San Francisco Launches New Police-Alternative Program
From The Mercury News: Under the pilot program, teams of paramedics, behavioral health clinicians and peer specialists will respond to certain non-violent 911 calls in the city, instead of cops.
A Dialogue on Psychosis and Trauma
From Psychiatric Times: Three British experts discuss various ways to respond to and help people who have experienced trauma and psychosis.
MadFreedom Interviews Jim Gottstein of PsychRights
From MadFreedom/MadMediaMatters: Attorney Jim Gottstein discusses the challenges and strategies involved in legal advocacy for people imprisoned in psychiatric facilities and drugged against their will.
White House Killed Deal to Pay Mental Health Care of Separated Migrant Families
From NBC News: Sources said the White House counsel's office said no after checking with Trump adviser Stephen Miller. A White House official denied Miller had a role.
For Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism Is Rooted in Loneliness
From Aeon: Organised loneliness, bred from ideology, leads to tyrannical thought, and destroys a person’s ability to distinguish between fact and fiction – to make judgments.
Journal Flags — but Does Not Retract — Decades-Old Paper on “Correcting” Gender Identity
From Retraction Watch: A psychology journal has expressed concern about a 46-year-old paper which described attempts to correct 'deviant' gender identity in a 5-year-old boy using physical violence.
‘How Did We Not Know?’ Gun Owners Confront a Suicide Epidemic
From The New York Times: The concern about suicides has led to an unusual alliance between suicide-prevention advocates and gun-rights proponents.
Could Calif.’s Psych Hospitals Be Ordered to Admit Inmates With COVID?
From CalMatters: The Department of State Hospitals is facing pressure in federal court to speed up admissions of 'mentally ill' inmates from the COVID-riddled state prison system.
It’s Always Stage 4 in Locked Mental Health Wards
From Right Now: Human Rights in Australia: "I have a terror of seeking help from any health practitioner, for fear I may end up subjected to these practices again... mental health services did enormous long-lasting harm." ~ Indigo Daya
Stopping Antidepressants: Exploring the Patient’s Experience
From the Royal College of Psychiatrists: Professor Wendy Burn of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and expert-by-experience James Moore discuss the challenges of stopping antidepressants and what more is needed to better support patients.
For George Floyd and Black Men in Recovery, ‘Everything Piles Up’
From The Washington Post: Finding a way to live has never been a sure thing for Black men in America, who are taught from an early age that any misstep could lead to a prison cell or a coffin.
Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of CBT Interviews Robert Whitaker
From the Ottawa Insitute of CBT: The Thoughts on Record podcast speaks with Whitaker about the core themes of his book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.
Charity: Hundreds of Thousands With Mental Health Conditions Being Chained
From The Guardian: “Shackling people with mental health conditions is a widespread, brutal practice that is an open secret in many communities,” said Kriti Sharma of Human Rights Watch.
Teenage Hockey Player Working to Destigmatize ‘Mental Health Issues’
From ESPN: "No one with mental health issues should be called a burden," said Morgan Urso. "And that is the stigma I am trying to end."
‘Mental Health’, Extreme States and Shamans
From holisticelephants: The extreme ‘symptoms’ in our modern age are trying to tell us about problems we need to solve as a community before society blows up like a volcano.
Would More Social Justice Make You Happier?
From Greater Good Magazine: A new study finds that, after social capital, a country’s level of social justice is the second strongest predictor of people's life satisfaction.
‘Where Is Rudy?’: Giuliani’s Checkered Track Record as a Pharma Consultant
From STAT News: As a consultant, he has the dubious distinction of having advised two of the most notorious prescription drug makers, whose business practices jeopardized the health of countless Americans.
The Psychologist Who Sparked the Gay Rights Movement
From Aeon: “What is called this year ‘evil’ and whatever, next year may constitute the blessing of the human race.” ~ U.S. psychologist Evelyn Hooker
Are Critics of Psychiatry Stranded in a ‘Jurassic World?’
From Mad in the UK: It is increasingly common for psychiatry’s critics to be dismissed for allegedly being ‘out of touch’ with the theory and practice of modern psychiatry. Are they?
‘We Need Prison Time’: Purdue’s Belated Guilty Plea Gets Skeptical Reaction
From The Guardian: "Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were directly responsible for inflicting immeasurable harm on communities around this country," said the lawyers for plaintiffs in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation case.
Abuse Survivors Fight for Justice After Police Drop Investigation at Child Mental Health Unit
From The Independent: Survivors of the Hill End Hospital Adolescent Unit in St Albans, UK, said they were sexually abused, filmed during strip searches, beaten, punched and sedated as a punishment.
UK ‘Sleepwalking’ to Mental Health Crisis as Pandemic Takes Its Toll
From The Guardian: Health experts and charities have said that lockdown uncertainty, fear, isolation and loneliness will be exacerbated by the colder and darker months ahead.
OxyContin Maker to Plead Guilty to Federal Criminal Charges, Pay $8 Billion, Close Company
From CNN Business: "Purdue Pharma actively thwarted the United States' efforts to ensure compliance and prevent diversion . . . [leaving] lives lost and others addicted."
Texas Social Workers Can Now Turn Away LGBTQ, Disabled Clients
From NBC News: The state Board of Social Work Examiners voted to change a section of its code of conduct last week following a recommendation from Gov. Greg Abbott.
Teenager’s Death After Being Given Antipsychotic Was ‘Potentially Avoidable’
From The Guardian: An inquest in 2018 ruled that the use of olanzapine was appropriate but the McGowans have now called for a fresh inquest, saying the first was “deeply flawed.”
