Cecil Prescod and Celeste Carey host a panel discussion and call-in with two organizers of "Rethinking Psychiatric Care,: Moving Mental Health Recovery Forward." Will Hall is a Portland therapist and national leader in "peer recovery." He also hosts Madness Radio. Marcia Meyers is a teacher and activist and a long time member of the Economic Justice Action Group (EJAG). She is a co-director of the Real Wealth of Portland and co-chair of the national organization Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (UUJEC).

Rethinking psychiatry and moving mental health recovery forward

"Anatomy of an Epidemic" author, Robert Whitaker, will lead panel in Portland, February 10, 2011

Could our drug-based paradigm of psychiatric care be fueling a modern-day plague of mental illness? What would a truly humane mental health system look like? Journalist Robert Whitaker's controversial book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" has inspired Oregon leaders in the mental health field to question present practices and initiate major reforms. At 7 p.m., Thursday, February 10, 2011 at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland, Whitaker and a panel of mental health providers and peers will share their perspectives and plans to create a more compassionate mental health system in Oregon and across the nation.

The panel will include:

Robert Whitaker, author, "Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America"

Beckie Child, Director of the Mental Health America of Oregon

Cindi Fisher, Movement of Mothers Standing - Up -Together: Taking Back Our Children ( The M.O.M.S. Movement )

Chris Gordon, Assistant professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Medical Director of Mental Health Advocacy.

Will Hall, Portland therapist and national leader in Peer Recovery

Gina Nikkel, Director of the Oregon Association of Community Mental Health Programs

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