Charlottesville Prejudice Watch

• This Is What Aging in Place Means, NOT What DBHDS Is Spending Millions of Federal MH Block Grant Dollars On–Nursing Homes

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/health/policy/19aging.html?_r=1&src=tptw Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services–the bogus name they wanted and got from friends in the General Assembly July 1 of this year–is spending millions of dollars of federal mental health block grant money for what they arrogantly or ignorantly call “aging in place”.  What they are doing [...]
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  Posted: September 19, 2009, 12:29pm EDT
  by hymes

• Still Here: Rethinking, Retooling

  Number of comments: 1
  I have not written here for some time.  I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what I learned over the past year through my interactions with both the medical and psychiatric community (and no I will not put them in the same category because one thing this [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 10:32am EDT
  by hymes

• S.O.N.G. Training-Imagining a Life without Daily Ablism and Inspiring Hope

  Number of comments: 1
  I attended S.O.N.G.’s (Southerners on New Ground) Organizing School from last Thursday until Sunday.  For more about S.O.N.G. see here:   http://www.southernersonnewground.org/about-song/our-core-values/ I learned more tools and new ways of thinking about social justice than I could do justice to here, but what really shook me to the core was the community [...]
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  Posted: August 27, 2009, 11:43am EDT
  by hymes

• Member of Supreme Court Commission on Mental Health Law Reform Under Ethics Investigation

  http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2009/08/hamilton-ethics/ The other delegate member is running for state-wide office, Cuccinelli.  Does anyone really think this is a neutral, unbiased group looking at both our mental health laws, and bizarrely in my opinion, our whole Health Care Advanced Directive laws under the cover of Mental Health Reform, they are even talking about [...]
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  Posted: August 25, 2009, 10:17am EDT
  by hymes

• Why University of Virginia Hospital’s Emergency Room Needs to Be Licensed

  UVA’s ER psychiatrist completely failed to do a medical clearance let alone a medical exam thus failing to find a most visible transplant scar and failing to ensure I received transplant meds for G-d knows how long, all he really had to do was look into his own computer under [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 9:38pm EDT
  by hymes

• Wythe County Agrees to Comply with Fair Housing Law for People with Disabilities

  Number of comments: 1
  COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA  Office of the Attorney General Richmond, VA 23219 William C. Mims For Immediate Release Contact: David Clementson www.vaag.com 804-692-0552 dclementson@oag.state.va.us  Statement of Attorney General Mims ~ On Wythe County settling with the Commonwealth regarding allegations of discrimination against the disabled, equal-housing violations ~ RICHMOND – Attorney General Bill Mims released the following [...]
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  Posted: August 13, 2009, 3:51pm EDT
  by hymes

• Return to Sender: There Is Nothing You Have to Say I Want to Read

  You were my doctor for 6 years.  I thought you were ethical and maybe not perfect but trustworthy, especially since you were one of my own kind.  But when I started falling apart from steroids you ignored it, you refused to call transplant more than once and when you did [...]
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  Posted: August 13, 2009, 3:22am EDT
  by hymes

• Governor Kaine Appoints a Fox to Watch the Henhouse–Psychiatric Solutions VP on Council for At Risk Children

  See appointment in red and italics at the end–Governor Kaine has just appointed a VP of the most troubled and controversial for profit provider of psychiatric services to children and adults, owners of Whisper Ridge now Jefferson Trail formerly Milmont formerly Brown Schools to the State Executive Council for Comprehensive [...]
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  Posted: August 01, 2009, 9:34am EDT
  by hymes

• UVA Hospital Psych. Resident Disrespects Elders and Betters With Impunity as Does C’ville Special Justice

  Number of comments: 1
  Lady Martinez M.D., resident but not licensed in psychiatry ignored the word of a licensed clinical psychologist old enough to be her grandmother and performed an unnecessary, traumatizing and physically painful and harmful medical procedure because she did not listen to someone with years more experience and tons more ethics [...]
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  Posted: July 26, 2009, 12:33am EDT
  by hymes

• Virginia Authorizes Forced ECT Based on Reaction to Steroids

  And I have the papers to prove it.  Still think you and your family are safer under the laws pushed through after the tragedy at Virginia Tech. by Governor Kaine, Inspector General Jim Stewart, the majority of the Commission on Mental Health Law Reform and Rob Bell and David Toscano [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 7:47pm EDT
  by hymes

• New Page at Top, Charlottesville Focused, UVA Hospital and District 16 Commitment Hearings

  See new page and please place comments there, leave your full name out unless you have moved out of Virginia permanently or are writing about a deceased loved one is my non-legal advice.  However, if you don’t fill in a real name in the  email space I can’t publish your comment. Posted in [...]
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  Posted: July 24, 2009, 2:44pm EDT
  by hymes

• If I Were Awarding a Local Award It Would Go to Martha Jefferson Hospital with a 5 Star Medicare Safety Rating. UVA? O.

  Contacts: Patient Safety Day Committee Patti O’Regan, ARNP, Chairperson (727) 845-4250, pattioregan@gmail.com    Becky Martins, Awards Committee Secretary (207) 975-3475 voice4patients@aol.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JULY 15, 2009 LUCIAN LEAPE, M.D. RECEIVES 1st NIGHTINGALE & CODMAN PATIENT SAFETY DAY AWARD LUCIAN LEAPE, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health and pediatric surgeon [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 10:13am EDT
  by hymes

• Cho Was Treated at Tech., Records Found NOW? How Convenient for Forced Treatment Ablists.

