Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Shame of the British Psychological Society - Last chapter in the Lisa Blakemore Brown saga

A year ago I devoted several postings to the disgraceful and ludicrous abuse of a clinical psychologist, Lisa Blakemore Brown (LBB), by the British Psychological Society (see collated postings including this one). The abuse lasted 10 years, and was apparently motivated by factors other than evidence, logic or concern for patients. It has in my view brought this society into serious disrepute.

The treatment of LBB started as an obvious travesty when a commercially funded patient "support" group and the BPS itself appear to have colluded to create a triggering complaint. What followed was a protracted farce. The BPS seems to have realized that its actions would not be hidden, and the farce was terminated this week. It has left LBB financially destitute, with a destroyed career and ill health.



and a few days later



The abuse of health professionals by professional leadership is a key threat facing the safety of medical practice. Such abuse often takes place simply because these individuals have expressed a view, or because they have raised concerns. Abuse by professional regulatory bodies is particularly troubling.

The BPS has some important questions to answer, and it is not "closed" as they suggest. There are questions about the integrity, motives and honesty of BPS procedures. There are questions about the factors motivating the entirely spurious complaints, and who arranged for their invention. There are serious concerns about the way in which the BPS attempted to abuse one of its members through the misuse of psychology itself, and the way in which the medical profession assisted.

By contrast, professional regulators have remained silent in the face of gross abuses of science, obvious lies, fraud and the deaths of patients -- where these problems involve commercial companies or a network of powerfully connected colleagues. The BPS remains completely silent on the widespread fraud which is increasingly apparent within the pharmaceutical psychiatric literature. The regulatory body governing medicine in the UK (the General Medical Council) has also remained silent, and has refused to entertain a complaint of professional misconduct from patients and families involving the medical leadership of GlaxoSmithKline.

The silence is deafening.

Equally worrying is the fact that this abuse stirred scarcely a breath of protest amongst other members of the BPS. Few psychologists troubled themselves to ask the simplest of questions. Such silence is surely a badge of shame for any caring profession.

Lisa Blakemore Brown has now resigned from the BPS.



Earlier|Later|Main Page

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not of the medical profession but a parent of a now young man with Autism and very proud at knowing Lisa Blakemore-Brown through her past work.
It is such a shame that a 'patient' group have been allowed to play a huge part in the first instance without any penalty served. They should be held responsible for Lisa's now financial status due to their involvement.

Lisa, I wish you every success for the future and with the many friends you have you will be NO 1 again in the Autism world.
I for one will continue to promote you, your knowledge and work in every way I can.
The BPS should be held accountable for their actions!

Best wishes Lisa. xx
A mum living with and managing Autism.

soulful sepulcher said...

This outcome is horrible!

Radagast said...

I think Blakemore-Brown should get together with some like-minded colleagues, and found a rival organization. If the BPS is operating on behalf of interests that it won't disclose, then its objectives become unclear, and probably not the objectives that it states.

Matt

Unknown said...

I have known Lisa for several years and have always had faith in her and admired her feisty nature in standing up and speaking out if she knows something is not right. Within her profession she was (and is) a breath of fresh air. I agree with Radagast's posting. I suggested to Lisa a long time ago that she and other like-minded psycholgists start up an Alternative Organisation: maybe now would be a good time. Maybe one day Lisa might feel like writing a book about her experience: the Authorities would learn a lot from it.
One must now ask the questions (1) What financial compensation is the BSS going to cough up? (2)What is the Charities Commission going to do about the BSS? Surely an investigation needs to be instigated. The BSS has "charitable status" which to me, under the circumstances, sounds like a sick joke. We could all write to the Charities Commission asking them, point blank, "What are you going to do?"
Lots of love and support Lisa! Those of us who know you cannot speak too highly of you and thankyou for all you have done and will do in the future, in the world of ASD.
Love, Cris XX
Mum with adult son with Aspergers

Unknown said...

I have known Lisa for several years and have always had faith in her and admired her feisty nature in standing up and speaking out if she knows something is not right. Within her profession she was (and is) a breath of fresh air. I agree with Radagast's posting. I suggested to Lisa a long time ago that she and other like-minded psycholgists start up an Alternative Organisation: maybe now would be a good time. Maybe one day Lisa might feel like writing a book about her experience: the Authorities would learn a lot from it.
One must now ask the questions (1) What financial compensation is the BSS going to cough up? (2)What is the Charities Commission going to do about the BSS? Surely an investigation needs to be instigated. The BSS has "charitable status" which to me, under the circumstances, sounds like a sick joke. We could all write to the Charities Commission asking them, point blank, "What are you going to do?"
Lots of love and support Lisa! Those of us who know you cannot speak too highly of you and thankyou for all you have done and will do in the future, in the world of ASD.
Love, Cris XX
Mum with adult son with Aspergers