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News & Blog2022-05-26T06:06:00+00:00

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Is Calling a Crisis Line Safe? – “Anonymous & confidential” is often a lie.

Crisis hotlines covertly trace some calls, and callers are shocked to get visited by police and incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals. Learn how, how often, and why it happens – and how to protect yourself.

303, 2023

Do Clients in AOT Programs Truly Feel “Satisfied” and “Empowered” by Being Forcibly Drugged? — A Critical Analysis of a Treatment Advocacy Center Report

By |March 3rd, 2023|

Do Clients in AOT Programs Truly Feel “Satisfied” and “Empowered” by Being Forcibly Drugged? -- A Critical Analysis of a 2023 Treatment Advocacy Center Report.

303, 2023

Jesse Mangan and Rob Wipond Talk on the Committable Podcast

By |March 3rd, 2023|

Jesse Mangan digresses from his current run of discussing mental health laws state by state, and talks with me about my book Your Consent Is Not Required on his Committable podcast. Click here to listen.

 

2802, 2023

Madness Radio Brings Rob Wipond and Will Hall Together

By |February 28th, 2023|

The one and only Madness Radio brings Rob and the inimitable psychiatric survivor and counselor Will Hall together for an epic two-hour exploration of the themes and issues in Your Consent Is Not Required. (Also a one-hour version available.) Click here to listen.

From Madness Radio: Read this book! Can there ever be any justification for discriminating against people who have — or are labeled with — psychiatric disabilities? Is denying equality before the law based on a psychiatric diagnosis always unacceptable, unnecessary, and abusive? Journalist and community development activist Rob Wipond’s new book Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships is a devastating investigative exposé of the normalized assault, kidnapping,

2802, 2023

CBC Radio’s Paul Karchut Interviews Rob Wipond on Daybreak Alberta

By |February 28th, 2023|

In only 13 minutes, CBC Radio’s Paul Karchut and Rob cover a lot of ground on issues such as the expanding uses of psychiatric power, what qualifies as “insight,” physical detention versus invasive medical interventions into the brain, and a recent precedent legal case that got the Canadian province of Alberta’s mental health laws thrown out as “overbroad.” Click here to listen.

 

2802, 2023

Rob Wipond joins “Make It Plain with Rev. Mark Thompson”

By |February 28th, 2023|

Rob and Cindy Hadge, a Wildflower Alliance trainer and psychiatric survivor, join long-time political, civil rights and human rights activist and organizer Reverend Mark Thompson for a discussion about the expanding uses of mental health laws across society, what it’s like to be locked up and forcibly treated in America today, and the plans in New York City to more aggressively hospitalize people who do not have homes. Click here to listen to the podcast.

 

2102, 2023

The Tyee Interview: A Call to Reform Involuntary Care. With Personal Roots

By |February 21st, 2023|

‘Your Consent Is Not Required’ author Rob Wipond on his father’s torment, state power, anti-psychotic drugs, and more. A Tyee interview.

Rob was interviewed by Moira Wyton of the online magazine The Tyee. Click here to read the complete interview.

 

 

2102, 2023

Meghan Daum Interviews Rob Wipond on The Unspeakable Podcast

By |February 21st, 2023|

Listen to “They’re Coming to Take You Away” on The Unspeakable: Click here.

About the Interviewer Meghan Daum:

Meghan Daum is the author of five books, including The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars, which The New York Times named a Notable Book of 2019. Her last book was the collection of original essays The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, which won the 2015 PEN Center USA Award for creative nonfiction. She is also the editor of the New York Times bestseller Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not To Have Kids. Her other books include the essay collection My Misspent Youth, the novel The Quality of Life Report, and Life Would

1602, 2023

Short Vid 4: Dramatically Rising Rates of Forced Psychiatric Detentions

By |February 16th, 2023|

Contrary to common claims, the numbers of people being detained in psychiatric hospitals in the US and Canada have been rising dramatically for decades.

1602, 2023

Focus Magazine: “Your Consent is Not Required”—a disturbing new book by Rob Wipond

By |February 16th, 2023|

From Focus on Victoria:

The author’s research shows that an increasing number of people are losing their rights, their voices, their trust, and sometimes their lives through involuntary psychiatric treatment.

FOR SOCIETY TO OPERATE, we need trust. Whether it’s in traffic, banking, relationships, health care, or countless other areas of life, mutual understanding allows individuals and systems to intersect (relatively) smoothly and safely. That includes communication, as language is based on a shared agreement of what words mean. But what happens when people’s experiences or behaviours provoke differing interpretations? What happens when we lose consensus around life-directing terms like “appropriate,” “dangerous,” “effective,” or “normal”?

In his new book Your Consent is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive

1602, 2023

Short Vid 3: The Dangers of Calling 988 and other mental health help hotlines

By |February 16th, 2023|

Many callers who call 988 or other mental health help hotlines believe they’re anonymous, but get subjected to call traces, unwanted interventions, and police coming to forcibly take them to psychiatric hospitals. The numbers are much higher than is ordinarily publicly admitted by the managers of 988 and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

1602, 2023

Castanet: Author whose father was forcibly treated at Kelowna General Hospital warns of the dangers of involuntary care

By |February 16th, 2023|

From Castanet:

The author of a new book is speaking out against the push for more involuntary care in the rush to deal with the opioid crisis and the rising number of people living with homelessness in B.C.

Rob Wipond’s latest work is titled “Your Consent Is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships.”

Wipond says his own father was detained against his will and forcibly treated at Kelowna General Hospital in the late 90s, and that was the genesis of the book.

Read the rest of the story and interview with Rob on Castanet.

1602, 2023

Short Vid 2: Psychiatric Bed “Shortage” or Incarceration Overload?

By |February 16th, 2023|

Do we really have a “shortage” of psychiatric hospital beds as is commonly claimed? Two internal US government studies, along with other data, show that the number of psychiatric beds is dramatically higher than is commonly recognized. So who’s behind the disinformation campaign, and with what intention?

802, 2023

Rob Wipond on “A Little More Conversation with Ben O’Hara-Byrne”

By |February 8th, 2023|

On Global’s Corus radio stations across Canada on January 30, 2023, Ben O’Hara-Byrne talked with Rob Wipond about Your Consent Is Not Required and current issues in the news about involuntary psychiatric treatment. The interview is 15 minutes — Click here to listen.

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