APA to Release Guidelines for Fat-Shaming Kids for Profit
From Ravishly: The American Psychological Association has released a draft of their "Clinical Practice Guideline for the Behavioral Treatment of Obesity and Overweight in Children...
Throwback Thursday: The Daily Show on the Pharmaceutical Drug Epidemic
On The Daily Show, Michael Che interviews MIA contributor Peter GĂžtzsche and discovers that pharmaceutical companies and drug cartels have more in common than one might think.
We Should Not Forcibly Commit the Homeless During Hurricanes
From Pacific Standard: In an effort to protect homeless individuals from the effects of Hurricane Irma, officials from the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust used the...
The Touch of Madness
In this piece for Pacific Standard, David Dobbs recounts the story of Nev Jones, a psychologist with lived experience who is working to change the...
The Elephant in the Room
From Discursive of Tunbridge Wells: Psychologist Rufus May speaks about the often overlooked role of racism in the mental health system. People of color are...
I Smoked Weed Three Times and Ended Up in Rehab Hell
From VICE: In her recently published memoir, The Dead Inside, Cyndy Etler tells her story of being abused and subjected to attack therapy in a teen rehab...
Psych Ward Ramblings
In this piece for Medium, activist and survivor Louisa J. Harvey describes the experience of being locked in a psychiatric institution on an involuntary hold.
"This is not...
The History of Brainwashing is a Red Flag for Technotherapy
From Aeon: In the 1950s, psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron developed a treatment called psychic driving, which involved removing distressing memories and pathological behaviors through an...
Women are Flocking to Wellness due to Sexism in Healthcare
From Quartz: Seeking healthcare in the medical system can be a dehumanizing experience for women: doctors often dismiss women's pain as psychological rather than physiological, and...
3 Whiting Workers Investigated Over Patient Abuse Allegations
From the Hartford Courant: Over this past spring and summer, 31 employees of the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital were suspended, and nine...
Mental Health Seclusion Rates Increase
From Stuff: More than 800 New Zealand mental health patients were held in seclusion at some point last year, representing a six percent increase in...
Your Pills Are Spying On You
From Pacific Standard: The new Abilify MyCite pill, which contains a digital sensor that tracks whether a patient has ingested the drug, has the potential...
Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy Without Patient’s Consent Rises
From The Irish News: Although the use of ECT has been steadily decreasing internationally, the use of ECT in Northern Ireland has significantly increased over...
Garth Daniels Suing Over 75 Shock Treatments without Consent
"In a rare intervention, the government has asked Victoria's Chief Psychiatrist for a report on Garth Daniels, a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia, whose case...
State Sees Boom in Number of Psychiatric Beds
From The Boston Globe: Massachusetts has seen a significant increase in its number of psychiatric institutions since 2015. However, many psychiatric patients are still waiting for...
When Calling the Police Results in Harm, Not Help
From Slate: The death of Charleena Lyles, who was shot by the police after she called them to report a burglary, serves as a reminder...
âMaking a Choice: APA Reform or Business as Usual?â
Former president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), Roy Eidelson discusses efforts to undermine the Hoffman report which revealed the American Psychologica Associationâs collusion in torture. "First, from a familiar playbook, we have the obligatory attack on the patriotism of Hoffman and those who have criticized psychologistsâ participation in abusive detention and interrogation operations,â he writes. âThe most outrageous example comes from two retired military officers, David Bolgiano and John Taylor. In a recent piece they described the Hoffman Report as a âclassic attack of cowardsâ and also stated, âBy the publication and release of this report, the APA becomes a willing co-conspirator to the likes of al Qaeda and ISIS.ââ
Antipsychotics, Restraints, and Seclusion Raising Concerns
From ABC Australia: Australia's high rate of antipsychotic prescriptions, as well as the frequent usage of restraints and seclusion, has raised concerns among Australian mental health advocates, researchers,...
Word Salad is Not “Disorganized Thought and Speech”
This piece for Holistic Elephants discusses the role of social context and environment in our perception and construction of "word salad," a common symptom of psychosis and...
DeJarnette Sanitarium
From Atlas Obscura: In the 1930s, hundreds of people with mental disabilities committed to the now abandoned DeJarnette Sanitarium were forcibly sterilized and experimented on by the hospital's eugenicist namesake.
âPeople with Psychiatric Disabilities: Our Modern-Day Scapegoatsâ
For the North Carolina Law Review, Katie Rose Guest Pryal writes, that â a psychiatric diagnosis, or involuntary civil commitment to a psychiatric wardâwhich is...
Mental Health Seclusion to be Scrapped After UN Condemnation
From Stuff: In 2015, the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concern at New Zealand's use of seclusion against mental health patients. According to a...
Forced Psychiatry – A Legal Perspective
In this two-part video series for AdvancingMentalHealth.org, attorney Gary Brown questions the constitutionality of psychiatric confinement and discusses forced treatment from a legal perspective.
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âWe Need REAL Change in Mental Health Policy, Not the Illusion of Reformâ
David Shern, from Johns Hopkins University, writes that the latest mental health âMurphy billâ in Congress is âan expansion of the approaches that got us into our current difficulties.â âEarly intervention and prevention, assessable and patient-focused services with a rehabilitation orientation and increased funding for the community supports needed for successful recovery are the tickets to system improvement.â
Diagnosing Donald Trump, and His Voters
From The New Yorker: In a new book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a group of mental health experts warn the public of Donald Trump's...