Please help with letter campaign to bring wessely to justice

[flex]

Letter to UK government, WHO, BBC and worldwide press etc etc demanding Wesselys suspension and further money for biomedical testing



I am intending on demanding Wesselys immediate suspension from all issues surrounding ME/CFS from the UK government as a public concern and human rights issue with as many signatures as possible from the worldwide ME community. There are 17million of us.

The letters will be sent simultaniously to all major press organisations, medical councils and the WHO.

The letter will be typed on line soon and available for download to be sent from anyone anywhere in the world. Once the letter is available for download it can be sent on a circular to multiple email recipients including all his superiors and deans of colleges etc.

Lets put him in the spotlight and try to get a really good investigative journalist to take up the story.

I NEED ADVOCATES TO HELP DRAFT AND EDIT THE LETTER AND PEOPLE TO SOURCE INFORMATION

PRIVATE MESSAGES WELCOME!!


Draft letter here http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?2516-Wessely-suspension-draft-letter-is-here!!!!!!!!!!

 

[starryeyes]

Yay Flex. This looks good. I think I learned this from Levi... you may want to compose the letter itself in the very first post of this thread where you can keep Editing it. It helps everyone keep track of how it's coming along and then it's also not upsetting when the thread goes off on tangents as they're wont to do. lol

 

[starryeyes]

Maybe we should start off with some brainstorming. These are just ideas we can put out there and people can use or not but just to get us started.

Evidence Against Wessely:

PWME being murdered by CBT and GET
PWME being abused by staff and CBT and GET
Severely disabled PWME being denied basic care and/or disability benefits.
Careres of PWME being denied compensation.

Studies that work to prove that ME is psychological.
Brainwashing doctors and other medical professionals to believe that ME is AIYH.

Ties to UNUM and the government NHS.

Lies like saying he's no longer involved in ME, many years ago but still on the forefront of ME "research" that denies any biological elements and perpetuates the myth that ME is psychological.

 

[Min]

It's not just Wessely, it's White, Sharpe, Chalder etc. etc.

 

[Esther12]

Before writing a letter like this, I'd work out exactly what you can prove Wessely's done wrong. Remember that anyone reading a letter that's attacking a major psychiatrist for telling the writer that they're crazy is going to be greeted with scepticism. It would be best to keep the complaints as restrained as possible imo. It's unlikely that you will be given the benefit of the doubt if you make any claims which seem exagerated or unfair.

edit: Actually - I think 'demanding his immediate suspension' is unlikely to lead anwhere. Requesting a full independent review of his work might be a better bet? It would have to be one hell of a letter to have the British Government suddenly change their mind so dramatically!

 

[starryeyes]

True. So what can be done about that?

Wessely's a start anyway.

 

[flex]

The issue is going to be about Wessely and provable issues. I will keep out issues that he could contend are inflammatory.

The point is a mass media, government, dept of health campaign is going to make his position untenable. Everyone around him will have to come down with him after we play divide and rule on them. They will have no choice but to point the finger at each other. We need to attract the attention of a really good investigative journalist, let them take the libel issues on with the backing of a large media company. This could really make someone. We want people to be fighting over the story.

We are in the right, on the side of truth!!

The first draft will head its own thread within a few days open to editing suggestion.

Can we do this?

YES WE CAN!!!

Thanks all.

 

[Countrygirl]

Hi flex,

One bit of ammo. that might come in useful. At the Lord Lloyd inquiry into Gulf War Syndrome in 2004, Wessely admitted that he knows virtually ziiltch about immunology, which is rather strange given his denial that infection cannot create permanent immune system abnormalities and illness.

When asked by the Chairman what was meant be a shift from TH1 to TH2 Wessely replied, 'Please don't ask me what that means because I don't know. (!) A man has got his limitations and my limitations are immunology.' !!!! When the Chairman further asked Wessely what he meant by 'immune activation' he joked 'This is where I will have to phone a friend to get the answer to that!'

Need more be said!

 

[Hip]

Here is some useful info:

Some key members of the Wessely School:

US: Bill Reeves of the CDC.

UK: Simon Wessely, Anthony Cleare, Michael Sharpe, Anthony David, Peter White.

Australia: Lloyd, Hickie.


Peter White is one of the chief medical officers in the Swiss Re insurance company.

Swiss Re also use the services of Simon Wessely, Anthony Cleare, and Michael Sharpe.

Source: The CBT and GET database at the Hummingbird's Guide to ME



Other useful Wessely School links:

Professor Simon Wessely

Psychiatrists Paid by Outside Interests - Extracts from “CORPORATE COLLUSION?” by Margaret Williams

Simon Wessely Info at OSLERS WEB

Wessely School Information - Eileen Marshall and Margaret Williams

The Amusing Story of the Simon Wessely Wikipedia Entry

 

[julius]

hey flex,
I posted this on another thread, but I thought id put it here too. Whether it's useful to you or not...I think it's a mind blowing statistic.

These are just copied and pasted from the Iatrogenesis article in wiki.

"The terms iatrogenesis and iatrogenic artifact refer to inadvertent adverse effects or complications caused by or resulting from medical treatment or advice. In addition to harmful consequences of actions by physicians, iatrogenesis can also refer to actions by other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists[...]"

"[...] 225,000 deaths per year constitutes the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. Also, there is a wide margin between these numbers of deaths and the next leading cause of death (cerebrovascular disease).

"This totals 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes"

"In psychology, iatrogenesis can occur due to misdiagnosis (including diagnosis with a false condition as was the case of hystero-epilepsy[3]). Conditions hypothesized to be partially or completely iatrogenic include bipolar disorder,[4] dissociative identity disorder,[3][5] fibromyalgia,[6] somatoform disorder,[7] chronic fatigue syndrome[...]"

Given that cfs patients tend to die 25 yrs younger than healthy population, I think this might be a good addition to your argument against Weasely...(oops...Wessely)

Just thinking...