In Black America; Psychiatric Abuse and The Odyssey House of Houston

oh from the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin. This is In Black America. We do have offices in different countries, John. We are our headquarters is here in the United States, but we have offices in different countries around the world. And when instances of psychiatric abuse, of individuals, patients, or otherwise come to our attention, why we investigate them, and we then work with government authorities in the country in which we have offices to help get those abuses corrected.

We work on legislation. We work with district attorneys or those that would prosecute crime to get psychiatric offenses corrected and legislation passed to stop them. So it's not just in the United States that we do it, the offices that find this kind of conduct around the world, why work with the local authorities to get laws passed. Bruce Weissman, Citizens Commission on Human Rights. According to the Department of Justice, Psychiatric Hospitals, and Clinics, are the fraud and government programs and private insurers of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Recently, the FBI rated over 20 psychiatric facilities across the nation after receiving hundreds of documented cases of fraud and abuse from Citizens Commission on Human Rights and other organizations. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established in March of 1969 to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. It was formed at a time when the victims of security were a forgot-be-norded group thrown into an institutional world

of assault, sexual abuse, and oppression. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, Psychiatric Abuse and Odyssey House of Houston in Black America. In the US, just for instance, your last summer, the FBI sent 600 federal agents into the largest psychiatric hospital chain in the United States, investigating fraud and kidnapping of people and so forth and so on. You're aware of that, I think, in your state. And you folks had the presence of mine to get some legislation passed down there in Texas. We are working, actually, to duplicate that legislation in other states.

But the folks doing it to enter your question were, of course, aware of them. I mean, psychiatric hospitals were sending out bounty hunters to pick people up off the street. So they're very aware of what they're doing. According to a United Nations report, the main task of CCHR has been to achieve reform in the field of mental health and the preservation of the rights of individuals under the universal declaration of human rights. CCHR has been responsible for many great reforms, at least 30 bills throughout the world, which would otherwise have inhibited even more rights on mental patients, or would have given psychiatry the power to commit minority groups and individuals against their will have been defeated by CCHR actions. Before CCHR, public accountability and external review of psychiatry's treatment were non-existent. Legislative and constitutional protection against human rights violations were not accorded to anyone unfortunate enough to be labeled mentally ill. Any treatment could have been given to them

without their consent, often without their knowledge. People were warehouse like cattle and chemical prisons. All on the pretense that this was psychiatric care. I recently spoke with Bruce Weissman, Citizens Commission on Human Rights. It's a big business. I mean, there's two arms of this, John. There's the public psychiatric treatment that you just mentioned, but there's also private psychiatric hospitals. And it's big, big, big business, multi-billion dollar business. So, yes, the dollar is very much involved here. We, as in a society, particularly Americans, do not like to see a lot of things. Are we somewhat of the root cause of the problem in as we are not paying attention to those who are responsible for the psychiatric care of our citizens? Well, I think we have to pay more attention to it. I think it's a good point. I don't, I wouldn't agree that we're the cause of it, but I do think that when we see the cause of it,

which is the psychiatrist creating this kind of abuse, picking people up, throwing them in hospitals, electro-shocking them, drugging them, holding them captive, that we've got to not stick our head in the sand and stand up and bring it to the attention of the authorities. A couple of years ago, a congresswoman, Patricia Schroeder, held congressional hearings on this kind of conduct. It did make all the national media. There's more of it coming to the attention of the public and people are beginning to take action as you folks did there in Texas, but there's much more of it that we need to do. And yes, I mean, there are instances where these kinds of abuses go on and people do nothing. But if we don't stand up and do something about it, the stuff will continue. It's, this is 1984 stuff, John. This is picking people up and drugging them for, you know, drugging them for their behavior or what they think thought police kind of stuff.

Are we coming to grips or having a better understanding and understanding mental illness and understanding that it is an illness, it is treatable and one should not be confined to any institution for indefinite number of years? Yeah, I mean, we, it's one of the reasons we oppose the president's mandated mental health section of the current healthcare reform legislation, which I know is not the subject to the show, but the way that thing is structured presently, the psychiatric industry will be able to pick somebody up and put them in a hospital and just keep them there, they're indefinitely and get paid for it. The psychiatrist is interested in a buck. The only reason the people get out of mental institutions now or mental hospitals now, psychiatric hospitals now, is because their insurance runs out. It is fascinating to find out that virtually everybody is miraculously cured, John, on the 30th day of their stay when their insurance runs out.

