SANE Australia
SANE Australia is the operating name for Schizophrenia Australia Foundation, which describes itself as "an independent national charity working for a better life for people affected by mental illness".
Contents
Funding & conflicts of interest
- According to a 2003 report in The Age, the organisation "relies on drug companies for about 25 per cent of its annual $1 million budget" and has received funding from both Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. [1]
- According to a 2010 report in The Daily Telegraph, Pfizer donated $60,750 to SANE Australia in 2008 and $129,300 in 2009. [2]
- SANE Australia's "Helpline Online" is funded in part by AstraZeneca. [3]
- According to their treatment 'fact sheet':
- "Taking medication is the most decisive thing a person with a mental illness can do."
The following may also serve to perpetuate the falsehood that mental illness is nothing more than a 'chemical imbalance':
- "Certain medications, assist the brain to restore its usual chemical balance". [4]
Psychiatric coercion
According to Dr. Richard Gosdon, a noted author and researcher on this subject:
- "SANE Australia is a business name of Schizophrenia Australia Foundation which generally purports to represent the interests of relatives of schizophrenic people."
He observed that a pamphlet distributed by SANE Australia in the 1990s entitled ‘Something is Not Quite Right’, was accompanied by a note on letter-head announcing Pfizer as one of it's sponsors. (Pfizer is also the manufacturer of the atypical neuroleptic, ziprasidone). [5]
The pamphlet offered the following advice to friends and relatives of those with an:
- "outright resistance to the idea of visiting the doctor, consult with the doctor yourself to work out a plan over time. It may be possible and appropriate for the doctor to assess the person at home."
When a person is reluctant to submit to a medical assessment, it is likely that the doctor will see the friends or relatives as his/her client rather than the person to be assessed. This introduces a great deal of scope for bias in the assessment; particularly since the symptoms are largely a matter of opinion. Summary detention in a mental hospital or coercion to participate in a pre-pscychosis treatment programme, are both likely outcomes. The SANE programme of using non-medical people as front-line diagnosticians by encouraging them to identify and report people who are irritating/offensive/disturbing, must give some credence to the myth-of-mental-illness model. The potential for psychiatric coercion as a form of social control is particularly evident as well. For example, the following is listed as 'symptom' number four in the pamphlet:
- "(being) extremely preoccupied with a particular theme, for example, death, politics, or religion." [6]
Personnel
- Barbara Hocking - Executive director
- Paul Morgan - Deputy Director, strategy & communications
- Andrea Kincade - Media relations
Contact
SANE Australia
PO Box 226
South Melbourne Victoria 3205
Australia
Telephone: +61 3 9682 5933
Facsimile: +61 3 9682 5944
Email: info AT sane.org
Web address: http://www.sane.org/ & http://www.itsallright.org/
Articles & sources
Sourcewatch articles
- Alternative medicine
- Astroturf Marketing
- Chandler Chicco fills the news hole
- Clinical suppression
- Disease Mongering
- Medical Journals and Conflicts of Interest
- Patient Groups/Australia
- Pharmaceutical industry
- SANE UK
References
- ↑ Gary Hughes, Liz Minchin Taking your medicine, 'The Age', December 2003
- ↑ Sue Dunlevy Dosed up on donations and addicted to drug company money, Daily Telegraph, February 2010
- ↑ 'Help Online, SANE.org, accessed March 2010
- ↑ Medication 'fact sheet', SANE.org, accessed March 2010
- ↑ (Gosden, 2000, p.293)
- ↑ (Gosden, 2000, p.295)
External articles
- Julie Robotham, "Drug firms enlist patients as allies", The Age, November 28, 2005
- Richard Gosden, Sharon Beder, "Pharmaceutical Industry Agenda Setting in Mental Health Policies", Ethical Human Sciences and Services 3(3) Fall/Winter 2001, pp. 147-159.
External resources
- Richard Gosden, "Schismatic Mind: Controversies over the cause of the symptoms of schizophrenia", University of Wollongong (Australia), PhD, 2000.
- Richard Gosden, "CHAPTER 10, Early Psychosis: Preventive Medicine, Scientific Assault on Mystical Tendencies, or an Extension of Social Control?", University of Wollongong (Australia), PhD, 2000.
- Chemical imbalance theory, Wikipedia, accessed March 2011