  Va. Tech Gunman Was Treated on Campus, Documents Show Victims’ Families Angered by Belated Discovery of Seung Hui Cho’s Health Records Posted in Accountability, civil rights, Consequences are for "those people", Disability Rights, ethics, Exploiting Tragedy for political purposes, Forced Interventions, Human Rights in the MH System, injuries and illnesses in the [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 9:20pm EDT
  by hymes

• Psychiatric Disability Medical Prejudice at UVA Hospital in ‘96 and ‘97 Coming on this Blog Soon

  Coming attractions……I can only deal with so many memories at once……. Posted in United States of America Tagged: differential medical treatment, disability prejudice, poor outcomes due to prejudice, Psychiatric prejudice, UVA Hospital [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 10:10pm EDT
  by hymes

• Nationwide ADAPT Action at Democratic Party Headquarters in D.C. and States

  http://twitter.com/NationalADAPT  just click and follow the action of amazing ADAPT activists for the rights of us all. Posted in United States of America Tagged: Activism, ADAPT, Direct Action, DNC, We need an ADAPT in Virginia want to help start one? [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 9:04pm EDT
  by hymes

• Owners of Whisper Ridge, Psychiatric Solutions, Donate to Both Candidates for Virginia Governor, I’ll Vote for the One Who Gives PSI’s Money Back!

  http://www.vpap.org/ Contributions Reported by McDonnell Committees from Psychiatric Solutions Location: Franklin, TN Industry: Mental Health   Contributions Totaling $10,000 Amount Date Committee Description $10,000 04/28/2009 McDonnell for Governor – Robert Cash Donation  Contributions Reported by Deeds Committees from Psychiatric Solutions Location: Richmond Industry: Mental Health  All Receipts     Cash     In-Kind     Loans Contributions Totaling $3,500       Amount Date Committee Description       $2,500 06/05/2009 Deeds for Governor – Creigh  Cash Donation       $1,000 06/30/2009 Deeds for [...]
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  Posted: July 19, 2009, 5:17pm EDT
  by hymes

• UVA Psychiatry Doesn’t Even Make it into Top 100 Programs, Why So Confident? Mania? Axis 2?

  Number of comments: 7
  A little humility would seem in order for a psychiatry program in a teaching hospital that is ranked by reputation of its colleagues below the top 100 in America. But you sure won’t find any at UVA psychiatry.  Diagnoses by unlicensed disgruntled patients welcome in comments.  I’m going for delusions of [...]
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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 2:12am EDT
  by hymes

• For My Friends Who Are Fighting and For Me, a Reminder Song From a Friend

  Number of comments: 1
  One More Time With Feeling Your stitches are all out, but your scars are healing wrong And the helium balloon inside your room has come undone And it’s pushing up at the ceiling and the flickering lights it cannot get beyond Oh, everyone takes turns, now it’s yours to play the part And they’re sitting all [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 9:27pm EDT
  by hymes

• More Problems with UVA Poor Record Keeping and Prejudice Leading to Poor Medical Results and Pain

  This time I will be talking about my time on dialysis at UVA hospital, where I started dialysis unfortunately, thinking it was the best.  I started on May 18th several years ago and Nephrology Fellows only serve one year, from July 1 to July 1.  So UVA dialysis decided I [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 9:46am EDT
  by hymes

• Evaluation 101 for UVA Psychology Consultants and the Entire Psychiatry Department

  U learned this in graduate school many years ago, it appears Psy.D’s and psychiatrists at UVA never learned it so here it is: The first step in any evaluation is the elimination of medical or drug causes of the patient’s condition.  Not one person at UVA managed this basic first [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 12:36am EDT
  by hymes

• Thanks to all the Members I Know on the Mental Health “Reform=Regression” Law Commission for Taking Away My Rights and Confidence and Willingness to See Doctors

  That’s it, just thanks Richard, Mary, Jane, Ron, Pete, John M., Jack B., James R., Jim M., all of you, because I am back to where I was 17 years ago, knowing I have no rights and can be traumatized and have my life and health endangered at any time [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 10:23pm EDT
  by hymes

• Prison/Psychiatric Hospital For Profit Company Secretly Awarded Texas Psychiatric Hospital Contract

  http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/071009dntexgeopsych.3d93a26.html This is the same company that lobbied in secret to take over a Florida State Hospital and which has a terrible record in running detention facilities and psychiatric facilities.  In Virginia we have Psychiatric Solutions aiming to take over our Children’s Commonwealth Center behind the scenes and who knows what [...]
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  Posted: July 12, 2009, 9:48am EDT
  by hymes

• I Will Ignore for Life the Next Person Who Tells Me Empowerment is:

  1.  Cleaning toilets for no wages. 2.  When you ask them a favor, having done them a favor yourself, being told it would be empowering to do it yourself. 3.  Taking psychotropics against your will. 4.  Being nice to people who want to take away your civil rights and those of your people. 5.  [...]
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  Posted: July 12, 2009, 8:27am EDT
  by hymes

• Warning Disability Rights Activist and Others Concerned About Passive Euthanasia, Commission on Mental Health Law Reform Planning to Tinker with Advanced Directives in Secret Again This Year

