Safe Harbor's final response....
Here is a copy of the e-mail Paul sent me:
http://sandiego.networkofcare.org/mh/home/prop63.cfmhttp://www.cimh.org/mhsa.cfmPaul Cumming
(phone numbers omitted for security)
I personally know there IS forced drugging. My father was drugged AGAINST MY FAMILY'S WISHES almost continually in the last years of his life. I had power of attorney and the doctors drugged my father anyway, against my direct orders. One psychiatrist even went so far as to go to court to get permission, directly against and intentionally against my wishes and my family's wishes. The court (in Ventura County) also decided to take conservatorship for a couple of years, despite the fact that my father had family who cared for him, and were taking care of him. My father had Alzheimer's. He could not sign his consent. And no consent form was EVER given to me to sign. The system is very broken and needs extreme reform.
Paul is stuck on this evidence based thing. "Evidence based medicine" simply means using research studies as a guide to clinical decisions and practice. As I mentioned, that has nothing to do with Safe Harbor's decision to not
pursue government funding. If Paul wants to talk to me about how it can benefit Safe Harbor, I would be happy to listen. My e-mail is
[email protected]. He may also contact Dan Stradford at 626-791-7868 to discuss it.
Just for the record, most, if not all, alternatives we promote are indeed evidence-based medicine. We are not "turned off" by evidence base medicine.
In fact, we welcome it in any alternatives we present at our conferences. Many of the alternatives are just plain standard medical practice, which is many times ignored in favor of giving drugs without actually looking and
finding the real illness and treating the real illness appropriately.
Here is some additional data for your information from an attendee at our conference who also works in the mental health system:
"* There are over several hundred identifiable actual medical conditions which all manifest as psychiatric conditions in both children and adults.
* There are at least 48 conditions that look like ADD alone.
* There are eleven categories of medical illness involving dozens of individual diseases and conditions which manifest as anxiety. * There
are nine categories of life threatening medical illnesses that present as psychiatric emergency conditions.
* There are eight categories medical problems involving scores of conditions which mimic psychosis.
"These conditions are accessible by medical testing, and treatable with medical and support interventions. According to the research presented, persons who present with psychiatric symptoms and conditions rarely get screened or tested further for any of these conditions before being started into a course of psychiatric medication treatment. California reported a study showing that of all of the persons who present for public mental health treatment in a year, none were screened for other medical conditions. This is leading to a change of their state laws for mental health treatment, professional practice act, and reimbursement.
"The voices of experience speaking as one. The physicians and researchers speaking at this conference and the previous three annual
conferences I've attended, warned that when these conditions are observed solely through the lens of mental health assessment, 'mental health screening', or psychiatric treatment alone, the results can be disastrous, resulting not only in the potential for life long suffering but for death. The voices of psychiatric ex-patients and survivors also warn against mandatory mental health screening. This is one voice being heard from these two groups.
"If you are alive, you are at risk. Affecting anyone, the most vulnerable include those with limited resources of access to information and treatment options. How many of the following things which present as psychiatric disturbances might be present in the most vulnerable of our population without access to information and cause-specific screening:
*cumulative excitotoxin poisioning from artificial sweeteners and MSG type food additives - dozens of schools and hospitals are
eliminating access to these products
*environmental toxic disorders due to heavy metal and other exposures
*metabolic deficiencies related due to a prolonged diet of processed food or genetic conditions (requiring life long treatment.)
*chronic intra-cellular dehydration due to aversion of water as the fluid of choice for health in favor of the 'sexy' but dehydrating liquids taken instead (caffeine, soda, alcohol, etc)
"Do we recognize any of the above as risk factors in the persons we serve? or for ourselves for that matter? Even with mental health screening, do we have what it takes to go further to identify, diagnose, and treat those conditions which are not mental illnesses but pretend they are before starting a person on a perilous course? It will take more than screening. It will take a change of public, economic, political, and personal will."
Apparently, Paul, you have not been paying attention to the FDA requiring black box warnings on SSRI's. Or to the many studies showing that SSRI's are often no more effective than placebo and much more dangerous. They can cause violent behavior, suicidal ideation, suicide, murder, along with diabetes, liver and kidney damage, brain damage, etc. Anti-psychotics and older
psychiatric drugs are also fraught with side effects.
Also, patients and clients are not routinely given data about alternatives along with data about drugs, so it can hardly be fully informed consent. Many people seek out Safe Harbor to learn about the alternatives because they have not been able to get the data from their practitioners.
I am not interested in any further anti-religious or antagonistic rhetoric. As you know, it is nonproductive. It also indicates to me that the person degrading others has something to hide. Care to come clean, Paul?
It appears to me that you, Paul, are not paying attention to what is really going on in the world of mental health. Things are starting to change, but major changes are needed to move the system away from constant drugging and towards actually finding and treating the real illnesses people often have or helping them handle real problems. We are doing this. We have numerous success stories evidencing our help to individuals. We would welcome your help in our mission, if you sincerely want to help.
Wendy Bolt
SAFE HARBOR
787 W. Woodbury Rd., #2
Altadena, CA 91001
[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2005-06-15 21:11 ]