AHCA Puts Disabled People One Step Closer to Institutions
From Talk Poverty: Last week, the House passed the American Health Care Act, which would cut funding from in-home care programs and community support for seniors...
The Real Opioid Emergency
From The New York Times: In recent years, politicians have shown increased awareness of the opioid epidemic and have made statements about the need for treatment,...
Soteria: Reflections on “Being With”
From the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care: Yana Jacobs, LMFT reflects on her experiences providing art therapy at a Soteria House and "being...
The CHRUSP Call to Action, and Its Significance
Various instruments of the United Nations have commented on forced treatment, or involuntary confinement, or both (for details, see Burstow, 2015a), and a number of truly critical additions to international law have materialized. Arguably, the most significant of these is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. What makes it so significant? For one thing, it is because this landmark convention puts forward nothing less than a total ban on both involuntary treatment and the involuntary confinement of people who have broken no laws.
United Nations Rep Brings Attention to Human Rights Violations in Psychiatry
Dr. Dainius Pūras argues that the status quo in mental health treatment is no longer acceptable and demands political action to promote human rights.
The Female Subject in Psychiatry From Pathology to Prozac
In this piece for The New Inquiry, Sophie Putka chronicles the mental health profession's long history of pathologizing, diagnosing, and medicating women's emotions.
"With Freud’s claims...
Lancet Study Questions Safety of Locked Psychiatric Wards
A new study published in Lancet Psychiatry challenges the common practice of locking psychiatric wards to prevent patients from attempting suicide or leaving against...
3 Transition Obstacles as Mentally Ill and Transgender
In this piece for Everyday Feminism, Sam Dylan Finch discusses the oppression and obstacles he has experienced as a trans person in the mental...
New Bill Targets Asian-American, Pacific Islander Community
From NBC News: Representative Judy Chu recently introduced the Stop Mental Health Stigma in Our Communities Act, a bill to reduce mental health stigma in...
Reflecting Back on a Campaign to Stop Forced Outpatient ECT
One of the most amazing activist campaigns I have been involved in during my 40 years of protest for human rights in the mental health system, was the effort to stop the involuntary electroshock of Ray Sandford of Minnesota. Ray reached MindFreedom in the Fall of 2008, and an international human rights campaign began for him.
CIA Torture Psychologists Compared to Poison Gas Manufacturers
From American Civil Liberties Union: Last week, the defense attorneys of the psychologists behind the CIA's torture program, James Mitchell and John "Bruce" Jessen, compared their...
Ohio Attorney General Sues Prescription Opioid Manufacturers
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has filed a lawsuit against five leading prescription opioid manufacturers and their related companies in Ross County Court of Common...
The Psychiatry Sandcastle Continues to Crumble
Psychiatry would long since have gone the way of phrenology and mesmerism but for the financial support it receives from the pharmaceutical industry. But the truth has a way of trickling out. Here are five recent stories that buck the psychiatry-friendly stance that has characterized the mainstream media for at least the past 50 years.
