Mental Health Justice Advocacy Report from British Columbia
May 3, 2016
Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, MP
Constituency Office of the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould,
Member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville
104 – 1245 West Broadway
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6H 1G7
Dear Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould:
Thank you again for so generously meeting with me in your constituency office in Vancouver March 30, 2016.
In response to an invitation from your office, please accept the following Advocacy Package:
Canada’s Mental Health Crisis: What Can the Federal Department of Justice Do to Help?, with contributions by Rob Wipond, Robert Whitaker and Steven Epperson.
After a review of the package, please do not hesitate to contact me as questions arise, or if there is need for clarification and further recommendations.
I wish you all the best in your important work,
Respectfully submitted,
Rev. Dr. Steven Epperson
Canada’s Mental Health Crisis: What Can the Federal Department of Justice Do to Help?
An advocacy paper, contributions by Rob Wipond, Robert Whitaker, and Rev. Steven Epperson
There are two key factorsthat are contributing to bringing mental health services in Canada to a crisis point.
First, medical psychiatric services are funded by public health plans, while generally non-drug therapeutic approaches are not funded; consequently, estimates suggest that somewhere between 15-25% of the Canadian population is taking one or more psychiatric drugs at any time for their mental health challenges. Yet away from view of the general public, scientific evidence is mounting about the very low effectiveness rates of these drugs, and the very serious, disabling harms that can be caused by their long-term use.
Second, there has been media-fuelled fear-mongering about alleged links between violence and mental disorders and this has led to years of steady erosion of the rights of psychiatric patients to due process and to refuse psychiatric medications.
Together, these two factors are having enormously damaging impacts on people’s lives, especially for those people suffering with the most serious problems. The situation has created a very polarized mental health care system that has become more about mental health professionals trying to control patients than about patients and care providers collaborating together toward recovery. This is where the crucial role of the Department of Justice comes in.
Topicsaddressed in this paper (followed by Recommendations):
Psychiatric medications are not very effective Psychiatric medications have very serious long-term risks Psychiatric patients are subject to arbitrary detention and lack of informed consent Psychiatric patients have no rights to due process Mental health tribunals are fundamentally unfair and unjust There is little monitoring of community treatment orders Forced treatment is discrimination against people with disabilities A better approach to extreme distress, poverty, homelessness and mental disorders Drug company communication laws not enforced
The role of justice leaders in the current crisis in mental health services
Mental health services are supposed to balance the treatment recommendations of mental health professionals and the wishes and fundamental Charterrights of psychiatric patients, and to provide supports, opportunities and options for mutually agreeable approaches to be forged. However, federal and provincial government justice leaders have for two decades so completely abandoned their side of the responsibilities in this dialogic process, that medical-psychiatric mental health authorities now wield unchecked discretionary powers over psychiatric patients in virtually all circumstances. Justice leaders need to re-educate themselves on issues of mental health care, and begin to take leadership again. This re-education requires understanding, first, the risks of common psychiatric treatments and, second, the status of mental health laws in Canada.
Psychiatric medications are not very effective
While some psychiatric medications do have some limited effectiveness in the short term, and we often hear positive anecdotal stories, in the scientific literature it is clear that the effectiveness rates for psychiatric drugs are generally extremely low. For example, antidepressants do not surpass placebo for the treatment of depression.[1],[2] For the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis, antipsychotics only surpass placebo by about 3-6 points on a response scale of 60 points.[3] Benzodiazepine sedatives for anxiety are extremely addictive and tolerance builds rapidly.[4] Stimulant medications for ADHD have not been proven to improve outcomes.[5]
Psychiatric medications have very serious long-term risks
In regulatory approval processes, most clinical trials for psychiatric medications last 6-12 weeks. In this context, the serious short-term side effects of psychiatric medications are well-documented. For example, a simple review of the clinical pharmacology information from Health Canada shows that very common side effects of antipsychotics are rapid weight gain, diabetes, extreme restlessness and agitation referred to as akathisia, and permanent motor dysfunction called tardive dyskinesia – and there’s also an official warning about a near doubling of death rates in the elderly within three months of use. Antidepressants have been linked to weight gain, bone density loss, and sexual dysfunction, and for children and youth come with a strong warning about increased suicidal and homicidal tendencies. The list goes on – and those are just the short-term risks.