  Last year was a horrible year for those of us who want everyone to have equal access to health care and choice about their health care and even choice about whether to participate in research or not.  Virginia passed a horrible law that takes away choices, allows guardians to admit [...]
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  Posted: July 11, 2009, 7:45pm EDT
  by hymes

• Is UVA Hospital Above the Law? C’ville and Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Offices and UVA Police Seem to Think So

  Number of comments: 5
  Ever tried to report a crime committed against you at UVA? Well good luck to you.  The Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney office may tell you you have to figure out whether the crime was committed in Albemarle or Charlottesville and won’t answer your reasonable question of whether it was a federal [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 11:40pm EDT
  by hymes

• Blogging UVA 5 East Psych. Unit So You Can’t Sleep and I Can (#1 of a Series)

  So I found out that my long term Ph.D., Licensed, former adjunct professor at UVA retired, was in the room when Dr. Lady Martinez, an unlicensed psychiatric resident with no training in urology, came into my bedroom on UVA 5 East, contrary to what I was told at the informal [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 12:47am EDT
  by hymes

• Alexis Glover Could Be Alive Today if Professionals Weren’t Prejudiced to Believe Disabled Equals Liar

  Number of comments: 1
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR2009070601862.html?nav=hcmoduletmv&sid=ST2009070601951 “A Prince William County woman pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of leaving her adopted 13-year-old daughter for dead in a frigid creek in January, and county police acknowledged that they could have responded better to numerous reports that the girl was being abused and neglected…. Court testimony yesterday and comments by [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 10:22pm EDT
  by hymes

• On the Anniversary of His Death, Another Thank You to My Mentor, Frank Ginn, Ph.D.

  You left so suddenly, dead before you hit the ground, we were all stunned.  I was on vacation, I got the call and my then spouse and I went out to the beach and I sang songs to you.  Did you hear them?  Were you already gone too far from [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 10:51am EDT
  by hymes

• Here Are Some of My Flashbacks: For Doctors and Delegates and Professors to Dream About Like I Do

  Number of comments: 3
  I just thought about the resident who not only pulled out my PIC line so hard it left a fistula that caused severe pain that was ignored by UVA dialysis for months years later because he didn’t want to be the doctor to a “mental case” who also told my [...]
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  Posted: July 05, 2009, 9:43pm EDT
  by hymes

• Someone Alert Region Ten that the APA Does Not Support Their Service Approach

  http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/44/13/8?etoc Psychiatrists Lament Decline of Key Treatment Modality Evidence of the efficacy of psychotherapy has increased dramatically in recent years even as the place of psychotherapy in the identity, practice, and training of psychiatrists is diminishing—a fact that was widely recognized and just as widely deplored during a workshop at APA’s 2009 [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2009, 9:51am EDT
  by hymes

• Stop the Shame, Stop the Blame, Stop the Threats and Use of Force and Then You Can Talk About “Recovery”

  Number of comments: 1
  I am exceedingly tired of hearing about recovery by mental health administrators and public providers and even some with lived experience.  It has 1) become another way to make people with emotional issues feel inadequate if they don’t meet societal norms that most without emotional issues don’t meet these days (most [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2009, 1:10am EDT
  by hymes

• DMHMRSAS is DBHDS as of Today. I Like It :).

  No longer will the Department as I always call them anyway be able to claim they care about anything but behavior.  Emotions and feeling? Symptoms to be eliminated with drugs and CBT or DBT.  Flashbacks–they’re in your head, not behaviors, get over yourself with your flashbacks and nightmares, also in [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 10:26pm EDT
  by hymes

• Thank You UVA 5 East for Fabricating My Medical Record

  Number of comments: 5
  Gee, does anyone who knows me think I have a New York City accent, because UVA’s psychiatric record writes that I am from New York and was hospitalized there.  Interesting since I have not visited NYC in 25 years and NEVER lived there.  Also very interesting is that they found [...]
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  Posted: July 01, 2009, 9:24am EDT
  by hymes

• How Many Dogs and Cats Die or Suffer Each Year Because Virginia’s TDO Screening Does Not Ask About Pets in the Home?

  Number of comments: 2
  When people are involuntarily detained in an ER in Virginia an unlicensed Community Services Board employee comes in and goes through a screening form which besides not asking about domestic violence, leading to a preventable murder trial in Fairfax in the last few years, also does not ask about pets [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 8:38pm EDT
  by hymes

• Psychiatric Trauma and Other Traumas, the Gift that Keeps On Giving

  Yes I woke up from a nightmare, no this does not mean I am ignoring my “sleep hygiene” nor that I am manic, I wish I was, I would feel better.  No it’s just the usual but I know better now than to call SAARA nor SHE in Stepford/C’ville because [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 4:47am EDT
  by hymes

• The “Abuse Excuse”, Not What You Think It Is

  I’m sure you have heard the term the “abuse excuse” used to say that people who commit crimes or even people who don’t fit in are using the “abuse excuse” if they mention a history of trauma.  Well my observations in this town and others is that the REAL “abuse [...]
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  Posted: June 28, 2009, 11:02am EDT
  by hymes

• Thank You to 2 Catholic Hospitals for Telling Me Being a Lesbian Was Mental Illness

