Jolijn Santegoeds – Why forced psychiatric treatment must be prohibited

Why forced psychiatric treatment must be prohibited

Translation of Dutch article “Waarom gedwongen GGZ behandeling verboden moet worden”

Why forced psychiatric treatment must be prohibited
29 March 2016, by Jolijn Santegoeds, founder of Stichting Mind Rights[1], Co-chair of World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP)[2], board member of European Network of (Ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP)[3]

Click here to download the article:
Why forced psychiatric treatment must be prohibited_29 March 2016

 

For centuries there has been resistance against forced admission in institutions, confinement in isolation cells, tying persons up with fixation-straps, the forced administration of medication, forced electroshocks, and other forced psychiatric treatments.

Coercion is not care
Coercion is one of the most horrific things that people can do to each other, while good care is actually one of the best things that people can offer to each other. There is a fundamental difference between coercion and care.

Coercion works countereffective to wellbeing, and leads amongst others to despair, fear, anger and grief for the person concerned. During coercion the voice of the person is ignored, and their boundaries are not respected. Coercion does not lead to more safety, or recovery of mental health. On the contrary: By suffering, powerlessness, and a lack of support, the risks for increasing psychosocial problems and escalation increase. Coercion is the opposite of care.

Coercion means a lack of care
Forced psychiatric interventions are not a solution, but are a problem for mental health care. For a long time, the existence of forced treatments, which enables caregivers to turn their back to the crisissituation and leave the person behind without actual support, is undermining the real development of good care practices.

Good care is possible
Good care can prevent coercion. By a respectful attitude and good support, problems and escalation can be prevented successfully, which makes coercion obsolete[4]. Real care is possible.

Efforts are needed
Despite the fact that all stakeholders in Dutch mental health care want to ban coercion[5], the total number of the use of coercion (the number of  legal measures RM and IBS) is rising annually. There are however specific initiatives to reduce coercion at various locations, such as the development of HIC (High/Intensive Care psychiatry)[6], where they aim to prevent solitary confinement by enabling intensive support. On the other hand there is an enormous rise in outpatient coercion (conditional measures), as well as in incidents with “confused people”. It has been concluded a number of times, that the practices are “persistent”, and that the culture is “hard to change”.

Learning from history
Europe has a long history of xenophobia against persons with psychosocial problems. Ever since the 15th century there have been special prison-like “madhouses”, where persons were chained and locked up like beasts, and exorcisms were common. After the discoveries of Charles Darwin and the Renaissance (17th and 18th century), the medical sector started to arise, followed by the arrival of the first Dutch Lunacy-law in the 19thcentury, which arranged “admission and nursing of lunatics in mental hospitals”, with the goal to provide “more humane” care as compared to the madhouses. The young medical science comprised a diversity of perceptions, and in the 20th century a lot of experiments followed, such as hot and cold baths, lobotomy, electroshock and so on. The “special anthropology”[7] or racial-science and eugenics, focussed on the search for the perfect human being, and “racial hygiene” to “avoid deterioration of the race”, openly doubting the capacities of certain populations, which resulted in genocide which didn’t spare psychiatric patients (WOII).

After these dark pages in history, universal declarations of human rights were established, emphasizing the value of each human being, and gradually the community became more tolerant. However, psychiatry hardly changed and held on to the questionable and experimental foundation, with confinement, regulation regimes, and experimental treatment methods as the unchanged core of the treatment range. Currently, efforts are still made to force persons into behavioural changes with the argument that they are “incapable of will” themselves, and not able to express preferences. This is absolutely incorrect: Every person sends signals. The challenge is to deal with that in a good way. Real care notices the person behind the behaviour. Professional care is something totally different than primitive repression of symptoms.

It is time to draw a line. It is urgently needed to recognize that mental health care got on a wrong track by history. Harsh ‘correction’ of persons until they are found ‘good enough’ is not a righteous goal of mental health care. It should be about wellbeing. Coercion is a revealed mistake of mental health care. Innovation is needed.

Worldwide need for coercion-free care
All over the world forced treatment exists. Extremely atrocious images are known from poorer parts of the world, with chained people for example in Asia[8] and Africa[9], but also in our own country with Brandon[10] and Alex[11]. As long as the western world keeps claiming that coercion is the same as good care, these scenes will be harder to ban, especially since several countries have high expectation of the western approach. It is important to come up with good solutions in the world wide search for coercion-free care.

Call by the United Nations
Since 2006, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)[12]exists, which illustrates that a worldwide change is needed towards persons with disabilities. Several UN mechanisms clarify that coercion in care is a violation of human rights[13][14][15][16], also when it comes to the Netherlands[17][18]. A change is needed.

What’s next?
This is an important question.
What do we want now? Are we finally going to make it really right?
Are we going to show ourselves from our best sides?

A real change of culture is needed. Mental health care needs to reinvent itself, and put an end to the confinement and the use of coercion. Good care is possible.

“Yes but it is not possible…”
Commonly heard reactions are “These are good ideals, but not realistic” or “There is no other way, because the system isn’t supportive” or “The community is totally not ready for this”. The implicit assumption that a culture change would be ”unrealistic”, indicates limited perspective, hope and ambition. The system is in our hands. We are the current generation. Change is possible. The world is changing constantly. Also mental health care can change[19][20], as can the public opinion. We are not powerless or insensitive. Efforts are needed to make the world better and nicer together. We can do that.

Change can feel scary. Without positive history or good practices elsewhere it may be a bit harder to imagine that everything can be different, but this cannot be a reason to just give up immediately. We do not question ourselves whether stopping all hunger in the world is realistic before we start with that. Every person counts. Real care is possible and needs to be realized, also in acute and complex crisis situations. Practices of abuse need to stop instantly. This is the task that has been given to our generation. It is worth to unite all our efforts to make the historical shift from exclusion to inclusion.

Also the remark “Yes but coercion is needed, as long as there are no alternatives”  needs to be refuted here. Coercion is not care, but it is abuse, and there is no valid excuse for abuse. Coercion is never needed. Good care is needed.

Making human rights a reality
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) gives a momentum for change. If everyone cooperates now, throughout all layers of the system, then the intended change gets an unprecedented impulse. The articles of the UN-Convention offer a guidance, which enables worldwide coherent action. The UN Convention offers vast opportunities to change the world.

Together we can ban forced psychiatric treatments. When there’s will, there’s a way. In history, confinement was put central, and by now we know better. So we have to do better too. A largely unexplored world is ahead of us.

Key points
It is not easy to change the mental health care system, and the confidence in mental health care doesn’t restore without efforts. Several things are necessary to change the situation sustainably:

-Realise good care
The old fashioned psychiatry is not founded on human rights, diversity and inclusion, but on xenophobia and exclusion. Science has focussed so far on homogenising the community, and attempts to change the people (a bodice and check box mentality). Modern mental health care should focus on enabling a heterogeneous and  diverse community, by creating the right conditions in the community and to enable self-determination, liberty and inclusion, so that everyone can be happy and live a fulfilling life in our community. A fundamental reform is needed in mental health care.

Wellbeing – or mental health – is a very personal intrinsic value, which cannot be produced by coercion. Recovery from psychosocial problems is not an isolated process of the person concerned, but is closely intertwined with the social context of the person, such as chances in life, social acceptance and inclusion. The range of care needs to be reviewed fully, and adapted to the requirements of today.

Deprivation of liberty needs to be stopped immediately. The organization of care of good quality is necessary and urgent, and cannot be postponed any longer. The previous guidelines under the law BOPZ of 1994 to use coercion “as little as possible” and “as short as possible” have failed obviously, and the numbers on the use of coercion (legal measures RM and IBS) continuously keep on rising annually, and have more than doubled in the past 10 years. This trend is unacceptable, and therefore something really needs to change now. A need for support cannot be a reason for deprivation of liberty. Good care is possible.

Without good care, the mess will only transfer. It is absolutely necessary to make all possible efforts right now to provide care of good quality, including good care in crisis situations.

– Legislation: prohibit coercion, arrange care
The legislation on forced psychiatric treatments needs to be changed. The goal of mental health care is not: Treating vulnerable persons in a rough way, but the goal is to provide good care, also in crisis situations. A transition is needed.

The lunacy law dates from 1841, from a time when the medical profession was absolutely in it’s infancy. The law BOPZ of 1994, and also the law proposal on Mandatory Mental Health Care (recent) have a similar structure of legal measures RM and IBS, and resp. confinement and forced treatment form the core. This system is not founded upon awareness of human rights, and it is not about care of good quality, and it has to change.

Forced treatment is abuse. Legislation needs to protect all citizens from abuse. When the government participates in the abuse against certain groups, this is torture[21][22], which is absolutely prohibited. The laws on coercion, such as BOPZ and the law proposal on Mandatory Mental Health Care are therefore unacceptable.

Legislation is meant to offer a fair framework for the community. A prohibition of forced treatments is necessary because of human rights[23]. Additionally, certain legislation can speed up the provision of good care and organize innovation[24]. It is possible to create laws that are really useful to the community. Wouldn’t that be great?

– Compensation: Recognize the seriousness
For years and years, the government and countless caregivers have taken over the lives of psychiatric patients, and forcefully subjected them to “care”, such as horrible forced treatment, isolation cells, forced medication, restraint-belts, electroshocks, all motivated by so-called “good intentions”. The sincerity of those responsible can now prove itself by genuine recognition of the suffering that many had to endure. A compensation would be appropriate: When you break something you have to pay for it. We consider that very normal.

* Apologies are needed to recover the relation between (ex-) users and caregivers.
* Recognition of the trauma’s by coercion, and support in overcoming these if desired.
* Compensation to show that the change of attitude is genuine.

Now it’s time to show that the Netherlands is indeed a civilized country.

Take action
I would like to call on everyone to contribute to the change in culture. Let’s ensure together that human rights will be realized for every human being, and that old-fashioned psychiatry disappears, and that mental health care only comprises good care.

Please spread this message to raise awareness.

 

**

To reinforce the above plea, I have attached a description of my personal experiences with forced psychiatry, which can be found via this link:

“16 years old, depressed and tortured in psychiatry – A testimony on forced psychiatric interventions constituting torture and ill-treatment”

 

**

This publication is part of the ‘Absolute Prohibition Campaign’, see https://absoluteprohibition.wordpress.com

 

[1] Actiegroep Tekeer tegen de isoleer! / Stichting Mind Rights www.mindrights.nl

[2] WNUSP: World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry www.wnusp.net

[3] ENUSP: European Network of (Ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry www.enusp.org

[4] Report: Best practices rondom dwangreductie in de GGZ 2011

[5] Declaration on reduction of coercion:  Intentieverklaring GGZ: preventie van dwang in de GGZ 2011

[6] High Intensive Care HIC (HIC)

[7] Description of Racial-science e.a.: Winkler Prins Algemeene Encyclopaedie, vijfde druk, Elsevier, 1936

[8] Human Rights Watch “Living in hell – abuses against people with psychosocial disabilities in Indonesia”, 2016

[9] Robin Hammond, fotoserie “Condemned – Mental health in African countries in crisis”

[10] Brandon van Ingen, Jongen al 3 jaar vastgebonden in een zorginstelling

[11] Alex Oudman, Schokkende beelden uit isoleercel – Toen en nu

[12] UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

[13] CRPD General Comment no. 1 on CRPD article 12 Equal Recognition before the law

[14] CRPD Guidelines on CRPD article 14 Liberty and Security of Person

[15] Statement of 2 UN Special Rapporteurs “Dignity must prevail – an appeal to do away with non-consensual psychiatric treatments” World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2015

[16] A/HRC/22/53 Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E Mendez, Torture in health care settings (2013)

[17] Communication sent to the Kingdom of the Netherlands by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health. AL Health (2002-7) G/SO 214 (53-24) NLD 2/2013, October 2013, https://spdb.ohchr.org/hrdb/24th/public_-_AL_Netherlands_08.10.13_(2.2013).pdf

[18] CAT/C/NLD/CO/5-6, CAT Concluding Observations on the Netherlands

[19] High Intensive Care HIC (HIC)

[20] Intensive Home Treatment (IHT)

[21] Torture, for full definitiion see article 1 CAT, Convention Against Torture.

[22] A/HRC/22/53 Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E Mendez, Torture in health care settings (2013)

[23] amongst others the right to liberty, freedom from torture / Civil and political rights and CRPD

[24] amongst others the right to health care and adequate standard of living / Social, economic and cultural rights and CRPD

 

Olga Runciman – ‘A true story filled with lies’

I wrote this piece from a place of anger and outrage and it was never intended for anyone’s eyes or ears and is therefore completely raw.

A series of circumstances resulted in Michael Rassum reading it and he said I can put music to this. The result is our spoken word ‘A true Story Filled with Lies’

Why did I write it? Because this person whom I call Peter (not her real name) died of her psychiatric drugs and despite it being a clear cut case her family and I watched how psychiatry closed around itself, protecting itself and they got away with it. For years her family have sought justice just like so many others. They never got it.

Her death was the reason that we were a group who joined together and created the organization ‘Death in Psychiatry’ an organization for those who have lost a loved one to psychiatry and to stop others suffering the same fate. Dorrit Cato Christensen who has also contributed to this campaign lost her daughter and she is also one of the founding members of the organization and is today the chair.

Psychiatry has been unable to prove that it is dealing with a biogenetic illness and, likewise, its drug treatments fall dismally short of what is considered good evidence based medicine. On the contrary the evidence especially long term, point at an increased risk of chronicity, brain damage, early death – up to 25 years shorter and, as in ‘Peter’s’ case, sudden death due to drug induced arrhythmia of the heart.

To force treat people with drugs that carry with it a risk of brain damage, death and little evidence of any long, term benefits what so ever, is an unspeakable act of institutional violence.

This piece is a true story the only thing that is changed is the name and gender. It is in three sections. “Death”, “Big Pharma, the Unholy Alliance” and finally the funeral called the “Winds of Change”.

I am today a psychiatric survivor, but this could have been me.
Or you or one of your loved ones…

Please support CRPD Absolute Prohibition of Commitment and Forced Treatment.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQuQlFTaKdw]

Linda Steele: Challenging Law’s ‘Monopoly on Violence’

Challenging Law’s ‘Monopoly on Violence’: Human Rights and Disability-Specific Lawful Violence

Dr Linda Steele, Lecturer, School of Law University of Wollongong, Australia

29 March 2016

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities[i] (‘the CRPD’) provides a human rights basis for seeing non-consensual medical treatment, detention and chemical and physical restraint as forms of discriminatory violence against people with disability. United Nations human rights bodies must be consistent and persistent in urging states parties to reform criminal and civil laws to explicitly prohibit these practices and provide legal avenues for redress. Until this occurs, these practices will continue to be lawful forms of violence which are condoned and, indeed, made possible by the state and by law.

In my blog post I will briefly discuss the concept of ‘lawful violence’ and why non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint constitute ‘disability-specific lawful violence’. I will then explain how the CRPD provides a human rights basis to contest the lawfulness of this violence, and what needs to be done to urge states parties to follow the CRPD and ultimately prohibit and remedy disability-specific lawful violence.

Questioning Violence’s Legal Status

People with disability experience disproportionately high rates of violence when compared to people without disability[ii] (even taking into account the issues with data collection which result in an under-quantification of the rates of violence against people with disability[iii]). There are numerous approaches to categorizing violence against people with disability for the purposes of analysis and devising recommendations for law reform directed to reducing its incidence and enhancing justice for survivors. One approach which I adopt in this blog post is to categories violence in terms of its legal status under domestic law: whether violence is prohibited and legally actionable, or instead permitted and condoned by law. This approach is particularly fruitful for appreciating the significance of the interface of the CRPD and domestic law to states parties addressing all forms of violence against people with disability.

  • Unlawful violence

Some unwanted contact, detention and restraint against people with disability constitutes ‘unlawful violence’ – violence that is prohibited by domestic criminal laws (e.g. offences of assault or sexual assault) and/or constitutes a tortious wrong pursuant to civil law (e.g. torts of battery or false imprisonment). While people with disability experiencing ‘unlawful violence’ technically have available to them criminal and civil legal protection and remedies, at an individual level there are considerable issues with enforcing these laws vis-à-vis survivors with disability. These issues are due to such factors as discriminatory views about disability (and the intersection of disability with gender, sexuality, race, criminality and age) held by police, prosecutors and judges, and because of discriminatory evidential and procedural laws.

Despite the significant issues with ‘unlawful violence’ vis-à-vis people with disability, there are some forms of unwanted contact, detention and restraint of people with disability which do not even fit within this category of ‘unlawful violence’ such that there is not even the possibility of punishment and remedy. For present purposes, non-consensual medical treatment, detention and restraint of people with disability do not fall within the category of ‘unlawful violence’, as I will now turn to explain.

  • Lawful violence

Some unwanted contact, detention and restraint of people with disability – notably non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint – is not prohibited or actionable under domestic law and instead is legally permissible. As such, these practices fall outside of the category of ‘unlawful violence’ and sit in a different category of ‘lawful violence’ or, as I term it by reason of the significance of ‘disability’ to its lawfulness, a category of ‘disability-specific lawful violence’.[iv]

Disability-Specific Lawful Violence

Drawing on the work of Robert Cover[v] on ‘legal violence’ (i.e. violence permitted by law), Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns[vi] argue that law has a ‘monopoly’ on violence, because law determines what is possible to do to another’s body without any legal accountability. Domestic law, and particularly criminal law and tort law, has singular control over violence because regardless of individual experiences of or social values towards unwanted contact detention and restraint (or, indeed, even international human rights perspectives on unwanted contact, detention and restraint) it is the domestic legal system that determines what will be punished or remedied and conversely what will be permitted and go without any punishment of the perpetrator or remedy for the survivor. Unwanted contact, detention and restraint becomes violence that is ‘lawful’ where it is permitted by law. This is not to suggest that legal permissibility means that lawful violence is completely at large. Generally, lawful violence is deeply embedded in legislative and common law frameworks and in judicial and administrative procedures (many of which purportedly ‘protect’ those subjected to lawful violence through ‘procedural’ oversight). Therefore, the state and law are significantly complicit in the operation of and legitimation of unwanted contact, detention and restraint where this is permitted by law.

  • Lawfulness

Turning then to non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability, these practices are lawful violence in the sense discussed above because they are not prohibited by or actionable under law. In very general terms, criminal law defines assault and civil law defines battery in terms of non-consensual interpersonal physical contact or the non-consensual threat of such contact. The tort of false imprisonment and related criminal offences consider detention and restraint unlawful where it is the non-consensual deprivation of liberty in a delimited space. In the face of the general criminal and tortious prohibition of these acts, the entry point for the legality of such acts vis-à-vis people with disability is the legal exceptions to unlawful violence created by certain defences to criminal responsibility and tortious liability: consent, necessity and lawful authority. These are discussed here in very general terms (noting there will be differences between jurisdictions):

  1. Consent: Interpersonal physical contact does not constitute assault if consented to by the individual. However, where the individual does not have capacity to consent, the law permits a third party to consent on that person’s behalf. In the context of medical treatment of people with disability (such as sterilization) there are established legal processes for recognizing third party consent, e.g., involving determining lack of legal capacity on the basis of mental incapacity and then determining whether the medical decision is in the individual’s ‘best interests’ or a ‘step of last resort’.[vii]
  2. Necessity: Non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability might also be considered to fall in the defence of medical necessity if the procedure is considered ‘necessary’ in order to protect the individual’s life, health or wellbeing and the act is reasonable and proportionate to the ‘harm’ to be addressed (regardless of whether this harm is in the context of an immediate and short term emergency or an ongoing state of affairs).[viii]
  3. Lawful authority: Non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability are lawful when done pursuant to statutory or judicial authority.[ix] Such authority includes civil and forensic mental health legislation authoring detention and treatment, as well as legislation authorizing chemical and physical restraint.

These defences carve out an exception to ‘unlawful violence’ for non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability, such that they become forms of ‘lawful violence’ regulated by law. This procedural protection on an individual basis of when and how such interventions take place elides questioning at a systemic level why these unwanted practices should ever be permitted and in turn elides categorically naming these practices as violence.

Yet, the ‘regulation’ by law of these practices is typically framed as ‘protective’ because law’s involvement provides administrative and judicial procedural oversight to when and how these non-consensual interventions occur. In fact, the greater ‘procedural justice’ afforded to people with disability in the past couple of decades is frequently characterized as a marker of a more enlightened and progressive approach by law and society to people with disability insofar as it is juxtaposed to earlier purportedly extra-legal, arbitrary and repressive practices towards people with disability. However, far from showing law’s role in the ‘salvation’ or ‘empowerment’ of people with disability, the legal processes through which non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability are permitted in fact signal law’s complicity in this violence: the state’s regulation of a legal economy of violence against people with disability. The state and law contributes to the production of broader social and ethical norms about what is permissible to be done to people with disability and ultimately lowers the value of the bodies and lives of people with disability.

The status of some violence against people with disability as lawful has implications for the punishment of perpetrators and remedies for survivors – in short, there are none. For example, if an individual is detained in a mental health facility and given treatment pursuant to a court order made under civil mental health legislation, that individual cannot report this to police and have the doctor charged with assault (although if the doctor acts outside of the specifics of the order, this would then be unlawful). Similarly, if a girl with intellectual disability is sterilized pursuant to her parent’s consent, she cannot claim civil damages for battery where the doctor acted pursuant to her parents’ decision which was authorized by the court as being in her best interests. A further example is the detention in forensic mental health system of a non-convicted individual on basis of unfitness: this is lawful if is unfitness determined pursuant to the legal process specified by forensic mental health legislation and an individual cannot claim damages for years of imprisonment.

  • Disability-specificity

Above I have explained how non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability become ‘lawful violence’. I refer to this as ‘disability-specific’ lawful violence because disability is central to the lawfulness of this violence specifically to (and sometimes exclusively to) people with disability:

  1. This violence occurs in institutional circumstances specific to the marginalization, segregation and regulation of people with disability, e.g., mental health facilities, forensic mental health system, sterilization.
  2. Circulating across all of the defences discussed above and the associated legal frameworks of substituted decision-making (in the context of the defence of consent) and authorizing legislation (in the context of the defence of lawful authority), are stereotypes about disability as exemplified by judicial interpretation of such value-laden legal concepts as ‘harm’, ‘necessity’, ‘reasonable’, ‘best interests’ in relation to people with disability.[x]
  3. These defences and the associated legal frameworks of substituted decision-making and authorizing legislation appear as socially and ethically acceptable because of ideas associated with people with disability as needing (and benefiting from) medical treatment, detention and restraint. Significant here are discourses of disability linked to medicine and defect (rationales of therapy), helplessness (rationales of care and protection) and danger (rationales of risk management).
  4. Running across all of the defences and the associated legal frameworks of substituted decision-making and authorizing legislation is the significance of ‘mental incapacity’: either as the basis for the removal of legal capacity (e.g. in defences of consent and necessity) and/or as a basis for indicating lack of self-control, danger or vulnerability (e.g. in defences of necessity and lawful authority). ‘Mental incapacity’, while typically thought of as a scientifically objective characteristic of individuals, is a problematic concept embodying norms of rationality, self-sufficiency and bodily impermeability that are premised on an able subject.[xi]

Therefore, categorizing violence against people with disability in terms of its legal status illuminates how some violence against people with disability is legally permitted and state sanctioned. Where law has a monopoly over ‘violence’ against people with disability, it is arguable that turning to law to address individual instances of this violence is futile. A criminal or civil action can never be successful even with the best lawyers and judges: we cannot turn to domestic law for punishment or remedy (nor can we turn to the state to condone this violence) because law says they are not ‘violence’ in the legal sense and as such are not wrongs or harms and do not constitute injustices.

CRPD and Disability-Specific Lawful Violence

The CRPD provides the possibility of seeing non-consensual medical treatment, detention and physical and chemical restraint of people with disability as violence, and provides a human rights basis for states parties to prohibit these practices as unlawful violence. The CRPD explicitly imposes obligations on states parties to protect people with disability from violence, including by taking legal measures (presumably to prohibit violence and provide appropriate remedies). Article 16 of the CRPD states in part that: ‘States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities, both within and outside the home, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, including their gender-based aspects.’