However, the vast majority of people will take psychiatric medications for months and years rather than for weeks, and it is now becoming clear that the risks and harms of long-term use are far worse than previously believed. This is particularly concerning in a context where patients can be forced to take these drugs for long periods against their wills. Neurological damage, organ damage, and structural brain changes and damages are not uncommon. Indeed, as psychiatric medication use has increased, the prevalence of physical and mental disabilities associated with mental disorders has increased in lockstep. In the United States, the number of adults on government disability due to mental illness rose from 1.25 million in 1987 to more than 4.5 million today. There were 16,200 children on disability due to mental disorders in 1987; today there are more than 700,000 children so disabled. Similar sharp increases in disability due to mental disorders—and in particular, disability due to depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder—have been reported in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark, among other countries. There is mounting evidence that long-term use of psychiatric medications are a primary driver of increasing disability. Here is just some of the emerging evidence about the long-term dangers of specific drug classes:
Antidepressants increase the likelihood that depression will run a chronic course, and that a depressed person will have a manic episode and be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Studies show that medicated patients are also more likely to end up on government disability than non-medicated patients.[6] Long-term use of benzodiazepines is associated with increased depression and anxiety; impaired cognitive function; and poor physical health.[7] Stimulants as a treatment for ADHD do not provide a long-term benefit on any domain of functioning. However, long-term use is associated with an increased risk that a youth will be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and if animal research is predictive, behavioral abnormalities in adulthood.[8] There is evidence that antipsychotics worsen the long-term course of schizophrenia and psychosis. In a seminal 20-year study, schizophrenia patients who got off medication had an eight-fold higher recovery rate than those who stayed on antipsychotics, and had better functioning in every domain that was measured.[9]
This is a narrative about psychiatric medications that is not yet well known. But the evidence is piling up. The disability numbers, together with the poor long-term outcomes for medicated patients, tell of a failed paradigm of care that needs to be radically re-thought. In May 2016, a work group in the UK Parliament is holding hearings on this very topic, with the intent that it will lead to a governmental inquiry into the long-term effects of key psychiatric drugs on disability rates. That is precisely the type of governmental response that is needed to address the soaring burden of mental illness in developed countries, and to plot a new course.
For psychiatric patients there is arbitrary detention and lack of informed consent
In light of the above, it becomes even more vital that psychiatric patients have the right to be properly informed of the long-term risks and benefits of psychiatric medications, and to have the right to make a rational choice to decline to take them. Unfortunately, in Canada, many psychiatric patients do not have those rights. Throughout most of Canada, a single psychiatrist can detain a person in a psychiatric hospital for usually up to 72 hours, simply if the person is deemed to be at risk of “mental or physical deterioration.”[10]A second psychiatrist signing off is enough to detain the person for usually three weeks. In BC, patients can also be treated with psychiatric medications or electroshock against their will during all of this time. Before initiating forced treatment, some other provinces like Ontario have a second process to determine if the detained patient has legal “capacity” to consent to or refuse treatment; however, these tests of capacity are notoriously unscientific and unreliable, and weigh heavily on the subjective opinion of the treating psychiatrist.[11]In Ontario, “Canada’s Beautiful Mind” physicist Scott Starson famously had to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to have his own right to refuse medication upheld.[12]
Psychiatric patients have no rights to due process
Psychiatric patients in Canada have far fewer rights to due process than do accused or convicted criminals. Upon arrest by police under mental health laws, for example, some provinces like BC provide no right to contact an attorney. Psychiatric patients have no meaningful access to the courts – involuntary psychiatric patients have the right to an appeal of their incarceration and forced treatment within three weeks, but usually only before an administrative tribunal. In BC, psychiatric patients are also specifically excluded from having their advance directives respected or having supportive decision makers. A 1994 BC Ombudsperson’s investigation of Riverview psychiatric hospital found “systemic” abuse of patients’ basic rights going on, and made many recommendations that were intended to be applied in psychiatric hospitals across BC.[13]As of today, none of those recommendations have been implemented.