  Number of comments: 1
  Misercordia, I don’t remember the psychiatrist’s name, but he was so confident that I was delusional that I was a lesbian.  Sacred Heart Hospital, who violated my rights in so many ways and wanted me to quit graduate school to go on welfare and live in a group home with [...]
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  Posted: June 28, 2009, 12:12am EDT
  by hymes

• Thank You UVA 5 East for the Bruises that Lasted 25 Days, I Finally Went Swimming Today

  Number of comments: 2
  How could I forget to mention the bright red bruises on both arms that I left UVA5 East with on May 30th? I noticed they were fading to yellow this week and by today they were completely gone, so let’s round it off at 25 days of being marked and [...]
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  Posted: June 27, 2009, 10:35pm EDT
  by hymes

• Small Town/City Gossip Blues

  Number of comments: 17
  I hail from Philadelphia where you can find a dead body on the corner and be given a hard time by dispatch as to which exact corner as if there were likely to be a dead body on all 4 corners.  (True story from my youth).  In Philadelphia if you [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 11:29pm EDT
  by hymes

• Hospital in my Hometown that Psychiatric Solutions Took Over for Profit Now in Trouble

  I was so sad when I found out that Psychiatric Solutions had taken over one of the oldest psychiatric hospitals in Philadelphia, a non-profit before Psychiatric Solutions, the Charter of this decade, took over.  Now it seems that yet again where Psychiatric Solutions goes into a hospital patient safety issues [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 9:47pm EDT
  by hymes

• Thanks for the 600 plus dollars out of my pocket UVA 5 East for Zyprexa I Shouldn’t Have Been Prescribed and Didn’t Agree for you to Fill at YOUR Pharmacy

  Number of comments: 1
  Warning: PTSD patient anger displayed below, watch out, anger by people like me in words on a blog has been known to cause hurricanes and linked to global warming……… That’s right, over 600 dollars towards my reaching the doughnut hole on my Medicare D for a drug I only took for [...]
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  Posted: June 23, 2009, 9:33pm EDT
  by hymes

• Transplant Steroids and Psychiatric Side Effects–Please Take Seriously

  Number of comments: 3
  So from recent posts it’s clear to the discerning reader I had the lovely experience of being a guest of University of Virginia’s 5 East, their psychiatric unit.  But I failed to say why.  Here’s why: I was put on steroids per protocol after transplant in October of ‘08.   I [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2009, 11:10am EDT
  by hymes

• Withdrawal from Neuroleptics Does Not Have to be Hard Nor Painful–Hope, Truth.

  I was forced onto Zyprexa by doctors at 5 East despite no history of non-compliance and strong medical and historical reasons not to put me on this class of drugs–medical that drying out drugs in lay people’s terms are not good for kidneys and historical in  my past bad response [...]
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  Posted: June 21, 2009, 9:12pm EDT
  by hymes

• Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers in my Life

  To those waiting to be fathers for the firs time, and you know who you are if you read this in C’ville, to all the fathers so old we must remind them of the good times and their good deeds, to all the fathers raising young ones, especially young ones [...]
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  Posted: June 21, 2009, 9:19am EDT
  by hymes

• Thank You for Setting Me Back at Least 6 Months in my Recovery 5 East at UVA

  Number of comments: 7
  Thank you for listening to my mother who was diagnosed bipolar when I was a teenager and never accepted the diagnosis and most likely has PTSD also and is now losing her short term memory as if she were anyone you should listen to about her daughter.  Thank you for [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 3:53am EDT
  by hymes

• Happy Birthday Again Mother on the Day You Let Us Celebrate, and Many More

  Posted in Mother at 86 Tagged: Birthday, celebration, Food, Happy Birthday Mother!, My mother, Party!!!, Presents [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 3:15am EDT
  by hymes

• Hopeful New Drug in the Pipeline for People Like Me with Chronic Anxiety or PTSD

  http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE55H57N20090618?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews I take klonopin and take the side effects with it.  It’s been a fair trade off for me given klonopin is the only psychotropic I can safely take and given its ability to enable me to function; to drive, to attend social events, be in crowds, go grocery shopping, and [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 9:04pm EDT
  by hymes

• Am I Not a Member of This “Community”?

  I was psychiatrically assaulted more than once.   The last time was a month or so ago.  I call the SAARA hot line and am told there is no place for people like me, as I knew there would not be, people, women and men, like me, people who were assaulted [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 3:37am EDT
  by hymes

• What Both My Parents Have Wanted All Their Lives for their Birthdays

  Posted in Dad, Mother at 86 Tagged: End of hatred, Happy Birthday you Gemini Twins You :), May it come in your time, Peace Train, World Peace [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 8:00am EDT
  by hymes

• What Part of 12 Hours Apart Exactly Doesn’t 5 East Understand Inre Transplant Drugs?

  Ever since my transplant in October of 2008 I have taken my anti-rejection drugs 12 hours apart.  It’s not that hard, well not after I learned to use my cell phone alarms, but apparently it is too hard for medical doctors on 5 East to understand and execute.  During my [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 7:33am EDT
  by hymes

• Hey 5 East, You Might Want to Check This Out, It’s in Your Bible. Or Are You Non-Believers or Atheists?

  http://allpsych.com/disorders/sleep/sleepwalking.html Psychiatric Disorders   Sleepwalking Disorder (COMING SOON)   Category Sleep Disorders Posted in ablism, Accountability, American Psychiatric Association, bullies, civil rights, disability, Disability Rights, ethics, Health, Human Rights in the MH System, Informed Consent, injuries and illnesses in the psychiatric sytem, Mental Health, Mental Health Law Regression, Mental Health Profesionals Are Not Always Benign, Normies Acting [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 2:15am EDT
  by hymes

• Okay, Today is My Mother’s Actual Birthday Whether She is Ready or Not, A Birthday Song for Her She Will Not Find, Not Reading Blogs and all…..

