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World Mental Health Day Protest: Demanding Alternatives to ‘Chemical Cosh’ Psychiatric Treatment WHEN: 1pm, Friday 10th October 2008
WHERE: St Ann’s Hospital, Tottenham N15 3TH WHY: On the 10th of October 2008, World Mental Health Day, a collective of campaigners will symbolically escape St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital in Tottenham. Dressed in pyjamas we will go ‘on the run’ and push a psychiatric bed across North London to Parliament Hill. The Crazy Bed Pushers will give out wanted posters and pills to members of the public and shout ‘Psychiatry is off its trolley!’ At various points in their journey they will be chased by ‘normality testing’ researchers and a giant syringe to symbolise the narrow-minded drug focused approaches that still dominate NHS mental health treatment. Many present will be former in-patients who have experienced the use of forced drug treatment as well carers, mental health professionals and others concerned by the emphasis on control in psychiatry and the lack of holistic alternatives offered (i.e. talking therapies, creative activities). At the summit of Parliament Hill from 4pm - 6pm we will have a “Mad Hatters Tea Party” to celebrate alternative approaches to madness and recovery. Why not join us - Come along in fancy dress or as yourself! This Great Escape Bed Push aims to honour the life of Daniel Galvin 1979 –2008. In August this year, aged just 29, Daniel died of a heart attack, a problem known to be associated with the drug Olanzapine (a commonly used anti-psychotic drug) that he was given, at times on a compulsory basis for the last 5 years. Daniel was a bright, gentle young man whose life changed irrevocably when he was given powerful psychiatric drugs at the age of 15 after experiencing ‘unusual thoughts ‘ and sleep problems. Reacting severely to the medication – in Daniel’s own words he was left feeling ‘totally deadened and zombified’ - he was hospitalised in St Ann’s at the age of 16, never recovering from the devastating fallout of his treatment. We want the Daniels of the future to get real choices about their treatments so that the chemical cosh approach to mental health becomes a thing of the past. See also: www.bedpush.com Register your interest on Facebook here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=27923214063&ref=ts
Further Information: The principal organisers of the event, Rufus May (seen recently on Channel 4’s ‘The Doctor Who Hears Voices’ – see www.rufusmay.com) plus sister of Daniel, Ana Galvin are available for interview.
Rufus May:
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07984480224
Ana Galvin:
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07908 246 575
You can also sign a petition launched by APRIL, (Adverse Psychiatric Reactions Information Link) an ally of the Bedpush Campaign, demanding a round the clock helpline for those suffering adverse psychiatric and physical reactions to prescribed medications here: The Great Escape Bed Push protests have now taken place each summer since 2005. Each year we symbolically escape psychiatric institutions, dressed in pyjamas and 'hot tail' it with a psychiatric bed to a place of safety and celebration. We aim to raise awareness about the over-use of forced treatments in mental health services and the need for holistic choice based services. In 2007 we went global, because the mistreatment of psychiatric patients is a global problem. There have now been Bedpushes in England, Canada, America, South Africa and Scotland . If you would like to organise your own bedpush things we have found useful to do are to have: - a series of planning meetings with the people interested in taking part. - a hospital bed with good wheels (we used a porters bed).
- pyjamas. - A giant syringe (You can make this, artists can help here)
- A good leaflet. - somebody to send press releases to local newspapers radio TV and
chase them up. - take a picture of what you might look like for the press release.
- Have some people willing to talk to the press about the experience of forced treatment and the alternatives. - To organise accomodation if it is a long journey (camping / friends
houses/ cheap accomodation). - A loud horn for blowing everytime you start to push the the bed a bit further (good for morale). - A megaphone for telling people what you are doing on the journey. - Use humour 'we have escaped the psychiatric hopital!' 'We are mad, but they are madder!' - A map! Use roads where you can, its important to (peacefully) disrupt the traffic... this is an important human rights issue! - A sound system at times can be good for morale ('all you need is love'.. 'Madness' songs etc). - A party at the end of the bedpush; speeches samba band music cake drumming, dancing etc.
We will be happy to put pictures notices, and stories about the bedpush on this bedpush website.
Our most recent bedpush in England involved ‘escaping’ from Callington Road Psychiatric hospital in in Bristol (BS4 5BZ) at 9.30AM on Friday 13th of July 2007. We went ‘on the run’ and pushed the bed to Bath arriving Saturday the 14th of July at a Mad Pride Celebration (organised by the Mad Hatters of Bath) at Queen Square. Here there was a carnival atmosphere with music, theatre and dance. Meanwhile in Toronto Canada at the same time there was a Bed Push starting at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health on Queen Street and ended up at Parkdale Activity and Recreation Center for a celebratory meal and an open stage for entertainment. Also in Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A. an Escape from Psychiatry Protest also took place. For more details see: http://www.freedom-center.org The Great Escape Bed Push protests aim to raise awareness about the poor levels of choice of treatments and the widespread use of force used in the psychiatric hospitals. The Great Escape Bed Push Team believe in its current state psychiatric care often makes people’s problems worse and that the use of unnecessary force is on the increase. "Forcing patients to take medication against their will is a spirit-breaking practice. It can put someone off mental health services for life, as it breaks down trust between staff and the individual they are supposed to be taking care of" (Dr Rufus May, Clinical Psychologist and former patient). |