Annual Protest of the American Psychiatric Association May 4, 2014, NYC

via CNN iReport:

Invitation to the Annual Protest of the American Psychiatric Association May 4, 2014, NYC

By Lauren10e  |  Posted April 27, 2014  |  New York

#StopPsychAssault; #FreeJustina; and #StopMurphyBill: 

MEDIA ADVISORY 
April 26, 2014 

Contact: Lauren Tenney, PhD, MPhil, MPA, Psychiatric Survivor 
Phone Number (516) 319-4295 
https://www.facebook.com/events/246150788902655/. 
https://www.facebook.com/events/624125897669908/ 

WHO: People everywhere. MindFreedom International and the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights®) 

WHAT: Annual Protest of the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting and the #StopPsychAssault; #FreeJustina; and #StopMurphyBill Twitter campaigns 

WHERE: Behind the barricades on the Corner of 34th Street and 11th Avenue, NYC, NY (Across the Street from the Jacob Javits Convention Center) on the Internet. 

WHEN: May 4, 2014 @ NOON 

WHY: An invitation to protest the American Psychiatric Association. Everyone is at risk. 

James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq., President/CEO of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, is traveling from Alaska to attend the protest in New York City on May 4, 2014. Gottstein stated: "Psychiatry is a morally and scientifically bankrupt enterprise causing great harm and must be held accountable." 

Al Galves, PhD and Board member of MindFreedom International stated: 
“If you believe, as I do, that our mental health system is hurting rather than helping people who are going through hard times, then the place to protest is at the annual convention of the people who control mental health treatment in our country – the psychiatrists.” 

Dorothy Dundas, who is affiliated with National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery,and the creator of the “Behind Locked Doors” poster, will be traveling from Massachusetts to attend the protest. Dundas stated: “As a survivor of forced shock, seclusion and drugging, the Murphy bill would take us back 30+ years! STOP the Murphy bill!” 

It is crucial that we come together and say #StopPsychAssault, #FreeJustina, and #StopMurphyBill at the Annual Protest of the American Psychiatric Association. If you cannot come to the protest in person, please post your letters of protest on these event pages: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/624125897669908/ and 
https://www.facebook.com/events/246150788902655/. 

Your written protests will be compiled and given to the APA and the MEDIA. 

DETAILS: Photo/Video Opportunities 

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: 
MindFreedom International and the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

MindFreedom International www.MindFreedom.org 
MindFreedom International is a nonprofit organization that unites 100 sponsor and affiliate grassroots groups with thousands of individual members to win human rights and alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities. 

MindFreedom Goals 
• Win human rights campaigns in mental health. 
• Challenge abuse by the psychiatric drug industry. 
• Support the self-determination of psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers. 
• Promote safe, humane and effective options in mental health. 

MindFreedom Mission Statement 
"In a spirit of mutual cooperation, MindFreedom leads a nonviolent revolution of freedom, equality, truth and human rights that unites people affected by the mental health system with movements for justice everywhere." 

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights www.PsychRights.org 

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights®) is a public interest law firm whose mission is to mount a strategic legal campaign against forced psychiatric drugging and electroshock in the United States akin to what Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP mounted in the 40's and 50's on behalf of African American civil rights. The public mental health system is creating a huge class of chronic mental patients through forcing them to take ineffective, yet extremely harmful drugs. 

Currently, due to the massive growth in psychiatric drugging of children and youth and the current targeting of them for even more psychiatric drugging, PsychRights® has made attacking this problem a priority. Children are virtually always forced to take these drugs because it is the adults in their lives who are making the decision. This is an unfolding national tragedy of immense proportions. As part of its mission, PsychRights® is further dedicated to exposing the truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people to be drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging interventions against their will. 

#FreeJustina http://justiceforjustina.com/ 
Justina Pelletier is but one example of a young person who is currently knapped by psychiatry. Justina is imprisoned in a psychiatric institution and barred access to her family. Justina's family has broken legal gag orders preventing them from speaking about what is happening to Justina, to bring attention to the fact that Justina is being tortured while true medical treatment is being withheld from her. 

#StopMurphyBill Stop the Murphy Bill HR3717 
On a national level, the Murphy Bill, HR3717, if passed, will reverse thirty years of progress in public psychiatric service delivery systems, including wiping out Alternatives, PAIMI (Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness), and instituting a national involuntary outpatient commitment law, ordinarily carried out in racist and classist ways. HR3717 expands forced psychiatry and eliminates choice and informed consent. 

Protest Posters by Lauren Tenney, PhD

Blessed beyond measure...

