Gun Ownership Prohibition Bill Introduced In Florida

Tallahassee, we’ve got a problem, and it’s called HB 1355. According to a Herald-Tribune blog post, Florida rep files bill to bar mentally ill from buying guns, State Representative Barbara Watson D-Tallahasse has just introduced a bill to deprive a segment of the citizenry of their constitutionally guaranteed right to own a firearm. There is now this piece of, legislation is not the word I had in mind, to be debated.

Under HB 1355, a person could be prohibited from purchasing a firearm if the examining physician finds the person imminently dangerous to himself or others and files a special certificate that if the person doesn’t agree to voluntary commitment for treatment, an involuntary commitment petition will be filed.

Alright. If that sounds like gun prohibition for a person who has been involuntarily committed. Think again.

At the time the person is diagnosed as dangerous, the person would receive written notice of the certification and agrees to accept voluntary commitment with a full understanding that he or she will be prohibited from purchasing a firearm or applying for a concealed weapons or firearms license or retaining one.

We’re talking about a plea bargain deal of the sort they offer in Virginia, the state with more National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) entrees than any other state in the union. You don’t get a reward for signing into the hospital voluntarily, instead you lose your gun ownership rights.

Were this bill law then, anybody who went into the  hospital after being Baker Acted, that is, hospitalized after a 3 day hold for evaluation purposes, would then be listed in the NICS database.

If the person refused to sign, he or she would be involuntarily hospitalized, in which case he or she can kiss his or her 2nd amendment rights goodbye anyway.

Not a good bill. This bill would prejudice law enforcement against people on the basis of psychiatric history. It would also send their names to the top of the list of suspects anytime a violent crime occurred in their locality.

Repercussions from the Sandy Hook tragedy slight in Florida

It looks like Florida may not suffer as extensively from the fallout over the Newtown Connecticut massacre as some other states. The Palm Beach Post headline,  State May Shrink Mental Health Spending, doesn’t tell the whole story.

Despite a growth in the state’s anticipated revenue for the first time in six years, Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed 2013-2014 budget does not include any increase for mental health services. Neither Scott nor GOP legislative leaders mentioned the issue as a priority on the opening day of the legislative session Tuesday. And lawmakers appear split on the only two proposals in play — mandatory mental health screening of elementary school students and extending the observation period for patients who are involuntarily committed by law enforcement or health officials.

The problem concerns these two pieces of legislation that I hope our legislators will have the common sense and decency to table or vote down. Busting school children for “mental illness” is what mandatory mental health screening is all about and, frankly, if there’s one thing we don’t need, that is it. Labeling children “mentally ill”, and putting them on powerful pharmaceuticals, is not good for their educations, nor is it good for their futures. Extending the Baker Act would be a completely absurd, unnecessary, and as far as humanity goes, a wasteful thing to do.

Thankfully, given our republican controlled legislature, as bad as things are, these representatives are not in hurry to make them worse. Praised be the tightwad when the spending he isn’t spending on is repressive and draconian legislation.

The issue with spending is that it could, if it were used for something else besides busting people for “mental illness”, reduce mental health spending in the state anyway.

More than half of Florida’s mental health spending goes to hospitalization. Other states, on average, spend less than 30 percent on hospitalization, said Florida Council for Community Mental Health President Bob Sharpe.

Hospitalization is very costly. Keeping people out of the state hospital system through building a statewide community mental health care system is one way to potentially save a lot of money.

As for the Baker Act…

DCF estimates that 35,000 out of 110,770 people held under the Baker Act last year had been Baker Acted before. Sharpe points to at least one man who was Baker Acted 100 times in a single year, meaning he was hospitalized nearly the entire year.

It would seem that one person would have a pretty good case for suing the state, if he had any legal rights to stand on at all, which apparently, as a mental patient, he doesn’t.  On the other hand, when the state can Baker Act one person 100 times in the course of a single year, there is certainly no reason to extend the Baker Act. It seems institutions here have that power already.

