| Reference: United Nations Promoting Sustainable Development Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development“ Sustainable: Of, relating to, or being a method or lifestyle for using resources so that the resources can be maintained and continued, and are not depleted or permanently damaged. [from Old French sustenir (French: soutenir), from Latin sustineo, sustinere, from sub– (under) + teneo (hold, uphold, possess, guard, maintain)] The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and their 169 associated targets adopted in 2015 and accepted by all Member States seek to realize the human rights of all and balance economic, social and environmental factors towards peace and prosperity for all. To this end we examine some of the existing factors which block or inhibit the realization of these goals, and which must be eliminated so that the goals can be achieved in practice. SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value. How Psychiatry Obstructs Target 8.5 As an example, take the St. Louis Independence Center, a nonprofit organization which “helps adults with mental illness access services to live and work in the community, independently and with dignity.” The Independence Center works to find employment and housing for vulnerable people. While this is a laudable goal, their “path to restoring lives” has one major troublesome aspect: the vulnerable person must see a psychiatrist to start a psychiatric treatment plan and get psychiatric drugs. No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable, subject to unreasonable depression, anxiety or panic. Mental health care is therefore both valid and necessary. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well–being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable. The larger problem is that the biological drug model (based on bogus mental disorders) is a disease marketing campaign which prevents governments from funding real medical solutions for people experiencing difficulty. There is a great deal of evidence that medical conditions can manifest as psychiatric symptoms, and that there are non–harmful medical treatments that do not receive government funding because the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars on advertising and lobbying efforts to counter any medical modality that does not support the false biological drug model of mental disorders as a disease. Because the general public, the government and the multitude of funding organizations have all been so misled by the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries about the actual dangers of psychotropic drugs and other psychiatric treatments, they have bought into the lie that the rehabilitation of the unemployed must be accompanied by psych drugs. One study showed that, compared with normal children, children taking psychotropic drugs for so-called ADHD had lower academic attainment, higher rates of unauthorized absence from school, and were more likely to be unemployed. Psychiatric fraud and abuse must be eradicated so that SDG 8 can occur. |