May your days be filled with love,
and may you know that 

you are blessed beyond measure... 

Chloe

portions of this blog post first published for Thanksgiving in 2011

I have a great deal to be grateful for.  I am grateful most of all for my family.

I am also grateful for the people who are actively working to change public policy and to reform the public mental health system serving children, adults and families. Change is desperately needed to effectively help without harming; so that children, adults, and families can achieve their potential.  This is particularly true for our Nation's children, whose best interests are not well-served within the foster care system Child Welfare services in foster care and/or the public Mental Health service systems.

I would like to bring your attention to a unique effort with a positive impact, a legal project called The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, founded by James, "Jim" Gottstein.

via  PsychRights^®
                   Law Project for
              Psychiatric Rights

"The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) public interest law firm whose mission is to mount a  strategic legal campaign against forced psychiatric drugging and electroshock in the United States akin to what Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP mounted in the 40's and 50's on behalf of African American civil rights.  The public mental health system is creating a huge class of chronic mental patients through forcing them to take ineffective, yet extremely harmful drugs. "Currently, due to the massive growth in psychiatric drugging of children and youth and the current targeting of them for even more psychiatric drugging, PsychRights has made attacking this problem a priority.  Children are virtually always forced to take these drugs because it is the adults in their lives who are making the decision.  This is an unfolding national tragedy of immense proportions.  As part of its mission, PsychRights is further dedicated to exposing the truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people to be drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging interventions against their will."

This is the one cause that is nearest to my heart.  My children are now grown, and I know without a shadow of a doubt, that no child should go through what my son, Isaac did.   No parent should come to the realization that their confidence and trust in mental health professionals was misplaced; and know that seeking help for their child caused their child harm.  Parents should not find out that they have been misinformed about the serious risks of psychotropic drugs, some of the risks are the potential for addiction, risk of developing disabling iatrogenic diseases, and permanent neurological and cognitive impairments.  Parents are not supposed to outlive their children.  Parents should not have to spend their lives knowing that the 'medical treatment' they sought grievously harmed,  disabled, or killed their beloved child.  Adding insult to injury, parents discover the so-called 'professionals' who cause their child permanent injury or cause their child's death will experience no consequences; and will be allowed to harm more children. 

Jim Gottstein is fighting a legal battle for the benefit of children, and society.  I sincerely hope you find PsychRights to be a cause worthy of your financial support until the practice of drugging defenseless children with minimally effective psychotropic drugs, that have  serious risks is no longer a "standard practice" in mental health care.  No child should grow up like my son did; robbed of their human dignity, deprived of their Human Rights.  No one should be repeatedly traumatized because they sought help from a mental health practitioner. 

The mistreatment of my son has thus far prevented him from leading a normal life, recovery has been a slow, painful process.  The  manner in which my son's treatment was provided and paid for was a violation of State, Federal and International Law.  The Nuremberg Code prohibits using people in experiments without their Informed Consent---my son was used in Drug Trials in spite of my protests, and his own.  He was told if he didn't take the drugs he would never get to leave the locked facility he was in.  Much of his care from the ages of six until the present, has been fraudulently billed to the Federal Medicaid program.  A conservative estimate of what has been fraudulently billed to Medicaid is $1 million for the unethical, traumatizing treatment resulting in iatrogenic harm being inflicted on my precious son. 

State employees and State-paid contracted service providers; 'public servants' who acted unethically and even knowingly committed crimesviolated my son's Civil Rights, and even  committed felony perjury in King County Superior Court, Pierce County Superior Court, and Yakima County Superior Court.  Not once have mandated reporters filed legally mandated  reports to Law Enforcement when my son was victimized. The first of these failures was when he was victimized while in foster care when he was three years old.  To date, no one working for the State, or it's contracted "service" providers have been held accountable. I don't believe anyone ever will.  Some are retired, and receive State pensions.

I am extremely grateful my son survived.  I am grateful that we have all  survived. As a family, we have walked through some tremendously painful experiences; all families do. 

Our family has been complete since I have found Crystal.  I searched for over five years to find her. In my heart, she is, and has been my daughter since she first called me mom.  

It seems like it was a lifetime ago; and there are times it seems like another life altogether.  

I found Crystal, and was doubly blessed to find I have a granddaughter named Chloe too... 

I have been blessed beyond measure...

I am profoundly grateful for Attorney Jim Gottstein's commitment to protect and defend the rights of children and families. Jim wages a legal battle to stop the unethical, widespread drugging of children who have emotional and behavioral difficulties.  Knowing that Jim Gottstein is committed to fighting for our Nation's children, and committed to fighting the use of drugs in order to prevent iatrogenic harm being done to them, gives me hope.  

