatric diagnoses with psychiatric drugs.  The mainstream advocacy and anti-stigma activists fail to advocate for those with psychiatric diagnoses who are not served well by the psychopharmacology treatment paradigm, and/or those who have been harmed or otherwise victimized by unethical treatment providers in mental health service systems.  

Mainstream mental health advocates do not advocate for my son, or offer support to our family.  It is insulting to read in education and advocacy literature and hear in "public service" announcements that these advocates speak for all those with a psychiatric diagnosis and their families.   These advocates do not represent me, or my son.  The mental health professionals and social workers in the local public mental health system have no interest in helping my son in the slightest.  Psychiatry's victims are not acknowledged, they are effectively de-voiced, invalidated, and ignored.  Advocacy groups who claim to be speaking for everyone with a psychiatric diagnosis are not.  It is not possible to be advocating for the people with a psychiatric diagnosis while ignoring victims; psychiatric survivors who have recovered; parents who are taking care of disabled adult children; and parents who are grieving a child's early death from so-called "necessary medical treatment" with "safe and effective" drugs.  

The advocacy groups are funded and advised by the pharmaceutical industry and are intentionally not questioning  psychiatry's inexplicable devotion to the disease model.  These pharmaceutically-funded groups do not seem to question the alliances between the drug industry and the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  The obvious Conflicts of Interest have, in no small part, not only allowed but have perpetuated and even increased the harm done to real people; the devotion to the disease hypothesis and biological treatment paradigm have caused stigma to become deeply entrenched.  These advocacy groups do not advocate for victims, or for the grieving family members they leave behind.  The only people who are celebrated and advocated for are those who conform to the disease model, who are "treatment compliant."  This type of advocacy invalidates my son's lived experience; which was and is abusive.  My son's experiences were horrifying, and all too real.

What angers me the most is professionals and advocates who effectively deny the entirety of my son's history of trauma and subsequent psychiatric mistreatment.  My son has been consistently invalidated by virtually everyone who made decisions about how he would be treated and by whom.  I was also treated in this way, but my anger is for what was done to my son.


It is said that everything happens for a reason, and the only reason I can think of is so that I could see what I saw, and come to know what I know.  Some, if not most of the children who are Wards of the State do not have family involved at all and as such, are  children--who are left without protection.  Knowing these children do in fact exist, and are in need of protection, is what  motivates me more than anything else.  It is for these children in State Custody who are given no voice and no choice, that I share my family's story.   


I know the children who are in State Custody deserve better than to be given unsafe and ineffective drugs; I know that they should not be told that they have defective brains when their problems are caused by being neglected, abused and not having had basic needs consistently met.  These children deserve to be safe from unethical research, protected from being used as guinea pigs in Drug Trials, and "medically treated" using unethical "standard practices" which are not safe, effective or grounded in ethical research, or the ethical practice of medicine. The primary focus in medicine is to do what is in a patient's best interest, we fail far too often to maintain this focus when we allow children in foster care to be drugged instead of effectively helped.  Children must have their individual rights under the US Constitution preserved and defended---even if they are unaware of exactly what these rights are.  

I believe all of us have a duty to the children in State Custody.

Do you?

August 6, 2011

 post is inspired by two sentences of a commereader and was initially posted on April 8, 2011 titled, "It is More Than Enough" 

"It's enough to make anyone go insane.  Whs precisely what happens in those environments..."   Duane Sherry

In my own experience, it's more than enough to cause overwhelming grief...