"www.MindFreedom.org Office" <office@MindFreedom.org> wrote:

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:45:01 -0700
From: "www.MindFreedom.org Office"
To: MindFreedom News
CC:
Subject: Michael Moore Needles Mental Health System?


MindFreedom News Alert - 1 September 2004
http://www.MindFreedom.org - please forward

Filmmaker Michael Moore May Target
Mental Health System in His Next Film.

MindFreedom Declares Michael Moore
an "Honorary Psychiatric Survivor"!

How You Can Write to Michael
About His New Movie, "SICKO."

The Internet Movie Database reported that
Michael Moore is working on a new film
tentatively titled, "SICKO."

Said IMDB: "This film will focus on the
American healthcare system, and will look
at it through an inspection of the
system of mental health care."

David Oaks, director of MindFreedom International,
said, "We're naming Mike an 'honorary psychiatric
survivor. We're mailing Mike our new MAD
PRIDE KIT: An award certificate, t-shirt,
'heal normality' poster, stickers, the works."

AT BOTTOM is a letter from MindFreedom to Moore.

MindFreedom encourages Michael Moore to
look at more than just the funding of
the mental health system -- they want
him to probe what they call a "global
emergency" of human rights violations.

Michael Moore's current film _Fahrenheit
9/11_ has grossed more than $120 million,
so he ought to be able to pull off SICKO.

The Associated Press reported, "Moore's
latest is inspired by a segment he did
on The Awful Truth, his series which
aired on the Bravo network. In the segment,
'Funeral at an HMO,' Moore documents the
plight of a diabetic who urgently needs
a pancreas transplant and whose HMO
won't help out. Moore goes to the HMO's
headquarters and puts on a mock funeral
for the diabetic patient, making certain
to invite the company execs. Ultimately,
the HMO agrees to assist the patient
and make sweeping policy changes."

* * ACTION * * ACTION * * ACTION * *

Write to Mike!

Sample message - your own words &
personal story are best:

"Dear Mike, congratulations on being
named an honorary psychiatric
survivor by MindFreedom International!
Please truly expose the mental
health system in your new film. This
is not about just getting more money
for mental health care. This is
about a global emergency of human
rights violations in that system!
We need a nonviolent revolution of
empowerment and self-determination!"

POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS:

Michael Moore
c/o Ariel Emanuel
Endeavor Agency LLC
9601 Wilshire Blvd 3rd fl.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210 USA

FAX TO MICHAEL MOORE: 310-248-5064

~~~~~~~~

BELOW is an open letter sent from
MindFreedom International director
David Oaks to Michael Moore.

Dear Michael,

Many of our members -- from as far away
as Ireland -- are e-mailing me and
pleading with me right now that I write
a letter to you as soon as possible. And
I totally agree, so here it is.

Why?

Our members and I have heard the
superb news that your next documentary
will tackle the health system, perhaps
including the mental health system.

I'm writing you from deep in the
grassroots, about as grassroots as you
can get. I direct MindFreedom
International. Our coalition unites 100
groups working hard for human rights and
alternatives in a very oppressive and
increasingly powerful mental health
system.

Most of our members have personally
experienced human rights violations and
other indignities in the mental health
system. We're the only group like us to
get accredited by the United Nations,
where we've been bringing up concerns
about globalization of psychiatry. I've
been a human rights activist in this
challenging field for 28 years.

I want to emphasize something:

MindFreedom is totally independent, for
better or for worse. Almost all groups
in this field have funding from some
mental health service, government
agency, drug company, church, etc.

Not us. We're totally self-funded.

Our people - those who have gone
through the mental health system - tend
to be marginalized, poor, discriminated
against and hated about as much as
terrorists. Yet by many economic
measures, the opponents we're taking on
- such as the drug industry - are among
the richest corporations in the history
of the world.

Quite an imbalance.

I'm writing to offer our pretty humble
services in any way, shape, or form. Do
you need leads? Background?
Perspectives? Footage? Books? Experts?
Survivors? Just ask.

You may have already heard from some of
our members and myself who have been
sending information your way for years.

In the big picture, our issue affects
everyone, because it's about democracy
getting "hands on" with the emotional
and mental well being of all people,
not just a percentage of people who
gets labeled. Psychiatric oppression
holds back all movements.

Other progressives have sometimes had a
hard time tackling our issue because
they ended up in two camps:

(A) Against absolutely everything about
the mental health care system.

Or

(B) Lobbying for more money for that
system.

But we have a more complex approach
that has helped. For us, the issue is
all about choice. Empowerment.
Self-determination. Equality. Freedom.
Human rights. Those are our core
values.

So our coalition is able to unite
people taking prescribed psychiatric
drugs, with others who absolutely hate
the stuff. There's enough room in this
movement for everyone.

The documented, proven abuse in this
field is just so overwhelming that it's
hard to explain in a brief letter. For
instance, I've had heartbreaking phone
calls from people about to receive
forced electroshock against their
expressed wishes the very next day.

Some of our members are under court
order to take powerful psychiatric
drugs while living in their own homes,
backed up by daily at home visits from
mental health "teams." Some of these
forced drugs can be so powerful that
brain scan studies prove the drugs can
cause severe brain damage, such as
visible shrinkage of the frontal lobes.

Many of our members and Sponsor Groups
are helping to provide alternatives for
recovery such as peer support, housing,
jobs, advocacy, community centers and
more. We're a coalition that protests
and does hunger strikes and speaks out
and wins. We have an e-mail alert
system that goes out to tens of
thousands of in our movement.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration
has been pretty closed to our
empowerment perspective.

For instance, the Bush administration
appointed a psychiatrist - Sally Satel
- straight from the American Enterprise
Institute to a high level advisory
position. She wrote a book ("PC, MD")
targeting our movement, our group and
me personally - a real honor.

The Bush Administration is now pushing
a plan called TMAP (Texas Medication
Algorithm Project) that is kind of a
cookie cutter approach to pushing
psychiatric drugs. This Bush plan calls
for all - all - Americans, young and
old, to be screened for TMAP.

See our web site www.MindFreedom.org. I
enclosed some back issues of our
journal.

If we can help in any way, shape or
form, please just give me a call.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

David Oaks, Director,
MindFreedom International
http://www.MindFreedom.org

- end alert -

~~~~~~~~~~

Please forward this news alert.

The majority of MindFreedom members have personally experienced
coerced psychiatric procedures, but membership is open to
everyone who supports human rights in mental health and
includes advocates, professionals and family members.

KEEP YOUR MIND FREE!

JOIN & DONATE TO MINDFREEDOM INTERNATIONAL **NOW**! GO HERE:

http://mindfreedom.org/join.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~

Please forward.

~~~~~~~~~~

To be added to this MindFreedom DENDRITE human rights
public announcement list, e-mail: office@mindfreedom.org



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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