Unbelievably awesome! Pure theta! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NENlXsW4pM&feature=player_embedded
Conflicts of Interest Not Revealed in Call for $3.5 Billion More for Mental Health Funding
While “The Independent Mental Health Reform Group” calls for an extra $3.5 billion to be spent on mental health in its “A blueprint to Transform Mental Health,” concerns were raised over the inappropriate use of the term “independent” in the name of this group. Even a cursory inspection of the main group members, who are part of a high profile promotional media campaign to take a larger slice of the health budget, revealed conflicts of interest with drug companies who also profit from increased budgetary allocations. Some group members already directly advise the Federal Government. Present/past conflicts of interest of this “independent group” include:
Ian Hickie has served on professional advisory boards convened by Bristol-Myers Squibb & Eli Lilly. [1] Hickie received $70,000 from Bristol Myers Squibb to develop the depression checklist for the depression-training program for GPs, called SPHERE which he founded. Pfizer also fund SPHERE. Wyeth, Servier and AstraZeneca have also funded Hickie. [2]
Patrick McGorry has received unrestricted research grant support from Janssen- Cilag, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myer Squibb, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer, and Novartis. He has acted as a paid consultant for, and has received speaker’s fees and travel reimbursement from, all or most of these companies. [3]
Sebastian Rosenberg, former CEO of the Mental Health Council, is currently the Director of the mental health business ConNetica, whose website lists one of its “Private Sector Customers” as Eli Lilly. [4] Rosenberg worked for the Mental Health Council between 2005 and 2010. The Mental Health Council in 2004 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 5 drug companies. This agreement has continued every year. The 2009/10 Annual Report lists out Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Wyeth and AstraZeneca as the drug companies currently on this Memorandum of Understanding. [5]
John Moran and Mathew Hamilton work for Orygen (youth mental health organization) with McGorry. Orygen acknowledge Bristol Myers Squibb Australia, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Janssen-Cilag on their website for funding support of research and service development activities [6] and Pfizer lists Orygen as receiving funds for educational events in 2010. [7]
The most recent call for funds includes over $1 billion for 15 Early Psychosis Centres and expansion of headspace – both part of McGorry’s Orygen who has conflicts of interest with drug companies. [8] [9]
The demand for further funds comes with the startling admission that Australia cannot produce any outcome reports for the billions already spent from past mental health budgets, a inability which doesn’t seem to plague other areas of health.
In the report “A blueprint to Transform Mental Health,” the authors state: “Australia is currently outcome blind in mental health, unable to assess the real impact of current $5.5bn annual spending”. This highlights the considerable controversy within the psychiatric profession over the efficacy of current programs in place. The calls for increased funding when mental health funding is at a highest ever, site “lack of money” as the excuse of lack of documented outcomes. This must prompt politicians to start looking at the programs themselves and to look at who is profiting from constant increased funding with no discernable improvement.
An immediate investigation and audit needs to be conducted into any mis-management, lack of efficacy of programs despite millions being poured into them and the sheer waste of funding on programs that cannot show any outcome. If current spending were effectively being used, mental illness rates would be falling not increasing.
CCHR’s Shelley Wilkins says, “Pharmaceutical company conflicts of interest do not serve the people who need help. No-one with any drug company conflicts of interest should be on any committee which advises the government. There are many highly qualified mental health consultants with absolutely no drug ties that could be listened to.”
The Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Dr Thomas Szasz established CCHR to expose psychiatric violations of human rights.
[1] “Is Depression Over Dagiagnosed? No,” Prof. Gordon Parker and Ian Hickie, BMJ, 18 Nov. 2007. Also on http://sydney.edu.au/bmri/news/BMJ2007_Hickie.pdf
[2] http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/191_07_051009/hic109639_fm.html
[3] http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/aug04_1/a695
[4] http://connetica.com.au/about
[5] http://www.mhca.org.au/documents/MHCA%20AR10%2029-11.pdf Page 21
[6] http://rc.oyh.org.au/ResearchCentreStructure/otherfunding
http://rc.oyh.org.au/sites/all/files/2007%20ORC%20Report.pdf Page 58
[7] http://medicinesaustralia.com.au/files/2010/06/20100618-EER-rep-Pfizer-Jan-Mar-2010.pdf
[8] http://www.eppic.org.au/
[9] http://www.headspace.org.au/media/101064/coe3461_es_bpdtreatment_v2.pdf
Help End Bear Bile Farms
Right now over 1,400 bears suffer on bear farms in South Korea. These bears are reared in cramped, barren cages until the age of ten, when they are slaughtered for their bile. http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=24&ea.campaign.id=8507&ea.param.extras=Source:Care2
Lessons From a Doctor in Afghanistan
Physician Kevin Patterson noticed something during his work as an internist-intensivist at the Canadian Combat Surgical Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Afghan soldiers, police and civilians he treated had very different bodies from those of the Canadians he treated in his home country. Patterson has become convinced that the effects of urbanization are making people everywhere in the world both fatter and sicker. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/15/how-western-diets-are-making-the-world-sick.aspx
Iceland Defies International Bankers' Fraud Request
On April 9, the fiercely independent people of island-nation defeated a referendum that would have bailed out the UK and the Netherlands who had covered the deposits of British and Dutch investors who had lost funds in Icesave bank in 2008. http://netrightdaily.com/2011/04/iceland-declares-independence-from-international-banks/
Here's a Novel Thought, Hold the Incompetents Rresponsible for Wrecking Lives Across the Globe
Last month, the International Monetary Fund’s Independent Evaluation Office issued a remarkable report. The report quite clearly blamed the IMF for failing to recognize the factors leading up to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and to provide warning to its members so that preventive actions could be taken. http://counterpunch.org/baker04142011.html
Smile to the Dial Time
Piano Playing and Singing Poodle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcQai–9AHQ
Dose of "feel good"
Deer friend protects nesting goose in cemetery http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article388435.ece
Misleading Medicine
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is promoting Sarafem as a miracle pill for women suffering from PMDD, a ‘mental disorder’ not yet proved to exist. What’s more, Eli Lilly admits that Sarafem has the same active ingredient as Prozac, complete with the same dangerous side effects. http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/misleading-medicine.htm
Self-Funded Study Found HUGE Tumors from Aspartame
Victoria Inness-Brown conducted a personal two and a half-year experiment on the effects of aspartame, probably the worst of the artificial sweeteners on the market.
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