Harassment of Alternative Non-Drug Based
Treatment in Australia
I just e-mailed this list a note I sent to an Australian
researcher, complaining about how his he is experimenting on youth by giving
them powerful neuroleptic psychiatric drugs BEFORE they have even been
diagnosed "schizophrenic."
The very next e-mail I dealt with was from a totally different Australian. She
is involved in non-drug alternatives for people labeled with "schizophrenia."
AND THE POLICE JUST VISITED HER related to a complaint about her work from the
local medical board!
You can see her web site here:
http://www.jungcircle.com/Schizophrenia.html
Feel free to forward.
Below is my e-mail to this non-drug alternative practitioner asking for ways
our members can help. AT BOTTOM is her e-mail to police complaining about
their visit yesterday.
- David Oaks
David
Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom Support Coalition International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA
To: nathair@bigblue.net.au
From: MindFreedom Support Coalition International
<oaks@mindfreedom.org>
Subject: what can we do to help?
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Attachments:
I was saddened to see the below letter...
What can we do to help? I wish there was an easy e-mail address and/or fax
number or something people could make a complaint to.
Also, I looked in database and it's very strange... you're not a member yet!
What's your postal address, let me send you a copy of our newsjournal. Then
join! Don't let money keep you from joining. People can join for any amount.
But it's about building STRENGTH IN NUMBERS, UNITED so that we can stand
together!!!!
Please e-mail back soon, I'd like to tell several hundred members some easy
steps they can take to complain about below.
And in meantime I'm e-mailing you a note I just sent to another Australian
researcher, just moments ago... what a coincidence?
- David
30 December 2002
ATTN: Police Complaints Authority
GPO Box 464
ADELAIDE SA 5000
Dear SA Police
I wish to formally complain about the recent (unannounced) visit of three
police officers to my St Peters residence (on Sunday 29 December, 2002), in
response to unsubstantiated complaints voiced to the Police by the SA Medical
Board (with whom I have nothing to do). The three officers included Greg
Charlton and another officer who produced a search warrant. At the time, I was
alone, in my pyjamas and enjoying a peaceful listen to The Lord of the Rings
radio plays. After their disturbing interruption, the officers eventually
confiscated a folder containing master copies of publications which were
recently made available at the first Australian Conference (which I convened)
on 'Therapeutic Alternatives to Psychiatry and Hospitals for Acute Personal
Crises'. For further information on this 'practical vision for genuine mental
health reform', please visit
www.jungcircle.com/temenos.html
Allow me to say that I do not appreciate being visited by members of the
'Criminal Investigation Branch' when I have committed no crime but have,
rather, given enormous time, care and energy (without pay) to helping often
fragile and anguished members of the community, many of whom members of the
Medical Board have (by sufferers' accounts) traumatised, harassed, or
otherwise failed to help. My complaint is therefore directed not so much to
the officers concerned (who were, by their accounts, 'merely doing their
job'), as it is aimed at the Medical Board itself. Apparently, the latter have
accused me of presenting myself as a 'medical doctor' in pamphlets which have
been made freely available to the public. As these materials and all my online
and international publications confirm, I have done nothing of the sort but
have, on the contrary, represented myself only as a 'Jungian', or 'psychiatric
therapist' (which I am legally entitled to do). I am also entitled to use the
prefix 'Dr', since I have a Doctorate in the field of Jungian psychology.
The Medical Board are therefore, I suggest, ethically guilty of harassment and
slander, and of trying to obstruct the valued community work I and my
colleagues do. (Mr Charlton, incidentally, invited me to provide him with a
recorded statement, which I sensibly declined to do. As I stated to him ad
nauseum, I have never advertized myself as a 'medical doctor'. What further
'statement' needs to be made? I would further suggest that the onus is on Mr
Charlton and/or the Medical Board to produce evidence of the Board's
defamatory allegation.)
Surely you can concede that since I (like many others) do not view depression,
schizophrenia, or anything else that is labelled as 'mental illness' as
(biologic) 'medical' problems, it would be stupid, self-contradictory and
irrelevant for me to put myself forward as a 'medical' GP? Instead, I view all
so-called 'mental illness' from a wholistic perspective, which involves
responding to individual needs in ways that address both psychospiritual and
physical needs. While I focus on the former, for the (complementary) latter I
sometimes refer folk to caring GPs and other practitioners who practice
natural and/or 'nutritional medicine'. Two of the officers who visited
(including Mr Charlton) claimed to have read the pamphlets concerned and other
material published on my website. They would therefore surely have been aware
that I nowhere broadcast myself as 'medical doctor'. Why, then, did they feel
obliged to respond to the Medical Board's unfounded accusation?
It doesn't take a genius to concede that the Medical Board might feel
threatened by a credible person working toward the de-medicalization of
'mental illness', the re-empowerment and defence of the human rights of
sufferers, and the provision of reputable information on safe alternatives to
coercive 'medical' treatment and toxic 'medical' drugs. Might I therefore
suggest that in future you bear these possible agendas in mind, should you be
asked to respond to further Medical Board 'complaints'? Please bear in mind,
too, that we are aiming to help you (and the 'medical' profession) by working
toward reforms that would enable persons in acute crisis to be cared for (if
they wish) from the start by (non-'medical') residential crisis care workers,
instead of by police, 'medical' personnel, chemical restraints and hospitals.
The (mainly voluntary) crisis help work I do is demanding, difficult,
challenging, highly rewarding and (often) exhausting and I would appreciate
your support. You could perhaps help here by (for starters) responding to this
complaint against the Medical Board. In fairness, perhaps the same three
officers could be asked to visit (unannounced, on a Sunday arvo) the homes of
members of the Medical Board and search their premises for 'relevant'
material(?) After all, the work we do includes liaising with solicitors and
the Government to help outlaw the human rights abuse and coercive 'medical'
treatment which is inflicted on many innocent Australians by members of the
Medical Board who endorse the forced 'treatment' (with toxic drugs) of persons
who are deemed to be 'mentally ill'. I suggest, in other words, that the
Police turn their attention to investigating this massive human rights abuse
issue, instead of responding to unproven accusations voiced by the Medical
Board. (You claim, after all, to be 'leading the way to a safer community'.)
Finally, the public have a moral right to the information we make available,
in order to be informed and able to choose for themselves. Any suggestion to
the contrary (i.e. a belief that the public should be provided with only
biomedical views), is clearly a breach of the right to free speech and an
ethical breach of the public's right to be informed. In this sense, I'm
wondering why the Police see fit to be involved in what is not essentially a
criminal matter, but rather a difference of opinion about what 'mental
illness' is how best to respond to it? The Medical Board are, of course,
entitled to their opinion. My views, however, reflect the concerns, fears,
hopes and needs of a growing number of Australians who do not view their
personal crises and normal problems in living as 'medical' problems requiring
'medical' intervention. I ask that you be openminded and compassionate enough
to respect their views (which I aim to represent), samples of which I would be
happy to provide. (See, for example, testimonies included in the enclosed
yellow brochure.)
Please forward copies of this letter and attached material to Greg Charlton
and the two officers who accompanied him. I would also appreciate a response
in writing to this complaint (against the Medical Board) at your earliest
convenience. Last but not least, I would be grateful if you would promptly
return the confiscated folder, since we repeatedly use the master copies it
contains.
Yours sincerely
(Dr) Maureen B. Roberts BSc, BA(Hons), PhD
Jungian Psychiatric Therapist
Director: Schizophrenia Drug-free Crisis Centre [Australia]
Cc:
Enzo Fardone [Barrister/Solicitor]
Last Updated on
04/14/04
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