Use of Touch & Integrative Methods 5 comments

14 Oct 2007 @ 14:27, by Gerald Vest Social capital refers to that willingness to step in. Communities, paralyzed by fear, are themselves a victim of violence. Do nothing and your worst fears will be realized. Residents have to become co-producers of safety. (No More Throw-Away People, Edgar S. Cahn - Creator of Time Dollars and Time Banking.) Integrative Health Methods can provide a viable option for most persons currently referred to mental health centers and hospitals -, See our Mission Statement for the 15-Minute StressOut Program. [link] For example our StressOut Program and Forum, reaches out to our colleagues as we make friends around the world. During this past month 39 different countries connected with our StressOut & Home Page and we average over 5,000 clicks a month by all populations around the world. We have many creative social workers engaged in advancing the use of technology through our forums, logs or blogs. I would especially recommend the New Civilization Network as another option for advancing our work. The 13,000 members share their common interests, goals and experiences with us as a network of Global Citizens who recognize that "Improvement for One is Improvement for All!" (Oscar Ichazo-Teamwork, Cooperation and Interaction Training)[link] Case in Point-- I am interacting about the Cautions and Questions related to labeling and the DSM. Comments by participants usually include other resources to help us meet our goals. For now, I am throwing up a Red Flag!!! Let's join together to move our profession in a healthy direction with and for those we serve as partners. This is not new, there are volumns written about the value of becoming one with your partner rather than treating them as a patient-- promoting helplessness, hopelessness and dependency. There are many alternatives to labeling and giving humans a psychiatric (#)number and a phony identity based on voting by committee without scientific evidence--reliability and validity tests. Also, it is a human violation for mental health systems and workers to give the patient records--personal and confidential material and code numbers to others without security and protection measures. These records go beyond anyone's control and labels are rarely if ever changed, should the patient recover from their 'disorder.' When people are in pain or in need of our services, they should not have to accept our program's or system's disregard for their privacy. As one health practitioner stated: "To objectify people and treat them with such a lack of feeling is, in my opinion, a serious disorder of its own." About Our Forums - Helps us become informed, develops our writing and reporting skills and advances our knowledge- I have been interacting on the Newstudent forum and recently responded to a question that BT (anonymous) had about labeling his clients as required by his mental health program: BT, I suspect that I am in the minority and have taken some abuse for stating my opinion in this forum; however, I feel that it is important for us as social workers to speak out and abandon the use of the DSM and let the Psychiatrists and Psychologists live with their unethical and harmful effects of labeling mental health clients/patients. There are numerous articles and reports related to this subject and I have included many of them as links in my logs on the New Civilization Org. Perhaps this brief excerpt from an article will clarify some of the dangers, but it is well worth your time to visit this program: **************** All doctors, including psychiatrists, take the Hippocratic Oath, which states "Do no harm." I believe that the DSM-IV diagnosis protocol, itself, violates that oath. When people are labeled in this way, it does them harm. It is a judgment on their person, their character, and their value. It is a subjective opinion that places them under the control of so-called experts and will haunt their personal record for life. In the wake of such a judgment, clients often conclude that there is something fundamentally wrong with them. Such a message can injure self-esteem, increase a sense of despair, depress the immune system, and endanger physical health. We are not numbers. We are not labels. Our problems cannot be reduced to lists and multiple choice. To objectify people and treat them with such a lack of feeling is, in my opinion, a serious disorder of its own. People already know they have problems - that's why they come for help. They don't need labels, they need understanding. Since emotional issues are a whole-person phenomenon, their causes and healing cannot be reduced to single categories. In fact, labels, by falsely simplifying, obstruct the healing process. Professionals argue that they need the criteria and a common diagnostic language in order to discuss and act on the many "cases" they have to process. This is itself an indictment of the assembly line mentality of modern health care. If specialists took the time, and treated those in their care as people - not just cases and numbers - greater healing would take place at a lesser cost, without the need for numbers and labels. [link] ******************** Summary How can we trust the DSM when it is controlled by the drug corporations? It is clear that the DSM Board and the classification system is a hoax and our profession continues to support this lack of integrity. Do read this article from the "Chicago Tribune." [link] BT, you are right to question this sick care labeling system that endangers your/our clients and places them at great risk for life. Your question shows that you hold respect for others and do not wish to harm them. We need more social, health and medical organizations with allied health professionals to come forward and prevent further abuse, neglect and disrespect maintained by these corporations and psychiatry. And, I hope students, teachers and others who blindly follow and teach these labeling practices will put themselves in the 'shoes' of their clients and experience some empathy, respect and compassion. Do No Harm!!! Finally, this latest investigation by Congress will hopefully improve the reporting, oversight and ownership of the research that is published by scientists. And, with this report I will go on to other important health opportunities, especially those related to children and their families. Dear gerald, Congress has given final approval to a bill that will significantly improve the drug review process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and hold the FDA more accountable, protecting us from unsafe drugs. Thanks in part to your calls and letters, the law includes transparency language that will shine a light on the FDA drug approval process. By opening up the drug review process and documents to public scrutiny, the manipulation of research results becomes much more apparent and thus easier to counteract. This legislative victory is crucial to public health and safety. Last year, when UCS surveyed nearly 1,000 FDA scientists, one in five reported that they had been asked by their supervisors to provide the public, the news media, and government officials "incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information." When the unbiased research of qualified scientists was suppressed and distorted, flawed data led the FDA to approve drugs such as Vioxx, Avandia, and Ketek, which later proved to be harmful. This bill requires that the views of drug reviewers are heard and not suppressed or ignored. In addition, the bill also protects scientists' right to publish their research, another way to safeguard the scientific integrity of FDA scientists and their work. Unfortunately the bill doesn't go far enough to restrict conflicts of interest on FDA advisory panels. Nonetheless, the new law will improve the FDA's drug review process and set the stage for similar reforms at other federal agencies. Transparency is the cornerstone of scientific integrity—it's vital to the work of the FDA and all federal agencies to ensure that the work of scientists is not manipulated. We will closely monitor the FDA’s performance, tracking whether the public gets full access to the information they need. And we will again rely on your support as we continue to push for similar reforms at other federal agencies where science has been politicized and scientists have been intimidated. UCS surveys have revealed similar problems at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But as long as scientists and citizens continue to play an active role in the fight to ensure scientific integrity and transparency, I am confident we will prevail. Thank you for your continued dedication to scientific integrity and all you do to help UCS work for a healthy environment and a safer world. Sincerely, Michael Halpern National Field Organizer Scientific Integrity Program

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