David W. Oaks Vlog text:
Mental Health, Disability & Revolution
7 December 2020
Joe Biden’s Federal Mental Health Agencies
I love you. I am David W. Oaks. And I love you if you’re quadriplegic/tetraplegic like me. If you are a psychiatric survivor like me. Or if you’re not any of those.
My friend, the late Justin Dart, Jr. was a leader in disability. He connected mental health and physical disability. He said over and over and over:
“No forced treatment ever!”
And now I think he would say:
“Black Lives Matter!”
I love you whether you’re a relative who’s a Democrat. And I love my relatives who are Republicans. Justin worked with both.
And as Joe Biden becomes President, I encourage his administration to look at federal mental health agencies. Look at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Why don’t they look more at alternatives? Like Peer Support?
And I especially would encourage Joe Biden’s administration, and everyone in the US and the world,to look at the SAMHSA. That stands for the “Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.”
I’ve done this work for 44 years, and for decades SAMHSA was an ally. They supported empowerment, recovery, alternatives.
But under the wonderful Obama, who I support, they began funding cities for involuntary outpatient commitment. This is court-ordered outpatient mental health.
Now this has been going on quietly all over the US, for decades for thousands of Americans. Your home becomes an institution. You’re court-ordered to usually take drugs, powerful drugs.
Sadly, SAMHSA began funding several dozen sites, with millions of dollars. I’ve tried to get information from them.
They refuse.
Please help. Because SAMHSA is refusing to disclose. One year ago, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and they still have not told me anything about these programs, in terms of evaluating. One fact is that black people tend to be in these programs more than white people.
Right now, I chair a subcommittee, for a work group in the Oregon legislature, for the Voice & Inclusion of Oregonians with Lived Experience of the Mental Health System. We are concerned about the way alternatives to police violence, like CAHOOTS here in Eugene, Oregon, need to include the peer perspective, or else they can be a gateway to outpatient commitment.
Last week, we met with a representative of CAHOOTS, and they are interested in the peer perspective. Cities all over the US and Canada are looking at CAHOOTS as a model. Our local Affiliate of MindFreedom, MindFreedom Oregon, is looking at these issues.
Wherever you are in the world, you can create an Affiliate of MindFreedom, like MindFreedom Ghana or MindFreedom Ireland, who are doing great work. Or you can use your group’s name and simply be a Sponsor of MindFreedom by endorsing the principles.
I congratulate the National Council on Independent Living. Their Mental Health Subcommittee has adopted MindFreedom’s Shield campaign. And NCIL plans to reach hundreds of Independent Living Centers about this Shield program.
Today, the climate crisis threatens vulnerable people. COVID is related to climate crisis and the way we treat our environment. For us to live seven generations in the future, we absolutely need a revolution, the sooner the better.
But we will have one.
Please look at SAMHSA.
And Lead On!
Thank you.
I love you all.
David W. Oaks is a Revolutionary Consultant with Aciu! Institute (aciu.info).
Great blog! This was the first time I heard about your FOIA. I presume it was to find out how much money was distributed to cities for AOT and assuming that these block grants to expand AOT required reports from each grantee, it could provide a good source of data as it concerns how many people are being forcibly drugged. David Cohen has compiled some statistics on this as well. As an action, could we draft together a letter and recruit as many co-signers as possible demanding your right to get the DATA you requested from SAMHSA via the FOIA? Since you filed it by your account, over a year ago, surely the government is dragging its feet!