  Posted in Mother at 86 Tagged: Happy Birthday Mother!, I honor you, I love you, I thank you [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 1:26am EDT
  by hymes

• It Is My Mother’s Birthday Week, Month, Year (She Won’t Choose a Day) So This is Just the First Tribute to the Woman Who Raised ME! :)

  Posted in Mother at 86 Tagged: 86!, Endurance, Hard work, Love, Loyalty, Mother, My mother, No idea how much she means, Tenacity [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 8:47pm EDT
  by hymes

• Subtle Cues You Might Be a Good Mental Health Professional

  Number of comments: 1
  These are subtle, so you would have to spend the time to look for them and I know that’s hard given today’s economic and reimbursement climate but I list them nonetheless to encourage those who are often embattled and even maybe embittered by the lack of respect and dignity given [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 7:38pm EDT
  by hymes

• Nevada to Shut Troubled Psych Hospital by Christina Jewett , ProPublica – June 10, 2009

  Also see Pro Publica’s “Steal Our Stories” link and explanation and rules here:  http://www.propublica.org/about/steal-our-stories/ http://www.propublica.org/feature/nevada-to-shut-troubled-psych-hospital-610 Nevada to Shut Troubled Psych Hospital by Christina Jewett , ProPublica – June 10, 2009 12:11 pm EDT West Hills Hospital (Photo from PSI) The Reno Gazette-Journal reported [1] yesterday that authorities in Nevada plan to shut [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2009, 8:10pm EDT
  by hymes

• My Quote of the Day by Me, Myself and I. :)

  Do the right thing, rise above pettiness and grudge holding and grudge holders, ignore people who vilify you or your friends, rise above, take the high road, not just because it is the right thing, but because it will annoy your enemies more than any reaction ever could.   Is this [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 8:57pm EDT
  by hymes

• Someone Alert the True Believers in Psychiatry–Die Gedanken Sind Frei

  Posted in American Psychiatric Association, bullies, civil rights, Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, ethics, Forced Interventions, Informed Consent, injuries and illnesses in the psychiatric sytem, Mental Health, Mental Health Law Regression, Mental Health Profesionals Are Not Always Benign, Prejudice, propaganda, psychiatric disability, Psychiatric Survivors, Psychiatry, Trauma, Treatment Advocacy Center [...]
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  Posted: June 07, 2009, 11:48pm EDT
  by hymes

• Happy Birthday Dad! Or Dell Hymes, My Father, Turns 82 Today :)

  Thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the love, thank you for the values and principles, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your hard work, thank you for your courage as a man to cry when it was time to cry, thank you even for retelling our [...]
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  Posted: June 07, 2009, 7:46am EDT
  by hymes

• Sunday Link Fest

  http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/22/advocate_for_others_fights_to_die_at_home/ Judi Chamberlin, an advocaate for the rights of people with psychiatric disabilities for 43 years, is now fighting for her own right to die at home after UnitedHealthcare informed her that her hospice benefit has run out.  Her hospice services have not been cut off as of yet but she [...]
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  Posted: June 07, 2009, 7:16am EDT
  by hymes

• Weekend You Tube

  Posted in Activism, Health [...]
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  Posted: June 06, 2009, 11:40pm EDT
  by hymes

• First Swine Flu Death in Virginia in a State Training Center, What is the Plan to Prevent More Deaths?

  People in congregate settings are particularly vulnerable to catching viruses.  It is not surprising at all to me that Virginia’s first death from H1N1 influenza virus was a woman living in  a state training center.   What I want to know and hope others want to know is what is being [...]
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  Posted: June 04, 2009, 2:17am EDT
  by hymes

• Anyone can pray anytime, anywhere, so why this debate about prayer?

  no link. Posted in United States of America Tagged: hmm. [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 12:31am EDT
  by hymes

• New York Times Prints a “Disability Debate” Without Any People On Disability Included, hmm.

  http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/the-disability-mess/?8ty&emc=ty What a great idea! Let’s have a young professor who doesn’t know the history of the Reagan era apparently from her part of the debate, Jennifer L. Erkulwater, an associate professor of political science at the University of Richmond, is the author of “Disability Rights and the American Social Safety [...]
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  Posted: May 10, 2009, 1:31am EDT
  by hymes

• Very Interesting Video via TED: Ideas Worth Spreading by Dan Ariely

  Warning: some of the images in this video may be triggering to some of my readers. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/487 h/t to My Private Casbah and thanks to TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.  Dan Ariely,  an economist who studies behavioral economics and who also survived burns over 70% of his body and started investigating what led to [...]
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  Posted: May 09, 2009, 4:49pm EDT
  by hymes

• An Old Essay of Mine for World Mental Health Day for our Local MHA-Learning to Cope With the Medical System