Yet, the obligation in Article 16 is not merely to protect individuals from currently unlawful violence, e.g., enhancing enforcement in relation to individual cases. Rather, when Article 16 is read in conjunction with other Articles of the CRPD, it becomes apparent that states parties’ obligations under the CRPD in relation to violence include protecting people with disability from forms of violence which are presently lawful and hence from ‘disability-specific lawful violence’:

  1. The right to equality and non-discrimination in Article 5 and the right to personal integrity in Article 17 of the CRPD mean that individuals must have recognized their self-determination and ability to make their own decisions to consent to or withhold consent to interventions in their bodies and in their lives to the same degree as people without disability. People with disability cannot be subjected to non-consensual physical contact, detention or restraint on the basis of their disability.
  2. The right to equality and non-discrimination in Article 5 in conjunction with the right to legal capacity in Article 12 of the CRPD means that individuals should have their legal capacity to make decisions recognized to the same extent as individuals without disability and should not be denied legal capacity on the basis of ‘mental incapacity’. The right to exercise autonomy in consenting or withholding consent should be available to all regardless of perceived ‘mental incapacity’. In turn, non-consensual physical contact, detention or restraint on the basis of a denial of legal capacity is discriminatory because it applies only to individuals with a disability-linked ‘mental incapacity’ (itself a discriminatory concept, as mentioned above).[xii] On a similar basis, non-consensual detention on the basis of disability constitutes arbitrary detention pursuant to Article 14.[xiii]
  3. The right to freedom from torture in Article 15 means that the purportedly protective judicial and administrative procedural frameworks surrounding non-consensual contact, detention or restraint could, perversely, render these interventions not merely violence but state-sanctioned discriminatory violence and hence torture.[xiv]
  4. The shift evident in the preamble to the CRPD in the meaning of disability from a medical model to disability as ‘an evolving concept and that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others’ illuminates the significance of the social and political contingency of the meaning of disability to the realization of the human rights of people with disability including through domestic legal frameworks. In turn, this shift suggests that stereotypes about disability might presently circulate in legal frameworks that render lawful non-consensual contact, detention or restraint of people with disability.

The CRPD is quite radical in the new approach to violence against people with disability that it provides. This is because this approach contests foundational concepts of consent, capacity, state/judicial authority which order domestic legal systems (and to a certain extent international human rights law). This approach also contests old (but ever growing) institutions, disciplines and industries of incarceration and therapy through which non-consensual physical contact, detention or restraint are administered.

What needs to be done?

Despite these rather revolutionary ideas about disability and violence provided by the CRPD, disability-specific lawful violence continues. While the CRPD has prompted some states parties to ‘review’ (though perhaps not necessarily ‘reform’) capacity laws and mental health laws, ten years on from the coming into force the CRPD has not witnessed the prohibition of non-consensual physical contact, detention or restraint of people with disability.

Here I conclude by making a number of suggestions related to the significance of the interface of CRPD and domestic law to the prohibition and remedying of (presently lawful) violence against people with disability.

United Nations human rights committees must be consistent and persistent in urging states parties to reform criminal and civil laws to explicitly prohibit non-consensual physical contact, detention or restraint of people with disability including prohibit forced medical treatment, detention and chemical and physical restraint. United Nations human rights bodies should continue to encourage states parties to remove or withdraw interpretive declarations which interpret human rights to enable non-consensual medical treatment, detention and restraint (even when only as a ‘last resort’ or when in ‘best interests’). Unfortunately, these strategies might be impeded by the discrepancies which exist between United Nations human rights bodies in relation to the approach to disability and violence, with some human rights bodies failing to acknowledge disability-specific lawful violence and focusing on the ‘procedural’ protection approach to (regulating) violence. The discrepancies between United Nations human rights bodies might enable states parties to pick and choose how to interpret their obligations related to violence in such a way that ultimately focuses on addressing currently ‘unlawful’ violence and ignoring eliminating disability-specific lawful violence. United Nations human rights bodies might need to turn to consider the ideas of disability underpinning their approaches to violence against people with disability, some of which might precede the CRPD and its shift from a medical approach to disability.

A number of additional strategies which states parties should pursue (and which United Nations human rights bodies should encourage states parties to pursue) include:

  1. States parties should not limit their ‘review’ and ‘reform’ efforts to attaining a best practice in judicial and administrative oversight of disability-specific lawful violence (i.e. through procedural safeguards) to questioning whether some practices should ever be state sanctioned on anyone (including people with disability) regardless of the legal procedure through which this sanctioning occurs. Central to this is making apparent and naming the ideas about disability inherent in the law itself, rather than only addressing stereotypes about law that circulate in the application or enforcement of law at an individual level. This involves denaturalizing centuries-old legal concepts, legal procedures and jurisdictions – some of which are foundational to legal authority generally.
  2. States parties should consider the intersection of ideas about disability with other dimensions of identity, particularly being mindful of the identities of the individuals to whom these practices disproportionately apply: e.g. gender and forced mental health treatment and detention of women, age and chemical and physical restraint of older people with dementia in aged care facilities, Indigeneity and over-representation of Indigenous Australians in forensic mental health detention, gender and sterilization, ideas about criminality re people in forensic mental health detention.
  3. States parties should revisit the ideas of bodies and space envisaged by domestic laws related to violence, notably in relation to false imprisonment. In domestic law, detention and restraint focuses on external factors which restrict the individual’s movement – yet much of the interventions in the disability-specific context work from within the body – to restrain and regulate from within (e.g. chemical restraint[xv]).
  4. States parties should develop a strategy for ‘transitional justice’[xvi] that addresses prohibiting and making legally actionable future instances of non-consensual medical treatment, detention and restraint as well as developing a system to recognize, remedy and remember past instances of these practices when they were still lawful.[xvii] This might involve thinking beyond disability to how law (both international and domestic legal frameworks) have dealt with mass atrocities, historical injustices and state-sanctioned violence in relation to other marginalized groups. This system must not only focus on the individuals and institutions administering these practices, but also address how to make the state and law account for their complicity.
  5. States parties should address the role of ‘para-legal’ regulatory frameworks such as bioethics (e.g. research, clinical, professional) in legitimizing the administration of disability-specific lawful violence.[xviii]
  6. States parties should work with health, medical and disability services to challenge institutional, disciplinary and (importantly in an increasingly privatized and corporatized context) economic imperatives[xix] for the continuation of the administration of disability-specific lawful violence.
  7. States parties should encourage reforms to tertiary legal education which take a critical approach to disability and to disability-specific lawful violence in courses such as criminal law and tort law. Typically, law text books cover the operation of defences in relation to people with disability in a self-evident and non-critical manner which then naturalizes the legal treatment of people with disability and negates their subjection to violence and the law and state’s complicity in this violence.

Ultimately, the lower legal threshold of violence in relation to people with disability reflects a devaluing of bodies and lives of individuals with disability – until this is addressed the human rights of people with disability promised by the CRPD will be profoundly and disappointingly incomplete.

 

[i] Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, opened for signature 13 December 2006, 2515 UNTS 3 (entered into force 3 May 2008).

[ii] See, e.g., Karen Hughes, Mark A Bellis, Lisa Jones, Sara Wood, Geoff Bates, Lindsay Eckley, Ellie McCoy, Christopher Mikton, Tom Shakespeare and Alana Officer, ‘Prevalence and Risk of Violence against Adults with Disabilities: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies’ (2012) 379(9826) Lancet 1621.

[iii] See, e.g., Jess Cadwallader, Anne Kavanagh and Sally Robinson, ‘We Count What Matters, and Violence Against People with Disability Matters’, The Conversation, 27 November 2015, http://theconversation.com/we-count-what-matters-and-violence-against-people-with-disability-matters-51320, accessed 6 January 2016.

[iv] On ‘disability-specific lawful violence’ generally see, e.g., Linda Steele, ‘Disability, Abnormality and Criminal Law: Sterilisation as Lawful and Good Violence’ (2014) 23(3) Griffith Law Review 467; Submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including the gender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability (2015).

[v] Robert Cover, ‘Violence and the Word’ (1986) 95 Yale Law Journal 1601.

[vi] Austin Sarat and Thomas R Kearns, ‘Introduction’ in Austin Sarat and Thomas R Kearns (eds), Law’s Violence (University of Michigan Press, 1992) 1, 4.

[vii] In the Australian context see, e.g., Secretary, Department of Health and Community Services v JWB (1992) 175 CLR 218.

[viii] In the UK and Australian context see, e.g., Re F (Mental Patient Sterilisation) [1990] 2 AC 1.

[ix] In the Australian context see, e.g., Coco v R (1994) 179 CLR 427.

[x] On best interests see, e.g., Linda Steele, ‘Making Sense of the Family Court’s Decisions on the Non-Therapeutic Sterilisation of Girls with Intellectual Disability’ (2008) 22(1) Australian Journal of Family Law 1.

[xi] See, e.g., Linda Steele, ‘Disability, Abnormality and Criminal Law: Sterilisation as Lawful and Good Violence’ (2014) 23(3) Griffith Law Review 467.

[xii] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No 1 (2014): Article 12: Equal recognition before the law, 11th sess, UN Doc CRPD/C/GC/1 (19 May 2014).

[xiii] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No 1 (2014): Article 12: Equal recognition before the law, 11th sess, UN Doc CRPD/C/GC/1 (19 May 2014); see also Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Remedies and Procedures on the Right of Anyone Deprived of Their Liberty to Bring Proceedings Before a Court, 30th sess, UN Doc A/HRC/30/37 (6 July 2015), notably Principle 20 and Guideline 20.

[xiv] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No 1 (2014): Article 12: Equal recognition before the law, 11th sess, UN Doc CRPD/C/GC/1 (19 May 2014) 11[42]. On non-consensual medical treatment, detention and restraint of people with disability as torture, see Dinesh Wadiwel, ‘Black Sites: Disability and Torture’, paper presented at Critical Social Futures: Querying Systems of Disability Support, Symposium of The Australia Sociological Association, 19 June 2015.

[xv] Erick Fabris, Tranquil Prisons: Chemical Incarceration under Community Treatment Orders (University of Toronto Press, 2011).

[xvi] See, e.g., Carolyn Frohmader and Therese Sands, Australian Cross Disability Alliance (ACDA) Submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Violence, Abuse and Neglect Against People with Disability in Institutional and Residential Settings, August 2015.

[xvii] See, eg, Hege Orefellen, ‘Hege Orefellen on Reparations’, Campaign to Support CRPD Absolute Prohibition of Commitment and Forced Treatment, https://absoluteprohibition.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/hege-orefellen-on-reparations/, accessed 27 March 2016.

[xviii] The significance of bioethics is apparent from the controversy around Ashley X: see, e.g., Eva Feder Kittay, ‘Forever Small: The Strange Case of Ashley X’ (2011) 26(3) Hypatia 610.

[xix] On the ‘therapeutic industrial complex’ see, e.g., Michelle Chen, ‘How Prison Reform Could Turn the Prison-Industrial Complex Into the Treatment-Industrial Complex’, The Nation (20 November 2015) http://www.thenation.com/article/how-prison-reform-could-turn-the-prison-industrial-complex-into-the-treatment-industrial-complex/, accessed 29 March 2016.

Robert Whitaker: Medical Science Argues Against Forced Treatment Too

The argument that is usually made against involuntary commitment and forced treatment is that these actions, under the authority of a state, violate a person’s basic civil rights. They deprive a person of liberty and personal autonomy, and do so in the absence of a criminal charge. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities upholds that position by prohibiting discrimination in relation to these rights. That is a morally powerful argument, and it should stand at the center of any protest against forced treatment.

However, there is another argument, one of adjunctive value, that can be made against involuntary commitment and forced treatment. Medical science argues against forced treatment too.

The “state,” in order to justify involuntary commitment and forced treatment, will argue that such coercion is necessary to provide “medical treatment” to individuals who, because of their impaired state of mind, won’t give their consent to such treatment. The implication is that if the “psychotic” individual were of sound mind, he or she would want this treatment, and thus the state is serving as a helpful guardian. But this “medical” argument falls apart upon close examination.

First, there is evidence that psychiatric hospitalization itself—whether voluntary or involuntary– leads to an increased risk of suicide. In a 2014 study, researchers at the University of Copenhagen looked at the psychiatric care received by 2,429 individuals in the year before they committed suicide, and after matching this group of completed suicides to a control group of 50,323 people in the general population, and after making adjustments for risk factors, they concluded that the risk of dying from suicide rose as people received increasing levels of psychiatric care. Taking psychiatric medications was associated with a six-fold increased likelihood that people would kill themselves; contact with a psychiatric outpatient clinic with an eight-fold increase; visiting a psychiatric emergency room with a 28-fold increase; and admission to a psychiatric hospital a 44-fold increase.[1]

In an editorial that accompanied the article, which was published in the Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, the writers—all experts in suicide research—observed that these were robust findings. The Danish study, they wrote, “demonstrated a statistically strong and dose-dependent relationship between the extent of psychiatric treatment and the probability of suicide. This relationship is stepwise, with significant increases in suicide risk occurring with increasing levels of psychiatric treatment.” This link was so strong, they concluded, that “it would seem sensible, for example, all things being equal, to regard a non-depressed person undergoing psychiatric review in the emergency department as at far greater risk [of suicide] than a person with depression, who has only ever been treated in the community.”

These researchers concluded that it is “entirely plausible that the stigma and trauma inherent in (particularly involuntary) psychiatric treatment might, in already vulnerable individuals, contribute to some suicides. We believe that it is likely that a proportion of people who suicide during or after an admission to hospital do so because of factors inherent in that hospitalization.”[2]

Second, from a medical point of view, the “therapeutic relationship” between “patient” and “doctor” is understood to be an important factor to a “good outcome,” and forced treatment regularly leads to a breakdown in that relationship. The personal accounts of people who have been forcibly treated regularly compare it to torture, rape, and so forth. Moreover, these accounts cannot be dismissed as the writings of people who are “impaired” in their thinking, either at the time or later; such personal accounts often reveal an extraordinary level of detail and clarity.

Third, forced treatment regularly involves injections of an antipsychotic, and such initial treatment is regularly a precursor to long-term treatment with such drugs (and often in a coercive manner). However, there is now substantial evidence that such drug treatment over the long term does harm. For instance:

  • There is evidence that the drugs shrink brain volumes, with this shrinkage associated with an increase in negative symptoms, functional impairment, and cognitive decline.[3]
  • The drugs induce tardive dyskinesia in a significant percentage of patients, which reflects permanent damage having been done to the basal ganglia.
  • Martin Harrow, in his longitudinal study of psychotic patients, found that medicated patients fared worse over the long-term on every domain of functioning. The medicated patients were eight times less likely to be in recovery at the end of 15 years than those off the medication.[4]

This is simply a quick review of the medical case that can be made against forced treatment. But even this cursory review tells of treatment that increases the risk of suicide, can prove devastating to the “therapeutic relationship,” and may set a person onto a long-term course of medication use that has been found to be associated with a variety of harms and poor outcomes. As such, the argument that involuntary commitment and forced treatment are in the best “medical” interest of the “impaired” person falls apart when viewed through this scientific lens, and once it does, involuntary commitment and forced treatment can be clearly seen for what they are.

They are not a means for providing necessary “medical help” to an individual. They are an assertion of state authority and power over an individual, and that assertion of authority violates the person’s fundamental civil rights. Any societal discussion of involuntary commitment and forced treatment needs to focus on that issue, and not be distracted by the “medically helpful” claim.

 

[1] C. Hjorthøj, Risk of suicide according to level of psychiatric treatment—a nationwide nested case control study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2014) 49: 1357-65.

[2] M. Large. Disturbing findings about the risk of suicide and psychiatric hospitals. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatry Epidemiol (2014) 49:1353-55.

[3] J. Radua, “Multimodal meta-analysis of structural and functional changes in first 
episode psychosis and the effects of antipsychotic medications,” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review 36 (2012): 2325–33.

[4] M. Harrow. “Factors involved in outcome and recovery in schizophrenia patients not on antipsychotics medications.” J Nerv Ment Dis (2007) 195: 407-414.

 

 

In Italy, we don’t have a law against torture, by Erveda Sansi

 

contro psicofarmaci_col_rid

Drawing by Vincenzo Iannuzzi

 In Italy, the situation in the psychiatric field, with almost no exception, has worsened from the period of questioning psychiatric institution, in the beginning of the sixties. Then, Italy has been at the forefront of the closure of mental hospitals. Not only Giorgio Antonucci, Franco Basaglia and many professionals, but also a good part of the common people, realized that psychiatric hospitals were not places of care. Civil society, then, was sensitive to the issue of smash-down asylum culture. Publications appeared, there was an open debate, workers and students organized themselves and entered in asylums to see the conditions in which their fellow citizens were locked up. They protested and denounced the deplorable conditions the internees were forced to live in.

However, since several years, we observe a re-institutionalisation process and, at the same time, in some Italian hospital’s psychiatric wards happened many deplorable facts, due to forced treatment, institutionalization and forced restraint. Some of these facts have become infamous after that committees and relatives have asked for justice, as in the case of the well liked teacher Francesco Mastrogiovanni, 58 years old, that was debated also on national television channels. Franco Mastrogiovanni, after a forced psychiatric treatment the 4th August 2009, (because of a road traffic offense: circulation, at night, on a street closed to traffic), has been heavily sedated, tied to the bed of Vallo della Lucania’s hospital psychiatric ward, and left to die after four days of abandonment. During the 80 hours hospitalization he was nourished only with saline solutions; he was tied hands and feet to the bed, in such a position that his respiratory functions where compromised, and he was sedated with high doses of psychiatric drugs, without supervision from the staff. At wrists and ankles there are 4 cm wide grazes. A hidden camera recorded everything; the video is of public domain. At the trial the responsible physicians were found guilty and sentenced to 3 and 4 years detention, that, with the mitigating clauses, they won’t have to serve. The 12 nurses were acquitted because “they obeyed an order”. The Committee truth and justice for Francesco Mastrogiovanni, asks for truth and justice. Watch also the film 87 ore (87 hours), gli ultimi giorni di Francesco Mastrogiovanni (Francesco Mastrogiovanni’s the last days) by Costanza Quadriglio.

 

In Italy some deaths due to forced hospitalization and/or prolonged or short-time use of mechanical and chemical restraint have been reported by the press, television and network (this mean that there are a lot of other such “incidents”, we don’t know):

27 October 2005: Riccardo Rasman dies during a coercive treatment by the policemen, for a hospitalization against his will, in a psychiatric ward in Trieste.

21 June 2006: Giseppe Casu, guilty of having wanted to pursue his peddler job in the village square, dies in a psychiatric ward in the hospital “Santissima Trinità” of Cagliari, as a consequence of a thromboembolism, after a forced hospitalization and having been heavily sedated. He was tied hands and feet to the bed, for 7 days and was sedated with high doses of psychiatric drugs against his will.

28 August 2006: A.S., the 17th of August 2006 is admitted to the psychiatric ward in Palermo, for medical investigations. A.S. died after 2 days coma, the 28th of August, probably for excessive doses of psychiatric drugs.

26 May 2007: Edmond Idehen a 38 years old Nigerian man, went voluntarily into the psychiatric ward of Bologna’s hospital “Istituto Psichiatrico Ottonello – Ospedale Maggiore Bologna”. As he tried to leave the hospital, because he did not feel cared, the doctors forced him to stay, with the help of policemen. Edmond Idehen died as a consequence of a hearth attack while nurses and policemen held him down. He was also strongly sedated with psychiatric drugs.

12 June 2006: Roberto Melino, 24 years old, dies for a hearth attack; he entered voluntarily the psychiatric ward of Empoli’s “San Giuseppe” hospital. As he tried to leave the hospital, he was forced to stay by the doctors, and obliged to take high doses of psychiatric drugs, in spite of his evident and serious breath difficulties.

15 June 2008: Giuseppe Uva, 43 years old, was brought inside a police station, because he was driving in state of high alcoholic level. There he was subjected to ill-treatments. After 3 hours he was forced to an obligatory hospitalization in the Varese’s “Circolo” hospital and was forced to take psychiatric drugs. He died because of the stress provoked by the mix of alcohol and psychiatric drugs.

30 August 2010: Lauretana La Coca, 32 years old, entered voluntarily in Termini Imerese’s “Salvatore Cimino” hospital. After 10 days of hospitalization her condition got worse, till she got into a comatose state and died.

Giuseppe D.: A man, more than 70 years old, was interned in Reggio Emilia’s psychiatric prison. His problem was that the neighbour’s daughter is a psychiatrist. His lawyer took a legal action to the European Court of human Rights, but until now there has been no answer, so the Pisa’s student group “Collettivo Antipsichiatrico Artaud”, together with “Telefono viola” from Milan, decided to release the documentation relating to this case in Internet, according with Giuseppe D.’s will, his lawyer, and his relatives.

2 April 2010: Eric Beamont, 37 years old, the 2 April 2010 was hospitalized in Lamezia. After 2 days he entered coma, so the doctors transferred him to the Catanzaro’s “Pugliese – Ciaccio” hospital, where he died. There is the suspect that the death of Eric was caused from a high dose of benzodiazepine. Diagnosis was: subarachnoid hemorrhage[1]

28 May 2015 Massimiliano Malzone died during a forced treatment.

11 July 2015 Amedeo Testarmata died during a forced treatment.

29 July 2015 Mauro Guerra died during a forced treatment.

5 August 2015 Andrea Soldi died during a forced treatment…

Unfortunately in this article we have not described isolated occurrences, but an emblematic situation of violation of human rights in the Italian psychiatric institutions.

These are just some of the “incidents” that came to the limelight, but many more of them are not known when they happen, because, for example, people who live in loneliness are involved, or people whose relatives have given their consent, or simply when people want to get rid of a person perceived as annoying. We The Mad Hatter Association, constantly of forced psychiatric treatments, during which treated people suffer heavy damages. Forced treatments are often made on request of relatives, when patients refuse to take any longer the psychiatric drugs, or when their behaviour is perceived as disturbing. A friend of us (I.M.) tried to escape, but he was chased and filled with drugs; shortly after he was found dead at the bottom of a ravine. He was 40 years old. Another friend (A.S.) was walking on a path between fields and was stopped by police, because he was known as a “mentally ill” person. Then they called the psychiatrist on duty and told him: “He was walking near the railway and could possibly have in mind to commit suicide”; so they locked him up. I know this person, who often walks in the fields, where, however, it’s easy to be located near the railway, because of the constitution of the territory. He had never the intention of committing suicide. Another acquaintance of us died, throwing himself under a train, terrified by the fact that his mother, according to the psychiatrist, would refer to forced psychiatric treatment for him. Another one (U.S.) has suffered of heavy harassment, after having reported his superior’s embezzlement, noticed during his duties as a municipal technician. He was subjected to forced psychiatric treatment, kidnapped by police in riot gear. While he was sleeping, his door was smashed down, and he was thrown on the ground face down and handcuffed. He says that at least they could have tried to open the door, which was not locked. Now he is terrified and he even fears the dark; he is forced to take psychiatric drugs.

We can not think of de-institutionalization before we have dismissed the rules that allow forced psychiatric treatment, that allow to hold a person against his will, without having committed any crime, without the right to an equitable process, based on the alleged dangerousness and only because this person was diagnosed with a mental illness.

The so called “Basaglia law” the law nr. 180 from 13.5.1978, then joined and actually regulated by Law 833/1978 articles 33, 34, 35, 64, establishes the “Accertamenti e Trattamenti sanitari volontari e obbligatori” (“Forced health verifications and treatments”). In 1978 the law nr. 180 imposed the asylums’ closure, and the elimination of dangerousness or/and public scandal as criterion for forced treatment. But in the most Italian province, asylums didn’t close. So it was necessary to make another law, (because these asylums were too expensive), the law n. 724 from 23.12.1994, art. 3 paragraph 5, which dispose that these asylums had to be closed within the 31.12.1996; again disregarded, differed until the end of 1999. In 1996 the asylum inmates in Italy were 11.516 in 62 public asylums and 4.752 in private asylums.

According to this art. 180 law, forced treatment and included forced hospitalization, are possible if there are the following conditions: 1) a person “suffering mental illness” requires urgent medical treatment; 2) refuse the treatment; 3) it’s not possible to take adequate measures outside the hospitals. Forced treatments has a maximum duration of seven days, but can be renewed if necessary and then extended if it persists for a reasoned clinical need (it’s not an exception that the duration is extended for months and years). For forced treatments and the consequently limitation of personal freedom, there must be a request signed by two physicians, an administrative validation from the Mayor is required, followed by the validation of a judicial review by the Tutelary Judge.

Legislation of forced psychiatric treatment provides ample scope for arbitrariness and it is in strong contrast to the human rights regulations, that aim at preserving even people with disabilities from inhuman and degrading treatments. For those who commit a crime, it is expected that the judicial authority, within certain specific procedural rules, sanctions or imposes restrictive measures. We constantly deal with innocent people in forced psychiatric treatment, who can no longer find a way out of the psychiatric institution.

“I have to confess”, said a psychiatrist, “to have a person completely in my power, made me feel a kind of sadistic shiver”.

In Italy the CRPD was ratified in 2009, but just at now we have not a law against torture, torture is not a crime, torture is not forbidden in Italy. So, those who torture does not violate the law. In the meantime a lot of intermediate psychiatric institutions (also called little asylums) were built. They are public or private and reimbursed from the State. A very great business is behind. Some other examples: Lazio Region President Polverini’s decree on Lazio hospital system: the number of beds in Psychiatric Institutions raise from 369 up to 629; more 70%. 50 beds for the public structure and 210 for the private structure trigger the chronicization circuit.

260 beds = 90.000 life days subtracted to the people at the cost of 10.000.000 €.

Didn’t the Basaglia Law foresee the closing up of madhouses?

  • Professor Antonucci, what is, to date, the status of implementation of the law 180?