Mental health tribunals are fundamentally unfair and unjust
Mental health tribunals – the only usual avenue of legal appeal for psychiatric patients facing involuntary committal and forced treatment – are typically comprised of several government appointees, the majority of whom have no legal experience whatsoever. These tribunals are not bound by any normal rules of due process. For example, patients can be forbidden from attending their own appeal hearing. Patients can be denied the right to see the evidence against them. Patients’ rights to legal representation can be ignored. Patients contesting their involuntary treatment often have to attend their own hearing while under heavy sedation.[14]Worse, even this flimsy legal appeal system for patients is in crisis. For example, the one agency in BC that is publicly funded to provide legal assistance to involuntary psychiatric patients has been turning down hundreds of requests for assistance every year for many years. In a 2011 report from the BC Public Commission on Legal Aid, the Commissioner stated that he was “profoundly shocked” to learn about this “profound violation” going on with respect to the most basic Charterrights of psychiatric patients.[15]Even the provincial government Chair of the Mental Health Review Board admitted to the Commission that the Board has difficulties operating hearings that are fair. The problems continue today.
There is little monitoring of community treatment orders
“Assertive community treatment” and “community treatment orders” – also called “extended leave” or “assisted outpatient treatment” – give psychiatrists the power and resources to forcibly treat people indefinitely, even when these people do not require psychiatric hospitalization and are living and working on their own in the community. This is certainly one of the most novel and egregious extensions of rights-stripping going on in Canada today. The BC government had a public “Mental Health Advocate” for about 18 months approximately a decade ago before eliminating the position, and one of her repeated requests was that the government monitor and report on the use of “extended leave” – it never happened. Monitoring of the expanded use of these orders is inconsistent across Canada, and needs to be much more vigorous and rigorous.
Forced treatment is discrimination against people with disabilities
All of the provincial mental health acts in Canada enshrine discriminatory practices against persons with disabilities, which many lawyers believe contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsand theUN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(ratified by Canada in 2010), in part, because of the aforementioned new understandings about the low effectiveness and serious harms of psychiatric medications, along with the broad expansions of the criteria for involuntary committal and the erosion of support for legal aid for psychiatric patients that have occurred in the past two decades. The CanadianCharter of Rights and FreedomsSection 15(1) provides that every individual has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination based on mental or physical disability. Similarly, theUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Article 5 specifically prohibits all discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantees to persons with disabilities equal and effective legal protection on all grounds.[16]Article 14 of the CRPD states that “the existence of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation of liberty”. Article 17 grants to all persons with disabilities the right to respect for their physical and mental integrity on an equal basis with others. Article 25 obliges health careprofessionals to provide treatment only on the basis of free and informed consent. Article 15 protects the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which includes medical or scientific experimentation without consent. The UN Rapporteur has clarified that the cumulative effect of these provisions makes forced psychiatric treatment a contravention of the Convention.
A better approach to extreme distress, poverty, homelessness and mental disorders
A two-year, five-city Mental Health Commission of Canada pilot project found that both homelessness and mental disorders were dramatically reduced simply through providing “housing first”. The program also found that, overall, offering supportive housing produced overall cost savings through reductions in the use of more expensive services like emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals and police services.[17]These findings reproduced findings in the United States, where the similar Pathways to Housing program has been gaining traction.[18]In these programs, mental health treatments were offered on a voluntary basis only. This is solid evidence that even people struggling in the most extreme conditions with the most extreme psychological problems can rapidly improve without forced psychiatric interventions – or indeed any psychiatric interventions at all. Instead, a more successful “therapy” is to have their basic rights upheld and their most basic needs met in a supportive atmosphere.
