News: Protest American Psychiatric Assn. this Sun. 5/17 in SF

[News and alerts from www.MindFreedom.org]

NEWS RELEASE -- immediate release
MindFreedom International & California Network of Mental Health Clients
Contact: David Oaks (541) 345-9106 or Delphine Brody (916) 443-3232,  
Ext. 19

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YOU MAY DOWNLOAD PDF of a two-page flier and below news release about  
protest here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/apa
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    Mental Health Clients and Psychiatric Survivors to Lead Protest of  
APA Annual Meeting

    Protesters Say: "Our Creative Support Will Overcome Psychiatric  
Corruption!"

    When: *This* Sunday, 17 May 2009, 1 PM  Where: Moscone Center, San  
Francisco

When psychiatric drug companies open up their famously lavish exhibits  
inside the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting at  
Moscone Center, mental health clients and psychiatric survivors plan  
to hold a "Nonviolent Festival of Resistance" directly in front, with  
speakers, music and free refreshments.

The protest is part of a growing "Mad Pride" movement that has been  
seeking change in mental health care for 40 years, and is finally  
gaining more public attention, such as in a recent two-page feature in  
Newsweek (2 May 2009, page 54, http://www.newsweek.com/id/195694). The  
Sunday, May 17 event is co-sponsored by nonprofit groups MindFreedom  
International (MFI) and California Network of Mental Health Clients  
(CNMHC).  The action is completely independent, with no connection to  
a protest the day before by the Church of Scientology’s organization  
Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).

Delphine Brody, a protest organizer with CNMHC, said, "We intend to  
celebrate the healing power of peer support, and wellness/recovery- 
based alternatives to the 'medical' model upheld by a psychiatric  
profession that has sold out to the drug industry. Psychiatric  
corruption kills. But mad pride heals!" Protesters are calling on the  
public to join in with costumes, props and signs, and hope to create a  
YouTube video of the street theater.

David Oaks, Director of MFI, from Oregon, said, "Martin Luther King  
often called for us all to be 'creatively maladjusted' to overcome  
injustice and embrace dignity and freedom. We mental health clients  
and survivors of psychiatric abuse have a resiliency that can help a  
world in crisis. All are welcome to join us!"

Ashley McNamara with Bay Area Radical Mental Health Collective, one of  
the protest endorsers, said, "In a world where we are overwhelmed by  
so much violence and catastrophe, on scales both personal and global,  
I find it astounding that the 'medical experts' favor biological  
diagnoses and pharmaceutical treatments above all other ways of  
understanding mental distress and engaging in healing." The protest is  
also endorsed by the Social Accountability Work Group.

Mental health workers, family members and the general public are all  
invited to participate in the legal and peaceful festival. San  
Francisco mental health counselor Matthew Morrissey said, "I'm  
protesting against the APA's insistence on reducing the meaning of our  
thoughts and feelings to brain diseases and also for the adoption of  
safer, more empowering alternatives."

Other confirmed speakers include: Larry Belcher, Executive Director,  
CNMHC; Frank Blankenship, psychiatric survivor organizer from Florida;  
Leonard Roy Frank, activist, author & electroshock survivor; Al  
Galves, PhD, of New Mexico: psychologist, mental health consumer,  
author, MFI board member; Ellen G. Levine, PhD, MPH., Psychologists  
for an Ethical APA; Ron Unger, mental health counselor from Oregon;  
Sally Zinman, long-time client/survivor activist; and many more.

For more information phone David Oaks at (541) 345-9106 or Delphine  
Brody (916) 443-3232, Ext. 19. E-mail to action at mindfreedom.org.

- end -

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WANT MORE INFO ABOUT APA PROTEST?

TO  THIS GATEWAY:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/apa

* Download PDF of two-page flier with more speakers and directions -  
please copy and distribute!

* Download PDF of above one-page news release.

* Watch for updates.

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    ACTION * ACTION * ACTION

Please forward this alert to all media and interested people,  
especially in California Bay Area.

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IN OTHER NEWS....

MINDFREEDOM PROTEST earlier this month to support Ray Sandford right  
to say "no" to forced electroshock just won more national media,  
through Associated Press wire story, see link to article here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/ray

HEAR five of the APA protest speakers in archive of MindFreedom Mad  
Pride Radio Show from this Saturday, 9 May 2009, here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidwoaks

LAST WEEK'S NEWSWEEK (2 May 2009) has a two-page spread on mad pride  
movement, featuring Will Hall, read article here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride/other-info/listening-to-madness

or use this link:

http://tinyurl.com/will-hall-mad-pride

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PLEASE FORWARD this news to all appropriate places on and off Internet.

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Please forward this alert to all supportive people on and off the  
Internet, now!

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