Please read and sign this if you agree - whether or not you are a person who has been through psychiatric treatment.
Introduction
The term ‘recovery’ in mental health/illness is becoming equated (in the UK and possibly other countries) with loss of services, loss of benefits, and a push towards returning to work, without the support, retraining and flexibility this would require. Genuine partnership working is possible and would be welcomed by many using and working in mental health services. However this involves significant change. We, the signatories propose that one way to mark a change from old ways of decision making to one based on genuine, equal, power-sharing partnerships in mental health would be through a Truth and Reconciliation process. Truth and Reconciliation in mental health – why this is needed A recent recovery guideline for mental health professionals (Slade, 2009) argues that the first step towards genuine partnership around any new policy agenda in psychiatry should be to call for a public apology for the wrongs done in the name of psychiatric treatment. The book suggests that ‘real reconciliation and partnership may only be possible once a line has been drawn, through the symbolism of an apology, which explicitly recognises the need for a new trajectory in the future’. It argues that public apologies are justified when the dominant group has inflicted harm on the subordinate group over a sustained period. It lists some examples where former psychiatric patients have called for public apologies. A few very specific apologies in psychiatry have been made, but no more general acknowledgement of wrongful treatment.
We call for an official Apology for damaging treatments since the origins of psychiatry circa 1850s
Now that our human rights are (belatedly) internationally recognised, in the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), we think the time is right to call for an apology from our governments and professional psychiatric bodies for a list of wrongs (of which these are just a few possible examples):
Oppressive, incorrect and unproven medical theories underpinning damaging treatments dating from the 1850s * onwards which have been harmful physically and psychologically (not to deny that many individuals working in psychiatry and mental health services do their best to help patients and service users. This is not about individuals but a chance for psychiatry as a whole to admit and redress the failings of its profession).
Creation of a body of dubious ‘knowledge’ based on research service users/patients had no involvement in or choice about, and which has been given legitimacy to overrule people’s own self-knowledge and expertise by experience.
Creating stigmatised services which isolate people from their families and friends and wider society and make it hard to recover self-belief, health and social status.
The right to reparation
We suggest that the apology should be negotiated internationally – through service user/survivor representatives at EC and UN level. It should be accompanied by demands for reparations including:
Provision of services defined by service users based on collective knowledge and expertise and service user/survivor controlled research.
Early intervention in first break/psychosis which is non-medical and non-stigmatising and based on existing work such as the original non-medical Soteria model and service user-led crisis houses. Finland currently has services offering a non medicalised approach which is having good rates of success.
Financial help for peer support and self management.
Education and training in individually chosen + valued skills.
Legal status for advance directives, advance statements, living wills, fully negotiated care and treatment plans.
Repeal of all forced treatment legislation which discriminates against people using mental health services and is out of line with CRPD
* NOTE: It has been pointed out that psychiatric history does not start around 1850s, and that for people from black and minority ethnic communities there is a link to colonialism and slavery. 'Cartwright’s definition of drapetomania is dated 1851, but this was preceded by decades of work which paved the way for it. Colonial history is also the history of scientific colonisation of entire peoples and this includes psychiatry'.
ENDORSED BY:
European Network of Users and Survivors in Psychiatry
The Wellbeing Foundation, Ireland
Mind Freedom International
Marion Clark
Jean Cozens
Janie Greville
Sabita Gurney-Branford
Alastair Kemp
Mary Nettle
Mary O'Hagan
Pam Hutton
Dr. Heather Straughan
Professor Philip Thomas
Jan Verhaeg
Dr. Jan Wallcraft
Dr. David Webb
References:
Beresford, P., M. Nettle, et al. (2010 (forthcoming) Towards A Social Model Of Madness And Distress? Exploring what service users say, Joseph Rowntree.
Hopper, K. (2007). "Rethinking social recovery in schizophrenia: What a capabilities approach might offer." Social Science & Medicine 65: 868-879.
Hopper, K. (2009). Reframing First Breaks and Early Crisis: A Capabilities-Informed Approach, INTAR.
Slade,M. (2009) Personal Recovery and Mental Illness, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
April 5, 2011
April 3, 2011
The psychiatric establishment expects us to go away quietly but we are closing in on 250 signatures. Blast this link across your social media right now to force them to acknowledge the harm they have caused.
March 11, 2011
The momentum behind this demand for accountability shows that we are done accepting the hollow excuses of the psychiatric establishment. They can no longer ignore the collective weight of those who have been harmed while the people in power hide behind their desks.
