AB 1421 -- Forced Psychiatry in California
Update: AB 1421 passes.
Update: Action urged to write Governor Davis and attend rally.
Following is part of a News Alert sent to California clients and
advocates.
June 12 is D Day for California clients.
California clients have been campaigning for almost 4 years to defeat attempts
in California to increase forced treatment. The attempt has metamorphosed into
three shapes with 3 different bill numbers. It is now AB 1421 (Helen Thomson,
Davis) and proposes an involuntary outpatient commitment program.
On June 12, AB 1421 will be heard by the Senate Health and Human Services
Committee. If this bill is to be stopped, it must stop here. (It passed the
Assembly by a huge majority.)
Help us defeat this bill. Help us to defeat this attempt to turn back the clock
on our rights and recovery.
Write the Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.
Senator Deborah Ortiz
Chairperson
Senate Health and Human Services
State Capitol
Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814
fax: 916-323-2263
In Support,
Sally Zinman
News Alert
May 15, 2002
Hearing Date is June 12
AB 1421 (Thomson, Davis) Threatens Again
The Hearing date for AB 1421 will be June 12 at the Senate Health and Human
Services Committee, Room 4203. The Hearing is set for time certain at 1:30 PM.
The proponents of AB 1421 are waging a vigorous public relations campaign,
exploiting the stereotype of the violent mental patient and increasing the
public's fear of people with mental disabilities. This strategy was outlined
several years ago by D. J. Jaffe, the chief publicist for expanding forced
treatment laws throughout the country, in a speech at the 1999 NAMI national
conference. In Jaffe's words, "Laws change for a single reason, in reaction to
highly publicized incidents of violence. People care about public safety. ---Now
once you understand that, it means that you have to take the debate out of the
mental health arena and put it in the criminal justice/public safety arena." The
San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times have added their voices in
editorials laced with sensationalism and are actively campaigning for the
passage of this bill. Our rights are under siege (theme of the upcoming fall
National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA) Conference.)
AB 1421 create a new kind of involuntary commitment system. The involuntary
outpatient commitment program that it proposes greatly expands the criteria of
who can be committed, the persons who can initiate commitment proceedings, while
reducing the protective layers required for outpatient commitments.
Specifics of the bill include the following:
• Proposes commitment criteria that is vague and subjective, such as
"substantially deteriorating", and "at high risk of poor outcome." The criteria
is extremely inclusive. In fact, a key component for commitment is simply
failure to engage in treatment . A major shift toward civil rights in the last
thirty years has been to base commitment on clear behavioral standards. AB 1421
reverses this protection and bases commitment on the perceived need for
treatment. While the author has said that she is trying to target only a small
group of the most difficult to serve folks, this bill greatly expands the net of
commitment to anyone in any place.
• Permits family and many friends to file petitions for an order authorizing
involuntary outpatient commitment: roommates, parents, spouse, siblings or
children 18 years or older. Friends and loved ones become police persons. The
potential for abuse of the power to initiate a commitment, such as in a custody
or divorce proceedings, or for fiduciary gain, is endless. Current commitment
law was developed to eliminate this kind of abuse of power.
• In some cases, allows for a hearing without the person who is the subject of
the hearing - targeting homeless people who are hard to find and for whom
transportation is a problem. In some cases, allows a hearing to proceed without
an examination of the subject of the hearing (if the person has refused to be
examined or can't be found.) In this case, an angry roommate, a jealous sibling,
or a domineering spouse, can essentially alone initiate a commitment hearing
• Noncompliance of the court order or the negotiated settlement as well as
refusal to be examined can initiate a 72hour hold, adding a new emergency
commitment (5150) criteria for this group of people.
• There is no investigative layer between the filing of a petition for
outpatient commitment and the court hearing. In New York State that has an
outpatient commitment law, approximately 50% of all of the petitions filed were
dropped upon investigation. Under AB 1421, the subject of a petition would at a
minimum have to suffer an evaluation by a professional or a hospital stay for
evaluation or a court hearing, whether the petition had merit or not.
• Has a "voluntary negotiated settlement". However, the "settlement" entails
entering into the same program that court ordered people enter; and
noncompliance can initiate a 72hour hold in a hospital as well as a probable
cause hearing that could lead to further incarceration. The only difference in a
"voluntary negotiated settlement" and a court ordered involuntary outpatient
commitment is no hearing.
• AB 1421 has recently been amended so that it is not contingent on a grant and
is optional for counties to adopt. Those research studies on outpatient
commitment that suggest favorable outcomes indicate that the commitment must be
combined with intensive mental health services. AB 1421 as amended adds only
expanded commitment without additional services. Moreover, it raises
constitutional issues of equal protection under the law in that counties will
have different commitment laws.