Drug company communication laws not enforced
The Canadian public and Canadian physicians and psychiatrists are generally very misinformed about psychiatric medication effectiveness and risks, and the primary reason for that lies with the federal government. Illegal direct-to-consumer drug advertising has become rampant in Canada, much of it entering through U.S. media. There has been a systematic failure of all responsible entities in enforcing the law. This problem has been flagged by knowledgeable, concerned health professionals in Canada for many years, yet successive federal governments have declined to enforce the laws.[19]The Canada Food and Drug Actsimilarly regulates communications between physicians and drug company representatives. Representatives have a legal responsibility to provide accurate information, include safety and risk information, avoid discussing off-label uses of drug products, and not coerce physicians with gifts or bribes.[20]Yet there is a severe dearth of monitoring and enforcement in this area in Canada.[21]While pharmaceutical companies have paid tens of billions of dollars in fines in the U.S. for inappropriate promotion and marketing practices in the past decade alone[22]– including for illegal promotion and marketing of psychiatric drugs – there has never been a single such case prosecuted in Canada, even though the same companies are known to be operating in the same ways here.Though these laws seem to be Health Canada’s jurisdiction, the Department of Justice must share responsibility in any long-standing, systemic national failure of enforcement of Canadian laws.
Recommendations:
Start a royal commission or government investigation into long-term outcomes in our mental health care system, and specifically long-term outcomes from use of psychiatric medications.
Take leadership in ensuring that all of Canada’s provincial processes for declarations of incapacity are in line with up-to-date, best practices in other countries – involving interdisciplinary evaluation teams and “gradations” of capacity. Forced psychiatric treatment should be abolished in all cases, since the underlying science is so weak, and is in violation of United Nations Conventions Against Torture and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Take leadership in ensuring that public justice representatives across Canada are taking proactive approaches to protecting the fundamental rights of Canadian psychiatric patients.
Take leadership in ensuring that there is consistent monitoring and reporting on the expanded use of “community treatment orders” and “extended leave” across Canada, and participate more proactively in ensuring that the use of these orders respects patients’ rights.
Take leadership in building the “Housing First” effort, as a guide for how to achieve a better balance of respect for patients’ rights with improved mental health outcomes.
Take leadership in ensuring that mental health care laws and practices across Canada operate in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsand the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Start a task force within Health Canada to begin proactively monitoring and enforcing Canada’s pharmaceutical drug communications laws, as the U.S. and most other developed countries do.
[1]Kirsch, Irving, Brett J. Deacon, Tania B. Huedo-Medina, Alan Scoboria, Thomas J. Moore, and Blair T. Johnson. “Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.” PLOS Med 5, no. 2 (February 26, 2008): e45. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045. Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045
[2]Kirsch, Irving. “Challenging Received Wisdom: Antidepressants and the Placebo Effect.” McGill Journal of Medicine : MJM 11, no. 2 (November 2008): 219–22. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2582668/
[3]Rutherford BR, Pott E, Tandler JM, Wall MM, Roose SP, and Lieberman JA. “Placebo Response in Antipsychotic Clinical Trials: A Meta-Analysis.” JAMA Psychiatry 71, no. 12 (December 1, 2014): 1409–21. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1319. Retrieved from
[4]Abuse, National Institute on Drug. “Well-Known Mechanism Underlies Benzodiazepines’ Addictive Properties,” April 19, 2012. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2012/04/well-known-mechanism-underlies-benzodiazepines-addictive-properties
[5]University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative. “What is the evidence for using CNS stimulants to treat ADHD in children?” May 31, 2008. Therapeutics Letter 69. Retrieved from http://www.ti.ubc.ca/2008/05/31/what-is-the-evidence-for-using-cns-stimulants-to-treat-adhd-in-children/
[6]A list of research studies on this topic can be retrieved from http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Depression.html
[7]A list of research studies on this topic can be retrieved from http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Anxiety.html
[8]A list of research studies on this topic can be retrieved from http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Children.html
