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OUTCRY Conference Report: Comments From The Speakers Corner “Many professorships and doctorates have been funded solely by pharmaceutical research funding - drugs have become a theology and brand names have become like Roman Gods. Why? Because the pharmaceutical sector is considered one of the stars of the British economy and has enormous (and paid for) political support. It is time to return to the human scale and support people in mental distress in the local community on an emotional and economic level and tell ‘the city’ to take the tablets themselves and find profit elsewhere”. “All I can say is that 6yrs ago I joined ‘user support’ before that I was a ‘nutter’ a ‘nobody’, now I’m out here out fighting”. “I am happy to have an alliance, but I am angry if your here for your own agenda, don’t stab us in the back, make your own organisation ‘medication junkies’! or something” “I am from the Borough of Brent East, who gave Tony Blair a hiding! The reason for this is that we have a vibrant voluntary sector. When the gentleman asked ‘who is doing it for black people’-you have to do it yourself-there are various groups in Brent. “I am a journey to reconcile the disempowerment that I have felt, now I have to ‘quantum leap’ and participate at your level (to speakers). I’m also from Africa and divide and rule is a political tactic used there to make us feel different from eachother and disempower us” “I’ve come here today to see a united user movement, the three bits of advice I would give are ‘educate, educate and educate” “I want to make three points. Firstly, psychiatry has long since been a science. Secondly, you should challenge the basis of the science that condemns you. Thirdly, to do this you need to challenge the pharmaceutical industry. Do not accept money from pharmaceuticals”. “I’ve been involved in the service user movement since 1998, then we had ‘Health Action Zones’ which was about getting people involved at a local level. But this was really loads of professionals talking, and nothing actually getting done. So debate by all means, but make sure you do something about it” “We
[service users/survivors] get very despondent when we go to meetings,
people want to speak, they are frustrated, yet people at the top
talk to themselves” |
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