– Apart from some single exceptional case, what proposed Franco Basaglia is not realized, but it continues a job that Basaglia obviously would not approve: authoritarian interventions, taking people by force and bring it in psychiatric clinics, which are the continuation of the asylum. The asylum was established by the authoritarian intervention: I take a person against his will, then I submit her to a series of forced interventions, which are the essence of the mental hospital”. (http://www.psicoterapia.it)

The deplorable situation of the six Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals recently became more visible, after surprise-inspections of a parliamentary committee. The videos of the visits, showed by the national television, and the press releases can be found on the web. A parliamentary report had already been made in June 2010, but the photographs show a situation that until now has not yet changed. People held for decades for minor offenses, whose penalty would have expired long time since, if not repeatedly and automatically renewed.

Here below we report some data extracted from the text of the parliamentary relation on the June 2010 inspection of the 6 Italian psychiatric prisons (forensic institutions) still active (Senator Ignazio Marino, physician ,was Chair of the Investigative Committee on the National Health Care System). After the 1978 “Basaglia law”, madhouses had to be closed, but the 6 psychiatric prisons mentioned above keep doing the same job. Senator Marino was also concerned about the increasing of electroshock (from 9 institutions allowed to give electroshock before 2008, now we have more than 90 psychiatric institutions who dispense ECT).

The regulations and logics that manage these psychiatric prisons (forensic institutions) (in Italian OPG-Ospedale Psichiatrico Giudiziario), are the same inherited by the fascist Rocco Code (1934). 40 % of the 1500 actual convicted should already have been released, for detention terms expired, but they see their penalty end terms deferred in order of their supposed social dangerousness.

Nine people each cell, dirty bathrooms and bed sheets; dirty nurses’ gowns as well. In Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (Messina), 329 convicted are overcrowded in cells built in 1914. Dirt everywhere. One patient was found naked, tied up to his bed, with a haematoma on his head. Aversa, built in 1898. 320 people locked up six by cell, in inhuman conditions.

NAS (Antisofistication and health nucleus of Carabinieri (Police)) reported and denounced all this to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but this office is often made by the same persons that sentence patients to life.

In the Secondigliano OPG, the psychiatric prison is interior to the jail. Here stays since 25 years a patient who was sentenced two years. Burns and black eyes are not reported on the clinical diary. Feet and hands go gangrenous.

In Montelupo Fiorentino OPG they are 170 in a very scruffy building. In Reggio Emilia OPG they are 274 where they should be 132. 3 showers serve 158 patients. One is tied up to his bed since 5 days for disciplinary reasons. 3 in 9 meters square. “The OPG (psychiatric prison) are one of the “silence zones”, explains Alberto, of the Pisa Antipsychiatric Collective dedicated to Antonin Artaud, “and they show the political use of psychiatry. The consume of psychiatric drugs is more and more pushed, the electroshock comes back “in fashion”, perhaps to “heal post partum depression”. And a law lies in ambush in order to bring the forced hospitalization terms from 7 to 30 days”. After the scandal came to light, on 17 January 2012 the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the definitive closure of the OPG by 31 March 2013. The closure was extended until March 31, 2015. After the closure of the facilities in 2015, according to Law Decree n. 211/2011, converted into Law no. 9/2012, have been replaced by residences for Execution of Security Measures (R.E.M.S.). We have to closedown the Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals, instead of changing the name of them. If we don’t shut dawn these places once and for all, we cannot talk about de-institutionalization. Close them not in order to transfer their users to other psychiatric institutions, but to give these people a life dignity.

A research (source: British Medical Journal) conducted in 6 European countries (Italy, Spain, England, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany), that have closed asylums in the 70s, saw that between 1990 and 2003 an increase in the number of beds in forensic psychiatric hospitals, in psychiatric wards, in so-called safe houses. Supported housing is seen as an alternatives to asylums, as a sign of de-institutionalization, but they are rather a form of institutionalization. Also forced treatments are increasing. It is not clear the reason why the number of beds in Forensic Psychiatric Hospital increased, since there is no correlation between crimes like homicides and de-institutionalized persons.

It would be important to spread the awareness that forced treatments, like the restraint is an anti-therapeutic act, that makes cures more difficult, rather than to facilitate them. Physical restraint is not exercised only in the field of psychiatry. The areas of operation where should be discussed the problem of legitimacy, usefulness and appropriateness of physical restraint, do not consist only in hospitals, but also in nursing homes for the elderly, therapeutic communities for drug addicts and nursing homes for people with disabilities related to congenital or early acquired disabilities. An improvement in psychiatric nursing practice, characterized by the renunciation of physical restraint, would be a strong signal in order to spot out the problem also in other operating environments, urging those who work in this field to act with similar treatment practices, rather than restrictive ones.

Referring to the psychiatric drugs there are rules of the Convention on Human Rights, which require user’s fully informed consent, before administering, even if he’s disabled. Most psychiatric drugs are prescribed for a long time, sometimes for life, without informing the user on their effects, and without any help in the resolution of his real and existential problems. Psychiatric drugs can cause neurological diseases, that sometimes become irreversible. Akathisia, dyskinesia, are very unpleasant effects and can throw a person in despair. Often the user is encouraged to continue taking the drugs even when he asks to withdraw them, and it is almost impossible to find professionals who help and give directions for withdrawal. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, working with institutions as WHO (World Health Organisation) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration), wrote hundreds of pages on the harmful effects of psychiatric drugs. Peter Lehmann, who tested the effects of drugs on himself during his hospitalization in a psychiatric clinic, has published and continues to publish the results of his research for which he uses pharmaceutical and medical literature. The effect of psychiatric drugs is known, but the billion-dollar business behind it is too big to lose it. Peter Lehmann is the first survivor of psychiatry to be awarded with the honorary degree, conferred him by the clinical psychology faculty of the Aristotele’s University of Thessaloniki, for his work as researcher and activist in the field of mental health.

A person who starts to take drugs, in most cases will be induced to take them for life, because they create addiction problems. The psychiatric user develops a very strong dependence toward the psychiatric service too. For the psychiatrists, lack of compliance is in fact intended in it self an aggravation of the disease. Then the conditioning that takes place, goes in the direction of dependence from psychiatric services, of becoming “childish” and “chronic patient”.

Although in almost all European countries asylums and psychiatric hospitals have been eliminated or substantially reduced, this does not mean that in the new post-asylum structures, asylum-dispositifs have been eliminated. People are, with few exceptions, completely sedated by psychiatric drugs, even though apparently there are implemented programs such as art therapy. The intake of psychiatric drugs is induced also in order to make the user unconscious.

Erwin Redig, a German psychiatric survivor, says: “There are people putting us under pressure to force us to take them (psychiatric drugs). If we do not take them, our changes embarrass them. If this is our case, we must make clear to ourselves that we are swallowing drugs for other people’s welfare, because they find us unpleasant if we do not”.

“The dispositif of discomfort-complex, that operates in a small residence, acts more broadly in the society”. Neuroleptic drugs affect thinking, block the flow of thoughts, and make people flatten. I relate the words of a healthcare professional: “As soon as psychiatric drugs are given to people, they literally get extinguished. To what extend is it fair to cancel the person?” Although in the European countries, the asylum psychiatry and the psychiatric hospitalization of users have given way to communities, the psychiatric institution culture has not changed. The patterns of asylum residentiality are still active. But most of all it is still alive an asylum mentality, therefore it is important for everyone to be aware how much everybody’s mentality is crucial in creating or not creating devices that belong to psychiatric institutions; operating devices that constitute a widespread operating module. “Residential Intermediate Structures”, foreseen in Italy by the 1983 law, should have had the provisional nature as their specificity; therefore they should not constitute either a definite admission or a final place for forced hospitalization; they should have been  transitional housing, that could break prejudice and exclusion logics. In March 1999, by a special decree, to the Italian Regions was imposed the definitive closure of the asylums, under threat of strong economic sanctions, because despite the birth, on paper, of the new “local services”, mental hospitals were still crowded with patients.

Named by the derogatory title of “asylum residuals”, for these people that nobody wanted, residential structures accounted for an illusion of freedom; they founded themselves to be again in a mental institution. “Many patients”, writes one of them in an autobiography, “have never been so well in terms of comfort, but nevertheless they are in a state of fearful desolation”.

An induced need of security, the defence from a potentially dangerous mind sick person that at any time, during an outbreak, could commit heinous actions against others or against himself; shortly, on the basis of this need and of this false scientific fundamentals, we build the myth of the need of post-asylums psychiatric institutions. If we don’t get reed of the psychiatric prejudice, the “mental health” institution remains. There are many alternatives pursued by individuals, associations or institutions, but they are deliberately ignored. The responsibility for solving the problems of institutionalization, is not up only to psychiatrists or to mental health professionals, but to the whole civil society. Everybody contributes to the asylum mentality. Users as well, who have internalized the psychiatric diagnosis and can no longer live without it.

Mary Nettle, chairman of Enusp until 2010, expects an increasing involvement of users and survivors of psychiatry in researches about psychiatry; while they often are excluded or not paid on the pretext that they are not professionals.

Although many examples exist that  prove that you can accompany a person in troubles out of his problems, through dialogue and support in the resolution of the objective and material difficulties, and helping him to get awareness of his own rights, these experiments and their positive results continue to be deliberately ignored.

 

I will never forget, by Irit Shimrat

a work in progress

I will never forget, though I wish I could, what psychiatric brutality feels like. Being taken to hospital by the cops, by brute force, in handcuffs, though my only crime was confusion.

Being stripped naked in front of male orderlies. Being shackled to a gurney on the psych emergency ward. Being painfully jabbed in the ass by a nurse wielding a needle filled with a drug that had immediate, nightmarish effects. Being ignored by chatting nurses as I whispered, then said, then screamed that I had to go to the bathroom. Being left to lie in my own shit for hours as they discussed boyfriends and hair styles.

Being wheeled to a concrete cell, furnished only with a mattress on the floor and a metal toilet and tiny sink, an observation window in the metal door, and a camera in the corner of the ceiling. Being left there for days, under the glaring fluorescent light, with someone coming in three times a day to leave a sad, bland meal in a plastic tray on the floor. Performing for the camera and writing on the walls with my shit as the drugs that were supposed to knock me out made me crazier and crazier.

Finally being released onto the ward, but being slammed back into solitary confinement every time I “acted out.” Slowly and painfully learning to conform, so as to earn such “privileges” as being allowed to wear real pajamas, then my own clothes; being allowed out for a cigarette; being allowed to make a phone call. Being mocked and brutalized by burned-out nurses.

Finally being allowed visitors, only to have them stare at me in horror and pity, as I shuffle like a zombie, much too drugged to make conversation. Eventually learning the magic words that got me out: “I understand that I’m sick and need to take these drugs for the rest of my life.” Drugs that had already resulted in dry mouth; flaking skin; extreme constipation; painful muscle spasms; inability to sit, stand or lie still – not to mention their effects on my mind: the terror, the agony, my absolute failure to be able to hang onto my self. The certainty – my only certainty – that I had died and gone to hell. That I was being punished for crimes I couldn’t remember. That I would never be able to live in the world again.

I was wrong in that certainty, but it’s been a hard road back, and I’ve had to travel it many times. Always, when I’m back out in the world, I find myself suffering from the effects of institutionalization, terrified of the loneliness, of having to take care of myself, of not being able to make it outside the bin. I’ve had to suffer the withdrawal symptoms from whatever they were forcing me to take, which I stop taking as soon as I get out. I’ve had to punish myself, hit myself, scream at myself for having been such an idiot as to get locked up again. I’ve had to go through weeks or months of wanting to kill myself to make sure this never happened to me again. I’ve had to slowly rebuild my life. And I’ve had to live with the permanent effects, physical and emotional, of being poisoned with psychiatric drugs and traumatized by institutional cruelty.

My life has been a sheltered one, on the whole. I was born and raised in a comfortable middle-class family, with lots of parental love and support and no violence or neglect. I have never been raped or beaten or hungry. Nevertheless, I got bored as a teenager, took lots of drugs, and ended up going crazy, several times, over the years. But being crazy wasn’t, of itself, a bad thing. If I had been allowed to go through it – if I had been treated with kindness and compassion, and encouraged to explore my thoughts and visions and make sense of them – it could have been the wonderful experience that it always started out as. It could have enriched me.

The only really bad thing that has ever happened to me is psychiatry. It has damaged my body and mind, destroyed my self-esteem, and forced me to re-invent myself, again and again, every time it tore me apart.

 

Pink Belette: La psiquiatrie en France/ Psychiatry in France

La psychiatrie en France, zone de non-droit (par Pink Belette)

Une patiente française sous contrainte fait son « audit » dans le cadre de la campagne pour soutenir l’Abolition totale des soins et de l’hospitalisation sans consentement en application de la CDPH de l’ONU

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.no/2016/03/la-psychiatrie-en-france-zone-de-non.html

 

Pourquoi je suis contre les « soins sous contrainte » :

On pourrait croire que, au pays de la liberté, on a encore droit à son intégrité morale et physique.

Rien n’est plus faux. Par experience, impossible pour quiconque d’échapper à un soin sous contrainte (SPDT, « soin à la demande d’un tiers » ou « péril imminent »).

Il suffit que : une personne la demande (que ce soit la famille, un voisin…), qu’on soit « pas bien », déstabilisé, agité, « instable », en colère, dépressif, sur la défensive, « en opposition », « délirant », amaigri, boulimique, fumeur de shit, drogué…

Il suffit aussi qu’on refuse l’hospitalisation ou un traitement pour que les médecins se relaient pour demander un soin sous contrainte. Une fois hospitalisé, « on » vous fait comprendre que vous perdez vos droits à la personne, l’argument étant : « maintenant on est responsable de vous pour TOUT »… Par contre, vis-à-vis de vous, « on » n’est responsable de rien…

 

Depuis la loi Bachelot du 5 Juillet 2011, en particulier si on a le malheur de contester le diagnostic ou le traitement, c’est alors après la sortie d’hospitalisation qu’on ne peut plus se débarrasser de la contrainte, et c’est là que c’est le plus pervers : injections forcées, consultations obligatoires avec un praticien hospitalier non choisi (à la rigueur, on a le choix entre deux médecins).

Le pire : si on refuse de se rendre au centre médico-psychologique du secteur assigné, la police vient gentiment vous cueillir chez vous pour vous hospitaliser en soins obligatoires à un degré encore plus coercitif (SPDRE, « sur la demande de l’Etat ») et sur un temps plus long et sans contact autorisé avec l’extérieur (!) jusqu’à ce qu’il aient réussi à réduire votre volonté à néant. Ainsi, il arrive que les personnes concernées doivent abandonner leur logement pour « vivre » en psychiatrie (parfois pendant des dizaines d’années, voir le cas de Dimitri Fargette)…

 

Je suis témoin : en France, il y a réellement du souci à se faire…

  1. Il n’y a aucune alternative à la psychiatrie institutionnelle (lobbying des psychiatres ET de l’industrie pharmaceutique contre d’autres formes de thérapies) ;
  2. Aucune littérature ou culture antipsychiatrique (des « survivants », il n’y en a pas…)
  3. L’Ordre des Medecins Psychiatres qui suspend : tout psychiatre « en décalage » avec le système consensuel (d’après le Dr. O.G, psychiatre libéral et ex-chef de clinique) ;
  4. L’Ordre des Medecins Psychiatres qui suspend : un psychiatre responsable de la mort d’une patiente… seulement pour 2 semaines (voir l’affaire Florence Edaine)
  5. La « Mafia des tutelles » : tout patient faisant des séjours répétés est automatiquement placé sous curatelle ou tutelle (sans consentement, c’est renforcé)…
  6. Des mères se voient enlever leurs enfants immédiatement après la pose d’un diagnostic de maladie mentale ; jamais de scandale médiatique…
  7. On fait comprendre aux femmes en âge de procréer qu’il faut surtout adopter la contraception, en sous-entendant qu’on leur enlèverait leur enfant de toute façon. Ce qu’on ne leur dit pas, c’est que tous les neuroleptiques passent la barrière placentaire, c’est pourquoi j’ai entendu parler d’autant de cas d’avortements spontanés chez les femmes sous traitement. Dixit une infirmière, on donne de l’Haldol aux femmes enceintes, ce qui « prouverait » soi-disant « le peu de nocivité de l’Haldol » (!). Jamais d’étude là-dessus ni de scandale médiatique…
  8. Des services fermés qui regorgent de dépressifs qui ne sont pas en « péril imminent » et qui se sentent surtout mal de recevoir par exemple 4(!) antidépresseurs à la fois…
  9. Une cellule d’isolement toujours occupée (appelée « chambre de soins intensifs »!), ce qui participe du « folklore »…
  10. « Abonné une fois, abonné toujours » : les traitements qu’on ne peut plus JAMAIS arrêter ;
  11. Aucune étude à long-terme sur les effets des psychotropes…
  12. Aucun recours en cas d’abus psychiatriques (système interne de « médiation » caduc : mal vous en prend d’écrire une lettre au directeur de l’établissement…)

 

Pourquoi je suis contre ce nouveau système de « Juge des Libertés et Détentions » (relatif à la loi du 27 septembre 2013) :

On vous fait croire que c’est une voie de recours. Rien n’est plus faux, à part en cas de vice de forme (ce qui n’arrive quasiment jamais, puisque les psychiatres ont intérêt à ce que la procédure se passe en bonne et dûe forme). Au contraire, c’est un enfermement de plus…

  1. Le juge n’est pas psychiatre, il se garderait bien de remettre en question le jugement des médecins sur le fond. Par contre, on lui a expliqué que tout patient qui conteste le traitement est en « opposition », ce qui constitue déjà une preuve de « déni de maladie ».
  2. Les médecins y trouvent donc une voie bien pratique pour se décharger de leurs responsabilités, puisque « c’est le juge qui décide ». Et alors on voit défiler les patients dans le bureau du juge, accompagnés d’un soignant : « on vous amène Mme X »…
  3. On vous octroie un avocat commis d’office une semaine avant, mais qu’on ne peut pas contacter avant. Le jour de l’audience, c’est 15 minutes pour faire connaissance et se préparer, et ceci « dans les cases »…
  4. Ce qui est très alarmant, c’est qu’on ne trouve pas d’avocat en libéral, à part peut-être à Paris, et seulement pour un recours aux assises.
  5. Le juge prétexte qu’il ne peut lever le soin sous contrainte si c’est à la demande du directeur de l’établissement. Or, toutes les demandes de mise en soins sous contrainte passent par l’approbation du directeur. Tout le monde se donne bonne conscience, donc ;
  6. Une fois l’audience terminée (10 minutes), où l’on se voit déstabilisé, accusé et mis en doute, le juge « ordonne » le maintien en hospitalisation complète et de la mesure de contrainte, ce qui confère force de loi aux médecins (et donc une impunité totale) et SURTOUT donne encore plus de poids à la mesure.
  7. Inutile de préciser que si on était encore crédible avant, on ne l’est plus du tout et c’est définitif. Si on refuse de signer la feuille ou de comparaître, c’est pire, et on s’attire les foudres des médecins et du personnel soignant, qui vous mettent la pression, vous humilient et vous maltraitent. On ne peut pas non plus refuser que l’audience ait lieu.
  8. Le juge sait pertinemment qu’il s’agit d’une volonté potitique de faire taire les « récalcitrants » par voie chimique et coercitive. Il y adhère donc pleinement.

 

Pourquoi je suis contre les traitements forcés :

J’insiste sur le fait que les psychiatres hospitaliers ont les pleins pouvoirs sur le choix et le dosage des traitements, il ne s’agit JAMAIS d’un consentement éclairé. La « balance bénéfice-risque » est toujours de leur côté, même en cas de surdosage, même si la personne prend déjà 17 médicaments et pèse 200kg (ce qui est le cas d’une amie à qui on a donné Zyprexa ET Xeroquel suite à quoi elle a fait un accident vasculaire cérébral). Ils ne sont jamais responsables des effets secondaires non plus et vous orientent « gentiment » vers votre généraliste…

De plus, c’est toujours les médecins qui « décident » à votre place si vous allez bien ou non, et ce, même s’ils ne vous connaissent pas ou vous on vu seulement 5 minutes…

L’effet pervers de la chose, c’est que c’est tellement insupportable d’être enfermé et camisolé chimiquement qu’au bout d’un mois, on fait semblant d’aller mieux, on renie ses opinions et on arrête de se plaindre des effets secondaires pour pouvoir sortir, sous peine de se voir diagnostiquer en plus des « troubles du comportement » et un « déni de la maladie»…

 

J’AI ETE TORTUREE : au Zyprexa (surdosage), au Solian, au Tercian, au Risperdal (8 mg pour un poids de 50 kg), à l’Haldol (90 gouttes par jour) et « shootée » au Valium (40mg!)…

Le médecin et le personnel infirmier refusaient de prendre en compte : les troubles de l’élocution, tremblements, convulsions, dyskinésies, impatiences insupportables, angoisses mortelles, envie de mourir et tortures psychiques (« enfer » mental) qui ont apparu immédiatement et ont même empiré avec le temps. Je me suis battue en vain en plaidant que les neuroleptiques anesthésient la conscience, font perdre la mémoire, rendent docile et influençable, rendent dépressif et encore plus anxieux, affectent les capacités intellectuelles et détruisent l’âme.

J’ai également été mise plusieurs fois en isolement avec violences de la part du personnel ET des employés de la sécurité, alors que je n’ai JAMAIS été agressive. J’ai été mise sous contention, j’ai été déshabillée de force, j’ai été déshydratée, humiliée, bafouée, maltraitée…

Aujourd’hui, même si j’ai droit à un traitement moins inhumain, l’Abilify en injectable (après une 4ème tentative de suicide), je reste « accro » au Valium, traumatisée et toujours en alerte, dans l’angoisse de manquer à mes « obligations » ou de faire mauvaise impression, sans parler de l’absence totale de perspectives, de motivation et de joie dans ma vie, sans parler de ma vie affective qui est une misère (mort spirituelle, isolation, dépression, anxiété…).

Ma carrière artistique, qui avait débuté avec succès, a été définitivement brisée pendant mes meilleures années (la trentaine) et je suis aujourd’hui dans l’incapacité de créer alors qu’avant je foisonnais d’idées et me donnais les moyens pour les mettre en œuvre. Il est également trop tard et trop compliqué pour moi maintenant pour devenir mère.

Je vis dans la précarité à la charge de l’Etat.

 

Pourquoi j’ai toujours été opposée à leurs « diagnostics » pathologisants :

Je suis une personne ayant vécu les pires traumatismes dans la petite enfance (viols et abus, harcèlement), dont la plupart des souvenirs sont remontés plus de trente ans après, ce qui a grandement affecté mon équilibre psychique. J’ai malheureusement dû constater que, d’après les psychiatres (pour autant qu’ils m’aient crue…), il n’y aurait aucune relation de cause à effet entre ce que j’ai subi et mes troubles (!), ce qui est tellement énorme et risible qu’on aurait plutôt envie d’en pleurer…

J’ai pu constater, à l’instar de la Dre Muriel Salmona, seule psychiatre en France à ma connaissance qui aborde la souffrance psychique sous l’angle du trauma, qu’en France, aucune prise en charge spécifique n’est prévue ou proposée, et après 8 ans de psychiatrie, aucun médecin à ce jour ne m’a diagnostiqué un syndrôme de stress post-traumatique avec dissociation, ce qui pourtant devrait être le cas après des viols dans la grande majorité des cas selon la Dre muriel Salmona ( Association Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie ). Je n’ai quasiment jamais pu faire de travail thérapeutique avec un psychiatre.

Quant à leur diagnostic de schizophrénie, il n’a jamais été étayé, expliqué ou argumenté, et mon dossier a été établi sur des « observations » des médecins et de simples « impressions » du personnel soignant… J’ai constaté également que parler de spiritualité conduisait immanquablement à un diagnostic de « délire mystique », donc, selon eux, de schizophrénie.

J’en conclus que l’enfermement et leurs mauvais soins n’ont fait qu’en rajouter à mes traumatismes, je ne crois pas un seul instant que leurs maladies imaginaires résultent d’un déséquilibre chimique dans mon cerveau ou d’une quelconque « maladie » biologique, je sais que les effets des neuroleptiques sont catastrophiques à long-terme et je suis totalement en accord avec de nombreux anti-psychiatres à l’international, dont le Dr. Peter Breggin, Joanna Moncrieff, David Healy, Robert Whitaker, Thomas Szazs, Peter Goetzsche et autres… (cf. le site madinamerica.com).

 

CONFORMEMENT À LA CONVENTION DES NATIONS UNIES SUR LES DROITS DES PERSONNES HANDICAPÉES, ARTICLES 12, 14 ET 15, TEL QU’INTERPRÉTÉ DANS L’OBSERVATION GÉNÉRALE NO. 1 ET LES LIGNES DIRECTRICES SUR L’ARTICLE 14, ET AUX PRINCIPES DE BASE ET LIGNES DIRECTRICES PUBLIEES PAR LE GROUPE DE TRAVAIL SUR LA DETENTION ARBITRAIRE DE L’ONU, PRINCIPE 20 ET LIGNE DIRECTRICE 20, JE PLAIDE POUR L’ABOLITION TOTALE DE LA PSYCHIATRIE COERCITIVE ET DES TRAITEMENTS FORCES.

