Launch Report/exposure mental health abuse/Proposal

Today inside the new high security Forensic Hospital at Long Bay, mental health patient Saeed Dezfouli will launch the “OUR PICK” Report. A media conference will be held outside at 2.30pm.

“The OUR PICK Report exposes the mental health culture as an abuse of power cloaked as ‘care’, and proposes a solution. This Report contrasts reality with policy statements, where failure is accepted as normal and concealed by threats and lies, but exposed by unreasonable exclusion, enforced medication and recidivism rates.

This Report is the culmination of action research by hundreds of people including patients, prisoners, psychiatrists, peak organisations and a former Health Minister” said Justice Action Coordinator Brett Collins.

“This Report strips back the words “care” and “corrective”, digging through the walls concealing the truth, and exposing the structural corruption of our mental health system. The system costs taxpayers over $200,000 a patient each year, and benefits only those controlling the budget and exploiting the stigma of mental health. Contempt replaces goodwill. Medication replaces social support. Service providers are silenced by threats and money. The Burdekin, Not for Service, and WHO reports support our concerns but haven’t provided a solution” said Mr Collins.

“The OUR PICK Report proposes a way forward and issues a challenge to the mental health industry. That the essence of good health – involvement by the people for whom the care is intended – be acknowledged by a miniscule 0.1% of the budget. That the Health Department continues to use the 99.9% but influenced by an independent consumer expression that currently receives nothing but contempt” said Mr Collins.

“The action research continues in the Supreme Court on July 12, where the Attorney General and Mental Tribunal have been caught concealing a document which makes them accountable to the Court for the treatment of Saeed Dezfouli. An audio record showed that their claims were untrue” said Mr Collins.

The OUR PICK Report will be downloadable from http://tinyurl.com/2g4q6ly
Embargoed copies available on request to ja@justiceaction.org.au

Comments:
Brett Collins, Justice Action