For ten years, after my accident made me a quad, my team of care workers & amazing wife Debra have kept me independent here in Eugene, Oregon. A year and a half ago, a superb caregiver joined our team, Elijah Gittens, and his caring, good-humored, professional and friendly approach have been crucial to my quality of life.Here is Elijah with his family:
Elijah and his family have started a Go Fund Me campaign. They are not in immediate crisis, but they need to build up a savings account to prevent future housing emergencies. It is great that this blog goes out at the beginning of Black History Month. Elijah is African-American and the wealth disparity among marginalized groups need to be addressed.
As a consumer/employer, I cannot give directly to Elijah’s crowdsourcing campaign. But I hope you can. You may read his brief Go Fund Me appeal here:
Let me explain: Last year, our family suddenly had a medical issue and we had trouble making rent. My wife, our 11-year-old daughter, and I came within hours of being evicted. It was too late to do crowdsourcing.
We can make rent for now. Our health is okay, both my wife and I are working. But we do not want to face such a rent crisis again.
Between getting our child to school, and other after-school activities, on top of both of us going to and from work, we are at risk of someday again being in a financial hole.
Our monthly rent has increased and we only have one fully working vehicle at this current moment in time.
I don’t like doing this. But, here I am, asking for help. Any gifts received will go into our bank account and only be used for an urgent crisis, such as the threat of eviction.
If we never face an emergency like this, the funds will go to our daughter’s college tuition in the future. We want to prevent any housing crisis.
Mail or drop off your check made out to “Elijah Gittens” and in the memo area put account number: 153696635090. US Bank; 55 W. 29th Ave.; Eugene, OR 97405.
Friends of David Oaks (FODO) have made a matching challenge of $4,000 to support my independent living as a long-time activist quadriplegic. Below is a one-minute video about this $4,000 challenge.
After my disastrous fall 10 years ago, one of my main difficulties has been extending all the Thanks to all the folks who have assisted me. This new challenge of $4,000 is one more example of this community uplift.
A network of my friends & relatives will match 50¢for every dollar you give to replenish the David Oaks Irrevocable Trust (not tax-deductible) for 2022.
Update 6/29/2022: So far, since the matching challenge, $2,588.21 has been raised. That means the Challenge will match this with $1,294.11. So the total so far is $3,882.32. When the campaign raises $8,000, it actually has $12,000.
More info about the Unleash The Oaks campaign to support my trust, why & how:
Tomorrow, 17 February 2021, is a special day for me. Along with many people all over the world, I remember the life and times of Giordano Bruno. He was the last individual burnt at the stake by the Inquisition on 17 February 1600.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of hosting my Mom from Chicago here in Eugene, Oregon for a decade. She shared many stories. One of the most startling was the revelation that my grandfather, an immigrant from Lithuania who spent many years digging coal, admired the author and philosopher, Giordano Bruno, whose statue is in Rome, turned to face the Vatican.
This year, I have asked a wonderful friend who was raised in Italy, psychiatrist Benedetto Saraceno, MD, to translate a short remembrance of Bruno. May we all be freethinkers during these challenging times when we need to change almost everything to address the climate crisis and the way our humanity responds.
You may find both the Italian and English translations here, please forward especially to folks who speak Italian:
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).
May 15, 2017: I am OK, back at Mad Swan, what we call our home. Thanks all!
In Lithuanian, the word for “thanks” is aciu! So:
Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-chooooooooooooooooo!
Two folks to single out for appreciation:
Thanks of course to Debra, my amazing wife. Near the bottom of my blog entry are two very brief videos by her, just after the operation. In both videos I am mute. My being silent for a while may bring great pleasure to some beloved viewers.
Also, thanks to one of my very helpful respiratory therapists (RT) Aaron Maddron, see his photo here by Eric Jacobson, published in East Coast Muscle Magazine. I appreciate your positive support and advice, Aaron, my friend, I hope it is OK to post this public info. Some fans are wondering what happened to you after winning body building championships.
I can assure folks that Mr. Maddron is now an effective healer.
Thanks, respect and dignity for all.
Briefly, Let Us Start At the Beginning of This Past Week:
Exactly one week ago, on Monday morning, 8 May 2017, I experienced some significant health difficulties including nausea & radiating pain in my back. My brilliant loving and amazing wife, Debra, encouraged me to consult with Dr. Hurtado, my primary care physician. Based on my health experiences this past year and a recent visit with him, he encouraged me to go to an emergency room.