Is there a distinct difference between our state run, psychiatric facilities versus the private psychiatric facilities? Well, and the treatment of those patients. Yes, there are differences. We have found in our investigations that the state run facilities treat the patients even more inhumanely than they do in the private sector, but in both cases, the psychiatrists use tools of what are essentially social control. You know, they perform the bottomies on people because they're drug addicts, for instance. Here's a person who's got a problem with substance abuse that is treatable with actual other technologies and the psychiatrist's solution to that is either give them other drugs or go in and cut their brains up. These folks don't know what they're doing. In state hospitals, they seem to have more rain than they do in the private hospitals,

but they use these things like lobotomies, strong psychiatric drugs and electroshock to try to cure things that are actually curable with non-psychiatric technologies. I would assume these facilities are licensed. Are there a difference from state to state as far as who or what entity will oversee these particular facilities? Well, there's usually, in the state facilities, there's usually a department of mental health or with the name similar to that. In the private psychiatric hospitals, they come under regulation of various state agencies. So yes, the names of those agencies differ, but their functions are almost always the same state to state. Is there any way citizens can assist you all in new all's efforts? Well, by all means, if any of your listeners become aware of any kind of psychiatric abuse,

that would include psychiatric rape, psychiatric sexual abuse of which is becoming rampant in this country, you know, electroshocking or lobotomies or kidnapping of patients, any of that kind of thing, we have a 1-800 number, which they can call and we help them. I'll give them a number if that's okay. Correct, go ahead. Yeah, it's 1-800-869-2247. 1-800-869-2247 and they can call we're a non-profit organization, you know, if they, as I say, if they are friends, relatives or whatever are being abused by the psychiatric industry, just call us and we'll help. I would assume it's difficult once allegations have been made and you all going in to investigate these allegations, either at a state run facility or a private facility. How was that handled? Well, now when you say difficult one way. In investigating the allegations

that abuses are taking place at a particular facility. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's more difficult than others. In many cases where such things are occurring, the abuses are generally very prevalent. And we go in and we interview abuse victims or, you know, in some hospitals where the psychiatrist are abusing children, which we've investigated. We go and interview the parents, you know, we post ads and people come and call us and we take testimony and then take it to the local district attorney. Certainly once we're in the hospital, hospitals that are causing the abuse and particularly this, it's not really the hospitals as a generality, but there are usually specific psychiatrists in the hospitals that are causing the abuse. And we simply begin investigating that and then turn our information over to the authorities. Are members of that facility do sometimes they inform you all that XYZ physician or whatever case work it may be

are abusing patients in that facility? Well, we're less likely to get the cooperation of the hospital because the psychiatrist is, you know, if they're not an employee of the hospital, which is often the case, then they have, you know, rights to practice there and so forth. So our information more generally comes from patients or friends or relatives of patients. Or in some cases, John, we have whistleblowers inside the facility who give us information and remain, you know, it remains confidential. They don't like their names spread around for fear of losing their job and we keep those competences and that's of course helpful if we've got somebody inside which has been the case in various hospitals we have investigated while we get the information very quickly. Some of the legislation we have worked to get passed requires that psychiatric hospitals actually give people a medical examination before any psychiatric treatment to discover undisclosed medical problems

because those then manifest themselves as, you know, with mental symptoms, people act strangely when they hurt. Has there been any repercussions politically on the domestic front and internationally for you all's effort? Well, we have fortunately been, you know, commended by governments and as I mentioned, the United Nations has commended us for our work as have various governments around the world. Usually if we're investigating this kind of abuse, we'll get, you know, opposition from the local hospital or psychiatrist that we're investigating because they're basically just trying to cover up their crimes. But we have worked, as I say, with governments, local district attorneys office, state governments, the federal government, we provide the information for the federal government and these organizations that are actually interested in helping people, helping mankind have commended us over the years. We're very proud of that.

Are you finding a change in attitude since the creation of you all's organization and the treatment of mental health patients? Well, I think there's been a change in attitude. I think there's a lot that we've done over the last 25 years to help bring these abuses to the attention of citizens in the United States and around the world. But quite frankly, we feel as a great deal more to be done. Psychiatry and their treatments, their harmful treatments, their electroshock, their lobotomies, their psychiatric drugging, actually has continued to grow. And we feel we've got a lot of work to do and to bring these things to the awareness of the public so that they just don't blindly turn themselves over to the psychiatrist. I mean, this is going on. Certainly reform is needed in the judicial system where the psychiatrist go in and pronounce people insane. And a psychiatrist doesn't know

whether somebody's insane or not. They can't test somebody for what they thought at the time of a crime. Any more if somebody goes in and commits a violent crime, usually having been on psychiatric drugs or often been on psychiatric drugs, the psychiatrist will go into the courtroom and go, no, the person didn't know what he was doing at the moment of the crime. Psychiatrist has no idea what the person was thinking at the time. This is an area that needs a lot of attention as well. Are there any countries lacks in their treatment of mental health patients more so than other countries? Well, we've just finished last year. We're actually still working on it, but we have exposed conditions in psychiatric facilities in Italy that would make you weep. They pick people up there when their children, John, and because of the state laws, similar to what is being proposed by Clinton, I would add,