JE REVENDIQUE TOUS MES DROITS A LA PERSONNE EN TANT QUE FEMME MAJEURE PROTEGEE, PERSONNE HANDICAPEE, EN PARTICULIER LE DROIT INALIENABLE DE DISPOSER PLEINEMENT DE MON CORPS ET DE MON ESPRIT SANS CHIMIE IATROGENE, DE MA LIBERTE INCONDITIONNELLE.

JE CONSIDERE LA PSYCHIATRIE INSTITUTIONNELLE ET SES PRATIQUES COERCITIVES COMME UN CRIME CONTRE L’HUMANITE, UNE ATTEINTE A LA DIGNITE ET A LA LIBERTE DE PENSEE 

Pink Belette, Mars 2016

 

****

Psychiatry in France, NO-RIGHTS-ZONE (By Pink Belette)

A french patient under forced commitment makes her « audit assignment » as part of the campaign to support CRPD absolute prohibition of commitment and forced treatment

 

Why I am against commitment and forced treatment :

One could believe that, in the land of liberty, one is still entitled to his or her physical and moral integrity.

Experience proves it wrong. It is impossible for anyone to escape forced commitment (so-called « care on demand of a third party » or « imminent danger »).

It’s already a done deal if : one person asks for it (family, neighbour…), one is « not well », unsettled, agitated, « not stable », gets angry, is depressed, on the defensive, « in opposition », exuberant, emaciated, bulimic, shit smoker, drugged…

It is sufficient if one refuses hospitalization or a treatment for the doctors to relieve each other in order to enforce commitment. Once hospitalized, it is been made perfectly clear that one looses his or her personal rights, only argument is : « now we are responsible of you for EVERYTHING »… Thus, towards the « patient », nobody is responsible of anything…

 

Since the « Bachelot law » of July 5th 2011, particularly if one has something to object, be it diagnose or treatment, it is then after being out of hospital that one cannot get rid of commitment, which is most perverse : forced injections, mandatory appointments with an non-chosen clinical psychiatrist (or, best case, with a choice between two doctors).

And, worst of all : if one refuses to go to the assigned medical center of one’s district, the police comes to pick one up at home and rehospitalization is mandatory with an increased commitment that is even more coercive (« on demand of the State »), on a longer lapse of time and with no authorization to communicate with the outside (!) until they succeed to break one’s will and reduce one to nothingness… It so happens that people loose their home and « live » in psychiatry (sometimes for decades, see Dimitri Fargette’s case)…

 

I witness : in France, there is really matter to worry about… 

  1. There is no alternative to institutional psychiatry (lobbying of psychiatrists AND pharmaceutical industry against other forms of therapies) ;
  2. No antipsychiatric litterature nor culture (no « survivors »…)
  3. The « College of Psychiatrists » who suspends : every psychiatrist « not aligned » with this consensual system (according to Dr. O.G, liberal psychiatrist and former head of clinic);
  4. The « College of psychiatrists » suspending : a psychiatrist responsible for the death of a patient… only for two weeks (see the case of young patient Florence Edaine)
  5. The « Guardianship mafia » : every patient who is repeatedly hospitalized is automatically placed under guardianship under a certain degree (without consent, it is being reinforced…)
  6. Single mothers get their children robbed and placed immediately after a diagnosis of mental illness is established, never one scandal about this…
  7. Women in age to bear a child are being strongly recommended a contraception, with a wink that their child would be taken away from them anyway. What they are not being told is that all neuroleptics pass the placenta barrier, that’s why i have heard of so many miscarriages from women under treatment. A quote from a nurse : « pregnant women are given Haldol, which proves it’s little nocivity » (!). Never one study about that nor mediatic scandal.
  8. Closed wards full of depressive people who are not in « immediate danger » and are feeling bad mainly because they are being given for example 4 (!) antidepressants at a time…
  9. An always occupied isolation chamber (so-called « intensive care chamber »!), which participates to the « folklore »…
  10. « Once subscriber, always subscriber » : treatments one can NEVER withdraw from ;
  11. No long-term study on psychotropic medication… (All so-called studies are biased)
  12. No recourse in case of even flagrant psychiatric abuse (internal system of « mediation » obsolete : it’s a very bad idea to write a letter to the director of the institution…)

 

Why I am against this new system of « Judge of Liberties and Detentions » (related to the law of september 27th 2013) :

They are making believe it is a recourse. I was proved wrong, except for instance on a technicality (which almost never happens, because it’s in the psychiatrists’ interest that the procedure goes well and in due form). On the contrary, it’s in the sense of more legal coercion…

  1. The judge is no psychiatrist, he would never ever put into question the judgment of the physicians concerning the core. Thus, he has been briefed about the « fact » that any patient who opposes treatment is « in opposition », which establishes already a proof of « illness denial » (and as a proof of illness itself).
  2. Therein it has been found a very practical way for doctors to be discharged of their responsibilities, as « it’s the judge who decides ». And now, bunches of patients are being spotted filing up before the judges’ office, escorted by a nurse : « we bring you Ms. X »…
  3. Patients get a mandated advocate one week before the audience, but who cannot be contacted in advance. At audience day, it’s 15 minutes to meet and prepare, and, of course, in a « formated » way.
  4. Very alarming is the fact that no liberal advocate is to be found for psychiatric abuse pleas, except maybe in Paris, and mostly for a recourse before the Court of Assize.
  5. The judge pretends he cannot lift the forced commitment because it’s asked for by the hospital director. Yet, all demands for forced commitment have to be validated by the director. Hence everyone gives him- or herself a good conscience there ;
  6. Once the audience done (10 minutes), where one gets destabilized, accused and doubted of, the judge « orders » the maintaining of the person in complete hospitalization and of the measure, which confers force of law on the doctors (hence, total impunity).
  7. Not to mention the fact that if one still had credibility before, it’s no longer the case and irreversible. If one refuses to sign the convocation or to attend the audience, it’s worse, and one is being bullied by staff members and doctors alike, who put one under pressure, humiliates one… One also cannot refuse the audience being held despite of one’s absence.
  8. The judge knows pretty well that it’s a political will to make silent the « opponents » of the system, chemically and coercively. He therefore fully concurs with it.

 

Why I am against forced treatment :

I insist on the fact that hospital psychiatrists are almighty regarding the choice and dosage of treatments, it’s never about an « informed consent ». The « benefit- risk balance » is always on their side, even in case of overdosage, even if the person already takes 17 meds and weighs 400 pounds (which is the case of a friend to whom was administered Zyprexa AND Seroquel after which she had a cerebral attack with impairment). They are also never responsible for side effects and, in case of complaint, derefer to one’s generalist physician…

Thus, it is always them who « decide » on one’s behalf if one is well or not and this, even if they don’t know the person or have seen him or her only five minutes…

Perverse effect of the thing : it’s so unbearable being locked up and silenced chemically, that, after a month, one pretends to feel better, disavow his or her opinions and stops complaining about side effects in order to get out, knowing that otherwise one will be diagnosed behavioural troubles and « illness deny »…

 

I WAS TORTURED : with Zyprexa (overdosis), Amisulpride, Cyamemazine, Risperdal (8 mg for a weight of 100 pounds), Haldol (90 drops a day) and « shooted » with Valium (40mg!)…

The doctors and staff refused to take into account : speaking troubles, heavy trembling, convulsions, dyskinesia, unbearable akathisia, heavy existential fear, wish to be dead and psychical tortures (mental « hell ») which appeared immediately and even worsened as time went by. I fought in vain, pleading that neuroleptics anesthetize consciousness, occasion memory loss, make one docile and influentiable, make depressive and even more anxious, impair one cognitively and destroy the soul.

I was also put into solitary confinement several times with violences from the staff AND security agents, despite the fact I have NEVER been even agressive. I was put under contention, was violently undressed, dehydrated, humiliated, spoliated, mistreated…

Today, even if I get a « less inhumane » treatment – Abilify retard injection – (after a 4th suicide attempt), I remain addicted to Valium, traumatized and always on alert, fearing to miss my « obligations » or to make bad impression, without mentioning total absence of perspectives, motivation or joy in life, without mentioning my affective life that is a misery (spiritual death, isolation, depression, anxiety…).

My artistic career, which finally started with success has been definitively broken during my best years (in my 30′) and today I am totally unable to create despite the fact that before, I had thousands of ideas and was giving a great deal to put them into meaningful use. It is also too late and too complicated for me now to become a mother.

I live in precarity at the charge of the State.

 

Why I was always opposed to their pathologizing « diagnoses » :

I’m a person who endured the worst traumas in early childhood (rape and abuse, mobbing…), while most memories came up again more than 30 years afterwards, which greatly affected my emotional balance. I had unfortunately to experience that, according to psychiatrists (if they even believed me), there would be no cause-to-effect relationship between what I had to bear and my troubles (!), which I find so enormous and stupid that one would rather cry…

I had to notice, alike Dr. Muriel Salmona – only psychiatrist in France knowingly approaching psychical suffering under the perspective of trauma – that in France, no specific caretaking is being proposed nor planned, and after 8 years of psychiatry, not one physician has diagnosed me a post-traumatic stress disorder with dissociation which, according to Dr. Muriel Salmona (« Association Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie ») is the case after rape and abuse.

I could almost never do a therapeutic work with a psychiatrist.

Regarding their diagnosis of schizophrenia, it has never been illustrated, explained or argumented, and my medical records have been established on mere « observations » from the doctors and sheer « impressions » from the staff…

I also came to the conclusion that to actually speak about spirituality would eventually always end in them diagnosing a « mystical delirium » and, as such, schizophrenia.

My conclusion is that their imprisoning and bad treatments have done none but to aggravate my traumas and personal issues, I don’t believe a second that their imaginary « diseases » result in a chemical imbalance in my brain or an unknown « biological » illness, I know that neuroleptics and affiliated meds are catastrophic in the long-term (causing brain damage) and I totally agree with numerous anti-psychiatrists internationally, such as the Drs. Peter Breggin, Joanna Moncrieff, David Healy, Robert Whitaker, Thomas Szazs, Peter Goetzsche and others… (see on madinamerica.com).

 

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, ARTICLES 12, 14 AND 15, AS INTERPRETED IN GENERAL COMMENT NO. 1 AND THE GUIDELINES ON ARTICLE 14, AND WITH THE BASIC PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES OF THE UN WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION PUBLISHED IN 2015, PRINCIPLE 20 AND GUIDELINE 20, I SPEAK IN FAVOUR OF ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION OF COERCIVE PSYCHIATRY AND FORCED TREATMENT.

I RECLAIM ALL MY RIGHTS TO PERSONHOOD AS A DISABLED ADULT WOMAN UNDER PROTECTION, IN PARTICULAR THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO DISPOSE ENTIRELY OF MY BODY, MIND AND SOUL WITHOUT IATROGENIC CHEMICALS AND MY UNCONDITIONAL LIBERTY.

I CONSIDER INSTITUTIONAL PSYCHIATRY AND ITS COERCIVE PRACTICES A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, A SEVERE HARM TO DIGNITY AND TO FREEDOM OF THINKING.

 

Pink Belette, March 2016

 

 

12 trucs que croient les psychiatres/12 things psychiatrists believe… by Pink Belette

12 trucs que croient les psychiatres et qui vont vous énerver

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.no/2016/03/12-trucs-que-croient-les-psychiatres-et_24.html

Par Pink Belette

1: Sur la souffrance : si vous souffrez autant, c’est disproportionné, donc pathologique. C’est donc votre cerveau qui déconne. Inutile de chercher d’ou vient la souffrance, c’est congénital, vous n’y pouvez rien.

2: Si vous êtes schizo, maniaco, etc… , c’est à vie. Mais bon, une maladie mentale, c’est comme un diabète, ça se traite mais ne se guérit pas. (Citation d’une infirmière : « la psychiatrie n’a pas pour vocation de guérir »)

3: Tout médicament a des effets secondaires, c’est normal, donc.

4: Vous voulez dire que c’est le vécu de la personne qui l’a rendu malade ? « Oh, vous savez, c’est comme l’histoire de la poule et de l’oeuf, on ne peut pas savoir qui était là avant » (cit.!)

5: Si vos parents toxiques persistent à s’inviter dans la loge du psychiatre, sachez que : les parents ont toujours raison et sont évidemment toujours bienveillants à l’égard de leur enfant. Ils déforment tous vos propos, faits et gestes ? C’est vous qui n’êtes pas dans la réalité et c’est vous qui les faites beaucoup souffrir avec votre maladie, soyez-en conscients

6: Plus la dose prescrite est forte, plus vous allez vous remettre rapidement, on pourra toujours baisser après, pour un « traitement au long cours »…

7: Vous parlez de votre âme comme si elle existait et avait la plus grande importance, c’est forcément un délire mystique de votre cerveau malade

8: Vous demandez des preuves scientifiques, le Vidal, des explications, bref vous êtes en opposition et il faut vous remettre à votre place de malade qui est censé écouter et obéir au médecin.

9: Règle absolue : Il ne faut jamais dire à un psychiatre « vous n’avez pas le droit » (bien sûr, les psychiatres ont tous les droits même s’ils n’ont pas d’arguments).

10 : Vous trouvez que l’ambiance dans le service est totalitaire et osez émettre des critiques : c’est donc que vous avez un grave trouble du comportement.

11 : « Ah non, les neuroleptiques n’affectent pas les capacité intellectuelles »…

Mais non, ils ne rendent pas malheureux, dépressif, angoissé, c’est votre maladie et il faut donc revoir votre traitement à la hausse ou changer pour une molécule plus lourde qui va vous anesthésier la conscience, vous verrez, vous n’aurez même plus conscience d’être dans la merde…

12 : « Vous êtes en soins sous contrainte, donc c’est nous qui sommes responsables de vous, vous perdez vos droits, etc »…

Le patient : « et vous, vis-à-vis de moi, vous êtes redevable de quoi ? »

« Je vous triple la dose, vous avez de graves troubles du comportement » (cit. d’une psychiatre lors d’un premier entretien)

****

12 Things Psychiatrists believe which will piss you off

By Pink Belette (France)

1: On suffering : if you suffer so much, it is not proportionate, as a matter of fact it is pathological. As a matter of fact, it’s your brain that is on the blink. No need to search from where the suffering comes, it’s congenital, you just cannot help.

2: If you are schizophrenic, bipolar, etc…, it’s for your whole fucking life. But, a mental disease, you know, it’s like diabetes, it can be treated but not healed (quote from a nurse : « psychiatry’s vocation is not to heal »)

3: Every medication has side effects. It is normal, as a matter of fact.

4: What say you ? That it is one’s bad life experiences that make one sick ? « Oh, you know, it’s like the story of the chicken and the egg, you’ll never know which one was first » (quote…)

5: If your toxic parents persist inviting themselves into the office of the psychiatrist, please be aware that : parents are always right and are of course always benevolent towards their son, daughter… They distort all your sayings, facts and actions ? It’s you who are not into reality and it’s you who make them suffer so much with your disease, be strongly aware of that fact.

6: The more the prescribed dose is strong, the more you will recover rapidly, it will be still time later to decrease afterwards, for a « long-term treatment »…

7: You do talk about your soul as if it actually exists and has the greatest importance, it’s inevitably a mystical delirium of your sick brain.

8: You ask for scientific proofs, the drug reference manual, explanations, short said : you are « in opposition » and you need to be reput on your true category which is the insane, expected to listen and obey the doctor.

9: Compulsory rule number X : thou shall never, ever say to a psychiatrist « you have no right to do this » (of course, psychiatrists have the whole rights on you, even if they don’t have arguments)

10 : You feel the ambiance in the ward is totalitarian and dare criticize : hence it is you have a grave behavioral disorder.

11 : « Ohhhh, no, no, no, neuroleptics do not impair cognition »…

Oh, noooo, they don’t make you unhappy, depressed, anxious ; it’s – your – disease – and – your – treatment – must – be – increased ; or : it must be changed for a stronger molecule which will anesthetize your consciousness, you’ll see, you won’t even be aware being in a shitty situation…

12 : « You – are – under – forced – commitment, hence we are responsible of you, hence you loose your rights, etc »…

Patient : « and, regarding me, what are you beholden to ? »

« I triple your dose, you have a grave behavioral disorder » (quote from a psychiatrist in first interview)

Aporte de Lucila López, Usuaria y sobreviviente de la psiquiatría en Argentina

CAMPAÑA DE APOYO A LA CDPD COMPROMISO CON LA PROHIBICIÓN ABSOLUTA DE LA PRIVACIÓN DE LA LIBERTAD Y EL TRATAMIENTO FORZADO DE LAS PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD PSICOSOCIAL

 

Señores del Comité sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad:

Solicito tengan a bien dar la merecida atención a todas las voces que elevamos los actores socio-políticos que pedimos la prohibición absoluta de la privación de la libertad por motivos de discapacidad psicosocial.

Lucila López

Usuaria y sobreviviente de la psiquiatría en Argentina.

(también se puede leer en https://sodisperu.org/2016/03/22/aporte-a-la-campana-prohibicionabsoluta-por-lucila-lopez-usuaria-y-sobreviviente-de-la-psiquiatria-en-argentina/)

CAMPAÑA DE APOYO A LA CDPD ART. 14 LL-MARZO14 2016 (doc)

Intentaré exponer los motivos sobre la importancia de obtener el apoyo necesario para que la Campaign to Support CRPD Absolute Prohibition of Commitment and Forced Treatment  – Campaña de apoyo CDPD COMPROMISO CON LA ABSOLUTA PROHIBICIÓN DE LA INTERNACIÓN Y EL TRATAMIENTO FORZADO iniciada por la Dra. Tina Mikowitz resulte como positivo fortalecimiento al momento de las Observaciones Generales a favor del irrestricto cumplimiento del artículo 14 inc. y todos los artículos vinculantes.

Artículo 14

Libertad y seguridad de la persona

  1. Los Estados Partes asegurarán que las personas con discapacidad, en igualdad de condiciones con las demás:

a) Disfruten del derecho a la libertad y seguridad de la persona;

b) No se vean privadas de su libertad ilegal o arbitrariamente y que cualquier privación de libertad sea de conformidad con la ley, y que la existencia de una discapacidad no justifique en ningún caso una privación de la libertad.

2. Los Estados Partes asegurarán que las personas con discapacidad que se vean privadas de su libertad en razón de un proceso tengan, en igualdad de condiciones con las demás, derecho a garantías de conformidad con el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos y a ser tratadas de conformidad con los objetivos y principios de la presente Convención, incluida la realización de ajustes razonables.

“El Comité sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad reafirma que la libertad y la seguridad de la persona es uno de los derechos más preciosos a que tiene derecho. En particular, para las personas con discapacidad, y en especial las personas con discapacidad intelectual y discapacidad psicosocial tienen derecho a la libertad en conformidad con el artículo 14 de la Convención. En él se especifica el alcance del derecho a la libertad y a la seguridad de la persona en relación con las personas con discapacidad, prohíbe toda discriminación basada en la discapacidad. De este modo, el artículo 14 se relaciona directamente con el propósito de la Convención, que es garantizar el disfrute pleno e igual de todos los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales a todas las personas con discapacidad y promover el respeto de su dignidad inherente.”[i]

__________________

Nada se puede pensar por fuera de un contexto. El tema propuesto es un tema ineludible en términos de un pensamiento con eje en los Derechos Humanos.

Escribir en Argentina sobre la necesidad de garantizar la prohibición absoluta de privar de la libertad a las personas con discapacidad en nombre de tratamientos impuestos, forzados, en contra de la propia voluntad, es escribir en un contexto en el que el respeto a los DD.HH. es ostensiblemente violado provocando actualmente una seria preocupación para el CIDH, específicamente por una presa política. En relación al tema, es significativo que Estela de Carlotto[ii] haya preguntado -¿Cómo se puede decir que está muy bien una mujer presa? Y calificó esa afirmación de la más alta autoridad del país como “una barrabasada”. El texto completo es el siguiente:

“La barrabasada[iii]que dijeron es que la habían visitado en la cárcel y que estaba muy bien. Fue violento. ¿Cómo se puede decir que está muy bien una mujer presa?

Me permito hacer un parangón y preguntar:   ¿Cómo se puede decir que está bien una persona privada de la libertad (presa) por su discapacidad?

Estoy a favor de la prohibición absoluta de la privación de la libertad involuntaria y tratamientos forzados de las personas con discapacidad psicosocial y el compromiso para con todos comienza en el ejercicio para mi propia vida de ese derecho y el Art. 14 de la CDPD me autoriza a exigir el cumplimiento de la norma jurídica.

Mis argumentos son en nombre propio a partir de mis experiencias y la observación de la experiencia de otros, articulando mi condición de usuaria y sobreviviente de la psiquiatría, mi visión como profesional dedicada a la prevención en Salud Mental y Derechos Humanos y como familiar, en tanto soy madre de un hombre que siendo niño y hasta entrada su adultez, necesitó de la protección de sus derechos incluido el derecho a la salud y el derecho a la salud mental.

Estuve privada de la libertad y en contra de mi voluntad por última vez entre el 5 de julio de 2014 y el 12 de enero de 2015. La cuarta vez en mi vida y la más extensa en tiempo.

Esa misma barrabasada “que me encontraban muy bien” la escuché de familiares y amigo/as y me mantuve en un total mutismo.

Desde el año 2011, la crisis anterior con internación contraria a mi voluntad, comencé a guardar mutismo absoluto delante de los que apoyaron esa medida y están dispuestos a apoyarla de nuevo.

¿Por qué guardar mutismo?

Por lo intolerable que resulta la alianza entre los profesionales de la salud mental y familiares y/o amigos:

  • Ignoran la CDPD.
  • No tienen en cuenta el respeto a la persona como un igual.
  • Prevalezcan sobre mi cuerpo y sobre mi psiquismo[iv] decisiones ajenas violatorias de todos
  • Los siguientes derechos enumerados en la CDPD (Ley 26.378) que es parte del cuerpo jurídico de la Constitución Nacional de Argentina.

Artículo 5º

Igualdad y no discriminación

Artículo 12

Igual reconocimiento como persona ante la ley[v]       

Artículo 14

Libertad y seguridad de la persona

Artículo 15

Protección contra la tortura y otros tratos o penas crueles, inhumanos o degradantes

Artículo 17

Protección de la integridad personal

Artículo 18

Libertad de desplazamiento y nacionalidad

Artículo 19

Derecho a vivir de forma independiente y a ser incluido en la comunidad

Artículo 22

Respeto de la privacidad

Artículo 23

Respeto del hogar y de la familia

1.C) Las personas con discapacidad, incluidos los niños y las niñas, mantengan su fertilidad, en igualdad de condiciones con las demás.

Artículo 24

Educación

Artículo 25

Salud

Artículo 27

Trabajo y empleo

Artículo 28

Nivel de vida adecuado y protección social

Enumerados todos los derechos vinculantes que se violan a partir de la falta de respeto al art. 14, argumentaré los motivos por los que pido la PROHIBICIÓN ABSOLUTA DE LA PRIVACIÓN DE LA LIBERTAD INVOLUNTARIA.

En Argentina, exigir la prohibición absoluta de la libertad involuntaria por motivos de discapacidad psicosocial encuentra un horizonte de futuro posible con la prohibición establecida por la LNSM –Ley 26.657 – de la creación de nuevos manicomios públicos y privados en todo el territorio de la Nación y el cierre definitivo de todos para el año 2020.

La privación forzada de la libertad, -o internación involuntaria- o no por motivos de discapacidad psicosocial es claramente una acción discriminatoria, de acuerdo a la legislación argentina y el marco jurídico internacional:

“La discriminación es el acto de agrupar a los seres humanos según algún criterio que lleva a una forma de relacionarse socialmente. Concretamente, suele ser usado para hacer diferenciaciones que atentan contra la igualdad, ya que implica un posicionamiento jerarquizado entre grupos sociales 1, es decir, cuando se erige un grupo con más legitimidad o poder que el resto.

En el año 1988, se sancionó la Ley Nº 23.592 sobre Actos Discriminatorios que en su Artículo 1º reconoce como discriminación cualquier impedimento o restricción del pleno ejercicio “sobre bases igualitarias de los derechos y garantías fundamentales reconocidos en la Constitución Nacional […] por motivos tales como raza, religión, nacionalidad, ideología, opinión política o gremial, sexo, posición económica, condición social o caracteres físicos”. Asimismo, el documento titulado “Hacia un Plan Nacional contra la Discriminación”, aprobado por Decreto Nº 1086/2005.Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo. (INADI ¿Qué es la discriminación?).-

 

La privación de la libertad involuntaria a partir de la  CDPD se constituye en un acto de violación de DD.HH.y el Estado se debe responsabilizar de ello[vi] pues  aún cuando en Argentina ha ratificado la CDPD y le ha dado status constitucional:

La Ley Nacional de Salud Mental Ley 26.657- que es considerada una Ley de Salud Mental modelo por todos los avances dirigidos hacia el nuevo paradigma social y del respeto de los DD.HH. de las personas con discapacidad, incurre en la violación del artículo 14 considerando que:

La LNSM En el Capítulo VII, Art. 20) contempla de la internación involuntaria:Ley 26.657 ARTICULO 20. — La internación involuntaria de una persona debe concebirse como recurso terapéutico excepcional en caso de que no sean posibles los abordajes ambulatorios, y sólo podrá realizarse cuando a criterio del equipo de salud mediare situación de riesgo cierto e inminente para sí o para terceros. Para que proceda la internación involuntaria, además de los requisitos comunes a toda internación, debe hacerse constar… “

Acá encontramos un argumento a favor de la internación involuntaria contraria a la letra de la CDPD y su art. 14.-

La idea que prevalece en este artículo de la LNSM es la del paradigma del MMH., encuentra gran receptividad tanto en los profesionales de la salud como así también de familiares. Desde la implementación de la LNSM no se cumple con el art. 14 de la CDPD pero tampoco se cumple con lo que estipula la LNSM en el Art. 20, pues la concepción de recurso terapéutico excepcional se convierte en letra muerta de la ley y es una mera formulación administrativa o de buenas intenciones si se pueden llamar así a los argumentos esgrimidos para privar de la libertad en forma involuntaria.