Mental Health Policing On Miami Teacher Curricula

Did I say teacher curricula? Actually school workers across the board are being trained to walk the mental health cop beat. As the Miami Herald reports, in a story bearing the heading, Miami teachers get mental illness training…(Really? They train people in that, do they?)

Teachers, cafeteria workers and janitors in Miami-Dade County middle schools and high schools will receive training on how to identify early-warning signs of mental illness.

All you Miami area students out there remember ‘the straight and narrow’ because if you ever forget you’re likely to wind up somewhere near a mental health counseling center, if not in Dante’s Inferno.

The Herald reports the training will be administered by mental health professionals to about 100 school district psychologists and counselors. They, in turn, will train other employees. Possible signs of mental illness can include sleeping through class, bizarre writings and extreme risk-taking.

Students are advised to be wary and take necessary precautions. Take uppers (so called performance enhancing drugs) if you have to do so to get through boring classes. Hire a non-creative writing tutor if you think it will help you get to graduation. Scratch the idea of launching your own Jackass type film production as a video class project.

Beyond this you need to do a little research, and it wouldn’t hurt to get an outline of the teacher police work curricula to better escape detection and diagnosis. A little knowledge would allow you to move more easily under the radar so to speak. Students, that is to say, given teachers with “mental illness” training, need to hone their own mental health skills. If you’ve any question about what mental health skills entail, read a book on any “mental illness” label there is, and exclude from your daily behavioral repertoire those behaviors listed as “symptoms”.

Flamboyance, eccentricity, and non-conformity are to be suppressed until after graduation if possible. Free and critical thinking as well. The idea is to study the idea of dull until you have it down by heart. Breathe dull, think dull, act dull. Got it! Study dull. Dull will win you awards. Dull is the way to go. Dull is blood brother to “normal”. Dull will get you a job with a multinational corporation. Successful people work for high paying multinational corporations.

Florida Agency Reviews Deaths At Private Run State Facility

I found the story in the San Francisco Chronicle, (Department of Children and Families) DCF reviews deaths at GEO-run state hospital.

Three gruesome deaths at the privately run South Florida State Hospital triggered an investigation that revealed concerns that employees were overmedicating patients and failed to call the state abuse hotline after a patient died in a scalding bathtub, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

GEO pulls the strings of Rick Scott, our present governor, being a big time contributor to his election campaigns. If Governor Scott is good to his friends, well, GEO must be considered one of those friends.

GEO runs three other facilities in Florida: the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, which treats sex offenders; and mental health facilities in Indiantown and Florida City for patients who aren’t competent to stand trial or have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

What is this about? 3 deaths within the scope of 2 months, unreported, and in one instance, with accusations of a cover up.

1. Aug. 2011, Lois Espina, head slammed through a wall, or so it is thought.
2. Jun. 2011, Luis Santana, found dead in scalding bath skin sloughing from his body.
3. Jun. 2011, James Bragman, known to be suicidal, breaks from his attendant, and leaps off a roof.

None of the three deaths were reported to the state abuse hotline, which triggers a formal investigation. The new contract will include a fine if the facility doesn’t report all deaths to the hotline, [DCF Secretary David] Wilkins said.

These deaths hardly break the surface when it comes to what’s wrong with Florida’s mental health facilities. Let’s hope these incidents send a strong message to people enduring that mental health system, the mental health system here is oppressive, hierarchical and ultimately harmful. People trapped within that system need empowerment and choice. It’s time to pressure the state government to change it’s policies and practices with regard to people in distress.

Pregnant Woman Neglected At Florida State Hospital

In December, a week or so before Christmas, staff at Florida State Hospital refused to believe a woman when she told them she was going into labor. The headline in The Miami Herald runs, Florida hospital ignores pregnant mental patient’s pleas, and tragedy ensues.

Held against her will at Florida’s largest state mental hospital, and fearing that she was about to give birth, a 34-year-old woman became so frantic in her efforts to get medical care that she called 911, twice. “There’s nobody here that can help me right now, and I’m pregnant,” she said.

She was reported to have pregnancy induced hypertension making any delivery risky in the first place. Her baby was born with brain damage, and he is on life support.

