After 76 Years, Patients Still Denied Human Rights in U.S. Psychiatry
CCHR, established to uphold the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reports that 76 years after its adoption, patients are still subjected to inhuman and…
Tag Archives: human rights
CCHR Joins Global Support for Britney Spears’ Human Rights Plea
International mental health watchdog is part of the outpouring of support for Britney Spears’ appeal to take back her life from a psychiatric mechanism that…
CCHR Calls for Prosecution of CIA Torture Psychologists
By Kelly Patricia O’Meara July 22, 2015 Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls for prosecutions of psychologists involved in CIA-political torture. This follows the…
Mental health patients complain of ‘zombification’
Excessive use of forced detention and coerced treatment by the NHS means patients have little control over their treatment. “I became ‘zombified’ for nearly 12 months when I was forced to take mood stabilisers and antipsychotic medication,” says Reka Krieg. The 30-year-old has bipolar disorder, so has periods of manic activity and psychotic episodes, which led to her being forcibly detained and treated in hospital in 2009. Krieg’s case exemplifies the crisis in NHS psychiatric care, which is resulting in excessive use of coercive detention and treatment of people with mental illness. Latest statistics released in January show a 17.5% rise in the number of people being “sectioned” – under the Mental Health Act (MHA) – from 32,649 in 2008‑09 to 38,369 in 2009-10. This means that nearly 40% of patients in NHS psychiatric units are there under legal duress.
Mental health patients ‘locked up in hospitals without legal authority’ — Health regulator says blanket measures introduced in the name of patient security may infringe human rights law
This article highlights the need for CCHR’s Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights to be universally adopted. CCHR is the only organization to have drafted human rights guidelines for the field of mental health, something desperately needed as there are virtually no rights granted to those psychiatry determines, by opinion alone, are “mentally ill.”