Este acto discriminatorio y violatorio de DD.HH. goza de un consenso intelectual que supone el encierro de las PcD como “un corte, una instancia de reordenamiento subjetivo”.

El “corte subjetivo” se produce en la PcD en el momento que se denomina crisis y no necesita de ser privada de la libertad. Se puede “volver a la vida plena” en la vida plena de poder padecer un “corte” de “conexión con la realidad” si se brindan todos los apoyos y ajustes necesarios para tornar viable la vida en la comunidad.

No podemos ser discriminados por ser personas con discapacidad psicosocial y considerar terapéutico el encierro y el aislamiento que es una práctica iatrogénica al igual que la medicación forzada.

Vuelvo sobre la necesidad de contextuar el texto.

En Argentina hay una gran resistencia de parte de los profesionales de la salud mental a mencionar el tema discapacidad ligado al tema de las problemáticas de la salud mental.

En este presente inmediato, hablar de Derechos Humanos en Argentina articulados con la Salud Mental o con cualquier otro aspecto de la vida de las personas en general es un tema que pone en cierto peligro a quien se anima a denunciar.

Mi opinión al respecto después de muchos años de indagar el tema es que los profesionales de la salud mental junto a una gran parte de la población no aceptan que las PcD psicosocial somos personas con el reconocimiento de la dignidad y el valor inherentes y de los derechos iguales e inalienables de todos los miembros de la familia humana.

No aceptan la condición de sujeto de derecho en igualdad de condiciones que invoca la CDPD y esto es especialmente notorio al observar que en Argentina, la LNSM Nro. 26.657, es despreciada e incumplida por la corporación médico-psiquiátrica quienes consideran que debe ser derogada porque entre algunos de sus acertados artículos se promueve la interdisciplinariedad, el cierre de la totalidad de los manicomios públicos y privados en todo el territorio nacional y también promueve las internaciones en hospitales generales (considerando el respeto a quien desee ser internado de forma voluntaria).-

El primer obstáculo para hacer notar que el art. 20 de la LNSM 26.657 viola el Art. 14 de la CDPD es que los profesionales de la salud y de la salud mental, los trabajadores sociales y un amplio espectro de la justicia y una enorme masa de la población en general no están dispuestos a respetar los DD.HH. de las PcD psicosocial y que las lógicas manicomiales prevalecen en el imaginario social sobre los avances y cambios que en la materia se vienen discutiendo a nivel mundial.

La mayoría de las internaciones que se realizan son involuntarias y en general no se cumplen los pasos que la LNSM dispone para estos casos. Una ingeniería perversa de mecanismos burocráticos actúa evitando que la información llegue a la justicia en tiempo y forma, haciendo permanecer a una persona hasta por cuatro meses internada sin haber ejercido ni el consentimiento informando sobre el tratamiento que le administran arbitrariamente ni tuvo acceso a un abogado defensor como lo estipula la LNSM.

Es de mi particular interés las internaciones involuntarias de niños/as-adolescentes y jóvenes por motivos vinculados al consumo problemático de sustancias psicotrópicas en instituciones aberrantes con la anuencia de sus familias y también, en el otro extremo del arco, a las personas mayores y la naturalización de su institucionalización en lugares llamados geriátricos, residencias u hogares que también, con un proceder perverso, ocultan las problemáticas de discapacidad mental más propias de la ancianidad, del deterioro cognitivo que puede aparecer con el avance de la edad y otras formas de discapacidad mental que no son atendidas en su particular singularidad y sí son privadas de la libertad casi siempre sin su propio consentimiento.

Entonces sufren internaciones involuntarias y así se violan los DD.HH. de:

Niñas, niños, adolescentes mujeres y hombres, jóvenes, adulta/os y ancianas/os declarados o no personas con discapacidad mental por razones vinculadas a problemáticas de la salud mental.

En todos estos casos prevalece el concepto discriminatorio que no tenemos igual reconocimiento como persona ante la ley.

Partiendo de esta premisa comenzaré a exponer de qué manera la internación, la privación de la libertad involuntaria es una verdadera violación de DD.HH. que comete el Estado atropellando derechos y aumentando la discapacidad y propiciando el empobrecimiento de las personas afectadas en sus intereses económicos, sociales y culturales.

La internación involuntaria es iatrogénica:

  • en lugar de un resultado positivo para la salud, la privación de la libertad junto a tratamientos con drogas psiquiátricas forzados generan enfermedades, atenta contra la salud psíquica y física de la persona y la despoja del ejercicio de un sinfín de derechos aún cuando no se haya restringido su capacidad jurídica y esto también en internaciones –involuntarias o no- a corto plazo.

La realidad de una gran mayoría es que su capacidad jurídica está restringida.

En Argentina actualmente hay más de 20.000 personas privadas de la libertad en manicomios públicos y privados, según datos poco fidedignos, en su mayoría hombres entre 20 y 40 años que en su mayoría llevan un promedio de 15 a 20 años de privación de la libertad. De esa mayoría un número elevado entró en el circuito de las internaciones por consumo problemático de sustancias psicotrópicas siendo el alcohol la que encabeza el listado de ellas, que no es una droga ilegal.

Es muy llamativo que los datos oficiales oculten las cifras que puedan informar la cantidad de niñas y mujeres privadas de la libertad de manera involuntaria que hay en el país y me animo a decir que debe ser significativamente superior a la cantidad de hombres privados de la libertad.

En todos o en casi todos esos casos, ya sea en el ámbito público como en el privado la violación al art. 14 de la CDPD conlleva la violación de todos los otros artículos de la CDPD enumerados anteriormente.

La libertad y la seguridad de la persona son avasalladas y entonces su integridad en el más amplio concepto de la palabra también.

Hay una gran parte de la población privada de la libertad por motivos de discapacidad psicosocial que desconocen su verdadera identidad. Están desprovistas de documentos de identidad. No tienen contacto con familiares desde hace años y han sido separados de su comunidad.

Muchos, con estudios iniciados, han perdido el derecho a continuarlos, otros directamente no acceden porque comienzan el derrotero de las internaciones psiquiátricas durante la infancia. Conocí en el manicomio a un hombre mayor de cincuenta años que estaba internado desde los cinco años, desde su primera infancia… y allí murió.

Las instituciones psiquiátricas tienden a incurrir en una doble violación al Derecho a la Salud, en tanto:

  1. La privación de la libertad involuntaria o no, es iatrogénica.
  2. La PcD psicosocial internada en instituciones psiquiátricas suele carecer de verdadera atención médica en otros aspectos que su salud requiera: la aparición de síntomas de un quebrantamiento de la salud física suele ser ignorado, “interpretado” como síntoma o manipulación de la PcD desde el discurso médico-psiquiátrico y también, se le niega el acceso a profesionales de otras especialidades. Ejemplo: la asistencia de un otorrinolaringólogo… “porque es incómodo el traslado a un servicio especializado” y la persona debe aceptar y tolerar no ser atendida. Esta triste realidad trae aparejado resultados muy graves: muertes por enfermedades tratables tanto en la población femenina como en la masculina. También se les niega el acceso a los tratamientos indicados por médicos especialistas en el caso que tengan acceso a una consulta.

Todo esto está reñido con el principio básico del ser en igualdad de condiciones.

La vida privada de la libertad “no es vida”.

La privación de la libertad acompañada por el tratamiento forzada con drogas psiquiátricas provoca una especie de muerte psíquica.

Los acontecimientos de la vida cotidiana bajo los efectos de la medicación psiquiátrica –forzada o no, dentro y fuera de la internación- se perciben como si se mirara a través de un vidrio esmerilado, la voz de los otros llega a uno con un efecto retardado, y nuestros pensamientos también resultan lentos bajo los efectos de las drogas psiquiátricas. El contacto con el otro, con el afuera, está “mediado” por una cortina invisible que ralentiza los movimientos por el cuerpo rigidizado y los sentidos aletargados.

Así, el otro, cualquiera que sea, nos percibe “raros” “distintos” y los médicos aseveran que es el “devenir propio de la enfermedad diagnosticada” negando de cuajo que ese estado es el efecto de la privación de la libertad y del tratamiento químico forzado.

Con la privación de la libertad involuntaria, suele aparecer un estado de apatía profundo, un gran desinterés por todo… en mi experiencia esta apatía y el desinterés –incluso de hablar y permanecer en un mutismo absoluto- lo produce la imposibilidad de comprender que para el círculo de personas de mi afecto, esa situación fuera considerada buena, que dijeran que me “encontraban mejor”… si realmente esa es la mirada que tienen mis afectos cercanos, sean familiares o amigos, debo decir que no tienen registro alguno de las vivencias ciertas de humillación y maltrato que se viven en una internación.

Hay personas que estando internadas involuntariamente, hacen abandono de su aspecto físico y de su higiene. También eso es leído como un aspecto de “su enfermedad”… no se lee como un efecto iatrogénico de la privación de la libertad.

Los cambios a los que el cuerpo se ve sometido, desde el notorio aumento de peso con la pérdida de las formas propias del cuerpo y además, la falta de agilidad que provoca la medicación que rigidiza los músculos y el estado de “desconexión” que las mismas producen – y se aumenta notablemente con la privación de la libertad-, son otros aspectos que la persona padece, que pueden resultar motivo de vergüenza o mayor disminución de la estima.

La persona privada de la libertad, en un manicomio, tiene que poder evaluar estrategias de supervivencia y muchas veces, las elecciones son “el mal menor” y no lo que corresponde ni es justo ni a lo que se tiene derecho aún cuando se sea plenamente consciente de que se tiene derecho.

Cabe aclarar que una gran mayoría de la población internada desconoce todos sus derechos y además, cree que no los tiene. En las PcD psicosocial institucionalizadas durante muchos años en forma permanente o intermitente, se notan conductas propias de las personas sometidas a gran sometimiento y la faceta que muestran con claridad es la idea de “no tener derechos”

Así es muy poco probable que ellos luchen por una forma de vida independiente, el derecho a ser incluid en la comunidad en igualdad de condiciones porque se perciben así mismos como “personas enfermas”

Es común escuchar a adolescentes afectados a tratamientos -involuntarios o no- por consumo excesivo de drogas psicotrópicas, y en especial alcohol, decir “no tengo derecho a nada porque he consumido drogas y ese discurso es avalado por los responsables de su rehabilitación y tratamiento y en cierta medida y en muchas oportunidades también ese concepto es sostenido por familiares, se suma a esto que los profesionales de la salud mental encuentran dificultades para aceptar que los problemas derivados del consumo excesivo de drogas legales o ilegales es un tema que debe ser abordado dentro del ámbito de la salud… y son enviados a lugares de encierro con un régimen propio y diría “sin ley” donde prevalece la ley del más fuerte que suele ser en general “un adicto recuperado” que impone tratos degradantes.

Así, son salvajemente humillados y denigrados, abusados sexualmente y de otras formas niñas/niños y adolescentes sometidos a trabajo solamente comparables a la tortura y la esclavitud en el marco de internaciones forzadas o no.

En relación a esta problemática de la salud mental el entramado es de una gran complejidad y la violación de DD.HH. es indescriptible.

Nadie que está privado de la libertad tiene la posibilidad de decidir un lugar de residencia por fuera del manicomio que le ha tocado en desgracia y en virtud de su status social o el de su familia…

La mayor cantidad de personas privadas de la libertad de modo involuntario lo son por problemas sociales y al mismo tiempo:

La mayor parte de las problemáticas llamadas “enfermedades mentales” provienen de problemas sociales no atendidos debidamente por el Estado y afectan de manera altamente significativa a la población de menos recursos.

Poblaciones importantes en las que, de generación en generación, han transcurrido sus vidas en situaciones de extrema pobreza sin conocimiento de los Derechos Humanos que los asisten si tienen la desgracia de “caer en el manicomio, no tienen salida”. Se patologiza la pobreza!!! Hay un perverso discurso que “dice que la persona no ha sido capaz de tener ingresos adecuados para su sustento y/o el de su familia y garantizar vivienda, educación y salud”.

Esa supuesta enfermedad de una persona: ¿cómo se llama cuándo el sistema de salud mental con la privación de la libertad –involuntaria o no- des-ancla a la persona de su vida, de sus bienes, de sus ingresos económicos, de su universidad o de su escuela de estudios primarios y así, la deja en un vacío de derechos y sobre eso la re-diagnostica?

No hay mayor factor discapacitante que la pobreza, el hambre, la falta de techo y de educación. Y eso puede ser un punto de partida o de llegada para una persona con discapacidad social.

También muchas personas que caen abruptamente en la pobreza como consecuencia de las crisis económicas que se conocen como “respuestas al humor de los mercados”, es decir: las crisis económicas resultado de propuestas políticas neoliberales y del salvaje capitalismo, arrojan a la “locura” y al intento de suicidio –cuando no a la muerte misma- a muchas personas que mantuvieron durante gran parte de su vida un status de vida acorde a los derechos propios de una persona trabajadora con derecho al trabajo, la salud y la vivienda como derechos básicos inalienables y esas personas, recalan en los manicomios con un diagnóstico de enfermos psiquiátricos pero en sus Historias Clínicas no constan las condiciones de existencia al momento de la internación ni sus antecedentes culturales, laborales, familiares y sociales, ni nada, absolutamente nada de su vida antes de haber sido calificado como enfermo/a psiquiátrico/a.

Con horror observo que la familia reproduce el sistema de pensamiento manicomial.

La misma familia termina violando el derecho al hogar y la familia.

Poco a poco se aleja hasta dejar en el abandono a la persona.

Se la priva de la familia, de los hijos y de los nietos.

La familia se aleja porque es estigmatizada y además no recibe psico-educación alguna para albergar al familiar que sufre y contribuir a su inserción en la comunidad. Todo lo contrario, siempre se acentúa el hecho que la persona está enferma, que su enfermedad es incurable y que con el tiempo estará cada vez peor.

Eso es verdad cuando a una persona la privan de la libertad, en forma involuntaria o no, porque todo lo que le va pasando no es consecuencia de su padecimiento espiritual, emocional o psíquico… es consecuencia del asilamiento tras los muros agudizado por la “droga- dependencia- inducida” y por la soledad impuesta, que llega a sus grados de tortura más elevado en las celdas de aislamiento o con la sujeción mecánica en los casos que la persona presente algún tipo de excitación motriz que bien pudo ser ocasionada por un ”medicamento” o por falta de una caricia… por un miedo extremo o por una profunda angustia que nadie parece dispuesto a aliviar con un acompañar en un cuerpo a cuerpo hasta que el terror disminuya.

¿Dónde están escritas las bases del encierro involuntario como forma de cura?

En la decisión de privar de la libertad a una persona con discapacidad psicosocial de manera forzada hay un pensamiento, hay una lógica “a priori” que dispone que esa persona “no tiene cura en su enfermedad” y es una persona gravosa para la comunidad a la que se atribuyen todo tipos de males para sí mismo y o para terceros y que merecen la condena del encierro. Esto subyace en el pensamiento de quienes ejercen autoridad sobre la PcD psicosocial y le restringen la vida y la sumen en una vida en su mínima expresión, carente de sueños y anhelos, de amor y de libertad.

En Argentina los manicomios en su mayoría cuentan con “dispositivos de inserción laboral” a los cuales las personas privadas de la libertad son “invitados” a participar. Esa invitación y la aceptación o no, lleva a aumentar la cantidad de etiquetas que una persona puede ir sumando en el encierro de acuerdo a lo que se llama la falta o no de “adherencia al tratamiento”. Si la persona acepta trabajar en un emprendimiento de inserción laboral intra-hospitalario, recibirá un peculio[vii]… una míseros centavos por su trabajo y si no acepta, se le calificará como a una persona “institucionalizada que no tiene voluntad ni interés en el trabajo” y con pocas posibilidades de su inserción en la comunidad.

Las personas que estando internadas nos preocupamos por nuestra situación laboral somos desmotivadas y se nos promueve un pensamiento basado en la imposibilidad de continuar con tareas “normales” y el “beneficio” de acceder a “pensiones por discapacidad”.

Sostener delante de un psiquiatra la firme decisión de continuar trabajando en el mercado de trabajo como un ciudadano más, es descalificado en sus palabras, se es tratado como una persona que niega su “incapacidad” y lo usual es que el médico psiquiatra desconozca absolutamente todo lo referido a esa persona: sus estudios, su historia laboral y su estándar de vida si se trata de un manicomio púbico y en uno privado, si la persona en situación de encierro tiene un estar en el mundo alivianado de preocupaciones económicas porque posee dinero suficiente… no es menos descalificado… solo que esa persona puede llegar a tener más posibilidades de una vida autónoma si es que los familiares no lo inhabilitan restringiendo su capacidad jurídica para hacer ellos, usufructo de los bienes económicos de la persona con discapacidad.

Ninguna persona que tenga como único sustento en Argentina una pensión por discapacidad puede acceder a una canasta básica de alimentos, ni a la vivienda ni a la salud, no puede tener una vida independiente y autónoma ni puede vivir con libertad en la comunidad porque sus ingresos económicos, que son considerados “un beneficio” social, no le permiten tener ninguna autonomía económica.

No existe un nivel de vida adecuado ni protección social verdadera.

Vuelvo sobre el rechazo en Argentina de parte de los profesionales de la salud por la noción de discapacidad de la “persona con padecimiento mental” en cualquiera de sus manifestaciones.

La discapacidad es una concepción que pone en cuestión a la tan preciada, tanto como despreciada “enfermedad mental” corriendo el eje de la enfermedad individual al eje de las barreras sociales que obstaculizan la libertad individual, lo que se da en llamar el cambio de paradigma.

Los aún hoy promotores de las lógicas manicomiales encuentran en la concepción de la discapacidad una herramienta que otorga derecho a quienes ellos le quieren negar -ya no los derechos- si no la vida misma condenándoles al encierro y al estado de ser muertos vivientes, verdaderos zombis que deambulan entre los muros sin más pregunta que si la inmunda comida llegó a la mesa o no… si alguien se acordó de su existencia y llegó de visita o no…

A las mujeres privadas de la libertad se les puede llegar a producir la esterilidad quirúrgica…de modo involuntario… como se las puede prostituir… o abusar sexualmente de ellas y provocarle embarazos no deseados y hasta obligarlas a abortos o someterlas al robo de sus hijos…

Ingresar al manicomio es ingresar a la mismísima anomia[viii]: no se tuvo vida, la vida comienza y termina en los muros del manicomio.

La falta de ley a la que la palabra anomia refiere es lo que hace del manicomio un territorio que es tierra de nadie… y feudo de unos cuántos a la vez… en ese feudo la crueldad es ejercida con menos sutileza a medida que el ejecutor se aleja de la jerarquía del psiquiatra… y llega al personal de limpieza…

La degradación del concepto de ser humano y ser humano en igualdad de condiciones se traduce en el concepto de enfermo mental que es legislado por una concepción que se rige por un supuesto científico que designa la normalidad de las personas…

¿Quién puede decir yo soy normal, usted es normal y usted no sin sonrojarse?

Solamente alguien enceguecido de soberbia, solamente un ser que tanto teme a la locura, es capaz de pensar que es posible encerrarla tras los muros sin cometer violación de DD.HH.

La anomia en este caso es el estado provocado por un conjunto de personas que han degradado del juramento hipocrático y de otras que ejercen la violación de Derechos Humanos.

Para los que imponen esa legislación –paradójicamente carente de ley- para los que degradan con sus conceptos la condición humana al extremo de la privación involuntaria de la libertad, de tratamientos forzados, de humillaciones, torturas y tratos degradantes… para ellos la concepción de la diversidad funcional no existe y sin embargo, los involucra en tanto seres humanos- lo peor que les puede pasar es probar su propia medicina.

Puedo escribir miles de palabras más para tratar de transmitir la tortura que significa ser privada de la libertad – forma involuntaria o no- y de las graves consecuencias en mi salud y la observada en la salud de otros, como yo, obligados a la ingesta de drogas psiquiátricas en contra de nuestra voluntad.

Sin embargo, los profesionales de la salud mental con compendios de siglas alfanuméricas que definen conductas como los son los DSM y el CIE viven tan pagados de sus saberes y tan pagados por la industria farmacéutica y por los circuitos económicos que se destinan al sistema de salud,

  • son incapaces de recapacitar sobre sus prácticas, sobre su negación del paradigma de la discapacidad y ni pensar que puedan asomar su inteligencia al mundo de la diversidad funcional,
  • ni pueden comprender un mundo en evolución a velocidades nunca vividas en direcciones impensables hace menos de un cuarto de siglo, que desborda de nuevas problemáticas sociales donde todo parece desquiciado[ix] y estallado -y no necesariamente enfermo- sino nuevo y desconocido.

Como nuevo y desconocido hasta hace poco en Argentina es que nosotros, las PcD psicosocial, tenemos derechos y somos sujetos de derechos, pedimos trato en pie de igualdad y nos negamos a la internación involuntaria y al tratamiento forzado.

Hay una palabra en psicología muy interesante: constructo.

No voy a definir con exactitud el término, voy a explicar que constructo viene a designar esos aspectos que se saben que existen pero son difíciles de probar, de definir o controvertidos al momento de querer hacerlos “objetivables”.

Son constructos la inteligencia, la personalidad y la creatividad.

Me pregunto en qué lugar del cerebro está el recuerdo del olor dulce de mi abuela paterna… y de la voz de mi madre… dónde se guardan las canciones de cuna con las que he mecido el sueño de mis niños… dónde en el cerebro está el registro del primer diente, de la primera risa, de la primera travesura de mis hijos…en qué célula está el clima que rodeaba la escena que recuerdo de mi padre lustrando mis zapatos para ir a la escuela… dónde viven en mí los cuentos de hadas y brujas, el encanto del otoño teñido con el recuerdo del primer beso… donde se localizan los recuerdos de los compañeros desaparecidos, cómo perduran sus voces a pesar de los años… dónde se almacena todo lo aprendido y dónde permanece lo desaprendido, donde se produce y se reproduce la capacidad de amar cuando se ha sido vejada… cómo y donde están objetivados en mi cerebro lo que me permite pensar en colores para pintar, danzar, reír y llorar… olvidar y recordar…

Me pregunto de qué otra manera se puede privar de la libertad en forma involuntaria si no es a la fuerza y si no es desconociendo los derechos que nos atañen.

Esa fuerza tan bien descrita por Antonin Artaud en su CARTA A LOS DIRECTORES DE LOS ASILOS DE LOS LOCOS. “……………………………………………………….No nos sorprende ver hasta qué punto ustedes están por debajo de una tarea para la que sólo hay muy pocos predestinados. Pero nos rebelamos contra el derecho concedido a ciertos hombres – incapacitados o no – de dar por terminadas sus investigaciones en el campo del espíritu con un veredicto de encarcelamiento perpetuo……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ¡Y qué encarcelamiento! Se sabe – nunca se sabrá lo suficiente – que los asilos, lejos de ser “asilos”, son cárceles horrendas donde los recluidos proveen mano de obra gratuita y cómoda, y donde la brutalidad es norma. Y ustedes toleran todo esto. El hospicio de alienados, bajo el amparo de la ciencia y de la justicia, es comparable a los cuarteles, a las cárceles, a los penales…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Esperamos que mañana por la mañana, a la hora de la visita médica, recuerden esto, cuando traten de conversar sin léxico con esos hombres sobre los cuales – reconózcanlo – sólo tienen la superioridad que da la fuerza.[x]

Lucila López

Usuaria y Sobreviviente de la Psiquiatría                                                                                           Psicóloga Social                                                                                                                                                                                            Psicodramatista                                                                                                                                       Analista Institucional                                                                                                                             Agente Comunitaria en Prevención de adicciones.

Miembro de WNUSP

Miembro de INWWD 

 

C.A.B.A

ARGENTINA

______________________________________________

Escrito por Lucila López en apoyo a la CAMPAÑA POR LA PROHIBICIÓN ABSOLUTA DE LA PRIVACIÓN DE LA LIBERTAD Y EL TRATAMIENTO FORZADO DE LAS PERSONAS CON DISCAPACIDAD PSICOSOCIAL, POR EL CUMPLIMIENTO IRRESTRICTO DEL ART. 14.- Buenos Aires, Argentina, Marzo 14, 2016

logo_wnusp

 

[i] Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities /Guidelines on article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesThe right to liberty and security of persons with disabilities/

Adopted during the Committee’s 14th session, held in September 2015

[ii] Estela de Carlotto, Presidenta a Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo uno de los organismos más importantes de Derechos Humanos de la Argentina.

