Opposition to Murphy Bill Gains Traction in the House

Kermit Cole
By
-
11
46

The Murphy bill, which aims to defund or restructure federal initiatives on mental illness such as SAMHSA, as well as promote wider use of involuntary care – including medication – and  has reportedly “stalled in committee without an obvious green light from the GOP leaders who requested it.” Conflict over the bill has exposed serious fault lines over the best way to reform the mental health system, with patients’ rights groups arguing that the proposed laws are inherently coercive, drive patients away from care and fail to produce better outcomes when compared with well-funded voluntary programs.

GOP Newtown Bill Hits Impasse (The Hill)

Previous article“Opiates and ‘Benzos’ — a Deadly Cocktail of Drugs”
Next articleCreating Sustainability, Disarming Trauma and Loving One Another
Kermit Cole
Kermit Cole
Kermit Cole, MFT, founding editor of Mad in America, works in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a couples and family therapist. Inspired by Open Dialogue, he works as part of a team and consults with couples and families that have members identified as patients. His work in residential treatment — largely with severely traumatized and/or "psychotic" clients — led to an appreciation of the power and beauty of systemic philosophy and practice, as the alternative to the prevailing focus on individual pathology. A former film-maker, he has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Harvard University, as well as an MFT degree from the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia. He is a doctoral candidate with the Taos Institute and the Free University of Brussels. You can reach him at [email protected]

11 COMMENTS

  4. This is a good sign. It would be good if this whole thing crumbled under the weight of the internal political contradictions involved, because we don’t seem to be in a unified enough position to effectively counter a well-organized campaign by the other side. (At least not this week.) Meanwhile people need to keep doing whatever they’ve been doing so far.

    Please read the original article (there’s a link on the post) and note that PATRICK KENNEDY plans to step in, make the language a little more wishy washy, and “bridge the gap” between the 2 parties to get this passed. Hence IT IS IMPERATIVE — I’M SHOUTING — that people deluge
    Kennedy with calls, emails, etc. and treat him as the PRIORITY for AN IMMEDIATE AND EMPHATIC EDUCATION on these matters.

LEAVE A REPLY