people are kept in mental institutions their entire life. We expose this. We took cameras into these facilities. People living like animals there, no clothing. They don't use the toilet facilities. They're roaming the halls of these institutions. I mean, the conditions are absolutely deplorable. So we have gone in, investigated a number of these, these are state facilities in Italy, brought us to the attention of the government and the laws are being changed now, but some of the most deplorable conditions I've ever seen in the country of Italy. If I'm not mistaken, there are three to four ways in which one can be admitted to a psychiatric treatment facility, particularly on the state. By law enforcement, a family member, or by court order, are there others or are those three that I mentioned correct?

Those are correct, on the laws very slightly from state to state these commitment laws, but generally, it's interesting that the psychiatric industry is the only industry that can just throw your constitutional rights out the window. Somebody can come along and go, the person is crazy, they're acting this way, and you can be committed by the people that you mentioned and your rights are taken away. You don't have a right to your property or anything of the kind, and you then brought before a judge after experative time in most states, and then testimony is taken as to whether or not you're competent. But those that you mentioned are generally in most states, those are the areas in which you can be committed or the people who can commit you. You brought up a good point when someone said where you're acting crazy. Are there criteria in which one can judge

from a non-medical checkup standpoint if someone is acting abnormally or out of the norm? Obviously, someone makes that assessment, but are those assessment gilded in certain medical practice guidelines or procedures? Well, it's the psychiatrist in today's society that makes those judgments in the courts to determine whether or not somebody is insane or should go to prison or in a prison whether somebody should be let out, but the fact of the matter is, John, it's subjective. It's totally subjective and it's total opinion. I mean, the psychiatrist, current and Bible, which is the book they use to determine who is mentally ill, called the Diagnostic Statistic Manual, they can't even agree on what a schizophrenic is. So much so that they say in the book, well, there's disagreement on what this is.

Some people hear voices, some people do this, some people do that. It's totally their opinion. You see, the psychiatric industry goes for the wrong target. They try to convince the public that mental illness is a physical disease like an appendix or your tonsils. It's not, the mind is not a bodily organ. It's not something that you can treat that way. So the psychiatrist, I mean, in today's courtroom, you can look at it and one psychiatrist will come in and go, yeah, the fellow was insane. He didn't know what he was doing and you get a battery of psychiatrists that come in and go, no, he's not insane. They don't know. There is no standard in that industry. It's not like, oh, good, the guy fell down and broke his leg. He's got a broken right leg. That's objective. You can look at it. You can see it on an X-ray. There is no such thing in psychiatry. So it's up to their opinion. And they vote every year, John, on what mental illnesses?

They have a Congress and they go, last year, they voted that women with PMS were mentally ill. They just voted. So any woman that has PMS is mentally ill. A couple of years before that, they had voted that homosexuality person was a mental illness. And then they took a vote. They went, no, the next year, it's not a mental illness or a few years later. So it's just their opinion on what they think. And once the disease that I put that in quotes is in their book, then they can treat the person for that disease and file for insurance claims. They can get paid if they've named that as a disease. Before we run off time, Bruce, how prevalent is the a psychiatric abuse of children, particularly in this country? Well, it's more, it's a lot more, unfortunately, than people would like to admit.

I mean, I go back to, very quickly, your comments about, are we sticking our head in the sand? We have investigated psychiatric hospitals, adolescent facilities, the things they do to kids in there. It's just, it's horrific. They tie kids down and for poster restraints, beat them, physically abuse them, and then charge their insurance companies for these insane treatments. I give you a quick example. One kid in a mental hospital, we were investigating the psychiatrist for his abusing kids. This one kid, they would tie him. They would drug him until he was in a stupor. Time and for poster restraints in a bed, then they tickle him until he was hysterical. This was their treatment, and they build this kid's parents insurance company $400,000 for that treatment. This kind of thing goes on much more than the public is aware of, and it's why we're active. How can we stop this?

Well, bring the matter to the attention. When you see this stuff, don't stick your head in the sand. Bring it to the attention of the local authorities, or you can call us at that 1-800-number. Another way to stop it is let your congressman or your senators know not to approve mandated mental health and Clinton's health care bill, because that just gives the psychiatrist a blank check to the American taxpayer's pocketbook. Bruce Weissman, Citizens Commission on Human Rights. Residential treatment for typically dependent adolescents is on an increase. The first Odyssey House was founded over 26 years ago in New York, and today there are several facilities in this country, and abroad. Teams in Minnesota facility have abuse, drugs, or alcohol, or a both. Also along with their substance abuse problem, some of the youngsters have been involved in gains or cults, and have been sexually or physically abused. I spoke with John Gatlin, Counselor and Community Coordinator with Odyssey House in Houston, Texas.