But she was, indeed, in labor. And her son was born hours later with profound brain damage. He remains on a ventilator, perhaps permanently.

A number of hospital employees have been discharged over this incident.

After the baby’s birth, DCF either launched or cooperated with several investigations of the incident, Follick said. DCF’s internal investigation resulted in the discipline of four department employees: Licensed Practical Nurse Kathryn Cottle was placed on administrative leave on May 24 and given notice of intent to dismiss her; caregiver Eddie McMillian was fired on March 13; Rosalee Peckoo, a doctor, was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 16 and returned to her position May 24; caregiver Maryland Clopton resigned on Feb. 1.

The hospital administrator, Diane James, before the incident occurred had announced her intention to resign, and she has done so.

The woman name was not released to the press due to her civil commitment.

Hospital nursing staff thought this woman was not so far along in her pregnancy as she apparently was, and they dismissed her pleas for help as premature and delusive.

Florida’s worst psychiatrists lose Medicaid patients

Florida has done a little to stem the tide of over diagnosing and over drugging that is plaguing that state. I imagine that it goes without saying that the state wouldn’t have done so without pressure from its concerned citizens. ProPublica, the psychiatric malpractice watchdog publication, has a story on this development, Florida Sanctions Top Medicaid Prescribers — But Only After A Shove.

3 Florida psychiatrists are so far known to have been chastised by having their Medicaid contracts suspended for their over prescription habits.

Number 3.

In 2009 alone Dr. Huberto Merayo is credited with prescribing drugs to the tune of $2,000,000. Since 2009 the doctor has earned more than $111,000 giving promotional talks for AstraZenica, Eli Lily, and Pfizer.

In May, Florida summarily ended his contract with Medicaid. But the action, though decisive, followed years of high prescribing by Merayo, according Florida’s own statistics. And he was booted only after public questioning by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who had asked states to investigate such cases.

Number 2.

In the Questionable Legality Department, Dr. Joseph N. Hernandez deserves and earns more than a mere dishonorable mention.

In another example, Florida allowed Dr. Joseph M. Hernandez of Lake City to continue prescribing narcotic pain pills to Medicaid patients for more than a year after he was arrested and charged in 2010 for trafficking in them.

Number 1.

The winner of our bad psychiatrist of the decade award goes out to Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, Florida’s top pusher of neuroleptic drugs. Dr. Mendez-Villamil prescribed $4,700,000 worth of drugs in 2009.

Mendez-Villamil, who was officially terminated “without cause,” sued the state last year to have his Medicaid contract reinstated; the case is pending. His lawyer, Robert Pelier, said Mendez-Villamil was “collateral damage” in Grassley’s campaign.

Dr. Joseph Hermanez’s license to practice medicine was eventually taken away, but as we learn above not until a year after he was busted for drug trafficking, and in the Not Only Department, this suspension didn’t occur until 34 of his Medicaid patients had fatally over dosed. Hermanez was the states top prescriber of the pain killer oxycodone in 2009.

The tally thus far is 3 down, and many more to go, in Florida’s ongoing battle with psychiatric corruption and excess.

Florida Politicians Failing To Protect Children In Foster Care

The story is found in Post On Politics, the heading reads, House won’t make it harder for state to put foster kids on psych drugs. Although Florida Senator Ronda Storms has a bill before the Florida Senate that would make it harder to drug children in Florida’s foster care system, the bill is given little chance of passing.

The Senate Health Regulation Committee unanimously approved Storms’ measure (SB 1808) and sent it on its way to its final committee this afternoon. But the House has yet to hear a similar proposal and, with the 2012 session midpoint approaching, appears unlikely to budge.

As should be apparent, Senator Storm has very good reason to sponsor a bill to protect children in foster care in her state.

Storms’ launched her psychotropic drug crusade after the 2009 death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, a Broward County foster child who hanged himself while under the influence of several psychiatric drugs. Storms’ bill includes many of the recommendations given by a Department of Children and Families workgroup in the aftermath of Myers’ death.

When the DCF, the state’s mental health agency, is also behind this bill, the culprit in this aiding and abetting of murder must be politicians and the drug companies that are pulling their strings.