Together, we can make a better, brighter future for children, they are counting on us.

Jim Gottstein at the It's About Childhood and Family, Inc 2009 Conference 

A Message from Jim Gottstein, founder of PsychRights:

Hello,

I invite you to think of those who are locked up in psychiatric hospitals and drugged against their will, or forced to take mind-numbing psychiatric drugs against their will in the community.  I also invite you to think about the children and youth, especially those in foster care, who are being given these drugs to their great detriment.  I have undertaken PsychRights work because I narrowly escaped being made permanently mentally ill by the mental health system.   This is something for which I give thanks every day.

You can give thanks by helping those who have not been lucky enough to escape yet by donating to the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights.   Donations can be sent to:

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

406 G Street, Suite 206

Anchorage, Alaska 99501

Tax deductible donations can also be made online through the PsychRights Cause, on Facebook or through the Network for Good.

Thank you for your support.

James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.

President/CEO

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

406 G Street, Suite 206

Anchorage, Alaska  99501

USA

Phone: (907) 274-7686)  Fax: (907) 274-9493

jim.gottstein@psychrights.org

http://psychrights.org/

PsychRights®

        Law Project for

   Psychiatric Rights

  

The failure to protect foster children and children on Medicaid

acf/hhs children's bureau

Medicaid Fraud must be endorsed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid; it is the only logical explanation for the massive amount of fraud committed to pay for psychiatric drugs not covered under the Federal Medicaid program due to not being FDA approved, and not being listed in the drug Compendia recognized by Federal programs to qualify for reimbursement.  Prescriptions written for drugs prescribed for "physical ailments" will not be filled by a pharmacy unless a person agrees beforehand to pay cash.

The Pharmaceutical Companies have all been criminally prosecuted and heavily fined; but the fines have not served as a deterrent. The illegal behavior of individuals was not punished; so it continues...The fines are just a business expense. This criminal enterprise could not been successful without enlisting the participation of doctors and pharmacists who illegally cause fraudulent claims to be submitted; and who directly benefit from the payment of the claims.  When will the investigation of psychiatric drugs for behavioral and emotional problems used on foster children be focused on doing what is in the children's best interest? As it is now, the children's best interest are one of many 'concerns' being discussed; but it is apparent to me that it is not the primary concern---according to Ethical Guidelines adopted by Medical Professionals and the Legal mandates which govern the provision of Child Welfare services, the best interests of the child is always supposed to be the primary focus.  Instead, discussion is focused on how to train medical professionals to use better utilize the existing treatment protocols that are without scientific validity; by monitoring and quantifying the harm (or benefit) experienced by the children being drugged. The primary focus appears to be defending the indefensible, the unethical Standards of Care being used which have necessitated repeated investigations into the harm being caused.  These are the standards of care which have, intentionally or not, enabled, and facilitated the generation of enormous corporate profits for the pharmaceutical industry, by defrauding the American people and exploiting vulnerable children on Medicaid .   

The treatment protocols used in Standard Practice are, like the psychiatric diagnoses, based upon a consensus of opinions; consensus is evidence of agreement, it is not evidence of diagnostic validity or treatment safety and efficacy.  Nonetheless, these standards continue to be widely used and vehemently defended; regardless of the harm being caused by them...Professionals using them violate the trust of their patients and the public.  But worse that that, psychiatrists fail to inform patients of the risks for iatrogenic harm, and then medically neglect the iatrogenic injuries and diseases they cause to their patients. Some even attribute drug-induced diseases and neurological impairments to the psychiatric diagnosis the drugs are supposedly treating. Ironically, psychiatrists claim it is psychiatric patients who lack insight...

We, as a society, are failing miserably to protect children from being exploited.  Poor children on Medicaid, particularly those who have been made Wards of the State, through no fault of their own, are being exploited and treated like a commodity.  Foster children are given drugs which cause them to develop diseases and rob them of their innate abilities and their intellect.  Some are killed by the treatment they receive. WE THE PEOPLE are paying for this criminal treatment...WE THE PEOPLE have been defrauded in order to fill corporate coffers.  It is on WE THE PEOPLE'S collective behalf that social workers and Medical professionals care for the children who are in the foster care system.  This exploitation of children will continue until WE THE PEOPLE put a stop to it.  The crimes which continue to be committed under the guise of providing 'necessary medical treatment' and needed social services to abused and neglected children have been successful due to the willing participation and collaboration of medical professional societies, (the APA and the AACAP) and the public servants working for government agencies (FDA CMS & HHS)  This is a massive criminal enterprise that is entrenched within our social service systems and continues to profit from drugging vulnerable children, the elderly, and traumatized veterans.   