I have taken ambulances to various ER’s several times and knew the drill: This meant that we phoned 911 and took an ambulance to an ER room. I did not have time to inform a lot of folks, please forgive me if you did not know. Also, because of confidentiality laws, my wonderful team of employees could not transmit info about me. Everyone has permission to share this message, and I asked the wonderful webmaster, Jeffrey Bousquet, with Aciu Instititute to add this to my personal blog. (Thanks, Jeff!)
After three days, I felt so much better, I sent out a message that this blog is based on. And today I am at home. Over this past week I experienced the following:
My sixth ambulance trip, I think, in about a year.
I chose this time to go back to Riverbend PeaceHealth, the site of my original ER arrival four years and five months ago when I fell in December 2012, and broke my spine.
My diagnosis this time: Emergency pancreatitis.
My fifth operation in five years.
A glimpse at some past trauma while chatting with great caretakers.
I got to play with many caretakers and friends our newest games, Wacco, free, face-to-face, question-oriented. I was able to listen and find out a bunch about what they were Nuts4, or nuts for.
Not eating for three days.
(Oops did I say briefly?)
Here are some videos from just after the operation:
By my beloved Debra, only 17 seconds, I am still unconscious:
A 25 second video by Debra after I wake up post-op, only 25 seconds, I am still mute, but my eyes are open. Note the devices that I am wearing that would normally be called restraints. Normal? Hoooowwwwl!:
Because a bunch of tubes were still in my nose and throat and gut, I did not stop the use of “restraints.” My restraints involved post-op, not mental health. The topic in general can be very complex. I admire Martin Luther King warning us about the paralysis of analysis. As a trauma survivor, I can advise River Bend on some possible improvements on this process.
After about 40 years working for human rights in mental health, there is a very simple way for you to address the issue of “restraints.” I talk with my hands & arms so there was a risk of pulling the tubes out. But do not worry, in a way they are not real restraints if I can have them removed. Complex? Or is it.
What? Oaks in Restraints?
My main purpose here is to thank people for this past week. However, I do need to address more the topic of involuntary mental health restraints including chemical restraints.
You see, President Trump nominated an individual to a key new “mental health czar” position who very much supports involuntary outpatient psychiatric treatment. The US Senate will ask her questions during the approval process, and so now is the time to reach all US Senators about this topic, because their approval of her nomination is required. Mad In America re-published my blog about this topic, and quite a lot of readers have been interested, https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/04/trump-appoints-leader-campaigned-involuntary-outpatient-drugging/
I hope everyone who reads this provides feedback via my blog or Mad In America. While I have difficulty getting all messages, I also try to keep up with feedback via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I am an First Amendment fanatic! What are your views and questions? Hey, what is this, Russia?
Russia, by the way, is famous for doing a lot of involuntary psychiatric drugging. It is easier somehow for us Americans to see such human rights violations in another country. Same drug, needle just as sharp, different perspective. Gee, our President Trump seems to ignore some negativity over in Russia. Same President who has recently nominated Elinore F. McCance-Katz of Rhode Island for our new “mental health czar.”
The topic of restraints, physical tie-downs after surgery versus mental health restraints including psychiatric drug injections, appears to be very complex.
Let Us Get Real Simple Here:
I agree with Michelle Funk who speaks for the World Health Organization (WHO), based in Geneva, Switzerland, connected to the United Nations. Thanks WHO!
May is Mental Health Month here in the USA. Here is Michelle’s May 4, 2017 tweet:
If you view my retweet comment about this the same day, just a few weeks ago, to help get out this extremely important news, WHO calls for end to use of solitary confinement and restraints in mental health, you see I agree with her and the WHO.
“I really enjoyed being an ‘expert consultant’ for this set of pilot modules from the World Health Organization with the UN.”
As a consultant expert during 2016 for the World Health Organization on human rights in mental health, I was one of those with personal lived experience of real restraints. Not the tie-down types. The sharp end of the needle kind. I am a survivor of involuntary psychiatric drug injections as a college student back in the 1970’s. I graduated Harvard despite these experiences 40 years ago this year.
The topics of my psychiatric survivor story, restraints, and a lot more may seem very complex but I am trying to be brief here. Ha-ha!
Simply put, WHO calls for ending involuntary restraints in mental health now. I agree. Note that these restraints include chemical ones.
More to come, but to learn about ending restraints in mental health, here is a free PDF link to one of the new 15 WHO documents that I advised on, Strategies to end the use of seclusion, restraint and other coercive practices: Training to act, unite and empower for mental health (Pilot Version):
I was mute for a few hours, I realized that my brother’s invention of a letter board that I used on the same ICU four years ago would have really, really come in handy. Laminate and sell that puppy, Tony!
