Book Talk: Your Consent is Not Required

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Join journalist and author, Rob Wipond, as he shares some of his book, “,” and the research upon which it was built. Hear the evidence and ask tough questions as we come together to explore the issues of force and coercion in psychiatric care. Recent developments related to use of force in Massachusetts will also be discussed.

Organized by the Wildflower Alliance.

Continuing Ed Credits for LMHCs & Social Workers requested.

ABOUT ROB WIPOND:

Rob Wipond began his career working in performance art and theatre. His stand-up political rock comedy with Allen Booth, “When I’m Big”, ventured into such venues as Toronto’s famed El Mocambo and Bamboo Club. CBC Radio Sunday Showcase/Monday Night Playhouse produced his satirical play, “Gypsy Moth”.

He was for ten years a regular columnist and feature writer for Focus, and now often contributes investigative journalism to the science, psychiatry, and community web magazine and blogging community Mad In America. His writing has appeared in more than a hundred varied outlets, including Adbusters, Chatelaine, the European Journal of Law and Technology, and Queens Quarterly. And he’s almost certainly the only writer to have ever published in both the medical journal BMJ and as a one-time member of the notorious “usual gang of idiots” for the infamous MAD Magazine–which probably sums up his work more than anything else on this web page.

His writing has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards, nine Western Magazine Awards, and five British Columbia Jack Webster Awards for journalism. He’s won WMAs for business, science, and public issues writing, and won two Websters for community reporting. In 2016-17, he co-founded and was a senior researcher and editor for Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal Project, websites which provide information about psychiatric drugs and how to withdraw from them more safely. In 2023, BenBella released his book. which recounts people’s experiences of psychiatric detentions and involuntary commitment, and critically examines the science, economics, politics, and expanding uses of psychiatric legal powers across North America.

He has also worked as an instructor in creative nonfiction and journalism at the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University.

Over the years, he has occasionally done contract research, writing and/or editing for organizations that are working to protect fish and wildlife habitat, including the Conservation Lands Program, Nature Trust, Ducks Unlimited, and Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, and for groups fostering grassroots community resilience such as Hey Neighbour Collective.

Host or Publisher Wildflower Alliance