  Learning to cope with the medical system February 24, 2007 by hymes How to reconcile oneself to a medical system that almost killed one and in the end most likely will be the cause of one’s death? I think you don’t, but that instead you make compromises and deals with yourself to do [...]
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  Posted: May 09, 2009, 11:39am EDT
  by hymes

• Wednesday Link Fest

  http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122374164/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0  “Powerlessness, marginalized identity, and silencing of health concerns: Voiced realities of women living with a mental health diagnosis”  Abstract only available for free unless you have a subscription.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050500761.html Sounds more punitive than therapeutic to me, read it yourself and decide.  The only one in Virginia is described. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/us/06akron.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y Good for Ohio, taking pro-active [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 9:37pm EDT
  by hymes

• Interesting Letter from NAMI’s Executive Director to Affiliates with Links I Find Interesting Also Beneath

  LETTER FROM NAMI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL J. FITZPATRICK: April 28, 2009 Dear NAMI Leaders and Members, On April 6, 2009 Senator Charles Grassley asked NAMI national to  provide information about support it receives from pharmaceutical  companies. For the last three years, Senator Grassley has been  interested in various aspects of the pharmaceutical industry and has  made similar [...]
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  Posted: May 06, 2009, 1:50am EDT
  by hymes

• This I Believe

  Number of comments: 2
  Mental health politics has become a battle of extremists and we are losing the wisdom of the middle ground.  Money is at the root of most problems in our public mental health system whether it is for profit psychiatric hospitals as bad as for profit general hospitals,  state medicaid rules that [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 11:59am EDT
  by hymes

• Keeping Yourself Safe: Articles on Possible Dangers of Re-Evaluation Counseling

  http://home.comcast.net/~reevaluation-counseling/articles.html Included in one article is a recommendation that people seeking psychological counseling go elsewhere and not to this group and other issues of concern. Posted in Accountability, Informed Consent, United States of America Tagged: Re-evaluation counseling, safety [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 2:25am EDT
  by hymes

• Psychophobia 201

  Number of comments: 2
  Last time I posted for Blogging for Disablism Day I wrote Psychophobia 101 which actually to my surprise is now an external link on Wikipedia and thank you to whoever inserted that link.  This year I want to talk about more subtle forms of psychophobia, also known as mentalism or [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 1:06am EDT
  by hymes

• ADAPT Action Report Including Video of ADAPTERs Getting Up Capitol Steps at link Below

  http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/cca09/video.htm The Community Choice Act is for all of us and all of our families.  It must not be left out of health care reform for all our sakes. Posted in Accountability, Activism, civil rights, Disability Rights, Health, Housing, legislation, United States of America Tagged: Action, ADAPT, ALF's, All of us, An' [...]
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  Posted: April 28, 2009, 3:05pm EDT
  by hymes

• Class Action Lawsuit on Drug Prices: Information You or Someone You Know May Be Able to Use

  http://www.katu.com/news/medicalalert/43754227.html “Court settlement lowers some Rx drug prices | KATU.com – Portland, Oregon | Health Source: www.katu.com SEATTLE – The prices of more than a thousand brand name drugs are about to get a little cheaper, thanks to a huge settlement with a major drug distributor.The settlement is for more than [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 11:11am EDT
  by hymes

• Florida Allows Their Baker Act to add to Company’s Profit Margin, Is This What We Really Want?

  http://www.ocala.com/article/20090425/ARTICLES/904251017/1402/NEWS?Title=Vines-Hospital-now-a-Baker-Act-facility A Psychiatric Solutions owned facility in Florida has won approval to accept “Baker acted” people over 14 (people who have been committed by the state for inability to care for themselves or danger to themselves and rarely danger to others) as of this past Monday.  The hospital was bought by [...]
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  Posted: April 26, 2009, 10:08am EDT
  by hymes

• Resource for Family Members and Advocates and PWD in Institutions Trying to Find Each Other

  https://www.thearclink.org/findfamily/ hat tip to Patricia Bauer of Disability News.  One of the family members featured searching in the People Magazine article, (not on the web) is from Virginia. Posted in disability, United States of America, Virginia Tagged: Database, Families Searching, Institutionalized People, Missing PWD's, Resource ' [...]
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  Posted: April 23, 2009, 3:41pm EDT
  by hymes

• Alas, Comments Again

  I expect some spam to get through the excellent spam filter Word Press provides for free and do not mind taking care of it. However, lately there has been an increase in what I would politely call “hostile” comments on my blog. So just so you know, all comments to [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2009, 1:49am EDT
  by hymes

• Charlottesville Clinic on Fair Housing for People With Disabilities, Tues., April 21st

  Fair Housing for People with Disabilities When: Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 12:00 to 2:00 PM Where: Independence Resource Center, 815 Cherry Avenue, Charlottesville This clinic is designed to give people with disabilities and their advocates detailed information and one-on-one assistance on their fair housing rights. Highlights: Learn How the Fair Housing Act Protects People [...][...]
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  Posted: April 17, 2009, 10:23am EDT
  by hymes

• Outpatient Forced ECT Victim Ray Sandford Speaks Out on Video With His Mother and Others Who Support His Fight To Be Free of Forced ECT

  Number of comments: 3
  Posted in civil rights, disability, Disability Rights, ethics, Forced Interventions, Health, Human Rights in the MH System, Informed Consent, Just Wrong, Mental Health, Mental Health Law Regression, outpatient commitment, Torture, United States of America Tagged: Dangers of Guardianships, Forced Outpatient Treatment, Involuntary ECT, Minnesota [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2009, 9:25pm EDT
  by hymes