WRITE LETTERS TO THE SENATE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE. See attachment
for all of the Committee members.
Senator Deborah Ortiz
Chairperson
Senate Health and Human Services
State Capitol
Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814
fax: 916-323-2263
You can fax your letter to stop expansion
of forced psychiatry in California! The big
hearing is June 12, 2002. For more info,
e-mail to Sally Zinman at <Szinman@aol.com>
or phone California Network of Mental Health
Clients at (916) 443-3232 .
Below is a letter on behalf of Support Coalition
International I faxed today. Your own words
are best. Feel free to forward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 23, 2002 -- fax to: 916-323-2263
Senator Deborah Ortiz, Chairperson
Senate Health and Human Services
State Capitol, Room 2191
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Please STOP AB 1421
Dear Senator Ortiz,
The end result of AB 1421 would be involuntary
psychiatric drugging of many more Californians,
including on an outpatient basis of citizens
living in their own homes. You are not being told
the full implications of this fact.
Support Coalition International is an
organization of psychiatric survivors and mental
health consumers. We unite 100 grassroots groups
working for human rights of people in the mental
health system. Nineteen of these Sponsor Groups
and hundreds of our members are located in
California.
*** Neuroleptics Linked to Severe, Persistent
Structural Brain Changes ***
Missing in the debate about this proposed massive
increase of forced psychiatric drugging is a
critical discussion of the drug itself, and what
it does. As anyone familiar with the psychiatric
system can tell you, forced treatment almost
always means forced drugging. It's about forcing
drugs.
Let me emphasize this. AB 1421 is not mainly
about forced job training, forced counseling,
forced housing. It is about the forced drugging.
Overwhelmingly, the main drug used in forced
treatment is the family of neuroleptic drugs,
which have been around for 50 years now. Brand
names include Thorazine, Haldol, Prolixin, and
newer neuroleptics such as Clozapine, Risperdal,
Zyprexa.
Senator Ortiz, in the last four years mainstream
medicine has been discussing a number of
published medical studies which show neuroleptics
may induce severe persistent structural brain
changes.
Taking neuroleptics for a long period of time has
serious implications. Neuroleptic-induced
structural brain changes can be so severe that it
actually changes the size and shape of brain
tissue, including shrinkage of frontal lobes and
swelling of other areas of the brain. These
changes are so significant they are visible under
CT and MRI brain scan of human subjects, under
autopsy of human subjects, and in animal studies.
Many of our members willingly choose to take
neuroleptics as prescribed. That is their choice.
But modern mainstream medical evidence shows that
long-term involuntary neuroleptics is in the same
category as involuntary psychosurgery, in that it
involves actual physical changes of brain tissue
to change behavior. This makes the procedure so
profoundly intrusive to our very essence and core
of our being, that it violates fundamental rights
guaranteed by the US Constitution and United
Nations. In other words, forced neuroleptics
amounts to a violation of our right to mental
freedom, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Proponents of forced drugging argue that
"benefits outweigh risks." This argument may have
more credibility when applied to side effects like
liver problems, choking, heart problems, etc. (all
linked to neuroleptics). However, shrinking the
frontal lobes impacts the very organ that the
drugs may help.
Proponents of forced drugging have also raised a
smoke screen about the issue of drug-induced
brain damage. Some proponents have countered by
offering studies using brain scans that show some
people labeled "schizophrenic" sometimes have
brain differences from the general population.
However, that's a totally different subject. This
does not negate the many studies that show
neuroleptics themselves are linked to inducing
brain changes themselves. For instance, some
studies show the level of brain changes are
dose-related.
For more information and articles and citations
on the neuroleptic-induced structural brain
change issue see this web page:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/ioc/scan.shtml
Senator, some proponents are such fanatics of
forced drugging that they argue that perhaps this
brain shrinkage and swelling are the way the drug
works. However, ask yourself: "Doesn't such a
serious effect of this procedure deserve to at
least be discussed by elected officials during
any debate on forced neuroleptics?" Why has this
subject of brain damage by the drugs been omitted
from any discussion?
Senator, why have you never been told? Why are
the media, families and patients themselves --
who own the brains in question -- kept in the
dark about this subject of drug brain damage,
which has received attention in medical circles
for four years? You shoud hold hearings on this
scandal.
Over the years, some proponents of forced
psychiatric drugging for people diagnosed
"schizophrenic" have argued that the only way
"these people" can be helped is with neuroleptic
drugs. But then the film "A Beautiful Mind" came
along.
Did you know that John Nash -- the hero of that
film -- quit all psychiatric drugs back in 1970,
before his recovery? Do you know a large number
of people diagnosed "schizophrenic" fully recover
without psychiatric drugs? There are many studies
of this subject if you would like them.
