Below are a few resources that were suggested for our program on Mental Health Disorders; A Scientific Perspective. Thanks to Arnold Woodruff for providing these.
ORGANIZATIONS
International Association for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (www.psychintegrity.org).
There is a cost to join this organization ($100/year). It is, however, one of the few national or international groups that is truly multidisciplinary in its membership and scope. It is also one of the few organizations that gives voice to consumers of mental health services in the journal and the annual conference.
National Alliance for Mental Illness (www.nami.org)
This organization bills itself as the leader in advocacy for better mental health services. It is a major voice, but represents the interests and issues of the families of individuals diagnosed with mental disorders more than the direct interest of the client. They also have a serious problem with being too financially dependent on the pharmaceutical companies for their operations. (This caveat goes for almost all of the nationally known advocacy groups.) I do recommend that you join the local chapter, if not the national organization.
WEBSITES/FACEBOOK PAGES
Mad in America (www.madinamerica.com).
This is a website that is attempting to further the work and insights of Robert Whitaker (see Books, below). It, too, features writing and research findings from a broad range of mental health professionals and from consumers who are attempting to deconstruct the mental health industry and supporting recovery oriented approaches. The general theme is that current treatment approaches overemphasize the use of medications and don’t pay enough attention to the social and environmental impacts in generating and treating mental health disorders.
Open Dialogue (www.dialogicpractice.net)
This is the North American site for testing a model of treatment that has been reported to have excellent results with first and second episode psychoses in Finland. While the methods have not been as rigorously tested as some would like, the developer, Jakko Seikulla, has reported over 80% of treated persons have fully recovered on 5 and 10 year follow-ups. The treatment approach is of interest, because it involves convening family and friends in group meetings to work with the identified client rather than the more typical approach which is to provide aggressive treatments to the person with the symptoms and only provide supportive or psychoeducational services to families and loved ones. While still possibly considered an “experimental” approach, it bears watching and replication.
James Coyne, PhD (blogs.plos.org/mindthebrain/author/jcyone, for example)
Dr. Coyne is a critic of nearly all things mental health. While no one agrees with him all the time, he is very good about spotting and underlining the conflicts of interest and the marketing aspects of much of what passes as research. He is a particular supporter of opening all raw data to analysis by other researchers. He has a number of different blogs and can be friended on FaceBook (Coyne of the Realm).
Eyes on PharmaceuticojIndustrial (FaceBook page)
An online meeting place for persons concerned about the undue influence of the pharmaceutical industry in representing and misrepresenting the value and effectiveness of drug treatments. This site does not limit itself to behavior health medications although they are a large part of the content.
BOOKS
Robert Whitaker (author) Mad in America; Anatomy of an Epidemic; Psychiatry Under the Influence.
Whitaker is a journalist who has made a specialty of deconstructing the outcomes of much of the research on psychiatric medications.
Gary Greenberg (The Book of Woe; Manufacturing Depression)
Author and therapist with a very entertaining writing style, who traces the development of the DSM-5 (Book of Woe) and the problems with the marketing of treatments for depression (Manufacturing Depression).