I think it's a couple of different reasons. One, of course, the media always wants to say what is peer pressure, and there is some truth to that. But the reality is that there is limited supervision from parents. A lot of, we have a lot of situations where both parents are working, or there are single parent families, because of divorce. The kids really just aren't being supervised adequately. And also, because they're all wanting to grow up and be something they're not. In addition to the abuse and abandonment that they may be experiencing, a lot of the kids are trying to cover up pain by using alcohol and drugs. How about just the current staff at Odyssey House? Oh gosh, we have a treatment team of approximately 12 people total. And that includes, like I said, master's level therapist, licensed counselors, recreational therapists, and LVN. And we also have an MD, a doctor that comes in and sees kids on a weekly basis. You mentioned that the different levels, how does one progress from level one, which I think

is the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior levels? Right. And you mentioned that it's really not parallel to their academic situation, even though we use the same terms of freshman, sophomore, et cetera. Again, kids hold jobs in the house, which have higher and higher levels of responsibilities they go through. They have to complete stepwork that we have written, and that they read and write and fill out, and also share with their peers. They process those things in groups. They also read incidents about their alcohol and drug use, in groups and process that with counselors and therapists. All three of those things combine, along with their attitude, is measured to determine whether or not they should move up in levels. Are the participants somewhat policing themselves? Did they look out for the other participants in one way or another? All the time. It's a therapeutic community, which means that staff isn't always standing directly over the kids 24 hours a day.

And along with the responsibility that I mentioned, the kids actually monitor themselves. They make all the decisions that affect them on a regular basis. They decide what kind of food they want to eat. They actually cook their own meals. They clean up after themselves. And if somebody slacken off, one of the other kids is going to say, hey, you're not pulling your weight, and that's not OK with me. It is their house. So they're responsible for taking care of themselves, even though there is staff there 24 hours a day. Is there age limitation for the participants? Yes, there is. We're licensed by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and we're licensed to treat adolescents age 13 to 17. And they can be admitted when they're 17 before their 18th birthday and stay after their 18. But we can't readmit them after they turn 18. Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel? In your, of course, if it is, you all will be out of business, but has a demand for you all's services diminished any in the last three or four years?

No. And yeah, we are in the business of putting ourselves out of business. But unfortunately, in my eyes, it's not light at the end of the tunnel. There still exists a real contradictory philosophy in this country when it comes to whatever substances. And as long as we're saying, some are OK and others are not. And we don't do really good prevention on the front end with our kids and education. Then we're going to continue to see a rise in the need for the services that places like Odyssey House offer. Has there been any recidivism among participants and the success rate? Well, I would say our success rate overall is probably above average in terms of treatment centers, somewhere in neighborhood of about 60% of our graduates have continued to maintain what I would consider long-term sobriety. And then another 30% or so have relapsed and gotten back into the program.

And maybe 10 or 15% have actually relapsed and continued to stay out there using alcohol and drugs. But we have a pretty high success rate. Is education a part of the recovery process? Those that don't have high school diplomas continue to get the education or the GED? I'm glad you mentioned that. Education is a real big part of what we have at Odyssey House. We have HISD, which is Houston Independent School District Teachers, on campus throughout the school year. And we even have summer school. We have three teachers and a teachers A during the regular school year. Yeah, kids can come in. And the most of them actually catch up, or at least somewhat catch up from all the school that they've missed, because most of them have been out of school. And then those who are really far behind and are age appropriate can pursue GEDs. Why are you so committed to this particular endeavor? Well, for a couple of reasons, I really believe in what's happening. I'm a recovering person myself. There was a time when I was a runaway teenager

at the age of 17 here in Houston. There were virtually no alcohol and drug treatment services for teens at that time. So given the fact that I've been on both sides of the fence, I've seen what's out there now. It's getting worse. It's not getting better. And I don't want these kids to have to go through the same thing that I did. So if I can help them, I'm willing to do that. John Gatlin, Odyssey House of Houston. If you have a question or comment or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, write us. Also let us know what radio station you heard us over. Views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for IBA technical producer Cliff Hardgrove. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr. Thank you for joining us this week. And please join us again next time. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712.

That's in Black America cassettes. Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. From the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr. Join me this week on in Black America. We have 110 offices in 27 countries around the world. And we investigate such things as the South African slave camps where psychiatrists were using mental patients. Psychiatric abuse and Odyssey House of Houston this week on in Black America.