I am So Lucky That I found your blog and great articles. I will come to your blog often for finding new great articles from your blog.I am adding your rss feed in my reader Thank you…

It sounds interesting but I am not sure that I agree with you completely….

nordy is right. I am a member of NAMI and had no idea. I have a mental diagnosis and NAMI has helped me by providing advocacy, in turn I have started facilitating a group for myself and others with mental diagnosis in which we lend support to each other. As a facilitator you are trained not to recommend any drugs of any kind. At our meetings we often talk about side effects we are feeling from the drugs we are taking. We also talk about alternative therapies, foods to stay away from, how to contact Congressmen to help with dealing with Social Security Disability, where to get certain types of therapy and the like. I have no idea what the folks at the top levels are doing, but we little people have been doing right by each other through NAMI. Thank you none the less for the information. I guess just like anything else, power corrupts… absolute power (in this case, to withhold pertinent information) corrupts absolutely. I will continue advocating and reaching out to others with mental health issues through NAMI as it is the only vehicle at my disposal and as long as I am able to help others like myself through this vehicle, I will use it to the fullest.

I forgot to mention that NAMI is specifically named in the fraud lawsuits as helping the atypical makers promote the off-label use of their drugs.

Evelyn Pringle

This is interesting as well:

Mental Health America Funnels Pfizer Dollars to Katherine Stone

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I am willing to bet that Kat Stone preferred Diet Coke… A PR specialist indeed. It takes a really good one to pass off The MOTHERS Act as helpful…

Now as for MHA, a notorious pHARMa front group, and how they push drugs on moms…

Referencing the June 8, 2008 Mental Health America Georgia e-news http://www.ciclt.net/ul/nmhag/2Q08%20enews.pdf:

Investigative reporter, Evelyn Pringle reports that Mental Health America of Georgia is now offering a free one-hour “lunch & learn” called “Project Healthy Moms: What You Need To Know About Perinatal Mood Disorders,” according to the group’s June 8, 2008 e-news letter.

“This special hour of learning is made possible by a grant from Pfizer,” the newsletter notes.

Pringle points out that Pfizer markets the drugs, Zoloft and the atypical antipsychotic Geodon, widely prescribed in many instances off-label, for all the “mood” and “anxiety” disorders being sold to the public via the MOTHERS Act.

The Perinatal Mood series will be presented by Katherine Stone, “former postpartum OCD sufferer and author of Postpartum Progress, the most widely-read blog in the United States on postpartum mood disorders. (Postpartum Progress was named one of the top ten depression sites on the web in 2007),” e-news notes.

“Stone also serves on the board of directors of Postpartum Support International, the world’s largest nonprofit organization supporting women with these illnesses,” the newsletter states.

According to e-news, Stone had five gigs scheduled at that time, Pringle reports.

If interested in scheduling a lunch & learn, the newsletter tells people to contact Stone directly by email at stonecallis@msn.com or by phone at 678- 764-2141.

“These events are aimed at educating practitioners and the general public throughout Georgia about prevention of and treatment for such illnesses as ante partum depression, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety/OCD and postpartum psychosis,” the newsletter says.

“More than 800,000 women each year in the U.S. suffer from these devastating illnesses, which, if not properly treated, can have a long-term negative impact on the health of both mothers and their children and families,” it reports in identifying the customer base obviously targeted.

E-news claims attendees of Stone’s presentation will learn:

* “One size does NOT fit all: Why postpartum depression is just part of a spectrum of mood disorders women may experience & what to look for”

* “The wide variety of risk factors for perinatal mood disorders”

* “Results of the latest research on these illnesses and their impact on mothers and children”

* “Various treatment options — therapy, medication, alternative treatments”

* “What you should know about cultural differences when it comes to postpartum mood disorders”

* “Tools and resources available for healthcare providers”

Stone also has herself out for hire on LinkedIn. The lead off-sales pitch reads:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinestone?trk=btn…

“Talented, award-winning marketing and PR professional returning to the workforce after brief sabbatical as full-time mom. Background includes six years creating and executing great ideas in the corporate marketing department of The Coca-Cola Company, in addition to six years managing successful public relations campaigns for such brands as Coca-Cola and AT&T.”

“Skills include experiential marketing concept development, brand positioning, marketing strategy, social networking, and public relations campaign development and execution,” she writes.

“Used break from full-time employment to become an expert at social media, creating most widely-read blog in the U.S. in her niche,” Stone reports in refererence to her Postpartum Progress blog.

At the end she writes a paragraph on her days as a agent for the Cohen & Wolf public relations firm and states:

“Prior to Coca-Cola, she was an account supervisor at the Y&R PR firm Cohn & Wolfe, where she developed PR campaigns for the Coca-Cola USA account, and also managed the account team handling media relations for the AT&T Global Olympic Village during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta .”

I want to inform this organization that I have documentation from our Washington State Public Disclosure Commission http://www.pdc.wa.gov/ disclosing from 1998 – 2001 that six pharmaceutical companies gave NAMI – Washington a total of $130,200 and none of the NAMI members knew about it. I placed five calls to members across the state and they did not know about the money this amount.

Eli Lilly gave $91,000.

Do you want more informtion?

Two lawsuits in New York City have this information.

Sorry for my dyslexic fingers and their errors.

Carole Willey