Dear Friends,

Thank you everyone for your emails and comments on our website:
http://www.minnesotavocrehab.com

Your show of support for our cause has been overwhelming!

I'm sorry that I have not been able to contact everyone personally....

We still need your help here, are now asking that everyone who feels
that the comments in this textbook are promoting stigma and
discrimination for people with mental illness, to forward this message
to NAMI stigma busters:

smarch@...

We really need your help here! We believe these published comments
are insulting, stigmatizing and discriminatory to persons with mental
illness.

Gary Fischler, psychologist for the Minnesota department of VR,
published a textbook, in which he teaches that people with
schizophrenia are "disinterested in promotions", recommends that all
people with depression need "simple tasks" and repetitive, supervised
work, and even that people with some mental illnesses should work out
of the sight of the public and coworkers because they "look and act
odd". He states that mental illness precludes high intelligence, and
that people from the "dramatic cluster" "are a stick of dynamite
waiting for a match", and that they are a "danger in the workplace"
and must be supervised forcefully to "help prevent violent and
unethical behavior".

Quotes from his text titled: Vocational Impact of Psychiatric
Disorders; A Guide for Rehabilitation Professionals; Gary
Fischler/Nan Booth Aspen Publications 1999, include:

p. 170 "Counting on people with passive-aggressive personality disorder
is like counting on the weather ---you can't, and they will get you if
you try"

p. 170 "If interpersonal martyrdom were a virtue, the people in the
"anxious" group of personality disorders would be saints."

p. 81 "Greta Garbo's famous plea---" I want to be alone"-- may not
reflect a serious personality problem on her part, but it is the
rallying cry of those with schizoid personality disorder, or it would
be if they were likely to rally."

p. 81 "These are the people who just might draw a gun and hold
coworkers hostage after an unfavorable performance review."

For more quotes, please visit:
http://www.minnesotavocrehab.com/fischler.html

We need your help here! Please forward this email or any other
communication to:

smarch@...

We also would appreciate an email campaign, or any kind of
communication on the subject to the powers that be at the state of
Minnesota. Gary Fischler gets about $200,000.00 a year in referrals
from the state of Minnesota. Please communicate your concerns to:

Governor Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota:
tim.pawlenty@...

Minneapolis, Star Tribune
metrostate@...

Senator Mark Dayton from Minnesota:
http://dayton.senate.gov/webform.html

Howard Glad, Director of Rehabilitation Services, (VR):
<Howard.Glad@...>

Matt Kramer, Commissioner of DEED (Designated state Agency):
matt.Kramer@...

Thank you all very much. We truly need your help here! If you do send
a communication to any of these on the list, may I ask that you copy me
as well, so I have an idea how many people have written? Thank you
Sarah West
sarah@...