[9]A list of research studies on this topic can be retrieved from http://robertwhitaker.org/robertwhitaker.org/Schizophrenia.html
[10]BC Mental Health Act. http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96288_01
[11]Incapability Assessments: A Review of Assessment and Screening Tools – Final Report. April 2009. Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia. Retrieved from http://www.trustee.bc.ca/documents/STA/Incapability_Assessments_Review_Assessment_Screening_Tools.pdf
[12]“Professor Starson’s Landmark Case Established Legal Right to Refuse Medication, but He’s Still Fighting His Own Battle.” National Post. Accessed April 29, 2016. http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/professor-starsons-landmark-case-established-legal-right-to-refuse-medication-but-hes-still-fighting-his-own-battle
[13]BC Ombudsperson. “Listening: A Review of Riverview Hospital.” (May 1994). Retrieved from https://www.bcombudsperson.ca/documents/listening-review-riverview-hospital
[14]BC Mental Health Review Board Rules of Practice and Procedures
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/partners/colleges-boards-and-commissions/mental-health-review-board/review-process/rules-of-practice-and-procedures
[15]Foundation for Change: Report of the Public Commission on Legal Aid in British Columbia (March 2011) http://www.publiccommission.org/about/main/default.aspx
[16]UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/ConventionRightsPersonsWithDisabilities.aspx
[17]Mental Health Commission of Canada. “National At Home/Chez Soi Final Report.” (April 2014). Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/document/24376/national-homechez-soi-final-report
[18]Pathways to Housing. https://pathwaystohousing.org/
[19]“Canada has double standard on drug ads: journal”. The Toronto Star. June 14, 2008. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2008/06/14/canada_has_double_standard_on_drug_ads_journal.html
[20]“Is prescribing information from sales representatives balanced?”, Therapeutics Letter, Issue 91/Aug-Sep 2014; and B Mintzes, et al, “Pharmaceutical sales representatives and patient safety: a comparative prospective study of information quality in Canada, France and the United States, J Gen Intern Med, 2013; 28 (10):1368-75. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-013-2411-7
[21]“Drug companies wine and dine family physicians.” The Toronto Star. February 16, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/02/16/drug-companies-wine-and-dine-family-physicians.html
[22]Big Pharma’s Big Fines. ProPublica. Retrieved from https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bigpharma
**This advocacy paper developed, with contributions by:
Rob Wipondis an award-winning journalist in the mental health field, and author of “Pitching Mad: News Media and the Psychiatric Survivor Perspective,” in Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies. He also co-founded and serves on the steering committee for “Building Resilient Neighbourhoods,” an inter-organizational collaborative effort in Victoria, British Columbia working to build stronger social cohesion and resilience through community engagement activities.
Robert Whitakeris a Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning journalist writing on science and medicine, and past Fellow, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He was director of publications at Harvard University Medical School, and a recipient of the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Best Book, 2010--Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America; and co-author of Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury and Prescriptions for Reform.
Rev. Dr. Steven Eppersonis Parish Minister of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, Past-President, Unitarian Universalist Ministers of Canada, and Chair, Social Responsibility Monitoring Group on National Affordable Housing Policy, Canadian Unitarian Council.
Join me Tues., Feb. 28, 2017, when the great Dr. Lauren Tenney hosts me on her show to talk about what both sides are getting so wrong in the debate about whether or not Trump is "mentally ill." http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talkwithtenney/2017/03/01/talk-with-tenney-a-conversation-with-paula-joan-caplan-on-trump-and-psychiatry
Paula J. Caplan's dual- award winning play, SHADES, a drama with much humor that is a nonpathologizing exploration of reactions to loss and trauma and has been described as "Eugene O'Neill meets 'All in the Family," will have an Off-Broadway production at the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village November 9-December 17. Feminist psychologist pioneer Dr. Phyllis Chesler will lead a talkback after the November 12 performance. For tickets, go to cherrylanetheatre.org For info posted several times weekly, go to Facebook.com/ShadesThePlay, and please LIKE that page! Watch the Facebook page for posts about more talkbacks by various invited guests.