Reached 100 supporters
March 11, 2011
March 10, 2011
The psychiatric establishment is banking on us staying silent while they gut our services under the guise of recovery. We are about to hit one hundred signatures so push this link out to your networks right now to make them listen.
11 Comments
Respect and justice as well as democracy in Mental Health - people deserve ...
Time is now to accept the errors of outdated psychology and the failings it's caused those who have been effected with apologies from all the systems keeping it place and to change policies to introduce the new era in positive outcomes in evidenced psychiatry to ehance the lives of those experiencing MH issues in the future.
I've been in the NHS MH system for 25 yrs now since my diagnosis of 'Borderline Personality Disorder'. Silenced by medication and no specific trauma therapy for the incest I survived as a child. Negative attitudes because of my diagnosis. Hideous so called 'care'.
thanks for getting the discussion going David. I agree an apology is just the start, once they admit to some liability for mistreatment they will have to get on our side to call for recompense for all the damage done. Generations who were institutionalised got no apology despite recognition that services were damaging, now they are doing the same thing again, telling people they don't need long term treatment but failing to acknowledge the iatrogenic damage done and the help needed to recover from it. They just withdraw services and benefits and leave people to cope and then penalise them for not getting jobs. We have to protest this massive injustice.
Many of us have been abused and damaged by psychiatry, for this pseudo science to admit this and apologise would be a start.
Suffered postpartum psychosis after the birth of my child, which resulted in me being admitted to a mixed psychiatric hospital, seperated from baby. The staff lacked in understanding to a new mothers needs and treated the patient just as patients and not a person with individuals and flexibility to their needs, let alone treating them as they would like to be treated themselves. Was kept against my will even though my health was getting worse because of being there. Sadated to keep me from wandering about at night. It has taken 23yrs to open up because there was noone to talk to or even care, the trauma has caused me to fear doctors and fear my mental wellbeing . And none to apologise ,cuts like a knife and doesn't help recovery, we should have been able to put our trust in these people to make us feel safe and cared for and we were failed and deserve an apology.
there is no such thing as psychiatry. psychiatry is pseudoscience and psychiatry should be banned. people with mental issues and disabilities need help not abuse them.
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Please read and sign this if you agree - whether or not you are a person who has been through psychiatric treatment.
Introduction
The term ‘recovery’ in mental health/illness is becoming equated (in the UK and possibly other countries) with loss of services, loss of benefits, and a push towards returning to work, without the support, retraining and flexibility this would require. Genuine partnership working is possible and would be welcomed by many using and working in mental health services. However this involves significant change. We, the signatories propose that one way to mark a change from old ways of decision making to one based on genuine, equal, power-sharing partnerships in mental health would be through a Truth and Reconciliation process. Truth and Reconciliation in mental health – why this is needed A recent recovery guideline for mental health professionals (Slade, 2009) argues that the first step towards genuine partnership around any new policy agenda in psychiatry should be to call for a public apology for the wrongs done in the name of psychiatric treatment. The book suggests that ‘real reconciliation and partnership may only be possible once a line has been drawn, through the symbolism of an apology, which explicitly recognises the need for a new trajectory in the future’. It argues that public apologies are justified when the dominant group has inflicted harm on the subordinate group over a sustained period. It lists some examples where former psychiatric patients have called for public apologies. A few very specific apologies in psychiatry have been made, but no more general acknowledgement of wrongful treatment.
We call for an official Apology for damaging treatments since the origins of psychiatry circa 1850s
Now that our human rights are (belatedly) internationally recognised, in the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), we think the time is right to call for an apology from our governments and professional psychiatric bodies for a list of wrongs (of which these are just a few possible examples):
Oppressive, incorrect and unproven medical theories underpinning damaging treatments dating from the 1850s * onwards which have been harmful physically and psychologically (not to deny that many individuals working in psychiatry and mental health services do their best to help patients and service users. This is not about individuals but a chance for psychiatry as a whole to admit and redress the failings of its profession).
Creation of a body of dubious ‘knowledge’ based on research service users/patients had no involvement in or choice about, and which has been given legitimacy to overrule people’s own self-knowledge and expertise by experience.
Creating stigmatised services which isolate people from their families and friends and wider society and make it hard to recover self-belief, health and social status.
The right to reparation
We suggest that the apology should be negotiated internationally – through service user/survivor representatives at EC and UN level. It should be accompanied by demands for reparations including:
Provision of services defined by service users based on collective knowledge and expertise and service user/survivor controlled research.
Early intervention in first break/psychosis which is non-medical and non-stigmatising and based on existing work such as the original non-medical Soteria model and service user-led crisis houses. Finland currently has services offering a non medicalised approach which is having good rates of success.
