wetwareproblem:

myoldpseudonym:

In the midst of the senseless police violence we’ve seen this fourth of July week,
the Murphy Bill slipped through the House of Representatives and few
people noticed.

PLEASE help stop this bill from passing the Senate.

This is a well-intentioned but terribly designed bill which would strip
civil liberties from the mentally ill, especially those already
marginalized because of their race, class, and/or gender identity, and
especially, especially the homeless. And frankly, it’s not great for
otherwise-privileged mentally ill people, either, though with money you
can find ways to get around it.

If you feel able, write or call your US Senator (contact information here) and tell them you want mental health reform, but you REALLY don’t
want it like this. And if you feel strongly, please share this post.

Below is the letter I sent to Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein today. Feel free to use any parts that apply if you are able to contact an elected official.

Note that I’m a very privileged person and my diagnoses are not as serious as many other people’s. I use the words “like me” in this letter mostly for rhetorical effect, not because I think I’ve suffered anything the way a schizophrenic person with no home has. If you feel you can speak more personally about this problem, if you have had interactions with this terrible system, if you can talk about your experiences with a condition like psychosis or autism that others vilify and belittle, it would be great for those narratives to reach the ears and eyes of our officials. If you can’t talk about it, know that people are still fighting for you and you’re worth the fight.

    As a young constituent who plans to vote, all the time, I am
writing today to ask you to oppose the Murphy mental health bill, which
just passed the House as H.R. 2646, and which the Senate will vote on
soon.

    Please, please oppose this bill when the Senate votes on it.

    I recently graduated with two degrees from [school]
despite crippling anxiety, depression, and intrusive disturbing
thoughts. My situation is overwhelmingly privileged. Most of my equals
in mental health do not have the resources to seek appropriate treatment
for their conditions, and when in emergency situations they end up in
the mental health care system, they are treated with appalling
disrespect and violence.

    This bill severely limits critical
legal advocacy on behalf of people like me with psychiatric diagnoses
and increases the likelihood of violence being used against us even in
hospitals.

    It reduces privacy protections for people like me with psychiatric diagnoses.

    It redirects federal money from innovative programs, particularly
substance abuse programs, to involuntary outpatient commitment, which is
expensive and ineffective. It centralizes mental health care when such
care should be more specialized.

    And, most importantly, it
increases needless institutionalization, which causes many low-income
people with mental illnesses to lose their jobs and be unable to find
new ones. This further reduces their access to long-term, effective
treatment.

    Our mental health care system is in desperate need
of reform, but the Murphy mental health bill is a step backwards. It’s a
cruel one at that. Please, please help protect us, the mentally ill.
Among us are some of the most marginalized people in the country: people
of color with mental illness, trans folks with other diagnoses, the
chronically underemployed, and the homeless.

Please help us stay safe. Please oppose this bill.

LINKS:

Full Murphy Bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2646/actions

Analysis: https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/hr-2636-coming-to-a-vote/

US Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

This is critical, people. Please, for the love of all that is good, take action on this. If you can’t, signal boost it. They are literally saying that our civil liberties matter less than what they want to do to us.

Too much personal information time: I’m a Canadian looking to emigrate to the US soon. I’m also severely mentally ill. This bill, if it passes? Will probably be my cause of death.

I was institutionalized for a week, half a lifetime ago. It was the single worst experience of my life. That week has shaped my life more than anything else. Basically all of my self-care is an effort to stay the fuck away from institutions. I have thought long and hard about this, and I can say with complete confidence that I will die before I let them send me back.

I know I tend to exaggerate a bit, so I want to emphasize that I am being deadly serious here. There is not a single word of hyperbole in this post.

This bill is very likely to kill me, and I’m certain I’m not alone. Don’t let them do this to us. I can’t stop it – I can’t influence it at all – so I’m depending on all of you. Please, please do everything you can to stop this. Please help save my life.