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"Diagnosisgate: Conflict of Interest at the Top of the Psychiatric Apparatus" is at http://www.oa.uottawa.ca/journals/aporia/articles/2015_01/commentary.pdf
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Hear this show from August 25, 2014, about "Why Military Women Need the ERA." http://www.blogtalkradio.com/svs/2014/08/26/why-military-women-need-the-era
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Video of symposium on Human Rights Implications of Psychiatric Diagnosis at Washington College of Law, American University, can be found here.
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"Diagnosisgate: Conflict of Interest at the Top of the Psychiatric Apparatus" is at http://www.oa.uottawa.ca/journals/aporia/articles/2015_01/commentary.pdf
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Hear this show from August 25, 2014, about "Why Military Women Need the ERA." http://www.blogtalkradio.com/svs/2014/08/26/why-military-women-need-the-era
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Video of symposium on Human Rights Implications of Psychiatric Diagnosis at Washington College of Law, American University, can be found here.
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10.26.13
Paula Caplan's new essay "The Art of Healing Through the Arts" about the creation of connection and the overcoming of isolation and pain through the arts can now be found here.
Paula Caplan's new essay "The Art of Healing Through the Arts" about the creation of connection and the overcoming of isolation and pain through the arts can now be found here.
07.13.13
Paula Caplan's essay "Healing Without Harming" can now be found here.
Paula Caplan's essay "Healing Without Harming" can now be found here.
05.21.13
Paula Caplan's new essay "My Recent Silence and a Voice That Matters: What's Wrong with Psych Diagnosis Debate" can be found here.
Paula Caplan's new essay "My Recent Silence and a Voice That Matters: What's Wrong with Psych Diagnosis Debate" can be found here.
Thursday, May 23: Providence, Rhode Island -- "Psychiatric Diagnosis: Problems and Options" sponsored by Psychological Centers 1:00-4:15 p.m.
From their announcement:
"According to Dr. Caplan, psychiatric diagnosis is not scientifically grounded, does not reduce human suffering, and carries a wide array of risks of harm. A great many factors and systems lead to the creation of psychiatric classification, but the enterprise is totally unregulated, leaving people harmed by these labels with no recourse. Dr. Caplan offers significant evidence to support these concerns. She offers concrete alternatives for therapists, ways to try to reduce harm to clients from psychiatric diagnoses, and recent national actions taken in an attempt to create accountability on behalf of people seeking professional help for their personal struggles."
Information and registration here
From their announcement:
"According to Dr. Caplan, psychiatric diagnosis is not scientifically grounded, does not reduce human suffering, and carries a wide array of risks of harm. A great many factors and systems lead to the creation of psychiatric classification, but the enterprise is totally unregulated, leaving people harmed by these labels with no recourse. Dr. Caplan offers significant evidence to support these concerns. She offers concrete alternatives for therapists, ways to try to reduce harm to clients from psychiatric diagnoses, and recent national actions taken in an attempt to create accountability on behalf of people seeking professional help for their personal struggles."
Information and registration here
03.31.13
Paula Caplan's new essay "The Debate about Causes of Postpartum Depression: Why Some Women Struggle Emotionally After Childbirth" can be found here.
Paula Caplan's new essay "The Debate about Causes of Postpartum Depression: Why Some Women Struggle Emotionally After Childbirth" can be found here.
03.30.13
Paula Caplan's new essay "How the NY Times Portrays Psychiatric Diagnosis: Thinking Critically About 'Sunday Dialogue' about Defining Mental Illness" can be found here.
Paula Caplan's new essay "How the NY Times Portrays Psychiatric Diagnosis: Thinking Critically About 'Sunday Dialogue' about Defining Mental Illness" can be found here.