• Excellent Blog Post at Bad Cripple Got Me Thinking About Psychophobia Again

  Number of comments: 12
  http://badcripple.blogspot.com/2009/04/cumulative-impact-of-disability-based.html Please read his post about the cumulative impact of disability based prejudice on all people with disabilities, especially the part about how Governor Patterson said the Saturday Night Live sketch that made fun of his disability actually affected his behavior and feelings for some time afterwards despite thinking he was [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2009, 3:26am EDT
  by hymes

• Psychiatric Solutions Asking To Add More Long Term But Not Acute Patient Beds in Virginia

  http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/2-facilities-propose-add-more-beds-psych-patients In fact they report that they have had to send patients out of state in the last year due to a lack of acute beds but they are asking to add more long term beds.  I would find this strange if I did not think that any for profit psychiatric [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2009, 2:42am EDT
  by hymes

• Florida Considering Turning a State Hospital Over to a For-Profit Prison and Psychiatric Inpatient Company

  Number of comments: 4
  http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-04-04/story/hospital_fight_divides_gop_in_legislature Florida legislators are fighting over whether to privatize Northeast Florida State Hospital and give the contract to run it to the Geo Group–see below to see what else they do: “Welcome [...] [...]
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  Posted: April 07, 2009, 6:37pm EDT
  by hymes

• More On Psychiatric Solutions from Pro Publica Including Link to Report by University of Illinois Department of Psychiatry

  http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/docs/DCFS-UICRiveredgeReport040309.pdf   Long report on Illinois Psychiatric Solutions Hospital but includes analysis of company wide issues with accountability.  Prepared by an actual University Department of Psychiatry for the State of Illinois.  Hmm, which University Psychiatry Department in Virginia would be 1)asked to do this by the state of Virginia and 2) [...]
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  Posted: April 04, 2009, 1:47am EDT
  by hymes

• Before You Check the Box Allowing Research When You Are Incapacitated on Virginia’s New Advanced Directive Read This

  http://www.propublica.org/article/reports-show-weaknesses-in-oversight-of-clinical-trials-0402 Virginia’s newly amended Health Care Decisions Act allows people to agree to research when they are incapacitated both with the prospect of benefit for themselves AND for research NOT with any prospect of benefit for them.  Thankfully the House Amendment separated these 2 options so that people filling out the [...]
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  Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:51pm EDT
  by hymes

• Nostalgic Look Back at When the U.S. Investigated Charter Psychiatric Hospitals

  http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/business/us-is-investigating-charter-hospitals.html U.S. Is Investigating Charter Hospitals Published: Thursday, December 30, 1999   Magellan Health Services Inc. said today that the Justice Department is conducting a nationwide Medicare fraud investigation of Charter psychiatric hospitals, in which Magellan holds a 10 percent stake. Magellan, which is based in Columbia, Md., manages psychiatric health plans, and Charter Behavioral [...]
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  Posted: April 03, 2009, 12:03pm EDT
  by hymes

• 26 Hate Groups in Virginia, You Can Take a Stand Against Hate Using the SPLC Map Below

  http://www.splcenter.org/center/petitions/standstrong/ Posted in Activism, Virginia Tagged: 26 Hate Groups in Virginia, racism, Southern Poverty Law Center, Take a stand against hate [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2009, 10:51pm EDT
  by hymes

• FAIL–”Psycho Donuts” Owners Think Strait Jackets and Traumatic Brain Injury Are Hilarious

  Number of comments: 3
  http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11926613?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com Hat tip to Justice For All’s blog-  http://jfactivist.typepad.com/jfactivist/2009/03/psycho-donuts-to-open-with-a-fun-mental-institution-theme.html for finding this and writing about it. You can see there a comment from one of the owners that they had no intention of offending. Um, well maybe, but how could they think in this day and age that “massive brain injury” was [...]
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  Posted: April 01, 2009, 10:46pm EDT
  by hymes

• End the Use of the Word “Retarded” March 31, 2009

  Number of comments: 5
  Posted in disability, Hope, Intellectual Disabilities, United States of America [...]
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  Posted: March 31, 2009, 2:45pm EDT
  by hymes

• Saturday Link Fest

  Number of comments: 1
  Two from the amazing and tireless advocate for people living in nursing homes and other institutions who could live at home if supports were available, Steve Gold:    1.  “Do Non-Institutional Long-Term Care Services Reduce Medicaid Spending?” written by H.S Kaye, M. LaPlante, and C. Harrington.  It is in the journal Health Affairs, [...]
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  Posted: March 28, 2009, 4:41pm EDT
  by hymes

• Why Won’t Public Citizen Investigate and Publicize the Increasing #’s of Kidney Failure due to Lithium?