During my recovery after my surgery, I asked Debra’s help in getting a chaplain and we met a couple including one from my Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, Kimberly. Thanks Kim! Visit our Facebook group that brings together more than one hundred of us: UU Mental Health Justice.
I had time to reflect there inside Riverbend PeaceHealth Hospital in Springfield, Oregon, city of the Simpsons this past week. Time to rest with more simplicity. Thanks for helping everyone who produced this blog entry, much of it written a few days ago including this line: “Debra has provided so much support and love–she blows a kiss. Ian is typing this.”
Debra thanks for being my amazing wife and true love all these decades, once more you are saving me!
Everybody who sent well wishes
All messages including phone calls were very much appreciated, thanks
Those of you who were supportive even though we were unable to inform all who would like to know such things. (May I suggest getting to my Twitter account and adding yourself as what is called “follower.” In the future I will try to tweet very significant news.)
Thanks again to Aaron!
And thanks to Patch Adams, MD, even though you were not in the room, and even though you do not go on the Internet, and even though this time I did not phone you up my dear friend, AAAAAAAHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can download a PDF of the below news release here: ninkasi
When: Friday, 20 Nov. 2015 — 5:00 PM
Where: Ninkasi Tasting Room, 272 Van Buren St, Eugene, Ore.
Join us for an evening of beer tasting at one of the few local businesses in Eugene to respond to our raising concerns about the US Chamber of Commerce’s role in climate crisis. We recognize that Ninkasi is a staple in this community with the leverage to make change at a large scale. We hope that our presence will inspire them (and us all!) to take greater action.
Brief speakers will include Michael Carrigan (long-time justice activist), Ron Unger (mental health counselor), David Oaks (activist on human rights and climate madness), Michael Hejazi (mental health counselor).
This can be a great community building activity. Endorsed by MindFreedom Lane County and the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.
Please note that this event will be held at 272 Van Buren St, Ninkasi Tasting Room. This activity is informal, unofficial, and not part of Ninkasi itself. We are a peaceful and friendly gathering for nonviolent revolution to challenge climate chaos.
For more information, find this event on facebook by searching for “Taste of Climate Justice.” You may email to davidwoaks@gmail.com
Today a documentary about 10 ½ minutes long, by my good friend David Zupan, airs on statewide TV and you can see it online for free, details below.
You can see:
Me tear up my psychiatric label “psychotic”
Martin Luther King call for us all to be “creatively maladjusted”
A re-creation of my big fall that broke my neck
What screwing up your vocal chords can sound like
Support from my amazing wife and community
Us protest for global revolution because of climate crisis
Yes, making revolution visible now all over Earth is a great way to be creatively maladjusted to global warming, and this documentary shows that if I can do it, then so can you!
Here is an actual movie-trailer about one minute long for this documentary:
Producer David Zupan said, “Creatively Maladjusted shows how human rights activist David Oaks and his wife, Debra Nunez, creatively respond to tough realities with the help of courage, community and humor.” The piece will be shown on the Oregon Lens series. (Please see the next page of this blog entry for the links to the 10 and a half minute documentary.)(more…)
You may watch a little eight-minute video message, below, I sent this past Sunday, October 12, 2014, especially created to be shown during the gala dinner for the Mad In America International Film Festival, which brought together many movies that challenge the mental health industry. I wish I could have been there physically because this certainly was one of the main Mad Culture events of the season and many activists, film makers, and other creative folks were in attendance.
My amazing wife Debra repeated my sentences so that everyone could hear my disabled voice and not miss a precious word. My good friend David Zupan, who is making a documentary about me, videoed us on our backyard deck. In the background, you may see our guest cottage, which used to be my writing studio. This is where I fell from a ladder while reaching up in our loft for our cat, Bongo, and broke my neck back in December 2012.
In the video, I mention that many of us love Robin Williams, but I choose to follow the path of joy, life, and love created by Patch Adams, who Robin portrayed in the movie by that name. My friend Patch is a psychiatric survivor who, as a young person, was suicidal and decided to make a life change to embrace the world, flawed as it may be.
Here is the video message, followed by some links to info that I mention:
Some other videos by David Zupan, including the building of Debra’s dream, an accessible path for me to our back garden: http://vimeo.com/user1758711/videos
By the way, Patch proudly does not get on the Internet (his employees do though). The great news is that Patch responds to every written message that he gets by old-fashion postal mail. You may just get a postcard back, but this pretty famous celebrity personally answers every letter. Thank him for being honorary chair for International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment! If that concept, first announced by Martin Luther King, is new to you just google it. Anyway, write to Patch here:
Patch Adams MD & Gesundheit Institute P.O. Box 307 Urbana, IL 61803 USA