Improved protocol monitoring by the DCF has managed to bring down the amount of psychiatric drug use among foster children by 10 %. The question is how long will this improvement last. Without a legal mandate to insure the protection of children, this kind of monitoring could be suspended at any time.

One of the commenters, Sheila Hollowell, left a comment under this report that speaks directly to the problem of the over drugging of children in foster care.

I am the grandparent given custody of a biological grandchild lost to our family after being kidnapped by her biological father years ago. This foster child had 23 various diagnoses and was on 17 psychotropic drugs. She was also locked away in a psychiatric/therapeutic facility. We fought endlessly with a plethora of workers and finally refused all drugs even though they demanded we do so. Today she is in junior college with no diagnosis of anything wrong with her. Her reading level went from 1st grade to 6 grade within 6 months after quitting the mind stewing drugs. The biggest problems in this kid’s life is what the ridiculous foster system continues to do to her.

Gabriel Myers’ death was not the first death that brought the situation of children in foster care to the attention of Florida’s law makers. Now it looks like we will have to wait for another child to die before they act. This kind of negligence on the part of our law makers is absolutely outrageous. Florida residents are encouraged to call their area representatives today, and to ask them to vote in favor of making it harder to drug children in foster care.

A Florida Senator Challenges The Drugging Of Juvenile Offenders

A Florida Senator is taking on the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice over its practice of prescribing, or rather over-prescribing, powerful psychiatric drugs to kids.

The news report, as found in TheLedger.com, bears the heading, Senator Wants Answers From Department of Juvenile Justice’s Use of Drugs.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, scolded agency officials earlier this week after they responded to questions about DJJ’s policies on medicating children without mentioning the agency’s internal investigation into the practice.

What is the problem here? Maybe those juveniles are disturbed?

But Storms said the drugs have lasting consequences. “Aside from the effects on the human body, any child who’s ever been on any psychotropic drug is not eligible for the military,” Storms said.

Yikes, huh? This is worse than the government’s former “don’t ask don’t tell” policy towards gays in the military, and some people would say it has something to do with “stigma”. Not being inclined to give much credence to invisible marks of disgrace, I’m more inclined to think it has something to do with prejudice and oppression..

She also noted that DJJ’s 34 percent medication rate was much higher than the 14.8 percent rate of use of medication reported by another agency, the Department of Children and Families.

If it sounds like the DJJ is using psychiatric drugs to punish minors, such is probably the case. One thing that is for certain is that the number of kids prescribed psychiatric drugs in the DJJ should not be more than double the number of kids prescribed drugs under the DCF. This statistic looks, smells, and tastes like foul play. It’s a figure that shouts over-diagnosis and over-drugging.

I’d say Florida is fortunate to have a senator like Senator Storms. You don’t know how many other senators in other states would just sweep a matter like this under the rug.

Minding Freedom Of Expression On Campus In Gainesville Florida

I had been absent from my blog for a few days, all of last week in fact. There was a good reason for this absence. I was engaged in the Civic Media Center (a local radical library) sponsored Radical Rush at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida. My group, MindFreedom Florida, was tabling with other socially progressive groups handing out literature and information at these schools. This is my 3rd year tabling at the Radical Rush on campus.

What continues to amaze me is the difficulty students and professors have in connecting with our movement. Women studies and African American affairs have been around in education departments for years, and I would like to believe the disabilities movement is making a little progress on campus as well. Gay bisexual transsexual queer issues are even beginning to make great strides forward. The psychiatric survivor movement itself, and the mad movement, locally, are still pretty much a dark space untouched by the light of academic endeavor.

Considering the depths of prejudice we face, and how discrimination is applied in other fields of endeavor, I think there is no question as to why this is so. We’re talking about a group of people that people are so prejudiced against that the first words that pop to mind are ‘lack of charisma’. Rather than seeing ‘gators’, panthers and tigers, people think labeled ‘mentally ill’, and they envision worms, rotted fruit and bats. I think that it would help if they envisioned human beings instead. Actually, that’s what our movement is all about, reminding people that they are dealing with human beings, in these instances, and not with less evolved creatures. It’s just too easy for them to forget sometimes it would seem.

