>From: Vicki Fox Wieselthier <vickifw at madnation.org>
>Reply-To: Vicki Fox Wieselthier <vickifw at madnation.org>
>To: MAD-ZINE at MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>Subject: [MADNATION] STUFF: February 11, 2000
>Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 06:33:57 -0600
>>!!!!~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*!!!!!!
> MAD-ZINE
>The MadNation Daily STUFF
>>A One Way Announcement List Sent
>(Almost) Daily to People Working
>Together for Social Justice and Human
>Rights in Mental Health.
>>February 11, 2000
>>WWW.MADNATION.ORG
>>!!!!~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*!!!!!
>>Freedom Clearinghouse is documenting the process by which all of us can
>live
>free from institutionalization. Visit the site, join the effort, work for
>freedom.
>>http://www.freedomclearinghouse.org/know/sgolmstead.htm>>What the Court Decided in Olmstead
>by Stephen Gold
>Copyright 1999 Free Hand Press. Reprinted from Mouth magazine,
>September-October 1999.
>>"These are attorney Steve Gold's preliminary thoughts on the Supreme
>Court's
>decision in Olmstead v. L.C. They are adapted and edited from his posting
>on
>the ADAPT website. The author has reviewed and approved Mouth's changes.
>Gold was attorney for Helen L. in Helen L. v. Didario, the forerunner of
>the
>Olmstead case.
>>The Olmstead decision should be read in the context of the twentieth
>century's early decades when states throughout the country created
>institutions for people with disabilities. During the remainder of the
>century, states expanded their institutions - whether nursing homes, mental
>institutions, or habilitation centers for people with developmental
>disabilities.
>>Now, for the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Americans
>with Disabilities Act's "integration mandate" must be followed in long-term
>community services and supports.
>>Under the ADA, according to the Court in Olmstead, "unjustified placement
>or
>retention of persons in institutions, severely limiting their exposure to
>the outside community, constitutes a form of discrimination."
>>According to the Court's majority opinion in Olmstead, "unjustified
>institutional isolation is properly regarded as discrimination based on
>disability.... [It] reflects two evident judgments. First, institutional
>placement of persons who can handle and benefit from community settings
>perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable
>or unworthy of participating in community life....
>>"Second, confinement in an institution severely diminishes the everyday
>life
>activities of individuals, including family relations, social contacts,
>work
>options, economic independence, educational advancement, and cultural
>enrichment."
>>In Olmstead, the Court ruled that states must "avoid [this] unjustified
>isolation" unless the "reasonable modifications" would "fundamentally alter
>the nature of the service, program, or activity." The "fundamentally alter"
>regulation existed before the Olmstead decision; the Supreme Court made one
>major change to it.
>>Before Olmstead, it was enough to compare the state's costs of placing a
>person in an institution to its costs of community supports. Because it was
>less expensive for L.C. and E.W. to receive supports in the community, the
>two lower courts had held that there was no "fundamental alteration" in the
>state's program.
>>After the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision, that simple comparison is not
>enough. "Sensibly construed," the Court said, "the fundamental-alteration
>component... would allow the State to show that, in the allocation of
>available resources, immediate relief for the plaintiffs would be
>inequitable" when taking into account the State's cost of maintaining a
>large number of people with a range of services in a range of settings.
>[.]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>>One way to get Oregonians to line up for psychiatric labels.
>>http://www.oregonlive.com/news/00/02/st020812.html>>Marijuana use sought for mental conditions
>>An advisory panel will recommend whether to allow marijuana to be used for
>eight mental health conditions.
>>Since last May, Oregonians who suffer from cancer, glaucoma, HIV and five
>other physical ailments have been able to register with the Oregon Health
>Division to use marijuana to treat their ills.
>>The medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1998, permits Oregonians to
>enlarge the list of illnesses that qualify for treatment with the drug. The
>health division has received 10 petitions to add eight mental health
>disorders to the treatment list.
>>Kelly Paige, manager of the Oregon Health Division's medical marijuana
>program, said the agency has received petitions to permit marijuana
>treatment for depression, sleep disorders, schizophrenia, post traumatic
>stress disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety, Alzheimer's disease and
>attention deficit disorder. [.]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~
>>http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Feb/11/sj/PHOME11.htm>>Fewer homeless on streets of Phila.
>With the much-debated sidewalk-behavior ordinance came more funds for
>support services.
>By Laura J. Bruch
>INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
>>Genny O'Donnell bends over and taps the cardboard Sony box under the belly
>of a truck on Cuthbert Street near 20th. Hearing no response, she carefully
>lifts up the top of the box and peers inside. There is nobody there.
>>O'Donnell and Marcella Maguire climb back into a Plymouth minivan and begin
>their search anew. They get out of the minivan at the Curtis Center and
>climb up the stairs. Nobody there. They get out again at Foglietta Plaza
>near Penn's Landing and trudge through the snow to the building in the
>middle of the park. Nobody there, either.
>>It takes at least an hour on a frigid, snow-filled night before O'Donnell,
>outreach services coordinator with Project Home, and Maguire, a
>psychologist
>with the city Department of Public Health, find one homeless person, who is
>sleeping in the subway station at Eighth and Market Streets.
>>"Can we take you somewhere to get you inside?" O'Donnell gently nudges.