[iii] *) Barrabasada: 2. Hecho equivocado que origina un gran destrozo o perjuicio. (evil thing) RAE

[iv] Y la de todos los privados de la libertad por motivos de discapacidad psicosocial.

[v] Ley NSM viola el art. 12 al decir: “Se presume la capacidad jurídica”… En la CDPD el art. 12 especifica “igual reconocimiento ante la ley”…

 

[vi] Se hace indispensable el resarcimiento económico.

[vii] *) Para el libre ejercicio del artículo 19, el respeto absoluto del art. 27 – Trabajo y empleo es una condición inalienable y elemental.

Me voy a detener a explicar en el significado de peculio porque es gravísimo que haya muchas PcD psicosocial y con otras discapacidades también, que trabajen con carácter obligatorio y sean pagadas con un peculio porque eso es rayano a un sistema de esclavitud.  El Derecho al Trabajo y al Empleo se viola de manera flagrante y es una vergüenza.

Peculio.- Significado – etimología- definiciones. Del lat. peculium.

  1. m. Dinero y bienes propios de una persona.
  2. m. Hacienda o caudal que el padre o señor permitía al hijo o siervo para su uso y comercio.

La palabra peculio proviene en su etimología del latín “peculium” que a su vez deriva de “pecus” que significa ganado, ya que esa era la medida que se aplicaba para valorar los bienes, cuando no existía la moneda. Los peculios eran porciones pequeñas de bie

nes, que se separaban en el antiguo Derecho Romano, del patrimonio familiar, que pertenecía en su integridad y en propiedad al pater, jefe de la unidad político religiosa en qué consistía la familia, y varón de mayor edad dentro de ella. Destina una pequeña porción a hijo y esclavos. También relacionado con el ámbito carcelario.

Hasta hace pocos días el peculio era de $150.- mensuales, equivalentes a  u$s 0,34 diarios.

Actualmente el peculio es $300.- mensuales equivalente a u$s 20,34 = u$s 0,68 diarios.

Los talleres protegidos para personas con discapacidad están naturalizados y solamente en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, hay 4.500 personas con discapacidad que trabajan en más 173 talleres protegidos.  En la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires un importante taller protegido, las personas con discapacidad psicosocial  hacen  los muebles para la administración pública y hospitales de la ciudad.

El actual valor del peculio en la Provincia de Buenos Aires fue anunciado hace pocos días por el Ministro de Desarrollos Social quien dijo: “van a recibir 300 pesos por mes como parte del peculio, en lugar de los 150 que cobran actualmente, que van a servir no solo para ayudar a ellos sino también a sus familias”. Asimismo informó que los operarios recibirán una tarjeta para la compra de productos alimenticios por un monto de 100 pesos mensuales. (equivalente a u$s 0,21 diarios ¡para alimentos! ¿Y consideran que deben ayudar a la familia!

Al día 14 de enero de 2016 se les adeudaba el pago desde septiembre de 2015.

[viii] Anomia: del gr. ἀνομία anomía.1. f. Ausencia de ley. 2. f. Psicol. y Sociol. Conjunto de situaciones que derivan de la carencia de normas sociales o de su degradación RAE

[ix] Desquiciar

  1. tr. Desencajar o sacar de quicio algo. Desquiciar una puerta, una ventana.U. t. c. prnl. U. t. en sent. fig.
  2. tr. Descomponer algo quitándole la firmeza con que se mantenía. U. t. c. prnl.
  3. tr. Trastornar, descomponer o exasperar a alguien. U. t. c. prnl.
  4. tr. p. us. Hacer perder a alguien la privanza, o la amistad o valimiento con otrapersona. RAE

[x] http://lalibertaddeotrodecir.blogspot.com.ar/2016/03/carta-los-directores-de-los-asilos-de.html

 

 

 

 

 

“All for the Best of the Patient” – Dorrit Cato Christensen

http://www.madinamerica.com/2016/03/all-for-the-best-of-the-patient/

 

I am sharing my story in support of the CRPD campaign: Absolute Prohibition of Involuntary Commitment and Forced Treatment. This campaign is of utmost importance. Treatment and commitment carried out by force is torture, and must be abolished immediately. For psychiatric ‘help’ to happen by force is a paradox and makes absolutely no sense. It can destroy people’s personality and self-confidence. It can lead, in the long run, to physical and psychological disability – and unfortunately, as I know only too well, it can also result in sudden death.

I have been in very close contact with the Danish psychiatric treatment system. My dear daughter Luise got caught in this ‘helping system’ by mistake, but she didn’t make it out alive. I’m sad to say I later discovered that the way Luise was treated was more the rule than the exception. After writing a book about Luise and the psychiatric system, Dear Luise: A story of power and powerlessness in Denmark’s psychiatric care system, people from all corners of the world contacted me to say that Luise’s story could have been their own or their loved one’s story.

As a leader of the Danish association Dead in Psychiatric Care, I am constantly in contact with desperate people who have been committed or who have experienced some kind of forced treatment. They all talk about the tremendous amount of psychotropics they are forced to take. They feel powerless when they complain about horrible side effects and are told in response that the disease has developed and the dose has to be increased. I hear about the smug certainty of some mental health professionals, both doctors and caregivers, and the concomitant dehumanization of their patients through indifference, harassment, coercion and the use of force. Through my experience with my dear Luise, I saw this cold and dangerous treatment world.

Luise died in 2005 when her body and mind could not tolerate the inhumane treatment anymore. After her death, I got access to the hospital records. Reading Luise’s 600-page chart was a wretched experience. It presents an impersonal diagnosis, with signs of coercion, both direct and indirect, permeating the stack of chart notes. Luise wanted me to help her, but the psychiatrists didn’t want to hear my opinion. They believed that they knew better. So I watched powerlessly as Luise deteriorated both physically and psychologically. I witnessed arrogance and dishonesty, repeated misdiagnoses, professional collusion, missing official records, and falsified hospital charts.

Luise started down this path in 1992 at the age of 18. She was supposed to have a psychiatric examination without medication, however, she was heavily medicated from the very minute she set foot in the hospital. After eight days she was close to dying from medication poisoning. That was in August, 1992. In October of 1992, she was still deeply marked by the poisoning. I have no doubt that she suffered brain damage from this. Instead of treating this injury, the psychiatrists wanted to give her more medication.

Luise said no. She argued that the psychotropics had made her very ill, which was true. The psychiatrists interpreted her arguments as a sign of her illness. Shortly after that, the mandated medication began – administered by a syringe – along with the periodic use of belt restraints.

She fought for two months against the terrible drugs. The staff always won this battle, of course. They used manpower, the belt, and the syringe.

At a certain point, Luise gave up fighting. She was broken. My heart bleeds when I read the chart from November 11, 1992. Two and a half months after she first contacted the psychiatric ward for help, her chart reads, “Today the patient offers no physical resistance but is anxious about being medicated and holds hands (the psychiatrists), and afterward, she is somewhat tearful.”

After reading the chart notes, I realize that coercion, both overt and covert, plays a much greater role in treatment than I had ever imagined.

Initially, Luise fought back, which resulted in long-term coercive measures. I can see that eventually just the threat of forcible measures was enough to make Luise give in. It’s the same story I hear from many of the people who contact me. At a certain point, everybody gives up on fighting back.

July 14th, 2005, around four p.m., was the last time Luise experienced this act of cruelty. She was involuntarily committed to a closed psychiatric ward. She had a psychotropic injected. That was on top of the four other antipsychotics she was already on. On the 15th, during the night, she was walking around as usual (akathisia). A bump was heard. At 5 a.m. Luise was declared dead. The doctor’s attempt at resuscitation was in vain. My Luise was gone forever.

The hospital chart, written not many hours before she died: “The patient was persuaded today to take prolonged-release medicine.” Then a few words about the dose and about how she was feeling well and could be moved to an open ward the next day.

Luise did not want me visiting her, that afternoon of July 14. This was unusual, so I called the ward and was told that she was doing fine and she just did not want to see me. I asked if there had been a change in her medication ― I dreaded the injection the doctor had talked about, which I said would be Luise’s death. The woman on the telephone answered that, for the best of Luise, they had decided to inform me about any medication changes only once a week, so I could find out about this the following Thursday. That’s when I really got scared. Just a few words in the chart about such an important decision as giving a new drug by way of depot injection.

Medical law requires that a patient’s chart must record what information the patient has received about a new product, and what the patient has articulated about it. Nothing was noted in her chart. No informed consent. Luise would have done anything to avoid the syringe. So the sentence “The patient was persuaded today to take prolonged-release medicine” is ominous. I’m sure she fought against getting this injection, as she had earlier been about to die from injection with psychotropics.

The autopsy also revealed marks around her body, which the coroner could not explain. I have no doubt that these marks stem from the staff holding Luise down by force when she fought against getting the drug by syringe ― the injection she died from, eight to twelve hours later.

Mental health problems are not a deadly disease. Yet many people, far too many people, still die in psychiatric care. They die because they are treated with far too high doses of psychotropics, often given against their will and by force. Luise’s tragedy is far from unique in Denmark ― or indeed any other ‘advanced’ industrialized country.

After Luise’s death, I sent a complaint to the National Agency for Patient Rights and Complaints, and to The Patient Insurance Association. My complaint’s headline was “Death from drug poisoning.” I named the four different drugs she had been on, which all together was a huge cocktail.

According to these agencies, Luise received the highest standard of specialist treatment. They wrote:

The antipsychotic medication treatment has complied with the best professional standards. That the outcome has not been satisfactory is due to the nature of the condition and the circumstances that the profession’s knowledge and treatment options are limited.

As stated, I believe that the risk inherent in the medication treatment must be weighed against the sufferings Luise H.C. would have undergone without treatment.

It is incomprehensible that Luise’s treatment was judged up to standard, when in fact they administered psychoactive pharmaceuticals at three times the highest recommended dose. There was no informed consent of this polypharmacy, and nothing written in the hospital records about her treatment in the last days of Luise’s life.

According to the UN Convention, everybody should be equal under the law. So why is this equality not carried out in practice? And why is nobody held responsible when the law is violated? Will we accept a society where far too many people die from an illness that is not deadly? Can we accept a society where forced treatment is often the cause of severe disability?

My answer is NO. Please, STOP forced treatment. Why on earth are psychiatrists so keen on keeping up such dangerous and degrading treatment? I want to tell them: Please get down from your ivory tower. Down to the real world, with real people, and stop saying that this kind of treatment is “for the best of the patient.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK9K1hpDbSU]

Dorrit Cato ChristensenDorrit Cato Christensen is an author, lecturer and chairman of the Danish association Dead in Psychiatric Care. She devoted her life to helping people who are caught in the psychiatric system after her daughter’s fatal contact with the Danish mental health system. She has chronicled her daughter’s story in her talks and in her book  “Dear Luise: A story of power and powerlessness in Denmark’s psychiatric care system”

Le témoignage d’Agnès: traitements dégradants, traitements forcés en France.

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.no/2016/03/le-temoignage-dagnes-traitements.html

En violation de l’article 16 de l’ONU, les personnes présentant un handicap psychiques subissent des traitement dégradants qui bafouent  toute dignité humaine.

Voici mon témoignage :

J’ai été hospitalisée 2 fois dernièrement à l’hôpital psychiatrique relevant de mon département
En juin, il m’ont placée dans une chambre d’isolation et m’ont attachée pendant 2 jours. J’étais allée aux toilettes le dimanche à midi et j’ai été hospitalisée vers 17heures. Le lendemain toujours attachée, j’ai crié que j’avais envie de faire pipi. Ne voyant personne venir, j’ai fini à bout par uriner dans mon lit. Des infirmiers sont venus. Ils m’ont déshabillée de force et m’ont écarté les jambes pour me placer une couche pour incontinents. Ils m’ont arraché la veste de pyjama et essayé d’ôter mon soutien-gorge, le tout avec une violence inouïe.Aujourd’hui encore j’ai un profond sentiment de honte tant je  ressens cet acte comme un viol de mon intimité. En y pensant ma gorge se noue et mon estomac se serre.

La 2éme fois en septembre cette fois, j’ai été placée en chambre d’isolement. Elle était pourvue de toilettes verrouillées de l’extérieur ce qui vous contraint à aller uriner dans un seau hygiénique sous “l’œil bienveillant” d’une caméra de vidéo-surveillance. Enfermée ainsi pendant 3 jours et 4 nuits, vous perdez la notion jour et nuit. Quand, vous sortez enfin, vous voilà docile comme un mouton prêt à quémander ou presque les médicaments que ‘l’on vous a prescrits et que l’on vous donne à heure fixe 3 fois par jour.

Tels sont les méthodes chocs employées par l’hôpital psychiatrique de mon département pour mâter les plus récalcitrants… Comment conserver l’estime de soi et se réintégrer socialement quand on a subi de tels traitements et qu’on ne peut communiquer sur ce qu’on a vécu ?

Je vis dans le sud de la France, pays des droits de l’Homme qui a pour devise “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”. J’ai une reconnaissance de handicap à 80%.

Je veux que vous apportiez mon témoignage pour que cessent ces méthodes indignes pour l’être humain et indignes du XXIe siècle.

Je voudrais dire aussi que lorsque j’ai été attachée, ils ont serré si fort les liens de contention que j’étais dans l’incapacité de bouger et que même sans bouger, ma cheville a été entaillée.

J’ajouterai que dans ce même hôpital, on utilise des mesures vexatoires à l’encontre des patients; on leur ôte toute dignité en les contraignant à rester en pyjama devant les autres patients pendant au moins 5 jours, le plus souvent une semaine, voire plus. C’est le médecin qui décide de la levée de la contrainte.

Enfin, il faut savoir que dans notre pays, les malades psychiatriques internés relèvent du “juge des liberté et de la détention” qui est aussi le juge des prisonniers de droit commun, alors que la plupart d’entre nous, n’avons commis aucun délit. Au bout de 10 jours environ, vous êtes admis à comparaître devant lui. Comment se défendre quand assommée de médicaments, on a peine à avoir les idées claires, à aligner ces phrases à trouver ses mots ? En fait le but de cette audience est avant tout de démontrer que vous n’êtes pas coopérant avec les soins ce qui justifie la poursuite de votre internement dans l’établissement.

Je pourrais aussi parler des effets qu’ont eu sur moi les neuroleptiques. Lorsqu’on me les a administrés pour la première fois, j’étais revenue à la réalité après 3 jours de bouffée délirante aiguë. Depuis chaque fois que je les arrête ou qu’on les baisse trop brusquement  ou qu’on me prescrit un traitement inadapté, je rechute.

On me disait brillante et aujourd’hui, je ne suis plus que l’ombre de moi-même: j’ai perdu mon affect, tout sens critique toute capacité d’analyser, toute intelligence émotionnelle et mes facultés cognitives. Comme ce sont les émotions qui fixent la mémoire, je suis vide de souvenirs depuis 17 ans. J’ai de grands trous noirs concernant des événements que j’ai vécus ce qui est terriblement angoissant. J’ai perdu toute curiosité intellectuelle, tout intérêt pour les choses y compris pour le domaine pour lequel j’ai effectué des études universitaires. Je subis la vie sans la vivre vraiment. Je suis une morte-vivante. A certains moments j’ai même été zombifiée. C’est ainsi qu’on m’a imposée une contrainte de soins après ma sortie de l’hôpital (loi qui a été généralisée en France par Nicolas Sarkozy en  2011) : tous les 14 jours, on m’administrait une piqûre de 50 mg de risperdal constat et les infirmiers passaient tous les soirs à mon domicile pour me contraindre à prendre un comprimé de 4 mg de risperdal (rispéridone). Incapable de me concentrer et souffrant de terribles anxiétés, j’ai été contrainte de prendre un travail à mi-temps.

Vous pouvez publier mon témoignage. J’ose espérer qu’il va servir à mettre fin à certaines méthodes utilisée par la psychiatrie moderne. Je sais qu’un jour, des gens s’étonneront de l’emploi de méthodes si barbares et  que peut-être dans un proche avenir des individus, avec l’avancée des connaissances, traîneront en justice les médecins et les industries pharmaceutiques, responsables de leur état.

C’est paradoxal. Les “psychiatres” comme leur nom l’indique devraient soigner la psychée (l’âme). Or justement en tant qu’handicapés psychiques, nous ne sommes pas traités comme des êtres humains par certains personnels soignants et cela dans l’indifférence presque totale de la société qui cautionne de tels traitements dégradants qui vont pourtant à l’encontre de la Convention de l’ONU contre la torture et les traitements dégradants. : il y a les végétaux, les animaux, les malades mentaux et l’espèce humaine. Que s’imaginent-ils? Que parce que nous perdons la raison, nous perdons notre conscience, que nous n’avons pas d’âme et que notre ressenti est celui d’un animal ? En fait je pense qu’ils ne font pas ça non parce que nous constituons un danger pour eux et pour les patients mais parce qu’ils croient qu’en nous traitant comme ça, cela nous dissuadera d’arrêter les médicament. Qu’ils se détrompent! Nous les arrêterons encore et encore pour leur prouver le contraire et nous prouver aussi à nous-même que nous sommes des êtres humains.

J’en ai moi-même fait l’expérience : en 2013, j’ai été hospitalisée une nouvelle fois à l’hôpital psychiatrique, après avoir arrêté mes médicaments,. Je n’y ai pas subi de sévices et cette fois là, et je suis tombée sur une psychiatre humaine qui m’a bien expliqué qu’il fallait que je sois stabilisée pendant 4 ans avant de pouvoir essayer (avec l’aide d’un médecin) d’arrêter les neuroleptiques. Je n’ai  plus jamais arrêté mes médicaments. J’ai rechuté en 2015 (j’avais des comprimés à cette époque que je prenais toute seule) peut-être parce que mes doses étaient trop basses. A l’hôpital sous la pression de ma famille, le psychiatre a instauré une injection retard d’abilify et comme ce traitement est destiné aux personnes atteintes de schizophrénie, j’ai rechuté une 2e fois, un mois après.

Aujourd’hui, j’aimerais bien revenir aux comprimés et être considéré comme un être humain responsable. Les injections retard sont dégradantes..Elles ne permettent pas de nuancer et d’ajuster au plus près les médicaments. Sans compter que leurs effets à long terme ne sont pas connus. Que se passerait-il en cas de syndrome malin des neuroleptiques ? C’est une question que je me pose. Malheureusement les psychiatres abusent de ces injections les généralisent et les banalisent sans mesurer les effets qu’elles engendrent. Quant à moi, je n’ arrêterai plus mon traitement car avec ce que j’ai lu là-dessus, j’ai bien compris que les neuroleptiques ou antipsychotiques sont comme une drogue et doivent être arrêtés très progressivement pendant une longue période avec des paliers de stabilisation. Les arrêter brutalement c’est le meilleur moyen de basculer dans la folie. Il m’aura fallu 17 ans pour que je comprenne tout ça, alors que si on m’avait expliqué cela dès le début(ou presque) en me considérant comme un adulte à part entière, un malade comme les autres, doué de conscience et de raison,  je n’en serais sûrement pas à ma 10ème ou 11éme hospitalisation.

Don Weitz: Fight to be Free

Fight To Be Free: Abolish Involuntary Commitment and Forced Psychiatric Treatment – A Submission to Committee on Rights for Persons with Disabilities/CRPD 

by Don Weitz

Over 60 years ago, I was labeled “schizophrenic”, locked up and forcibly drugged 110 times with subcoma insulin shock in Mclean Hospital, a psychoprison (psychiatric hospital) near Boston, affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Because I was going through an existential identity crisis – psuychiatrized as “mental illness” & “schizophrenia” – struggling to find out what I wanted to do or be with my life in college, my family colluded with the psychiatrists to “treat” and involuntarily committed me, locked me up without my consent. For 15 months, I lived on an all-male ward with 15- 20 other patients, some brain-damaged by electroshock and lobotomy, others intimidated and traumatized by “safe and effective” psychiatric drugs, all of us suffered the degradation and humiliation of being incarcerated, having our daily institutional lives totally controlled by shrinks. After I was “discharged” in 1953, I suffered frequent anxiety or panic attacks for the next few years while studying psychology in university and seeing other psychiatrists. At that time, patients had no legal or civil rights, including no right to appeal involuntary committal, I had no right to appeal or refuse insulin shock or any unwanted psychiatric treatment. I know something about what it feels like to be treated like a prisoner, what it’s like to lose your freedom without a hearing or trial – preventive detention which is what involuntary committal really is. I know what it’s like to be tortured in the coercive and inhumane psychiatric system where human rights are sanitized as ”privileges”. Violations of our human rights in the 1950s are still violated today. Human rights in psychiatry are a sham. (1).

Involuntary Committal

Involuntary committal is a legal atrocity that must be abolished. It’s a very common and widespread legal psychiatric procedure enforced by psychiatrists, judges and police in virtually every country where psychiatry is legitimized by oppressive mental health laws and promoted by psychiatrically-biased government officials and the corporate media – the psychiatric police state. Involuntary committal laws authorize the incarceration or imprisonment of people in all psychiatric facilities and mental health centres, not just for days but also for weeks, months or years – particularly under the Ontario government’s “certificates of renewal.” (2,3) To be clear, involuntary committal is loss of freedom without a public hearing or trial and without charge of any civil or criminal offence. Although legal and enforced by many states and provinces, involuntary committal is actually preventive detention which is strictly prohibited under international human rights law; virtually all provincial and state mental health laws violate our human rights and international law, yet there’s little or no awareness, discussion and resistance re this grim fact.

In Ontario, the criteria for depriving a citizen of freedom are so ill-defined, vague and broad they can apply to virtually any person. Involuntary committal qualifies as a blatant violation of human rights or “patients’ rights” which are never mentioned in mental health legislation. Consider this wording of “involuntary admission” and initial 72-hour psychiatric assessment in Ontario’s Mental Health Act:

“Conditions for involuntary admission –

(a) that the patient is suffering from a mental disorder of a nature or quality that likely will result in,

(i) serious bodily harm to the patient,

(ii) serious bodily harm to another person, or

(iii) serious physical impairment of the patient,

or [will result] in substantial mental or physical deterioration

unless the patient remains in the custody of  a psychiatric facility;…” (4)

Under the Act’s definitions, “mental disorder means any disease or disability of the mind.” This definition is a legal fiction, it’s nonsensical, illogical and unscientific; as an abstraction or theoretical construct the mind, as Szasz has pointed out, can not be diseased or disabled, only the body can be diseased. Further, this key definition obviously supports psychiatry’s unscientific and discredited biomedical medical of “mental illness” which is entrenched in all editions of the equally discredited Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry’s bible of bogus and stigmatizing diagnostic labels. Further, the phrase “substantial mental or physical or deterioration” is dangerously imprecise and subjective, it allows any physician to lock up and label innocent citizens simply by signing certificates such as “Form 1” which authorizes an initial 72 hour period of observation and assessment”, frequently followed by “Form 2” which authorizes 2 weeks of  involuntary commitment followed by “Form 3 which authorizes an additional 30 days and longer periods under a “certificate of renewal.” Also, the key term “ likely will result” is extremely misleading and problematic since it is common knowledge that psychiatrists can not validly and reliably predict harm, dangerousness or violence.

Forced Treatment

It’s bad enough that psychiatrists have so much power and that so many are incompetent while depriving thousands, if not millions of innocent people of freedom every day; however, they also have the power to forcibly treat or assault us – in the name of “mental health” of course. Although “informed consent” is a key medical-ethical concept and principle in medicine and has been since the historic Nuremberg Code of 1947, it’s frequently violated in psychiatry and the mental health system, another sham. Why7 Because psychiatrists and other physicians routinely ignore or violate its basic criteria. Consider these fundamental requirements of consent and informed consent   to treatmeent clearly and concisely spelled out in Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act:

Elements of Consent

The following are the elements required for consent to treatment:

1.The consent must relate to treatment.

2.The consent must be informed.

3.The consent must be given voluntarily.

  1. The consent must not be given through misrepresentation or fraud.

Informed consent

1.The nature of the treatment.

2.The expected benefits of the treatment.

3.The material risks of the treatment.

4.The material side effects of the treatment.

5.Alternative courses of action.

6.The likely consequences of not having the treatment. (5)

Although some psychiatric survivors may have consented to psychiatric drugs (“medication”) and/or electroshock (“ECT”), virtually none has been fully informed of their major risks and alternatives. For many, such consent has been given involuntarily-by threat, staff pressure, intimidation, physical restraint or force. During the public hearings on electroshock in Toronto in April 2005, not one survivor recalled being informed about the major effects of  “ECT” such as permanent memory loss, brain damage, and trauma; non-medical or community alternatives were never mentioned. Similar consent violations were recalled during survivor testimony on psychiatric drugs (”medication”). In other words, informed consent to psychiatric treatment is a myth, virtually nonexistent, particularly in psychiatric facilities. (6)  Given many studies, common knowledge and personal testimony of violations of informed consent to treatment, we are talking about forced treatment, psychiatric assault. Psychiatrists and other doctors who fail to fully inform patients about any prescribed treatments and risks should be criminally charged with medical negligence and assault. At the same time, all psychiatric patients should be given basic and accurate information, written or in alternate formats they can easily access and understand, on informed consent; they should also be given opportunities to discuss any questions about informed consent, including the right to refuse any treatment, with a patient advocate or lawyer, and translator if requested.