I’m hoping this deficit can be corrected over time. I’d like to see people labeled by the mental health system make progress in the real world of everyday affairs. MindFreedom International has a number of academics associated with it. MindFreedom has both a Scientific Advisory Board and an Academic Alliance. Unfortunately, none of these professionals are at Santa Fe College or the University of Florida. I want to change this situation. I guess that means tabling on these campuses in coming years. Sooner or later, maybe they will begin to get it. The “it” I’m talking about is embodied in the slogan, familiar to people in the disabilities rights movement, “Nothing about us, without us!”

The University of Florida and Santa Fe College teach psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and pharmacologists. These schools know how to oppress people, but do they know how to liberate them? I’m all for liberation myself, and I’m against oppression. I’d like to see some forces on campus join me in calling for liberation and in opposing oppression. We are out to educate the educators because apparently there is much that has still escaped their schooling. Eventually, I have no doubt, if we keep at it, we will find a place for ourselves here in Gainesville, too.

Dumb Teens Make Stupid DVD

You gotta wonder what they’re teaching kids these days. Here, for example, is an article with the heading, Teens make DVD about mental illness [http://www.courant.com/health/fl-hk-teen-mental-illness-20110823,0,6169683.story]. I don’t intend to view it, but given a little bit of imagination you can come up with your own distressing scenarios. Guess what we learned in school today, Mom? We learned I have a serious mental illness.

“My hope is that one day we talk about mental illness as much as we talk about cancer, as a disease,” said Haylee Becker, 17, a 2011 graduate of Atlantic High School in Delray Beach who has been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. “It’s too late for the school system to do things for me that would have made me healthier, but I hope they can start intercepting other kids at a younger age.”

I’ve got news for you, Haylee. Cancer is an illness; mental illness is a semantically incorrect mishmash. Talking about cancer may not make the cancer go away, but talking about mental illness is definitely not going to make the delusions go away. Maybe the schools ought to start “intercepting” a few fewer kids at younger and younger ages than they do now.

Puberty and adolescent rebellion hit almost simultaneously, and the next thing you know, this girl is ‘off her meds’. At 15, not only does she have fewer rights as a child, but she has even fewer rights as a result of psychiatric labeling and oppression.

When she turned 13, Becker said, she started hating school and began skipping it. At 15 and 16, therapists ordered her into institutions because she was not taking her medications and had lengthy episodes of crying and refusing to get out of bed.

Where mom and dad were at this time, who knows? As the medical model propaganda tells us, they couldn’t have been at all responsible.

Given counseling and psychiatric drugs, Haylee Becker, reports that she has learned to accept her disability. Great lesson, kid! This business of accepting the suggestion made that you have a disability. Uh, or do I mean excepting? Now, do you have any abilities to report as well?

The real clincher is right here…

Mental illness among teens is more common than many people realize. One in 10 children and teens is depressed at any moment, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Almost 5 percent have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and another 5 percent Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or hostility to authority figures. Eating disorders affect about 2 percent of teens, while conduct disorders touch up to 4 percent.

They’re selling psychiatric drugs, and they can’t sell psychiatric drugs without selling mental illness. One of the fastest growing markets for psychiatric drugs today is among children and adolescents. These teens have, unwittingly perhaps, jumped onto the drug manufacturer’s band wagon.

If it weren’t for multiple labels, so called co-occurring disorders, these percentages would add up to an incredible 26 %. Some psychiatrists like to make people look really messed up by claiming they have more than one disorder. This also gives them the opportunity to resort to the very ineffective, but potentially very damaging, practice of polypharmacy, or putting people on mixed psychiatric drug cocktails.

The problem, as it stands, is that Miss Becker and the other teens involved in this project will probably be continuing to receive “help”. For many teenagers with “mental illness” labels, in fact, there is a possibility that this “help” will extend to the end of their days. Given this reality, I feel like I must give my thumbs up to teens that have a completely different message to convey.