Unfortunately, there is a chemical crusade today
-- a kind of pharmaceutical fundmantalism -- that
single-mindedly claims that forced drugs is the
only way to help us. This is quite simply a lie.
In fact, many drug company front groups argue
that full recovery from a severe diagnosis like
"schizophrenia" is impossible, that once one is
diagnosed with that label, one must stay on
psychiatric drugs one's whole life. But real
recovery is possible. And real recovery without
taking any psychiatric drugs is a reality for
many Americans. Don't Californians deserve to
have a chance? Don't succumb to the enormous
influence of the psychiatric drug industry, which
is in the driver's seat of the mental health
system.
*** Why Are Problems Linked to the Drugs Not
Being Discussed? ***
Why do debates in government and the media about
involuntary psychiatric drugging not talk about
the drug hazards themselves? About non-drug
recovery? This would be like a debate about
nuclear power plants without talking about the
hazards of nuclear waste and plutonium. Why the
silence?
The answer is to "follow the money." The largest
groups actually pushing for AB 1421 are directly
linked to massive amounts of undisclosed
psychiatric drug funding, such as the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Let me say that there are many members of NAMI
who support advocacy and human rights. However,
the leadership of NAMI has chosen the route of
secrecy about their level of psychiatric drug
corporation funding. While NAMI admits they get
funding from the drug industry, NAMI refuses to
disclose the amount of that funding even to their
own members. Senator, the amount is in the
millions of dollars. It's an enormous amount of
money.
This is why you don't hear from the many parents,
such as those in our organization, who are
disgusted with the overwhelming emphasis on
psychiatric drugs in the mental health system,
who demand better and more for their troubled
children. You don't hear from these parents
because they don't get millions of dollars from
the psychiatric drug industry.
This makes NAMI and American Psychiatric
Association and groups like them tools and front
organizations for the psychiatric drug industry.
You have a right to know that when you hear from
NAMI, you are really hearing from major drug
corporations. For the other side of NAMI see our
web site:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/namiwatch.shtml
*** Many other legal problems with AB 1421 ***
As we now see in the scandal involving sex abuse
and the Catholic Church, sometimes it is
important to uncover scandals and directly
address abuses. Unfortunately, psychiatry has
still not addressed massive abuses of human
rights in their own industry. AB 1421 is in
denial that there is a major problem today with
protecting liberty in the mental health
profession. AB 1421 instead would make these
human rights violations far worse:
1) Just about anyone can become psychiatric
police under AB 1421 -- family members,
roommates, etc. This is frightening and
traumatizing.
2) AB 1421 allows our liberty to be taken away in
our absence.
3) AB 1421 language for taking away freedom is
counter to fundamental American values. The
Constitution requires clear reasons to take away
our liberty. AB 1421 instead uses very general
language that is not objective, including
"substantially deteriorating", and "at high risk
of poor outcome." Anyone who believes psychiatry
can predict the future like this is out of touch
with reality, and out of touch with the
overwhelming number of medical studies that show
psychiatrists just cannot predict future
violence.
4) The language in AB 1421 is out of 1984. AB
1421 claims there can be a "voluntary negotiated
settlement". However, this isn't really
voluntary.
*** AB 1421 is Gavel Therapy ***
AB 1421 tries to help without providing one
single program, providing one home, providing one
job, providing one peer support group, providing
one counselor. This is what we call gavel
therapy, trying to create help out of thin air.
AB 1421 is not contingent on any grant, so this
bill would create force without programs. This
may make some people feel good with a rush of
authoritarianism, but such force frightens mental
health consumers and psychiatric survivors away
from helpers. That's why every real organization
of clients is absolutely opposed to AB 1421.
Listen to your customers!
*** Stand up for one of the most disempowered
groups in our society ***
It would take more than this letter to explain to
you what our members feel has really helped them
to fully recover. Empowerment, respect, mutual
support, helping the whole person, real
assistance like jobs and housing and
counseling... This is what really helps our
members. It's about choice.
AB 1421 would crush that choice. Mental health
consumers and psychiatric survivors have been
fighting for their lives in California to stop
the tide of coercion represented by involuntary
outpatient commitment and forced drugging. Please
be a courageous ally and stand with us for
freedom.
Sincerely,
--
David Oaks, Director
Support Coalition International
454 Willamette, Suite 216
PO Box 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA
email: oaks@mindfreedom.org
web: http://mindfreedom.org
phone: (541) 345-9106
toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRIDE
fax: (541) 345-3737
"Support Coalition International is the
epicenter of the 'mad movement!'"
- _Adbusters_ magazine May/June 2002
Win human rights in the mental health system!