I am a MadMother.  Over the past decade, I have spent hundreds of hours doing research and I am horrified by what I have found.  Worst of all, I am ashamed that WE THE PEOPLE have allowed our institutions and government agencies to employ people who recklessly abuse their power and authority, and who seem to have abandoned the ideals and principles upon which the republic was founded.  

Ten years before there was any "approved" pediatric use for Johnson and Johnson's 'Risperdal,' it was given to my son.  It was prescribed "off label," an innocuous term for "experimental use."  I believe the term off label is used because it sounds innocuous; it disguises the fact that Human Experimentation using teratogenic drugs is what is being done.  Human Experimentation with psychiatric drugs is now embedded within  Standard Clinical Practices.  I also believe that is why the term neuroleptic has been replaced with the word, 'antipsychotic.'  The word Neuroleptic is French, a combination of the word neuro, meaning nerve; and the Greek word 'leptikos' which means, 'disposed to take' equivalent to 'lēp'  meaning 'to seize.'   The word neuroleptic actually describes what this class of drug does to the human body.  Neuroleptics act on the parasympathetic nervous system; which explains the myriad of negative effects they are known to have.  It is why the drugs cause a wide variety of diseases and progressive cognitive and neurological impairments, and it is why they shorten lives... But then, all substances that cause disease also cause loss of life... 

I want to know why the Department of Justice is not prosecuting the felony crimes committed which harm our Nation's foster children?  Why have no Federal charges been brought against the doctors, psychiatric researchers, and pharmacists who have benefitted from fraudulent claims being paid?  Why is nothing being done to stop the fraud? Why are false claims still being paid?

From the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights: 

"In a surprising action, however, on March 7th, the Department of Justice actively moved to protect alleged defrauding defendants at Steps 2 & 3 by asking the judge to dismiss the ex rel Nicholson case for what appears to be disingenuous reasons."

"In light of this, PsychRights asked Eric Pruitt, the Assistant United States Attorney who filed the motion to 

dismiss on behalf of the United States Government, the following questions:

1. Why shouldn't it be concluded the Department of Justice and CMS are protecting prescribers and 

pharmacies for their participation in this continuing massive fraudulent scheme?

2. Does CMS take the position that prescriptions not for a medically accepted indication are covered under 

Medicaid?

3. Is CMS calling the shots on the Department of Justice's response to the qui tam cases against prescribers 

and pharmacies for causing and presenting false claims to Medicaid for psychotropic drugs used on 

children and youth that are not for a medically accepted indication?

4. Do the Department of Justice and CMS consider only the economic point, i.e., the drug companies have 

deeper pockets, or are they attempting to make an independent judgment that somehow psychiatrists and 

pharmacists are less culpable for the same fraud?

5. Even if so, why is CMS still paying these false claims on a massive scale?"

Mr. Pruitt declined to answer, saying "We do not comment on pending cases:"

In response, Mr. Gottstein said, "The public is entitled to know the answers to these questions.  Obtaining large recoveries from drug companies is an ineffective sanction, because the fraudulent prescribing practices are continuing unabated.  It appears the Department of Justice is now actively protecting doctors and pharmacies committing Medicaid Fraud."  Read the press release from PsychRights here.

All due respect to Mr. Pruitt; I am not buying his statement that the failure to answer these questions is due to a policy of not commenting on "pending cases."  The questions posed are relevant to what is happening in every single State in the Nation, (Medicaid fraud continues unabated) not only the two States with pending Qui Tam claims!  Mr. Gottstein is right: The American people are entitled to answers!   A lame deflection from a Department of Justice employee in response to pertinent questions is not acceptable!  Mr. Pruitt you work for the American people and The American people deserve answers not excuses!

In my experience, Medicaid always denied payment for drugs not on the Medicaid "approved list" when the drugs were prescribed for a medical condition, e.g. an actual infection or medical condition.  It is obvious to me there has been an entirely different (secret/unwritten) standard used for psychiatric drugs.  Psychiatric drugs do not have to be 'approved' to be paid for by Medicaid.  This is can't be accidental or an oversight; it must be intentional.  It is evidence that criminal behavior is entrenched and is accepted within Medicaid, the Child Welfare and public Mental Health service systems.

