Opinion: NAMI NH Wants to Garnish More Mental Health Funds

The National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which is heavily funded by pharmaceutical companies at their national level ( http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/10/22/nami-nearly-75-percent-of-funding-from-pharma/ ) to push their agenda that currently has 20% of the US population on psychiatric drugs, just put out an internal lobbying email from its New Hampshire branch demanding a dog and pony show to garnish even more mental health funds.

The email below by NAMI NH Executive Director, Ken Norton, shows his upset about only four lobbyists (including himself) and no advocates showing up for the State House mental health budget hearing by saying, “ these are all people the legislature can easily dismiss as paid advocates.”

This type of dog and pony show is exactly why laws are passed to remove mental patient rights to refuse involuntary drugging and involuntary commitment at a time when the evidence shows:

1. Psychiatric drugs don’t work better than a sugar pill: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/03/12/psychiatrists-instead-of-being-embarrassed-by-placebo-effect-should-embrace-it-author-says/
2. Even the National Institute of Mental Health admits that it isn’t a chemical imbalance of the brain or neurotransmitter levels that cause behavioral conditions in people: http://patch.com/new-jersey/manchester-nj/nimh-foia-data-reveals-fda-should-stop-false-chemical-brain-imbalance-advertising
3. Federal lawsuits have been won against nearly every major manufacturer of psychiatric drugs: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/business/03psych.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
4. Frequently side effects of the drugs include, acts of violence and suicide, psychosis and the destruction of several of the body’s internal organs: www.rxlist.com

So my questions are:

• 1. Are you going to continue increasing the funding for this harmful, coercive practice of heavily drugging society to appease the showmen with the horses and ponies: and
• 2. Are you going to cut NAMI NH state funding wherever you find it as this funding is being used to demand even more taxpayer funding?

Secondarily, Ken Norton of NAMI NH praised the substance abuse lobbyists for their dog and pony show. Current “treatment” of replacement opiates such as methadone and Suboxone only serves to keep addicts addicted and kills off more people than heroin as you can see here: http://patch.com/new-jersey/manchester-nj/massachusetts-leads-nation-war-against-war-against-drugs-suboxone

*****NAMI NH Email

Ken Norton

<knorton@naminh.org>

03/06/2015 07:43 AM

Subject wake up call! please read re budget hearings This is a wake up call. We (collectively) flunked badly at yesterday’s public hearing on the budget at the State House. Only 4 people spoke about the importance of adequately funding mental health services. They included Peter Evers, Executive Director of Riverbend, Effie Malley, the Director of the Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative, Linda Saunders Paquette Executive Director of New Futures and Ken Norton Executive Director of NAMI NH. Do you notice a pattern, because no doubt legislators did; these are all people the legislature can easily dismiss as paid advocates

No one who identified themselves as having a mental illness spoke, other than Ken there were no people who identified themselves as having a family member with a mental illness, there were no individuals who identified

themselves as having lost a loved one to suicide. In contrast dozens of people spoke on behalf of domestic violence including victims of rape, assault and family whose loved ones have been murdered. Dozens of people spoke on behalf of substance abuse treatment services including people in long term recovery and family members who had lost a loved one to an overdose death. And dozens of people spoke about the need for adequately funding services for people with developmental disabilities including family members, service providers and individual’s with intellectual disabilities.

While many advocates spoke of the importance of voting to extend NH’s Health Protection Program (Medicaid Expansion) not one of the 36,000 people now enrolled in the program, who prior to August 15, 2014 had no health

insurance, personally testified to tell legislators about the impact this has had on their lives.

Folks, we have got to do better! Although the Governor has included key supports for mental health services in her budget including further implementation of the 10 year plan, support for the mental health lawsuit settlement agreement, provisions for continuation of NH Health Protection Program and expanding substance abuse treatment to include existing Medicaid recipients, these initiatives will face stiff opposition in the legislature and some are likely to be cut or outright eliminated.

And even with this funding our mental health system is barely functioning as evidenced by 15 adults and four children being boarded in Emergency Departments yesterday waiting for an inpatient bed, with many individuals

with mental illness being incarcerated or homeless, with suicide deaths increasing, with long waits to see prescribers at community mental health centers, with several mental health centers on precarious financial footing, with peer supports vastly under utilized, with successful clubhouse models having to rely solely on private funding, with individuals with severe mental illness dying decades earlier than their peers in the general population.

We have another chance on Monday at the budget hearings scheduled in Conway and Derry. We need all hands on deck! This means board members, staff, support group facilitators/participants, In Our Own Voice, Life

Interrupted, and Survivor Voices speakers, family members, people with mental illness and/or co-occurring substance use disorders, peer support agencies, Granite/Seacoast Pathways Clubhouse members, Community Mental Health Centers, law enforcement health care providers etc

Our power is in our stories! The best way to end stigma and discrimination is by standing up and speaking. You will have two minutes to speak. Say your name, home town and your personal connection to mental illness and that you support funding for mental health services in the proposed budget. Go to www.naminh.org for more information (under the advocacy section) Hope to see you there!

· March 9th - Conway - Kennett High School Auditorium,

409 Eagles Way, North Conway from 5-8:00pm

· March 9th - Derry – Town Hall, 14 Manning St.

5-8:00pm

And if you agree with this message – please post it to social media, share it with your members, staff and board. Comments welcome about how we collectively can do a better job at raising our voices as advocates for mental health services. Or contact me directly

Ken

Kenneth Norton LICSW

Executive Director

NAMI NH -The National Alliance On Mental Illness

603-225-5359 x333 (office)

603-496-5748 (cell)

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