03.24.13
Of relevance to active duty military and veterans, Paula Caplan's new essay "Comedy, History, and the Future of Mental Disorder Labels: Strange Goings-on in the New York Times about Psychiatric Diagnosis" can be found here.
Of relevance to active duty military and veterans, Paula Caplan's new essay "Comedy, History, and the Future of Mental Disorder Labels: Strange Goings-on in the New York Times about Psychiatric Diagnosis" can be found here.
02.17.13
I saw a very worrying interview that Anderson Cooper and Bradley Cooper did on CNN. It was troubling to me because of the conflict between what Bradley Cooper's recent, wonderful film, "Silver Linings Playbook," showed and what he said in the interview, as well as because of the obvious confusion apparent in that interview about whether, when people are devastated by real-life problems, that devastation in its various forms ought immediately to be described as "mental illness."
My post can be found here.
I would appreciate your forwarding it and/or posting it to anyone you think might be interested. Thank you.
I saw a very worrying interview that Anderson Cooper and Bradley Cooper did on CNN. It was troubling to me because of the conflict between what Bradley Cooper's recent, wonderful film, "Silver Linings Playbook," showed and what he said in the interview, as well as because of the obvious confusion apparent in that interview about whether, when people are devastated by real-life problems, that devastation in its various forms ought immediately to be described as "mental illness."
My post can be found here.
I would appreciate your forwarding it and/or posting it to anyone you think might be interested. Thank you.
02.10.13
Col. (Ret.)Sutherland's and Paula J. Caplan's OpEd -- there's no mystery why veterans kill themselves...and how every American can help. Read it here.
Col. (Ret.)Sutherland's and Paula J. Caplan's OpEd -- there's no mystery why veterans kill themselves...and how every American can help. Read it here.
01.21.13
Paula Caplan's new essay
"MLK Birthday Address: Stopping Gun Violence-
What Will and Will Not Stop Acts of Violence"
can be found here
Paula Caplan's new essay
"MLK Birthday Address: Stopping Gun Violence-
What Will and Will Not Stop Acts of Violence"
can be found here
12.18.12
Paula Caplan's new essay
"The Hurry to Heal: Therapists Cannot Explain Everything-
Reasons for the rush for answers to tragedy, and what to do instead"
can be found here
Paula Caplan's new essay
"The Hurry to Heal: Therapists Cannot Explain Everything-
Reasons for the rush for answers to tragedy, and what to do instead"
can be found here
Here is Paula J. Caplan's description of what happened with the complaints filed in mid-2012 about harm from psychiatric diagnosis...and what the APA did (and did not) do in response to them in the first few months after they were filed.
11.11.12
Paula Caplan's essay "Psychiatrists' Major Lobby Group Does Not Care About 'Weaponized Diagnosis'" explains how the APA has summarily dismissed complaints about harm from psychiatric diagnosis
Additionally, below is a video in which she explains some of what has happened with the complaints.
Paula Caplan's essay "Psychiatrists' Major Lobby Group Does Not Care About 'Weaponized Diagnosis'" explains how the APA has summarily dismissed complaints about harm from psychiatric diagnosis
Additionally, below is a video in which she explains some of what has happened with the complaints.
The APA Refuses to Listen to Voices of People Harmed by Diagnosis … and Refuses and Refuses and Refuses
When you try to speak truth to power, what happens if the powerful turn off their hearing aids? Read the full article here.
By Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
Created Nov 20 2012 - 8:49pm
When you try to speak truth to power, what happens if the powerful turn off their hearing aids? Read the full article here.
By Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
Created Nov 20 2012 - 8:49pm
Human Rights Day Dec. 10: Freedom from Psychiatric Labeling
People labeled mentally ill deprived of human rights. Read the full article here.
Published on December 9, 2012 by Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
People labeled mentally ill deprived of human rights. Read the full article here.
Published on December 9, 2012 by Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
The Astonishing Power of Listening
How respectful listening helps without pathologizing. Read the full article here.
By Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.
How respectful listening helps without pathologizing. Read the full article here.
By Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.