Its time to start criminalizing and launching class-action lawsuits against forced psychiatric treatments and involuntary committal; it’s time to stop sanitizing these serious human rights violations and psychiatric crimes as “treatments.”

Enough talk. How about some real action for a change? It’s our freedom and lives that are at stake!

 

Notes

  1. D. Weitz. “Struggling Against Psychiatry’s Human Rights Violations: An Antipsychiatry Perspective”. Radical Psychology [online] vol.7, 2008, http://www.radicalpsychology.org/vol7-1/weitz2008.html.

For other major critiques of psychiatry, also see, T. Szasz. Psychiatry: The Science of Lies. Syracuse University Press, 2008; P. Breggin, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, NY:Springer Publishing Company, 2008; B. Burstow, Psychiatry and the Business of Madness: An Ethical and Epistemological Accounting, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

  1. D.Hiltz and A. Szigeti. A Guide to Consent & Capacity Law in Ontario. LexisNexis Canada Inc., 2006/2007.
  1. H. Savage and C. McKague. Mental Health Law in Canada. Toronto: Butterworths, 1988.
  1. Mental Health Act. R.S.O. 1990 S.20 (5).  In Hiltz & Szigeti, p.295.
  1. Hiltz & Szigeti, p, 182.
  1. Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault. Inquiry Into Psychiatry, 2005. https://coalitionagainstpsychiatricassault.wordpress.com/events/past-events/inquiry-into-psychiatry-2005/

***

Don Weitz is a psychiatric survivor, antipsychiatry and social justice activist.

In the early 1950s, he was forcibly administered 110 insulin shocks while involuntarily committed and incarcerated for 15 months in Mclean Hospital. For over 30 years, he has been active in the antipsychiatry liberation movement. In 1977, he co-founded with Harvey “Alf” Jackson and Bob Carson the Ontario Mental Patients Association that soon changed its name to On Our Own. In 1980 with shock survivor and lawyer Carla McKague, he co-founded Phoenix Rising, the first survivor-controlled antipsychiatry magazine in Canada. A few years later in 1983, he was one of the founding members of the Ontario Committee to Stop Electroshock which was the first organization to organize public hearings on electroshock and lobbied the Toronto Board of Health and Ontario government to abolish “ECT” and has participated in nonviolent civil disobedience in Canada and the United States. In 2003 with Dr. Bonnie Burstow, Don co-founded the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA) which organized public hearings on psychiatric drugs and electroshock in 2005; CAPA has also organized several public rallies and demonstrations against shock including a Toronto protest as part of the International Day of Protest Against Electroshock on May 16, 2015. Since the late 1990s, Don has also been an outspoken critic of homelessness and advocate for affordable housing as a member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. He lives in Toronto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nachgefragt – die Reform der Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika in der Praxis der Betreuungsgerichte

http://www.ilcappellaiomatto.org/2016/03/campagna-no-tso-nachgefragt-die-reform.html

Nachgefragt – die Reform der Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika in der Praxis der Betreuungsgerichte

http://psychiatrierecht.de/nachgefragt.htm 

http://www.die-bpe.de/


Von RA Thomas Saschenbrecker

 und em. Prof. Wolf-Dieter Narr

Abhandlung als Broschüre: hier bestellen oder selber ausdrucken

Abhandlung als Broschüre: hier bestellen oder selber ausdrucken

Hinweis: um eine Fußnote zu lesen, bitte den Cursor direkt daraufhalten oder am Ende des Textes lesen
Die Diskussion über die Zulässigkeit einer ärztlichen Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika gegen den Willen eines Patienten im Rahmen einer Unterbringung nach § 1906 BGB hat auch nach den richtungsweisenden Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes nach 20111 schon wegen der hohen Bedeutung des Grundrechts aus Art. 2, Abs. 2, Satz 1 GG nichts an Aktualität verloren.

Mit Vorlagebeschluss vom 01. Juli 2015 – XII ZB 89/15 hat jüngst der BGH dem Bundesverfassungsgericht die Frage zur Entscheidung vorgelegt, ob § 1906 Abs. 3 BGB n.F. mit dem Gleichheitsgrundsatz aus Art. 3 Abs. 1 GG vereinbar sei. Motiv des 12. Senates des BGH war allerdings eher eine vermutete Schlechterstellung von betroffenen Patienten, die sich einer Zwangsbehandlung räumlich nicht entziehen wollen oder hierzu körperlich nicht in der Lage sind, gegenüber nach § 1906 BGB untergebrachten Betroffenen. Der BGH geht dabei von seiner eigenen engen Definition der mit Freiheitsentziehung verbundenen Unterbringung aus2, die nur solche Maßnahmen umfasst, welche die “persönliche Bewegungsfreiheit des Betroffenen nicht nur kurzfristig auf einen bestimmten räumlichen Lebensbereich” begrenzt.

Die aufgrund ihrer persönlichen Disposition nicht von Freiheitsentzug betroffenen Personen wähnt der BGH deshalb benachteiligt, weil entsprechende Zwangsmaßnahmen nur im Rahmen einer Unterbringung nach § 1906 Abs. 1 BGB erfolgen könnten. Soweit eine solche nicht in Betracht käme, gäbe es auch keine Grundlage der Zwangsbehandlung.

Auch wenn der BGH mit seinem Vorlagebeschluss mehr oder minder ersichtlich die Einführung einer rechtlich in hohem Maße bedenklichen ambulanten Zwangsbehandlung favorisiert, ist zumindest zweifelhaft, ob das Bundesverfassungsgericht diesem Drängen in Sinne einer allumfassenden Vernunfthoheit im Gesundheitswesen nachkommen wird3, um den Gesetzgeber in Konsequenz hieraus zur Schaffung von Rechtsgrundlagen für die ambulante Zwangsbehandlung zu veranlassen. Wesentlich naheliegender und mit weitreichenderen Folgen dürfte daher sein, dass eine Entscheidung der Verfassungshüter zum Vorlagebeschluss in letzter Konsequenz zu einer Ablehnung der Grundlagen der Zwangsbehandlung insgesamt führen könnte. Der Gesetzgeber wäre mit seiner Novelle zur Zwangsbehandlung gescheitert.

Vor dem Hintergrund der Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts4 und des Bundesgerichtshofs5 zum 26. Februar 2013 in Kraft getretenen Neuregelungen der § 1906 Abs. 3 und 3a BGB sowie der §§ 312, 323, 329 und 333 FamFG wollte der Gesetzgeber materielle und formelle Eingriffsvoraussetzungen für die Veranlassung einer ärztlichen Zwangsmaßnahme unter geschlossenen stationären Bedingungen durch den Betreuer neu schaffen6. Die Frage, ob dieses Vorhaben der Rechtspraxis gerecht geworden ist oder aber die Bedeutung und die Tragweite des Grundrechts aus Art. 2, Abs. 2, Satz 1 GG weiterhin verkannt wird, ist der Anlass, die Genehmigung der Einwilligung in eine ärztliche Zwangsmaßnahme nach § 312 Satz 1 Nr. 1 FamFG in Verbindung mit § 1906 Abs. 1 bis 3a BGB nach zwei Jahren der Reform in der Praxis der Betreuungsgerichte in einer Totalerhebung zu erfragen. Das Bundesverfassungsgericht muss nach wie vor Verletzungen der Bedeutung und Tragweite des Grundrechts aus Art. 2 Abs. 2 Satz 1 GG rügen7.

Grundproblematik:

Nach einem Moratorium, das auf die Rechtsprechung des Verfassungsgerichtes 2 BvR 882/09 vom 23.03.2011 und 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011 gründete und den Bundesgerichtshof veranlasste, in zwei Beschlüssen vom 20.06.20128 zu § 1906 BGB a.F.9 die Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika für unzulässig zu erklären und seine bisherige Rechtsprechung zur medikamentösen Zwangsbehandlung im Rahmen des § 1906 BGB a.F. aufzugeben, soll die Zwangsbehandlung von nicht einwilligungsfähigen psychisch Kranken nach § 1906 BGB auf Bundesebene im Betreuungsrecht seit dem 26.02.2013 wieder möglich sein. Der Bundestag billigte am 17.01.2013 einen entsprechenden Gesetzentwurf von Union und FDP, wonach Ärzten grundsätzlich als `ultima ratio´ erlaubt wird, psychisch kranke oder geistig behinderte Menschen, die als nicht einwilligungsfähig gelten und bei denen keine wirksame Willensbekundung durch eine Patientenverfügung entsprechend § 1901a BGB vorliegt, auch gegen ihren Willen zu behandeln.

Der Gesetzgeber hat durch das Gesetz zur Regelung der betreuungsrechtlichen Einwilligung in eine ärztliche Zwangsmaßnahme vom 18. Februar 201310 mit Wirkung vom 26. Februar 2013 in die Vorschrift des § 1906 BGB die neuen Absätze 3 und 3a eingefügt. So wurden die Voraussetzungen der Einwilligung des Betreuers in eine ärztliche Zwangsmaßnahme, sowie das gerichtliche Genehmigungserfordernis geregelt.

Die medizinische Behandlung gegen den natürlichen Willen (Zwangsbehandlung) einer betroffenen Person greift in deren Grundrecht aus Art. 2 Abs. 2 Satz 1 GG ein, das die körperliche Integrität der Grundrechtsträgerin und damit auch das diesbezügliche Selbstbestimmungsrecht schützt. Zwangsbehandlung ist rechtlich damit zunächst von Verfassungs wegen verboten. Zwangsbehandlung könnte damit wenn überhaupt, wie jeder andere Grundrechtseingriff, nur auf der Grundlage eines Gesetzes zulässig werden, das die Voraussetzungen für die Zulässigkeit des Eingriffs bestimmte11.
Der Grundsatz des Vorbehaltes des Gesetzes für die materiellen und für die formellen Eingriffsvoraussetzungen hat den Sinn, die primäre Zuständigkeit für die Bewertung von Grundrechtsbeschränkungen als begründet oder ungerechtfertigt zu bestimmen. Nur so ist gewährleistet, dass die Grenzen zwischen zulässigem und unzulässigem Grundrechtsgebrauch und zwischen zulässiger und unzulässiger Grundrechtseinschränkung nicht fallweise nach eigener Einschätzung von beliebigen Behörden oder Gerichten, sondern primär – in der Form eines allgemeinen Gesetzes – durch den Gesetzgeber gezogen werden12. Zudem wird durch einen Gesetzesvorbehalt regelmäßig eine richterliche Kontrolle der Maßnahme ermöglicht.

Die Voraussetzungen für die Zulässigkeit des Eingriffs müssen hinreichend klar und bestimmt geregelt sein. Die zur Normanwendung berufenen Entscheidungsträger der Unterbringungseinrichtungen benötigen auch im eigenen Interesse eine “klare, Rechtssicherheit vermittelnde Eingriffsgrundlage”13. Die wesentlichen Voraussetzungen für eine Zwangsbehandlung müssen aus dem Gesetz selbst in materieller, als auch in verfahrensrechtlicher Hinsicht erkennbar sein. Das bedeutete eine “über abstrakte Verhältnismäßigkeitsanforderungen hinausgehende Konkretisierung dieser Voraussetzungen”14.

Auch die weiteren Voraussetzungen für die Zulässigkeit einer Zwangsbehandlung, einschließlich der Anforderungen, denen die gesetzliche Grundlage für eine solche Behandlung genügen müsste, hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht zunächst in seinen beiden genannten Beschlüssen BvR 882/09 und 2 BvR 633/11 geklärt15, um folgende Voraussetzungen für eine Zwangsbehandlung, die dem erforderlichen Gesetzesvorbehalt auch materiell-rechtlich genügt, aufzustellen:

1.  Zwangsbehandlungen eines Einwilligungsfähigen sind generell unzulässig. Dem Einwilligungsfähigen gleichgestellt sind Betroffene, die ihren freien Willen im Rahmen einer Patientenverfügung, § 1901a BGB, vorab hinsichtlich einer künftigen Zwangsbehandlung bzw. Nichtbehandlung verbindlich festgelegt haben.
Eine vorab formulierte Patientenverfügung ist in jedem Fall bindend, wenn diese die Zwangsbehandlung und eine vorausgehende Untersuchung untersagt: Eine Patientenverfügung manifestiert den früher geäußerten freien Willen eines Patienten selbst dann, wenn dieser im Zuge einer akuten Erkrankung als nicht einwilligungsfähig gälte. Der in der Verfügung geäußerte Wille ist maßgeblich. Es handelt sich um Entscheidungen des Betroffenen über die Einwilligung oder Nichteinwilligung in bestimmte Untersuchungen des Gesundheitszustands, Heilbehandlungen oder ärztliche Eingriffe, die auf die darauffolgend konkret eingetretene Lebens- und Behandlungssituation zutreffen. Diese Entscheidung ist für Ärzte, Gerichte und auch andere Beteiligte bindend.

2. Zwangsbehandlungen müssen den angezielten “Erfolg” erreichen

3. Zwangsbehandlung ist nur als “ultima ratio” denkbar.

4. Jeder Zwangsbehandlung muss unabhängig von der Einwilligungsfähigkeit eines Patienten “der ernsthafte, mit dem nötigen Zeitaufwand und ohne Ausübung unzulässigen Drucks unternommene Versuch vorausgegangen sein, die Zustimmung des Untergebrachten zu erreichen”16.

5. Eine Zwangsbehandlung ist so rechtzeitig anzukündigen, dass der Betroffene vorher rechtzeitig vor den Gerichten Rechtsschutz suchen kann.

6. Anordnung und Überwachung der Zwangsbehandlung dürften nur durch die Ärzte erfolgen, die in der Dokumentation zur Aufklärung und zur Behandlung namentlich genannt werden. Die Zwangsbehandlung selber, aber auch das vorangegangene Gespräch, müssen widerspruchsfrei von jenen Ärzten schriftlich dokumentiert werden.

7. Die Zwangsmedikation muss vorab in jedem Schritt hinsichtlich der Behandlung, ihrer Art, ihrer Dauer und der Dosierung der Medikation konkretisiert werden. In dem Genehmigungsbeschluss muss “die von dem Betreuten zu duldende Behandlung präzise an(ge)geben” werden. Dazu gehören die Angabe des Medikaments, seine Dosierung, Verabreichungshäufigkeit und ein Ersatzmedikament, falls das genehmigte Medikament nicht vertragen wird17.

8. Die Notwendigkeit einer länger andauernden Zwangsbehandlung muss von einem einrichtungsexternen Gutachtergremium geprüft werden.

9. Wenn eine gesetzliche Regelung fehlt, kann sie nicht mehr im Wege einer verfassungskonformen Auslegung ergänzt werden18.
Kein Patient kann im Zuge einer Duldungspflicht genötigt werden, einen medizinischen Eingriff oder eine medizinische Behandlung und damit eine Maßnahme zu dulden, “die den Straftatbestand der Körperverletzung erfüllt”. Jeder Eingriff in die körperliche Unversehrtheit ist “nur mit der Einwilligung des Betroffenen zulässig”19.

Während es selbstverständlich ist, dass ein Patient auch unter den Bedingungen von freiheitsentziehenden Maßnahmen im Zuge seines Selbstbestimmungsrechtes jedwede ärztliche oder therapeutische Behandlung ablehnen darf, auch wenn gesundheitliche Gefahr droht20, soll dies bei einem psychisch kranken Menschen im Zuge einer speziellen Gesetzgebung für psychisch Kranke zumindest dann nicht gelten, wenn ein Facharzt für Psychiatrie bei dem Betroffenen von beabsichtigten Zwangsmaßnahmen “Einwilligungsunfähigkeit” konstatiert hat.

Zwangsbehandlung wurde bis 2011 auf verschiedene Rechtsgrundlagen gestützt, betreuungsrechtlich auf die §§ 1904 und 1906 a.F. BGB, öffentlich-rechtlich auf landesrechtliche Vorschriften zur Unterbring psychisch Kranker (PsychKG).

Anlässlich einer Entscheidung zum Unterbringungsgesetz des Landes Baden-Württemberg hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht 1981 auf die mögliche Gefahr einer “Vernunfthoheit des Arztes über den Patienten” und einer “umfassende staatliche Gesundheitsvormundschaft” hingewiesen. Dieser sei auf dem Rechtsweg im Zuge effektiver richterlicher Kontrolle auch im Sinne eines “Rechtes auf Krankheit” zu begegnen21. Die Richter des BVerfG zogen dabei nicht die naheliegende Konsequenz, die Legitimation von Zwangseingriffen generell in Frage zu stellen. Vielmehr wurde in dieser Entscheidung aus 1981 zwischen leichteren Formen psychischer Erkrankungen, bei denen eben dieses “Recht auf Krankheit” gelten solle, und schwereren Verlaufsformen, bei denen die “psychisch Kranken vor sich selbst in Schutz zu nehmen” seien, unterschieden. Nur für die leichteren Verlaufsformen und “Abweichungen vom Durchschnittsverhalten”22 anerkannten die Richter ein Selbstbestimmungsrecht jenseits staatlicher Fürsorge.

Seit 2011 fand in der höchstrichterlichen Rechtsprechung kontinuierlich bis heute ein tiefgreifender Wandel statt. Dass Zwangsbehandlung rechtfertigende Eingriffe besondere Grundrechtsintensität aufweisen, wurde in mehreren Leitsatzentscheidungen erstmals in dieser Deutlichkeit anerkannt. Bei Einwilligungsfähigkeit eines Patienten kommen sie generell nicht in Betracht.
Für den Maßregelvollzug wurde die Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika mangels hinreichender Rechtsgrundlage erstmals mit Beschluss des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes vom 23.3.201123 in Rheinland-Pfalz für unzulässig beschieden (vorausgegangene Eilentscheidung 2009). Die dortige bislang herangezogene Eingriffsgrundlage, § 6 Absatz 1 Satz 2 MVollzG des Bundeslandes Rheinland-Pfalz, wurde für nichtig erklärt. Es folgten weitere Nichtigkeitsentscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes vom 12.10.2011 zu § 8 UBG BW des Bundeslandes Baden-Württemberg24 und am 10. Februar 2013 zu den landesgesetzlichen Regelungen der §§ 22, 23 SächsPsychKG25. Im November 2013 erfolgte eine weitere Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes zum Erfordernis einer grundrechtlich nirgends hinzunehmenden Rechtfertigung einer Zwangsbehandlung26 bezüglich einer hinreichenden Sachaufklärung, ebenso in 201527. Auch Verletzungen des Verhältnismäßigkeitsgrundsatzes waren Gegenstand der verfassungsgerichtlichen Rechtsprechung28.

Gerade wegen der Potenzierung der Rechtsgutverletzungen des § 1906 BGB (dem Patienten wird durch Unterbringung auf einer geschlossenen Station seine Freiheit vollständig entzogen; er wird zwangsweise durch massive Eingriffe in die körperliche Unversehrtheit veranlasst, Psychopharmaka mit wesensveränderndem Einfluss und starken Nebenwirkungen einzunehmen) kann es zur denkbar schwersten Eingriffsintensität beim Betroffenen kommen. Er unterliegt schutzlos nicht nur dem Freiheitsentzug, sondern kumulativ hierzu der Zwangsbehandlung. Sie geht oft einher mit Fixierungen und anderen freiheitsbeschränkenden Maßnahmen des § 1906 Abs. 4 BGB.

Eine Zwangsbehandlung eines einsichtsfähigen und einwilligungsfähigen Patienten muss nach den verfassungsrechtlichen Vorgaben zum Selbstbestimmungsrecht des Patienten aus den Entscheidungen von 2011 und 2012 generell ohne Ausnahme künftig ausscheiden.
Nur wenn ein Patient krankheitsbedingt nicht einwilligungsfähig sei, sei eine Zwangsbehandlung bei hinreichenden gesetzlichen Vorgaben denkbar. Denn nur in diesem Falle könne der Betroffene überhaupt gehindert sein, “seine grundrechtlichen Belange wahrzunehmen”. Das könne ebenfalls “zu einer Verletzung der Menschenwürde führen”.

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hatte damit eine verfassungsrechtliche Rechtfertigung in sehr engen Grenzen zugelassen. Der BGH hat darauf verwiesen, “dass das Fehlen von Zwangsbefugnissen zur Durchsetzung notwendiger medizinischer Maßnahmen dazu führen könne, dass ein Betroffener ohne eine solche Behandlung einen erheblichen Schaden nehme”29. Ebenso hält der 12. Zivilsenat des BGH ärztliche Zwangsmaßnahmen außerhalb einer Unterbringung nach § 1906 Absatz 1 BGB für wünschenswert30. Dies obgleich der BGH noch 2000 in einer anstaltsexternen Zwangsbehandlung eine andere, aber ebenso schwerwiegende Eingriffsqualität im Sinne einer “Belastung für den Betroffenen” gesehen hatte, weil der Betroffene sich nur mit Zwang, unter Einschaltung der Polizei oder durch entsprechende Drohung, in das Psychiatrische Krankenhaus zu einer Zwangsbehandlung verbracht sähe, auch “wenn er die Behandlung dort ohne Gegenwehr über sich ergehen lasse”. Zudem erkennt der BGH in seiner Entscheidung aus 2000, dass die “Art der Vorführung nach außen hin diskriminierende Wirkung” hat.31
Die verfassungsgerichtlich aufgezeigte Option, dass es dem Gesetzgeber nach wie vor frei steht, Zwangsbehandlung “durch Schweigen zu verbieten”32 wird bislang nicht bzw. noch nicht vom BGH als tatsächliche Alternative zur derzeitigen Situation der gesetzlich normierten Zwangsbehandlung gesehen.

Die Forderungen nach einem “Schweigen” des Gesetzgebers zu jeglicher Form der Zwangsbehandlung mit Neuroleptika im psychiatrischen Bereich wurde indes schon durch den am 1. Februar 2013 veröffentlichten Bericht über den Missbrauch von Gesundheitseinrichtungen erhoben. Der UN-Sonderberichterstatter über Folter und andere grausame, unmenschliche oder erniedrigende Behandlung oder Strafe, Juan E. Méndez, sprach sich für ein absolutes Verbot von jeglichen Zwangsmaßnahmen aus und empfiehlt den Staaten dem damals schon beschlossenen Gesetz gegenläufige gesetzliche Änderungen33. “Die Darstellung des Sonderberichterstatters” sei, so das Institut für Menschenrechte, “wegen der strengen menschenrechtlichen Anforderungen an die psychiatrische Versorgung in Einrichtungen für die aktuelle Diskussion in Deutschland zu Psychiatrie und Maßregelvollzug von großer Bedeutung und hoher Aktualität.” Seine Position unterstreiche “das Erfordernis, die psychiatrische Versorgung in Deutschland konsequent am Ziel der Freiwilligkeit auszurichten und eine darauf verpflichtete Psychiatriereform voranzutreiben.”34

Auch der UN-Fachausschuss für die Behindertenrechtskonvention (BRK) hat im September 2015 seine Richtlinien zur Interpretation und dem Umgang mit dem Artikel 14 der BRK, Freiheit und Sicherheit der Person, dahingehend verabschiedet, dass explizit die Möglichkeiten untersagt werden, die das Grundgesetz zur Aufhebung der Grundrechte durch ein Gesetz offen gelassen hat, wenn diese gesetzlichen Sonderregelungen eine “Behinderung” zum Kriterium haben35. Hierzu zählt auch die Zwangsbehandlung psychisch Kranker36. Eine solche Behandlung gegen den Willen wäre bei einem gesunden Menschen ausgeschlossen.

Das Deutsche Institut für Menschenrechte hatte sich schon 2013 in mehreren Stellungnahmen u.a. für den Deutschen Bundestag für eine “gewaltfreie Psychiatrie” ausgesprochen und ausgeführt, “Es bestehen nach wie vor große Zweifel, ob der Entwurf im Einklang mit der UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention steht”37. Menschenrechtlich und ethisch sei es “fragwürdig, ob eine psychiatrische Behandlung ohne freie Zustimmung der betroffenen Person vorgenommen werden dürfe”. Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen menschenrechtlichen Diskussion und der Entwicklung des internationalen Rechts gebe es “schwerwiegende Bedenken gegen eine solche Regelung”38. Schon mit Verabschiedung der Gesetzesvorlage zur Zwangsbehandlung im Rahmen des § 1906 BGB habe Deutschland “eine historische Chance verpasst, aus den Erfahrungen einer Psychiatrie ohne Zwang zu lernen und das System der psychiatrischen Versorgung weiterzuentwickeln.” Es werde mit einem falschen und unverhältnismäßigen Ansatz über eine gesetzliche Neuregelung der Zwangsbehandlung nachgedacht, ohne eine unabdingbare, umfassende Überprüfung der Psychiatrie und strukturelle Verbesserungen der psychiatrischen Versorgung auf der Basis der Menschenrechte erfolgen zu lassen39.