  Number of comments: 5
  I tried calling Public Citizen years ago about lithium induced chronic kidney disease and was told that they do not take suggestions for investigation from consumers/citizens, they decide for themselves what to study and publicize.  I thought it was a little ironic since they are a spin-off from Ralph Nader’s [...]
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  Posted: March 25, 2009, 10:35pm EDT
  by hymes

• Poverty, Race and Diabetes

  I don’t have diabetes and I hope the steroids I have to take for my transplant don’t ever cause it but I know lots of folks who do.  Some folks have Type I from childhood but I’m going to talk here about Type 2, the one acquired in older age [...]
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  Posted: March 25, 2009, 1:58am EDT
  by hymes

• Patients Win Settlement against Psychiatric Hospital in Canada for Everyday Practices in the United States

  Number of comments: 3
  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/03/19/pinel-settlement.html 1 million Canadian dollars to 200 former patients for being shackled and strip searched and as mainstream media in Canada describe it “treated like criminals” and “mistreated”.  And supportive comments for the patients by citizens below the story!  Can we bottle whatever they have going in Canada and ship it [...]
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  Posted: March 20, 2009, 12:48am EDT
  by hymes

• Alexis Glover Update: Neighbors and Caregivers Reported Abuse to Police for 2 Years before her Death.

  Thank you to Linda Edwards at F.R.I.D.A.   http://fridanow.blogspot.com Even sadder news about Alexis Glover whose foster mother is now charged with killing her.   It has been reported that bus drivers, neighbors and others contacted the police in the last 2 years of Alexis’s life to report injuries and neglect by her [...]
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  Posted: March 19, 2009, 1:58am EDT
  by hymes

• New FDA, New Hope For Removing Lithium from the Market

  Number of comments: 4
  Lithium, also known as Lithobid and lithium carbonate injures the kidneys of everyone who takes it for any extended period of time.  This is what we were all told in the past were “benign changes to the kidneys”.  Well you know what?  There are no “benign” changes to the kidneys.  [...]
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  Posted: March 17, 2009, 8:17pm EDT
  by hymes

• We Must Demand Medical Screening of All Involuntarily Treated People in Our MH System

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/magazine/15wwln-diagnosis-t.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y This woman could have died, now she is medication free.  But if she lived in Virginia or one of the many other states where forced outpatient and inpatient drugging occurs without adequate medical screening, what do you think her chances of survival would have been?  What are the chances anyone [...]
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  Posted: March 15, 2009, 2:01am EDT
  by hymes

• Sign and Share the Petition for Optimal Dialysis in the U.S.: Save Lives

    Every Other Day Dialysis      View Current Signatures   –   Sign the Petition   The Petition Lives! Make it viral!   To:  Congressional Kidney CaucusWe, the undersigned, ask the Congressional Kidney Caucus to advocate for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to increase the number of routinely reimbursed hemodialysis treatments from three [...]
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  Posted: March 15, 2009, 12:55am EDT
  by hymes

• Anna Nicole Smith: Finally Charges Brought Against Her Psychiatrist

  Number of comments: 2
  It seemed as if Anna Nicole Smith’s psychiatrist was never going to face any consequences for prescribing drugs to aliases, prescribing drugs in outrageous quantities, prescribing addictive drugs to someone who struggled with addiction, but after all this time she is finally being charged with several counts and has been [...]
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  Posted: March 13, 2009, 3:05am EDT
  by hymes

• Until the Killing of People With Disabilities Is As Important as the Killing of Temporarily Able-Bodied, We Who Believe in Freedom Can Not Rest

  People with disabilities are being murdered by family members and caretakers and staff in institutions and allegedly by the Final Exit Network all over this country and this world. (For factual information on how far the Final Exit Networks wants to go including killing people with Alzheimer’s, children with severe disabilities  [...]
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  Posted: March 11, 2009, 11:37pm EDT
  by hymes

• Saturday Morning Link Fest

  http://icad.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/autistic-grandson-murdered/  (19 year old with autism murdered by his grandmother in murder/suicide in Virginia from the International Coalition on Abuse and Disability) http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/  (Euthanasis Prevention Coaliton outside the U.S.) http://ableism.wordpress.com/  Ableism and Ability Ethics and Governance http://www.ualberta.ca/~initativ/Home.html  (Ethics and Disability, The Disability Ethics Initiative based in Canada) Posted in ablism, Abuse, crime, disability, Disability [...]
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  Posted: March 07, 2009, 10:58am EST
  by hymes

• Treatment Advocacy Center, So Many False Assumptions, So Little Time to Correct Them :)

  Number of comments: 2
  I know the Treatment Advocacy Center folks are trying very hard to improve their image, I see their efforts to be more compassionate and less fear-mongering about people with psychiatric disabilities/diagnoses/histories, but it seems they just can’t stop themselves from making huge assumptions about the relationship between mental illness and [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2009, 8:17pm EST
  by hymes

• Mainstream Media Not Covering What the Final Exit Network Does–It “Helps” and May Murder People Who Are NOT Dying but Disabled or Old or Depressed.

  Number of comments: 8
  Please read Not Dead Yet’s blog for full coverage on the problem with how the media is covering the arrests of Final Exit Network members here:  http://notdeadyetnewscommentary.blogspot.com/ This is NOT about people who would be eligible for a prescription from a doctor in Oregon and Washington who must be within 6 [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2009, 11:00pm EST
  by hymes

• In Western State Hospital in Virginia, There is a Men’s Only Forensic Ward but No Women’s Only Civil Ward–???

  Um, let me try and understand this fact.  Forensic, i.e. Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity or people deemed incapable of assisting in their own defense in a criminal trial and committed to Western for restoration of capacity to stand trial, male, patients have a single gender unit/ward at the [...]
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  Posted: March 03, 2009, 11:54pm EST
  by hymes