from Vietnamese American Center
To: no-list@yahoogroups.com
From: <no-action@cwnet.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 00:05:48
Subject: [no-list] forced treatment discussion
Hi
I'm working on a 'freedom train' project to build authentic coalition between our movement and the multicultural movement in San Jose, CA that deals with the "police shootings issue." The Coalition for Justice and Accountability (CJA) started with the shooting of a Vietnamese woman Bich Cau Tran who was holding an Asian vegetable peeler in a way that a SJPD officer thought was threatening to him. We got involved (our folks get shot too!) and over time we've gotten more on the 'same page', I'm pleased to say.
We had our monthly meeting tonite; five of us (myself, Robin Kahn, Jose Rangel, Sharon Clausen, and Phil Winn) were there. The main business had to do with taking a position against the SJPD use of tasers. Also though I gave a report on a meeting that the CJA had with the psychiatric establishment. We are working on community oversight over 'forced treatment'.
Six of us (myself, Jose, Robin and three others from the CJA) met with the E.D. of Valley Medical Center (i.e. the public health system in the Silicon Valley), his deputy the Director of Acute Psychiatry and the head of Emergency Psychiatric Services, as well as the Director of Mental Health. I gave a report to the meeting which was well taken. I noted that they were more interested in pointing the finger at the police and lauding their own "treatment" (which they emphasized would be "better" if only they had more resources [!]).
I noted they shied away from discussions in the direction of "torture and abuse" which people in the CJA 'got' readily; for hadn't they too seen it? I noted that Robin and Jose who are 20-year veterans of the local M.H. system, and most articulate people, somehow got placed in a position where they had trouble speaking up. The CJA 'got' that, too. In sum there were
openings in that conversation, possibilities of extending the community dialogue about psychiatric behavior, yet surely they will take work to achieve.One good thing was that the CJA was explicitly invited to participate as a stakeholder in the Prop. 63 discussions. That means that potentially we can devise a "community oversight" program for 'forced treatment'. The CJA plans to participate in the next "stakeholders" meeting, and we arranged for a pre-meeting at the local self-help center, so the members of the committee could get acquainted with "mental health world." In the meeting, which took place in the Vietnamese-American Community of Northern CA Center, we were - as usual there - treated "like anybody else," we were listened to carefully, considered as "reasonable beings," and so forth.
It could become a habit, to expect that.
Andrew Phelps
Berkeley, CA
written after driving 180 miles helping folks get around.