It is all well and good to prosecute corporate entities, and to investigate the failures of government programs.  However, without prosecuting the individuals who actually commit the crimes, the necessary lasting changes will not be made.  How long are we going to allow criminals to continue to act with impunity, while we wring our hands and hope they 'fix the system?' Is it a reasonable expectation that psychiatrists will do anything but continue to vehemently defend the unscientific diagnostic criteria and unethical treatment standards they are using which necessitated repeated investigations into the mistreatment and medical abuse of foster children?  Protecting foster children from being harmed by  psychiatric drugs is not the plan, monitoring the continued use of this dangerous paradigm of care is the plan. 
The Policy Lab article "Interstate variation in trends of psychotropic medication use among Medicaid-enrolled children in foster care" 

When my son was prescribed Risperdal I naively believed that doctors do not lie about the nature of psychiatric diagnoses, and I had no clue that doctors could prescribe drugs to children that had never been tested or proven to be safe and effective for children.  I was not told of the profound deleterious effects, the risks that I now know are common, and well documented.  I was not told that the neuroleptic drugs, were NOT approved for use in children, and I certainly had no clue that Medicaid was being defrauded in order to pay for the drugs which have harmed, but never did help my son!  I had no way of knowing that the trust I had in the medical profession, and specifically, the trust I had for psychiatrists was misplaced; and entirely undeserved.  In effect, and in fact, every regulatory and ethical safeguard which should have protected my son, and enabled me to make informed decisions about his care did not.  It is a burden I bear to this day... 

The FDA is not protecting the American people, but it is protecting the drug industry and the unethical standards of care used by psychiatry.  Once a drug is approved for any use; the drug can be prescribed to any person of any age for any condition...Many people are still not aware that drugs given to children have never been tested for use on children. 

Medicaid Guidelines are to prevent payment for treatments and medical testing that are unnecessary, not proven effective, or for whatever reason, "unapproved;" much like insurance or managed care plans, if it isn't covered, it isn't paid for. This system works pretty well: with the glaring exception that is made for psychiatric drugs, which when the use is not approved, are paid for every time, without question... It is plain that this is intentional, and that Medicaid regulations have purposely been ignored altogether.  As a result, billions of dollars have been defrauded from the American people and have been used to harm vulnerable poor children on Medicaid, and in foster care... 

My son is disabled because of  the psychiatric drugs prescribed to him as a child without proper consent ever having beenobtained.  Most of the drugs that were not "approved" for pediatric use for any reason---and some still aren't...What useful purpose does the FDA serve, if it is not to protect our children from the harmful negative effects of teratogenic drugs?!  Why have we  repeatedly investigated the fraud, corruption and the unethical manner that child welfare and mental health services are provided to vulnerable children, without acting on what we have learned?  We continue to quantify the enormous harm being done to vulnerable children and adolescents by the psychiatric drugs---and then expect those responsible for the harm to stop practicing medicine unethically; when they vehemently defending their right to rely on subjective opinions as if having been put to a vote, professional opinions are transformed into empirical evidence that validates the opinions... It does not.

I want to know why this continues.  More than that, I want it to stop.  I want to know that people who commit crimes and traumatize children will go to prison.  I need to know that we, as a society will do what is required to protect our children. I want to know that no other child will experience what my son Isaac has.   

The repeated investigations and corrective measures have not worked---the evidence is that each successive investigation quantified more harm done to greater numbers of children. I believe it is because corrective measures have been directed at and focused upon 'the system,' when it is not 'the system' that is the problem.  The focus needs to be on individual accountability----those who lack honesty and integrity who commit crimes harming the children they have a duty to protect, need to be criminally prosecuted every time.  Instead, these individuals are protected by the system that is supposed to be protect their victims...This is the biggest problem underlying the whole mess within the child welfare and mental health service systems...Lack of integrity and failure to be accountable. It is not 'the system' that is broken and failing, it is the individuals who are negligent, and those who fail to inform Law Enforcement are comlicit by aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Without a shift in focus, the system will continue to be corrupted by the corrupt individuals within it.  

In regards to the drugging of children with psychiatric drugs, it is criminal, plain and simple---it is not based on evidence of efficacy, effectiveness or safety---in fact the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates the drugs are not safe, or effective for most---The drugs have serious even fatal risks and a small potential for minimum benefit. The drugs can, and do cause dysfunction and disease; it is simply foolish to believe that causing drug-induced diseases, neurological impairments, obesity and heart disease would help a child or adolescent since

inducing iatrogenic illness is not therapeutic; 

it is not in any child's 'best interest.' 

portions of this post were originally published, 3-39-2011 with the title, "Is Medicaid Fraud Endorsed by Federal Agencies?"