Voices From the Street

From Canada, a collection of articles by and about activism in mental health and consumer-survivors of psychiatric treatment.

Voices From the Street is comprised of individuals who have had direct experience with homelessness, poverty, and/or mental health issues. The organization works to put a human face to homelessness and involves people with direct experience as leaders in a public education process.

Each spring, twelve to fourteen individuals are chosen to take part in a training program—three days a week over a four-month period. The curriculum includes workshops on developing a personal narrative, public speaking skills, conflict resolution, developing key messages, facilitation skills, and diversity training. Pat Capponi, a well-known author and activist on issues of poverty and mental health, is the lead facilitator. Akua Benjamin, a professor and specialist in diversity training from Ryerson University, and John Stapleton, an expert on policy issues, are among the many trainers who work with the participants. In addition to public-speaking skills, graduates of the program have an understanding of policy issues and the need for systemic change.

Link

Senator Grassley Posts Researchers' Drug Company Ties

Senator Grassley writes,

I’m working to shed light on financial relationships between drug companies and doctors. I’ve conducted oversight, and I’m working for passage of legislation that would require public reporting by drug companies of the money they give to doctors for consulting, travel, speeches, meals and other activities. The public interest is clear. We all rely on the advice of doctors, and leading researchers influence the practice of medicine. Taxpayers spend billions of dollars each year on prescription drugs and devices through Medicare and Medicaid. The National Institutes of Health distributes $24 billion annually in federal research grants. So the public has a right to know about financial relationships between doctors and drug companies.

The link offers a collection of names and ties of the famous, powerful - and trusted. Go see for yourself.
PDF
Our previous coverage of Senator Grassley is Pharmaceuticals Anonymous: Bloomberg: NAMI to be probed re Pharma ties> here.

Osler on Medicine

The first duty of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
- Sir William Osler
You may also like the interesting Osler quotes
here.

Disease Mongering

"Driving the annual double-digit growth in the legal drug supply are a band of specialist "healthcare" PR companies working for behemoths such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Astra Zeneca. Heading the healthcare PR league table are Edelman, Ruder Finn and Chandler Chicco Agency in the US and Medical Action Communications, Shire Health Group and Meditech Media in the UK.

"Medical education" includes cultivating and deploying sponsored "key opinion leaders" such as doctors. Patient groups too can be created or wooed to assist with "disease awareness campaigns" or provide emotionally charged testimony in favor of speedy regulatory approval of new drugs.

Other lucrative revenue streams for healthcare PR companies can include organizing events such as medical conferences that provide a platform for well-trained "product champions" to announce promising results of drug research. Such results can be reported by medical journalists--who can be hired by PR firms--in medical journals that they can create for their clients."

Link

Video: Alison Bass, Journalist and Paxil Whistleblower, Gives a Talk

Visit Alison Bass at her site here.
Now comes news that Paxil is being touted to help cancer sufferers think more clearly. But chemo cancer therapy itself can cause brain fog, as we have seen, and if cancer is a fungus, this therapy is wrong.
What do YOU think?

SSRI Discontinution at Wikipedia

Synaptic/SSRI cartoon above is a spoof.
We'll place this information on "Discontinution syndrome" in our Friends column as well.

Dr. Abram Hoffer Dies, Age 91

All those who have benefited from Dr. Hoffer's knowledge will be sad to learn that the great man has died, age 91....

The International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine gives tribute here.

Canada's GLOBE AND MAIL has an obituary here.

Here Hoffer writes of his own youth and early experiences as a physician. Link



Thank you, Dr. Hoffer.