Financial help for peer support and self management.
Education and training in individually chosen + valued skills.
Legal status for advance directives, advance statements, living wills, fully negotiated care and treatment plans.
Repeal of all forced treatment legislation which discriminates against people using mental health services and is out of line with CRPD
* NOTE: It has been pointed out that psychiatric history does not start around 1850s, and that for people from black and minority ethnic communities there is a link to colonialism and slavery. 'Cartwright’s definition of drapetomania is dated 1851, but this was preceded by decades of work which paved the way for it. Colonial history is also the history of scientific colonisation of entire peoples and this includes psychiatry'.
ENDORSED BY:
European Network of Users and Survivors in Psychiatry
The Wellbeing Foundation, Ireland
Mind Freedom International
Marion Clark
Jean Cozens
Janie Greville
Sabita Gurney-Branford
Alastair Kemp
Mary Nettle
Mary O'Hagan
Pam Hutton
Dr. Heather Straughan
Professor Philip Thomas
Jan Verhaeg
Dr. Jan Wallcraft
Dr. David Webb
References:
Beresford, P., M. Nettle, et al. (2010 (forthcoming) Towards A Social Model Of Madness And Distress? Exploring what service users say, Joseph Rowntree.
Hopper, K. (2007). "Rethinking social recovery in schizophrenia: What a capabilities approach might offer." Social Science & Medicine 65: 868-879.
Hopper, K. (2009). Reframing First Breaks and Early Crisis: A Capabilities-Informed Approach, INTAR.
Slade,M. (2009) Personal Recovery and Mental Illness, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
April 5, 2011
April 3, 2011
The psychiatric establishment expects us to go away quietly but we are closing in on 250 signatures. Blast this link across your social media right now to force them to acknowledge the harm they have caused.
March 11, 2011
The momentum behind this demand for accountability shows that we are done accepting the hollow excuses of the psychiatric establishment. They can no longer ignore the collective weight of those who have been harmed while the people in power hide behind their desks.
Reached 100 supporters
March 11, 2011
March 10, 2011
The psychiatric establishment is banking on us staying silent while they gut our services under the guise of recovery. We are about to hit one hundred signatures so push this link out to your networks right now to make them listen.
11 Comments
We need to ban control and restraint in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. And we need to heal the mental and physical wounds inflicted by compulsion and detention in the mental health system through an open truth and reconciliation exercise
Respect and justice as well as democracy in Mental Health - people deserve ...
Time is now to accept the errors of outdated psychology and the failings it's caused those who have been effected with apologies from all the systems keeping it place and to change policies to introduce the new era in positive outcomes in evidenced psychiatry to ehance the lives of those experiencing MH issues in the future.
I've been in the NHS MH system for 25 yrs now since my diagnosis of 'Borderline Personality Disorder'. Silenced by medication and no specific trauma therapy for the incest I survived as a child. Negative attitudes because of my diagnosis. Hideous so called 'care'.
thanks for getting the discussion going David. I agree an apology is just the start, once they admit to some liability for mistreatment they will have to get on our side to call for recompense for all the damage done. Generations who were institutionalised got no apology despite recognition that services were damaging, now they are doing the same thing again, telling people they don't need long term treatment but failing to acknowledge the iatrogenic damage done and the help needed to recover from it. They just withdraw services and benefits and leave people to cope and then penalise them for not getting jobs. We have to protest this massive injustice.
Many of us have been abused and damaged by psychiatry, for this pseudo science to admit this and apologise would be a start.
Suffered postpartum psychosis after the birth of my child, which resulted in me being admitted to a mixed psychiatric hospital, seperated from baby. The staff lacked in understanding to a new mothers needs and treated the patient just as patients and not a person with individuals and flexibility to their needs, let alone treating them as they would like to be treated themselves. Was kept against my will even though my health was getting worse because of being there. Sadated to keep me from wandering about at night. It has taken 23yrs to open up because there was noone to talk to or even care, the trauma has caused me to fear doctors and fear my mental wellbeing . And none to apologise ,cuts like a knife and doesn't help recovery, we should have been able to put our trust in these people to make us feel safe and cared for and we were failed and deserve an apology.
there is no such thing as psychiatry. psychiatry is pseudoscience and psychiatry should be banned. people with mental issues and disabilities need help not abuse them.
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We need to ban control and restraint in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. And we need to heal the mental and physical wounds inflicted by compulsion and detention in the mental health system through an open truth and reconciliation exercise