IN THE NAME OF MENTAL HEALTH - PSYCHIATRYS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Note: Psychiatric survivors and supporters handed out many copies of this
leaflet on the street outside the Convention Centre in Toronto where the
American Psychiatric Association held its annual meeting in May 2006.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is holding its Annual Meeting in
Toronto on May 20-25, 2006. On May 26-27, a “Conference on Ethics in Mental
Health:” endorsed by the APA, is also being held Toronto. Since psychiatric
survivors have not been invited to speak at these conferences–with 1
exception of an unnamed “client” at the mental health conference–we feel
it’s appropriate to distribute this document as our contribution to public
education about many human rights violations in the psychiatry-dominated
“mental health system”. This is a short list of many of psychiatry’s
unethical practices or human rights violations minimized or denied by the
APA, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and World Psychiatric
Association.

1. NO INFORMED CONSENT
The right to voluntary informed consent is enshrined in virtually all
mental health laws, it’s a key principle of medical ethics. This right
means that when prescribing any treatment or procedure, the physician must,
a., not use any pressure, threat or coercion to obtain consent; b., tell
you the nature of your condition or illness; c., inform you of the
immediate risks and other common risks of the treatment (”side effects”);
d., inform you of alternatives to the treatment; and e., inform you of your
right to refuse. Psychiatrists frequently violate this right - especially
when prescribing psychiatric drugs (”medication”) and electroshock (”ECT”).

2. FORCED DRUGGING
Psychiatrists frequently administer brain-disabling antidepressants and
neuroleptics and addictive tranquilizers (”medication”) without informed
consent of their patients. This is unlawful. Forced drugging is assault. In
fact, any “unwanted touching” constitutes assault in many criminal codes
including the Criminal Code of Canada. Many psychiatric survivors have been
traumatized and disabled (sometimes permanently) by forced drugging (e.g.
injections). Many more women than men are drugged; women diagnosed as
depressed, “bipolar” or suffering “postpartum depression” are the main
targets of this psychiatric assault.

3. ELECTROSHOCK ( “electroconvulsive therapy”/ECT”)
As one of the most disabling and inhumane procedures in psychiatry,
electroshock is increasingly used in several countries including Canada,
United States, and the UK. ECT’s immediate effects include seizure,
convulsion, coma, severe headache, disorientation, nausea, and physical
weakness. Its long-term effects include permanent memory loss, learning and
reading disabilities, impaired concentration, and brain damage. “ECT”
consent forms are a sham, since patients are misinformed or not informed of
most of these serious health risks. Women and the elderly, especially
elderly women, are the main targets. Electroshock is state-sanctioned
violence against women. Anti-shock campaigns advocating abolition are
growing in the United States (Texas, California), the United Kingdom, and
New Zealand. “ECT” should be universally and immediately banned

4. INVOLUNTARY COMMITTAL IS PREVENTIVE DETENTION
Involuntary committal is the psychiatric imprisonment of people labeled and
believed to be “mentally ill”, dangerous to themselves or others, and/or
“incapable”. Locking up citizens on the belief or opinion they might commit
a violent act or criminal offence - without being charged and denied a
trial - is preventive detention, which is prohibited in international law.
Many involuntary patients are poor or homeless, with little or no community
support. Although involuntary committal violates several rights in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (sections 7, 9,15), it is legal in
all provinces, all states in the United States and many European countries.

5. COMMUNITY TREATMENT ORDERS/OUTPATIENT FORCED DRUGGING -Under these
“leash laws”, psychiatrists have the power to force psychiatric patients to
be treated in the community - the treatment is usually powerful,
brain-damaging antidepressants and/or neuroleptics. If patients refuse to
obey community treatment orders (CTOs) or “take their meds” (sometimes
ordered by judges in the United States), they can be locked up again for
longer periods or indefinitely.  These psychiatric orders are enforced by
community treatment teams of mental health professionals. In Ontario,
patient appeals are rarely successful; CTOs may soon be challenged as
Charter violations.

6. CHILD ABUSE -
Child psychiatrists frequently prescribe health-threatening antidepressants
and neuroleptics to young children (some as young as 2 or 3 years old) as a
treatment for “behavior disorder” or “mental illness”. Some researchers
have used children as guinea pigs in hi-risk drug experiments.  In Canada
and the United States, hundreds of thousands of children have been
fraudulently diagnosed with the label attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and prescribed
highly addictive stimulants like Ritalin.
The United States government’s national “teen screening” program targets
and tests youth suspected of being “mentally ill”. A similar program is
recommended in the current mental health report of the Canadian Senate
(”Out of the Shadows - Highlights and Recommendations”, 2006, p.19)

7. TORTURE: PHYSICAL RESTRAINTS/”SECLUSION”
Adults and children labeled “non-compliant” or “unmanageable” are
frequently subjected to 2-point, 4-point and sometimes 5-point restraints
ordered by psychiatrists. 2-pointx restraints involve tying both wrists or
ankles; 4-point restraints involve tying both wrists and ankles; 5-point
restraints consist of tying the person’s wrists, ankles and waist -  very
similar to the shackles inflicted on prisoners in maximum security prisons.
Hundreds of patients have been seriously traumatized or died while
restrained (see “Deadly Restraint” series in The Hartford Courant).  Many
have also languished in “seclusion”, a form of solitary confinement.
“Seclusion rooms” exist on virtually all psychiatric wards and hospitals.
Patients experience restraints and seclusion as cruel and degrading
punishment or torture. Physically and chemically restraining children is
child abuse - a serious violation of the UN Convention Against Torture and
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In April 2005, the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA), sponsored
four days of public hearings on the effects of psychiatric drugs and
electroshock Approximately 40 psychiatric survivors courageously testified
about many of these rights abuses and violations they personally
experienced. (see “Inquiry Into Psychiatry”: -
http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca).

We demand that governments immediately call public hearings into these
psychiatric abuses - human rights violations the American Psychiatric
Association and Canadian Psychiatric Association minimize or deny - in the
name of “mental health”.

Prepared by the OCAP Accessibility Committee
Toronto, May 20, 2006

Endorsed by the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault
(CAPA), Mindfreedom International, Common Front Legal Collective,
Psychiatric Survivors and Allies

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