>>Politely, the man - who identifies himself as Tommy - declines, which is OK
>with O'Donnell because he is dressed to withstand the frigid air. Besides,
>others have taken her outstretched hand and come in out of the cold, some
>for good.
>>One year after Philadelphia implemented a sidewalk-behavior law that bans
>sleeping on the sidewalk and aggressive panhandling within 20 feet of
>automated teller machines, homeless advocates, business owners and city
>officials agree there are fewer homeless people on the streets of Center
>City.[...]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpne0m.htm>>China Judge Put in Mental Hospital
>By CHARLES HUTZLER Associated Press Writer
>>BEIJING (AP) -- A judge in southern China has been put in a psychiatric
>hospital and forced to take narcotics for refusing to renounce his belief
>in
>the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, a rights group said today.
>>The case of Huang Jinchun is the latest troubling sign that the communist
>government is using mental institutions to punish political or religious
>dissenters.
>>Huang displayed no symptoms of mental illness either at work or after being
>sent to the hospital nearly three months ago, the Hong Kong-based
>Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China
>reported, citing former colleagues and nurses.
>>But at the Longqianshan Psychiatric Hospital in the southern Guangxi
>region,
>medical personnel gave Huang daily injections of a narcotic that left him
>sleepy and muddled, after he refused to stop practicing Falun Gong, the
>rights group said.
>>``The doctors and nurses made fun of me: 'Aren't you practicing Falun Gong?
>Let us see which is stronger, Falun Gong or our medicines?''' Huang related
>in an appeal posted earlier this week on an overseas Falun Gong Web
>site[.]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>>http://www.theadvocate.com/news/story.asp?StoryID=10841>>Parents' suit alleges transfer could have saved inmate's life
>By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
>Advocate staff writer
>>The parents of a Parish Prison inmate who died last year say their son
>might
>be alive today if he had been moved to a mental health facility.
>>Willie James Robinson, 25, died soon after he was found unconscious in his
>cell at Parish Prison in February 1999.
>>His parents, Rosemary Robinson and Willie Johnson, sued Sheriff Elmer
>Litchfield and the city-parish last week in 19th Judicial Court.
>>They say in the suit that their son was supposed to be committed to
>Feliciana Forensic Facility but was never transferred.
>>Sheriff's Office attorney Leu Anne Greco said Thursday she has not yet seen
>the suit.
>>But she said there is always a waiting list to get into the East Feliciana
>Parish facility. She said the wait can last "months and months."[.]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>(long URL, pick it up carefully)
>><http://wire.nj.com/cgi-bin/nj_nview.pl?/home1/wire/AP/Stream-Parsed/JERSEY_>NEWS/j0178_AM_NJ--HospitalSuicide>
>>Man hangs himself in mental hospital
>>The Associated Press
>02/10/00 8:32 PM Eastern
>>PARSIPPANY-TROY HILLS, N.J. (AP) -- A man transferred from prison to a
>psychiatric hospital because he was suicidal hung himself by a bedsheet in
>his room, authorities said.
>>Charles Lanza, 43, of Sussex, died Wednesday afternoon at Greystone Park
>Psychiatric Hospital, said Capt. Christopher Linne, a spokesman for the
>Morris County Prosecutor's Office.
>>Lanza was transferred to the hospital a week ago from the Sussex County
>Jail
>because he had talked about committing suicide, Linne said. He had been on
>a
>suicide watch at the hospital and was supposed to be checked every 15
>minutes, he said. The prosecutor's office was investigating the
>circumstances of his death. [.]"
>>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
>>http://www.msnbc.com/local/WVIT/376304.asp#BODY>>Judge considering Prozac defense in robbery case
>>MILFORD, Conn., Feb. 10 - A Superior Court judge will decide whether an
>overdose of Prozac made a Wallingford man insane, leading him to rob banks
>and a department store. 28-year-old Christopher DeAngelo contends that an
>overdose of the antidepressant made him commit robberies in 1997.
>>State psychiatrists in July supported the findings of experts used by noted
>defense lawyer John Williams. They concluded that DeAngelo's condition at
>the time of the robberies was linked to his Prozac intake. "One-hundred
>percent of the evidence shows he is not guilty by reason of insanity,"
>Williams said.
>>After listening to the evidence Thursday, Superior Court Judge Richard
>Arnold said he would issue a ruling on February 24th.
>>DeAngelo was taking Prozac to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, which a
>psychiatric evaluation suggested may have been caused by Lyme disease.
>>Williams said he expects the judge will decide to commit DeAngelo to the
>custody of the state commissioner of mental health for evaluation until he
>is no longer deemed a danger to society.
>>In October 1998, makers of Prozac said it wasn't the drug that made
>DeAngelo
>rob a Derby bank. Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has already defeated
>more than 70 claims linking Prozac to violent behavior, spokesman Ed West
>said.[.]"
>>>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>Comments to: Stuff at madnation.org>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>>*******************Contact: madnation at madnation.org************************
>***********************Forward Anywhere You Wish***************************
>This is a one way announcement list only. To subscribe/sign off go to:
>http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/mad-zine.html> or Email to: LISTSERV at maelstrom.stjohns.edu> with the message SUBSCRIBE MAD-ZINE FirstName LastName
> -or- SIGNOFF MAD-ZINE
>
BETTER LIVING THRU BeTTeR LiVinG!
http://www.interport.net/~rugosa/index.html
Snail me yer rosehips if you like this post!
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
---
