A Call To Public Leaders To Enact Policies, Legislation And Programs That Reflect The Core Principles And Values of The Mental Health Community

To:  Our Public Leaders

We are social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, chemical dependency counselors, school counselors, psychiatric nurses, and other mental health professionals.

As holders of the public trust, we are committed to do no harm and to positively influence health and wellness.

We recognize that government policies, legislation, and programs profoundly affect the physical and psychological well-being of those who are governed or impacted by these policies.

We therefore call upon all public leaders to enact policies, legislation, and programs that reflect the following eight core principles and values of the mental health community and to oppose those that do not:

1. We believe that peaceful negotiation is a necessary alternative to violence and aggression, which harm the psyche and often lead to post traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, anxiety and depression. The cycle of violence and aggression has been perpetuated for generations. Therefore we call on our public leaders to support efforts toward peace and cooperation and to oppose preventable killing or maiming of others in military and police actions, including the commission of atrocities and genocide.

2. We believe that we have within us the capacity for empathy, compassion and generosity as well as for dehumanization, disconnection, and self-centeredness and that we are at our highest levels of health and well-being when we are guided by and engaged in the former. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to support the sharing of our resources globally with those who are suffering from poverty, disease, homelessness, and neglect and to oppose the hoarding of resources which are essential to other people’s survival.

3. We believe that the development, construction, proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction are unsustainable and imperil the existence of all human and most other life forms. We believe that in the steps leading to that devastation the physical and psychological anguish of humankind is increasing exponentially. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to support the ongoing reduction of our military establishment and the elimination of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and to oppose the expansion of our military.

4. We believe that a safe environment is critical to our physical and mental health. We believe that a healthy environment includes access to natural settings which are places of psychological and spiritual healing. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to protect the ecosystems and resources on which we all depend and to maintain the natural settings that protect us from natural and man-made disasters, including global warming. We call upon our public leaders to protect our environment from pollutants which increase our susceptibility to physical and psychological disturbances and to oppose the undermining of these efforts.

5. We believe that a society must implement social programs that promote the health and well-being of its citizens, in order to create a civil society with decreased amounts of stress, fear, pain, and guilt. We believe that excessive inessential goods at the expense of other people’s poverty is toxic for the human psyche. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to support funding for adequate health care, housing, education and other essentials and to oppose perpetuating and multiplying the divide between the wealthy minority and the rest of the nation.

6. We believe that discrimination of one segment of society over another for any purpose compromises the psychological health of all parties concerned. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to support the equal and just treatment of every individual and to oppose the discriminating against and the scapegoating of any group based on race, skin color, religion, ethnicity, economic status, gender, sexual preference, or political belief.

7. We believe that protecting our clients’ and our own rights to privacy and confidentiality are essential, as they allow us to communicate without being observed or intruded upon without our knowledge. We know that invasion of privacy has been used against citizens to censor debate and to instill fear. We call upon our public leaders to support laws that protect our privacy and to oppose compromising our privacy without due process of just law.

8. We believe that relationships based on integrity and transparency are critical for the health and well-being of families, communities and the world. Therefore we call upon our public leaders to support fairness, honesty and openness in our government and to oppose dishonest, unfair, covert practices including fraudulent elections, restriction of freedom of information, corporate abuses, and unjust laws designed to enrich and empower the already wealthy and powerful.

Cognizant that all people have the potential for life-affirming, sustainable and just actions or destructive, unsustainable and unjust choices, we call upon our public leaders to support the former which promote an environment in which individuals, families and communities can best be served.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The A Call To Public Leaders To Enact Policies, Legislation And Programs That Reflect The Core Principles And Values of The Mental Health Community Petition to Our Public Leaders was created by Therapists for Social Responsibility and written by Shauna Smith, MSW, MFT (gushauna@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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