The 5th Annual Art Show of the Western Mass Training Consortium

FLUX: a group exhibit of the 2007 Career Initiatives Artisits: Virginia Harlow, Larry Ditman, Janice Sorensen

The San Francisco Weekly newspaper just did a big cover story on living without medication that mentions the Freedom Center as one of the leading survivor groups. Read the story on their website or download it here.

We are privileged to tell you about another free yoga class! This class is funded by Western Mass Training Consortium. The class is lead by Chaya Grossberg, a

Mental Health and Wellness DMH conference in Worcester

by Chaya Grossberg

 

Judene Shelley from National Empowerment Center invited Freedom Center members to speak at this conference on May 17, 07. Freedom Center was recently fortunate to get a grant funded, paid intern from Hampshire college. Heather Dodge, who is studying alternative medicine and mental health has brought great spirit and organizational skills to Freedom Center. She came with me to this conference. At the beginning, I think she was quite shocked at the perspectives of many of the speakers. Even though I have been to many conferences, this one surprised me too, as it seemed at first to have the least consumer/survivor voice.

Thursday, May 24th. 4:30-6pm in the Quaker Space. 43 Center Street Northampton Come for a day of relaxation. Bring a talent, cold drink, snack or willing pair of hands to exchange back massages. This is a time to rest, relax, get out of the hot sun and enjoy good company.

Below is important info about HR 2387 - which would end federal funding for mental health screenings.

 

On Friday May 11 three Freedom Center volunteers and a volunteer from the Infocollective (infocollective.org) went to UMASS protest the mental health screenings.

These screenings were part of "national depression awareness week" and appeared to also be part of the New Freedom Commission (the Bush Administration plan to screen all Americans for mental illness)

The screenings questionare was a list of yes and no questions divided into six sections. On the back of the questionnaire was six correlating diagnoses for each of the questions (Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder).

Freedom Center is a member of SHaRC, the Statewide Harm Reduction
Coalition, and we join in opposing the proposed creation of new mental
health treatment units in MA prisons. Read the testimony before the legislature that SHaRC recently presented.

The Western Mass Recovery Learning Community (WMRLC) is a new,
Peer-driven program supporting a recovery and trauma-informed
environment in which individuals with diagnoses and/or experiences with
serious mental illness and/or extreme states can assume meaningful roles
in their communities. We are seeking candidates for the following
positions:

County Coordinators
Peer Worker
Spanish-speaking Peer Worker
Advocacy Coordinator

 

Lived experience with a mental health diagnosis and/or extreme states
required for all WMRLC positions. Bicultural/bilingual (Spanish/ASL)
encouraged to apply. The WMRLC is a program of The Western Massachusetts

Info on the Virgina Tech mass killing and implications for mental health policy can be found on the Mindfreedom website Info Center page.

We held the first yoga class of our second weekly class yesterday at Forbes. It went really well! The room is a nice, clean space and it has a CD player. A few folks from our Monday class were there, as well as some new faces. ~Chaya Grossberg

Deadly accuracy, disturbing revelations suggest outside involvement in VA Massacre, cocktail of brainwashing from prozac, violent video games contributed to carnage Seung-Hui Cho was a mind-controlled assassin, whether you believe he was under the influence of outside parties or not, the fact is that the cultural brainwashing of violent video games and psychotropic drugs directly contributed, as it does in all these cases, to the carnage at Virginia Tech on Monday morning.

 Freedom Center got a pleasant surprise in our PO Box: a check for $5,000, donated anonymously!

Our thanks to the individual or individual who made this contribution. Because we work on a volunteer basis and keep our budget very lean, the money will directly pay for program expenses and help keep us going -- including projects such as a second yoga teacher, a coming off drugs guide, audio cds of recovery alternative interviews, and transportation expenses to do public speaking in the area.

 

A second Freedom Center free Weekly yoga class will
meet at Forbes library, Thursdays 3:30pm.  This class
is free and open to the public.  Mark your calendar,
we will start next week.  Spread the word.

for more info:  www.freedom-center.org
www.chayagrossberg.com

 

 

Will just published an article in Adbusters magazine on the Zyprexa memos scandal. Download it here

Read article & comments on Adbusters site here.

 

Hello everyone, since the freedom center has switched over to a new server there has been a lot of problems with communication. One problem, is that we have not been able to check the voice mail since we have had our new 1800 number.

Hey so we are switchng to a union webhost with cool politics. there might be some bumps in the transition road. If you notice anything, be patient, or just email for help.

call us day or night from anywhere in the US 877) 677 6424. Then call us again if you don't hear from us... because we get a lot of calls and email! -- will

I'm at the Best Western in Northampton watching the Food Channel with my dear friend, happy she's not dead. Because she might have been, and I might be writing a eulogy and preparing a memorial instead of this blog post. She started taking the bipolar drug Lamictal, and it almost killed her.

When I got back into town last week I was excited to return to my friend who took care of my apartment, sorting through my kitchen and taking care of my mail. We're settling in to our close friendship, watching bad movies and catching up on the last two months, and its great. Except two days after I'm back she's sick, staying in bed and complaining of a lot of pain.

Yes, Freedom Center can now tell you how to get the Zyprexa documents... http://www.furiousseasons.com/zyprexadocs.html

Evelyn Pringle, reporter for Op-Ed News, and Philip Dawdy, of the Furious Seasons blog, have been covering the Zyprexa scandal closely. Also PsychRights.org, Jim Gottstein's firm, as well. Other than Mindfreedom, AHRP, and ICSPP, the 'consumer-survivor movement' has been silent on this issue. Could it be the money ties? http://www.opednews.com/author/author58.html http://www.furiousseasons.com/ www.psychrights.org

First it was catatonic withdrawal. Then it was catatonic withdrawal with video games. Then catatonic withdrawal with computers, then catatonic withdrawal with obsessive html tinkering, and then the first Freedom Center website was launched. Our earliest version was I believe on Tripod, then we got a Frankenstein site incorporating pmachine, a lot of badly formed html, and the occasional javascript bell and whistle that I put together from scratch.

Note: excellent coverage of the Zyprexa scandal is at www.furiousseasons.com

The court in NYC just released its ruling on the Zyprexa documents leak scandal.