THE WORLD'S WORST KNOCK-KNOCK JOKE
We've tried to warn you. Now it's
already too late in forty states.
If
you're a U.S. citizen, you'd better be quiet, well-behaved and pleasantly
conformist. Involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) is law in 40 states
and the District of Columbia. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI), largely a drug company front group, has pushed hard for IOC in
every state and territory - and NAMI is winning.
In
six states (Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin)
the "make your home a loony bin" law is backed up with a NAMI-inspired
double whammy, the Program of Assertive Community Treatment. PACT, they
call it. It calls for Nurse Nasty to knock at your door twice a day. You
must answer the door with a beverage and swallow your dose on the spot.
Otherwise, this "hospital without walls" can get a court order
to stick you in a psych ward.
Your
treatment team--police, professionals, loved ones -- will gather to
strategize on returning you to normalcy. Their strategy might be a quick
trip to a lockup, or round-the-clock peer pressure to take your medicine.
The
"medicine" might be Prolixin, Haldol, Clozapine or any of a
hundred heavy-duty neuroleptics. Your dose might even be what the industry
calls a "depot injection," a subcutaneous implant that lasts
for days.
Our
good friends at Dendron copped the photos at left from the industry
training video, "Hospital Without Walls." Catch the full investigative
report in Dendron's Winter '98-99 issue. Send $3 for a single post-paid
sample of Dendron, or join Mouth in becoming a member of
Support Coalition International (donation $20, agencies $30; add $5 outside
USA) and get Dendron
and access to its active website free. -LG ...(Reproduced with permission
from Mouth, Voice of the Disability
Nation.) Copyright 1998, Free Hand Press.