Eine wesentliche Kritik des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes40 an einer Zwangsbehandlung mit Psychopharmaka besteht darin, dass in Deutschland, nachdem von der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN) in den neunziger Jahren initiierte Versuche zur Etablierung medizinischer “Standards” für Zwangsbehandlungen zu keinem Ergebnis geführt haben41, “nach wie vor keine medizinischen Standards für psychiatrische Zwangsbehandlungen existieren. Aus denen müsste mit der notwendigen Deutlichkeit hervorgehen, dass Zwangsbehandlungen mit dem Ziel, den Untergebrachten entlassungsfähig zu machen, ausschließlich im Fall krankheitsbedingter Einsichtsunfähigkeit zulässig sind”42. Eine entsprechende Einsichtsfähigkeit sei verbindlich zu definieren.

Distincte et clare gilt:

Ebenso praktikable wie eindeutige Standards sind nicht denkbar.

Bis heute gibt es keine verbindlichen Standards zur Beantwortung, auf welcher Grundlage Psychiater zur Einschätzung gelangen wollen, dass bei einem Patienten Einwilligungsunfähigkeit gegeben sei. Es gibt keine Standards für die Behandlung zur Wiederherstellung einer solchen Einwilligungsfähigkeit. Diese Wiederherstellung der Einwilligungsfähigkeit muss nach gesetzgeberischem Willen im Zuge der Gesetzesinitiativen erklärtermaßen das Ziel einer Zwangsbehandlung sein.

Psychiatrische Diagnosen wie die Feststellung einer psychiatrischen Erkrankung als Anlass einer Zwangsbehandlung unterliegen dem zeitlichen, ethischen und auch kulturellen Wandel. Der neu erschienene Diagnosekatalog DSM-5, der auch Grundlage für den neuen ICD-11 als Standardverzeichnis psychischer Erkrankungen werden wird, legt die Grenzen einer psychischen Erkrankung und einer zugrundeliegenden Diagnose derart weit auseinander, dass “viele Gesunde über Nacht zu psychisch Kranken”43 gemacht werden. Erwartet wird ein signifikanter Zuwachs vermeintlicher, oder auch erfundener psychiatrischer Krankheiten bei Kindern und bei Erwachsenen, die nicht zuletzt auch die Grundlage von Zwangsbehandlungen und Zwangsmedikationen sein können. Der Psychiater Allen Frances spricht in seinem Buch “NORMAL” von einer regelrechten “Inflation psychiatrischer Diagnosen” durch das neue Manual “DSM-V”.
Künftig wird die Grenze, die bisher mit jeder neuen Ausgabe bzw. Neuauflage des DSM zu Lasten des Bereichs des Normalen verschoben wurde, noch weiter gezogen werden (Eine banale Schüchternheit wird zu einer psychiatrisch behandlungspflichtigen “sozialen Phobie”, “kindliches Trotzen” wird zur psychiatrisch-behandlungspflichtigen “Wutkrankheit” und selbst starke prämenstruelle Beschwerden gelten künftig ebenso als psychische Krankheit, wie das “Binge-Eating”, also Essattacken)44. Einer Studie zufolge erfüllten schon mehr als achtzig Prozent (!) der jungen Erwachsenen die Kriterien für eine psychische Störung45.

Sich hieraus ergebende Gefahren für den vom Bundesverfassungsgericht geforderten Grundrechtschutz46 sind evident. Alleine die Diagnose einer psychischen Krankheit soll bei Annahme einer vorübergehenden Einwilligungsunfähigkeit Grundlage einer Zwangsbehandlung sein. Gerade aber der bislang bei allen Gesetzesinitiativen unbeantworteten vom Bundesverfassungsgericht47 gesehenen Frage, wie der Problematik der Ermangelung jedweder medizinischer Standards für Zwangsbehandlungen und das Kriterium der Einwilligungsunfähigkeit einer Lösung zugeführt wird, kommt bei sämtlichen geplanten Novellierungen zur Zwangsbehandlung signifikante Bedeutung zu. Bezeichnenderweise hat auch der Direktor des National Institut für Mental Health (NIHM), Thomas Insel, am 29.4.2013 in einer NIMH-Veröffentlichung ausgeführt, dass sämtliche psychiatrische Diagnosen bisher keine hinreichende Validität hatten. Er spricht von einem “lack of validity”48.

In Kumulation mit dem Umstand, dass es im Zuge einer Zwangsbehandlung keine freie Arztwahl, geschweige denn eine Option zur Auswahl der Therapie gäbe, sowie kein Recht, bei Zweifeln an der vorgeschlagenen Therapie einen anderen Arzt aufzusuchen, um sich eine zweite Meinung einzuholen49, das seitens vieler gesetzlichen Krankenkassen für ihre Versicherten eingeräumt wird, dürfte elementarer Grundrechtschutz vor dem Hintergrund immer weiter ausufernder, invalider, psychiatrischer Diagnosestellungen auf dem Spiel stehen.

Die Umfrage

In einer Totalerhebung wurden 676 Amtsgerichte in ganz Deutschland per Fax angeschrieben. Vor dem Hintergrund der Reform wurden sie gebeten, Fragen in 4 Komplexen zu beantworten50. Es gingen 181 Antworten ein, von 5 Gerichten mehrere Antworten verschiedener Richter, also 176 antwortende Amtsgerichte. Das sind rund 26 %.
Zu berücksichtigen ist dabei, dass die Justizministerien der Länder Bayern, Nordrhein-Westfalen und Schleswig-Holstein eine Erinnerung an die Umfrage für unerwünscht erklärten, hingegen die Justizministerien der Länder Baden-Württemberg und Niedersachsen die Umfrage unterstützten. Dies schränkte den weiteren Rücklauf von Gerichten aus den drei Bundesländern, die daraufhin nicht mehr erinnert wurden, deutlich ein. Aus den anderen Ländern erreichte uns ca. 50% des Rücklaufs erst nach Erinnerung.

Die Fragen und Antworthäufigkeiten für die Komplexe A bis D lauteten wie folgt:

Komplex A)

A1. Werden an Ihrem Betreuungsgericht psychiatrische Zwangsbehandlungen richterlich genehmigt?

▢ Ja
▢ Seitens unseres AGs wird auf diese Maßnahmen verzichtet

Vom gesamten Rücklauf waren:

Zwangsbehandlung genehmigende Antworten
128
abzüglich 5 mehrfache Antworten derselben Gerichte, also 123 70 %
auf Zwang verzichtend 14 ——–8 %
keine Anträge eingegangen  11 6 %
gar keine Antwort gegeben bzw. verweigert 28  16 %

Das AG Stolzenau autorisierte, dass dessen Verzicht auf Zwangsbehandlung öffentlich benannt wird.

Komplex B)

B1. Haben die Entscheidungen des BGH und des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes zur Unzulässigkeit der Zwangsbehandlung und die darauf folgende Reform des § 1906 BGB Einfluss auf die Anzahl der betreuungsgerichtlichen Unterbringungen?

▢ Nein
▢ Ja

Wenn ja, welchen?

B2. Bitte nennen Sie uns die Anzahl der Verfahren, bei denen es in Ihrem Gericht seit dem 1.3.2013 zu Genehmigungen einer Zwangsbehandlung gekommen ist.

Bezug wird in allen folgenden % Angaben nur auf die 176 – 28 = 148 Gerichte genommen, die Antworten gegeben bzw. nicht verweigert haben:

Kein Einfluss auf die Anzahl der Unterbringungen   103 70%
Ja, hatte Einfluss auf die Anzahl der Unterbringungen      38 25%
Keine Antwort     7 ——-5 %
Angaben zwischen 0 und 167 Genehmigungen machten 120 Gerichte
(-2 mehrfache Antworten derselben Gerichte)   118  80%

Komplex C)

C1. Haben Sie in entsprechenden Beschlüssen

▢ genaue Angabe über das Arzneimittel oder den Wirkstoff,
▢ dessen (Höchst-) Dosierung,
▢ die Verabreichungshäufigkeit gemacht?
▢ die Ernsthaftigkeit eines Überzeugungsversuchs nachprüfbar ermittelt?
▢ nachprüfbar ermittelt, dass keine unzulässige Druckausübung beim Überzeugungsversuch ausgeübt wurde?

genaue Angabe über das Arzneimittel oder den Wirkstoff 110
(-3 mehrfache Antworten derselben Gerichte)
107  72 %
dessen (Höchst-) Dosierung 100
(-3 mehrfache Antworten derselben Gerichte)
97 65,5 %
die Verabreichungshäufigkeit 96
(-2 mehrfache Antworten derselben Gerichte)
94 63,5,%
die Ernsthaftigkeit eines Überzeugungsversuchs nachprüfbar
ermittelt 104 (-3)
101 ——-68 %
nachprüfbar ermittelt, dass keine unzulässige Druckausübung
beim Überzeugungsversuch ausgeübt wurde
47  32 %
alle 5 gefragten Kriterien entsprechend den höchstrichterlichen
Beschlüssen erfüllt  35 23,5 %

Auffällig: Bei den vier Gerichten mit mehrfachen Antworten, sind die Antworten der Richter uneinheitlich.

Komplex D)

•Wie beeinflusst eine Patientenverfügung, in der psychiatrische Diagnostik und Behandlung mit Neuroleptika ausgeschlossen wird, den Ausgang eines Verfahrens auf Genehmigung einer Zwangsbehandlung?
•Haben Sie nachprüfbare konkrete Anhaltspunkte ermittelt, um den mutmaßlichen Willen zu bestimmen, zwangsbehandelt werden zu wollen, wenn bei einem einwilligungsunfähigen psychisch Kranken keine Patientenverfügung vorhanden war?
▢ Nein
▢ Ja
Wenn ja welche?

Wie beeinflusst eine Patientenverfügung den Ausgang eines
Verfahrens auf Genehmigung einer Zwangsbehandlung?
Antworten unterschiedlich (-5)
119 80%
Werden nachprüfbare konkrete Anhaltspunkte ermittelt, um
den mutmaßlichen Willen zu bestimmen, zwangsbehandelt
werden zu wollen? Nein (-2)
69  ——-47%
Ja (-2)       49  33%

Die Umfragebögen und die Antworten der Gerichte sind im Internet abrufbar: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/narrwd/legende.htm

Die Rechtsprechung reagiert im Ergebnis dieser Befragung verhalten auf die Novellierungen des Gesetzgebers zur Zwangsbehandlung. Die Anzahl der Unterbringungsverfahren sei rückläufig, so die Tendenz mancher Betreuungsgerichte in Hinblick auf die Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes.

Die strengen Voraussetzungen, die überhaupt noch zur Unterbringung führen dürfen, sehen die Gerichte allerdings teilweise als wenig praktikabel an. Die jeweiligen Entscheidungen der Betreuungsgerichte werden dem Charakter einer Zwangsbehandlung als “ultima Ratio” nicht gerecht. Besonders zeigt sich dies daran, dass nur 23,5 % der Zwangsbehandlung genehmigenden Gerichte alle 5 gefragten Kriterien entsprechenden den höchstrichterlichen Beschlüssen erfüllten.
Die Anwendung der einschränkenden Bedingungen für “ultima Ratio” führen dazu, dass die Freiheitsgrundrechte eines Betroffenen immer wieder unzureichend beachtet werden, so dass die Thematik noch häufig vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht mündet.
Erst jüngst hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht in zwei aktuellen Entscheidungen51 nochmals moniert, dass die Gerichte trotz eindeutiger Vorgaben des Gesetzgebers “bei der Auslegung und Anwendung des einfachen Rechts die Bedeutung und Tragweite des Freiheitsgrundrechts verkannt” hätten.
Es hat die Fachgerichte nochmals angemahnt, die Eingriffsqualität einer Zwangsbehandlung zu beachten. Inhalt und Tragweite der Freiheitsgrundrechte sei durch hinreichende Sachverhaltsprüfung Rechnung zu tragen. Die medizinische Behandlung gegen den natürlichen Willen bzw. Zwangsbehandlung einer Betroffenen könne und dürfe entgegen der früher geübten Praxis wegen des intensiven Eingriffs in die körperliche Integrität der Betroffenen als Grundrechtsträgerin nicht erfolgen, wenn nicht alle strengen Voraussetzungen hierfür erfüllt seien.

Die befragten Gerichte haben sich in der weit überwiegenden Anzahl für den Vorrang einer Patientenverfügung und für die Beachtung der Vorsorgevollmacht ausgesprochen und diese als Hindernis der Überwindung eines entgegenstehenden Willens bei der Zwangsbehandlung anerkannt. Bedenklich ist gleichwohl, dass rd. 20% der Gerichte nach wie vor Schwierigkeiten haben, die eindeutigen Prämissen des Gesetzgebers umzusetzen, um generell gegen eine Zwangsbehandlung zu entscheiden, wenn eine Patientenverfügung vorliegt, die Zwangsbehandlung untersagt. Hier sind die Betreuungsgerichte künftig gehalten, neue auf dem individuellen Willen basierende Lebensmodelle jenseits des psychiatrischen Zwangs zuzulassen, denn auch die Mitgliedschaft “in einem sich gegen den Einsatz von Psychopharmaka engagierenden Verein” muss einem Betreuungsgericht Anlass sein, zu ermitteln, ob sich der Betroffene nicht schon “im Zustand freier Willensbildung zur Absetzung der Neuroleptika entschieden hat” und ein beachtlicher, der Zwangsbehandlung entgegenstehender, Wille kundgetan wurde52.

Die Last der Prüfungsdichte, die die Betreuungsgerichte als kaum praktikabel beklagen, wiegt in Hinblick auf diese aktuellen Entscheidungen des Verfassungsgerichtes noch schwerer. Auch bei psychiatrischer Behandlung wird es den selbstbestimmten Patienten geben. Die bisherige Praxis der Behandlung eines Betroffenen gegen seinen Willen mit Neuroleptika wird zum Auslaufmodell.

Ausblick

Auch wenn in der Umfrage keine Fragen gestellt wurden, die auf die seit dem 1.1.2009 zum einfachen Gesetz gewordene BRK eingehen, ist auch für die Gerichte der seit dem 17.5.2015 vorliegende Staatenbericht des zuständigen UN-Fachausschusses über Deutschland bedeutsam. In ihm wird im Hinblick auf die Psychiatrie scharfe Kritik geübt, siehe insbesondere Artikel 11., 12., 25., 26., 29., 30., 33., 34. 38. Z.B. wird Zwangsbehandlung als Folter bezeichnet53.

Die Regelung zur Zwangsbehandlung zielt nach den Feststellungen des Deutschen Institutes für Menschenrechte darauf ab, sich über das Kriterium der Einwilligungsunfähigkeit “über den natürlichen Willen der betroffenen Person hinwegsetzen zu können und an die Stelle der persönlichen Entscheidung die Entscheidung Dritter zu setzen – eine so genannte, durch die BRK untersagte, ersetzende Entscheidungsfindung (“substituted decision-making”).”

Ergänzend wird dort ausgeführt: “Im Lichte der aktuellen menschenrechtlichen Diskussion, wie sie auch in Studien des UN-Hochkommissariats für Menschenrechte (UN Doc. A/HRC/10/48 vom 26. Januar 2009) und in der Auslegungspraxis des UN-Fachausschusses für die Rechte von Menschen mit Behinderungen im Zusammenhang der gesundheitlichen Versorgung von Menschen mit Behinderungen Ausdruck findet, ist der Ansatz, wonach eine psychiatrische Behandlung ohne freie und informierte Zustimmung der betroffenen Person, allein legitimiert über die Entscheidung Dritter vorgenommen werden soll, menschenrechtlich in Frage gestellt.”54

Die gesetzlichen Regelungen des § 1906 BGB haben eine “Behinderung” zum Kriterium, die gemessen an den Grundsätzen des Artikel 14 der Behindertenrechtskonvention, Freiheit und Sicherheit der Person, als Sondergesetzgebung gegen geltendes Konventionsrecht verstoßen. So der UN-Fachausschuss für die BRK und dessen in der 14. Sitzung aufgestellten Richtlinien zur Interpretation und dem Umgang mit dem Artikel 14 BRK55.

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hatte zur Frage der Einwilligungsfähigkeit schon 2011 ausgeführt:

“In Deutschland existieren, nachdem von der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN) in den neunziger Jahren initiierte Versuche zur Etablierung medizinischer Standards für Zwangsbehandlungen nicht zu einem Ergebnis geführt haben (vgl. Steinert, in: Ketelsen/Schulz/Zechert, Seelische Krise und Aggressivität, 2004, S. 44 <47>), keine medizinischen Standards für psychiatrische Zwangsbehandlungen, aus denen mit der notwendigen Deutlichkeit hervorginge, dass Zwangsbehandlungen mit dem Ziel, den Untergebrachten entlassungsfähig zu machen, ausschließlich im Fall krankheitsbedingter Einsichtsunfähigkeit zulässig sind. Dass dementsprechend ein Bewusstsein hierfür in den medizinischen und juristischen Fachkreisen noch nicht allgemein verbreitet und eine gesetzliche Regelung, wie im Beschluss des Senats vom 23. März 2011 festgestellt, unverzichtbar ist, illustriert nicht zuletzt der vorliegende Fall, in dem weder die Klinik noch die Fachgerichte sich mit der Frage, ob beim Beschwerdeführer eine krankheitsbedingte Unfähigkeit zur Einsicht in die Notwendigkeit der Behandlung bestehe, auch nur ansatzweise auseinandergesetzt haben. Die bloße Feststellung einer Persönlichkeitsstörung beantwortet diese Frage nicht.”56
Der Begriff der Einwilligungsunfähigkeit ist schon deshalb problematisch, weil der Begriff in Ermangelung von Standards, als unbestimmter und damit ausfüllbarer und sich wandelnden subjektiven Definitionen zugänglicher Rechtsbegriff gelten muss. Als solcher wird er wegen der Eingriffsintensität den Anforderungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes ebenso wenig genügen, wie in den Vorentscheidungen der Begriff der “Regeln der ärztlichen Kunst”57.

In einer Entscheidung vom Februar 2013 hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht zu § 22 SächsPsychKG in einem weiteren Nichtigkeitsbeschluss zu entsprechenden Regelungswerken der Länder ausgeführt:

“… dass § 22 Abs. 1 Satz 1 SächsPsychKG auf die Regeln der ärztlichen Kunst verweist, ändert daran nichts. Unabhängig von der Frage, ob dieser Verweis überhaupt hinreichend deutlich eine umfassende Bindung an die Regeln der ärztlichen Kunst statuiert, liegt in einer solchen Bindung keine hinreichend deutliche gesetzliche Begrenzung der Möglichkeit der Zwangsbehandlung auf Fälle der fehlenden Einsichtsfähigkeit.”58
Ohne die Schaffung von Grundvoraussetzungen und Standards besteht jedenfalls die konkrete Gefahr einer Subjektivierung des Begriffes der Einwilligungsunfähigkeit je nach Gutdünken des jeweiligen Arztes oder Gutachters.

Eine Kritik, der sich auch die DGPPN nicht verschließen kann, wenn und soweit kritisch ausgeführt wird: “Als wenig praxisgerecht erscheint dagegen die Forderung, dass unbeteiligte Sachverständige, die nicht in die Behandlung einbezogen und nicht in der behandelnden Klinik tätig sind, in dem rechtlichen Verfahren gutachterlich tätig werden sollen. (….) Erschwerend kommt der Mangel an kompetenten, externen Gutachtern dazu59.”

Damit wird von höchster fachpsychiatrischer Ebene die Gutachterkompetenz bei der Einschätzung einer Einwilligungsunfähigkeit, die immerhin über das “ob und wie” eines erheblichen Grundrechtseingriffes entscheidet, in Frage gestellt und eingeräumt, dass je nach subjektiver Gedankenwelt und Vorstel-lungen des Sachverständigen Ergebnisse bei gleichem Probanden variieren und letztlich ein schlichtes Bauchgefühl über Freiheit oder Unterbringung und Zwangsmedikation entscheidet. Bei einem psychologischen Sachverstän-digengutachten muss es sich hingegen um eine wissenschaftliche Leistung handeln.

Die Einschätzung einer Nichteinsichtsfähigkeit in eine Behandlung ist fachlich hochgradig instabil bzw. subjektiv, weil bislang keine handhabbaren Kriterien existieren, zwischen Einsichtsfähigkeit und Nichteinsichtsfähigkeit zu unterscheiden. Hierauf einen Eingriff in Grundrechte zu stützen, ist verfassungsrechtlich jedenfalls unhaltbar.

Regelung zur Patientenverfügung – Fehlende Regelungen zur Vorsorgevollmacht

Die Regelungen zur Patientenverfügung des Gesetzesvorhabens trägt dem Selbstbestimmungsrecht Rechnung. Diesem Willen wird aber nach wie vor nicht von allen Betreuungsgerichten für eine Untersuchung wie auch für eine Behandlung Rechnung getragen. Jeder Mensch hat das Recht, sich in freier Entscheidung gegen eine Unterbringung zu seinem eigenen Schutz zu entscheiden und stattdessen mit den Risiken seiner Krankheit in Freiheit leben zu wollen. Diese Entscheidung kann auch in einer Patientenverfügung für den Fall eines späteren Verlusts der Einsichtsfähigkeit niedergelegt werden60.

Die Regelungen erfolgen in Beachtung des aus § 1901a Abs. 1 Satz 1 BGB resultierenden Selbstbestimmungsrechtes eines Patienten bei Errichtung einer Patientenverfügung. Das Recht auf Selbstbestimmung und die personale Würde des Patienten (Art. 2 Abs. 2 S. 2 GG) gebieten es, jedem Patienten gegenüber einem Arzt und Krankenhaus grundsätzlich Anspruch auf Ablehnung von Diagnosestellungen und ärztlichen Behandlungen einzuräumen. Der Vorrang wird unbedingt gewährt. Es entspricht den Vorgaben des Verfassungsgerichtes zu einem generellen Zwangsbehandlungsverbot bei Einwilligungsfähigkeit bzw. antizipierter Willensbekundung im Zustand der Einwilligungsfähigkeit.

Zusammenfassung

Inzwischen hat sich in der Rechtsprechung durchgesetzt, dass die Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes vom 23.03.2011 (NJW 2011, 2113ff.) sowie vom 12.10.2011 (NJW 2011, 3571ff) für alle gesetzlichen Regelungen über Zwangsbehandlungen Bedeutung haben und Zwangsbehandlungsgesetze generell den vom Bundesverfassungsgericht aufgestellten Anforderungen genügen müssten61.

Die Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes sind auch in der Rechtsprechung und weiten Teilen der Literatur allgemein als verbindlich für alle Regelwerke betreffend Zwangsmaßnahmen bei der Gabe von Neuroleptika angenommen worden.

Die Monitoring-Stelle zur UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention, die in Berlin am Deutschen Institut für Menschenrechte angesiedelt ist, sieht die Wiedereinführung von Regelungen zur Zwangsbehandlung als nicht zulässig.

In einer Stellungnahme der Monitoring-Stelle zur öffentlichen Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses des Bundestages vom Dezember 2012 wird hervorgehoben, dass das Konzept der “krankheitsbedingten Nichteinsichtsfähigkeit” im Wortlaut der UN-Behindertenrechtskonventionen selbst keinen Halt finde.
Weder der Wortlaut des Artikels 12 UN-BRK über die gleiche rechtliche Handlungsfähigkeit noch die Auslegungspraxis des UN-BRK-Ausschusses ließen derzeit den Schluss zu, dass die rechtliche Handlungsfähigkeit auf Grund einer Behinderung eingeschränkt werden dürfe. Im Rahmen der internationalen Verhandlungen zur Schaffung der UN-BRK habe man sich bewusst dagegen entschieden, ein entsprechendes Kriterium zur Einschränkung beziehungsweise zur Bestimmung der Einschränkbarkeit aufzunehmen.

Die UN-BRK gehe davon aus, dass alle Menschen mit Behinderungen “Rechts- und Handlungsfähigkeit” genießen (Artikel 12 Absatz 2 UN-BRK). In Verbindung mit dem Recht auf Gesundheit (Artikel 25 UN-BRK) bedeutet dies das Recht, in Fragen individueller gesundheitlicher Angelegenheiten in allen Fällen eine “freie und informierte Entscheidung” über die eigenen gesundheitlichen Belange treffen zu dürfen, insbesondere darüber, ob und wenn ja, welche Therapie angewendet wird.
Die im deutschen Verfassungsrecht anerkannte Figur der “Freiheit zur Krankheit” sei genau in diesem Kontext zu verorten. Die menschenrechtlichen Regelungen gehen darüber hinaus.
In Anbetracht der Interpretation des UN-BRK-Ausschusses sind die Anwendung von Zwang im Zusammenhang mit der Behandlung von Menschen mit Behinderungen nicht legitim.

Die zwangsweise Unterbringung und zwangsweise Behandlung von Menschen mit Behinderungen stelle eine Reihe von menschenrechtlich verbrieften Rechtsgewährleistungen in Frage.
Insbesondere wenn Menschen auf Grund ihrer Behinderung oder in der Kombination mit einem behinderungsrelevanten Merkmal eine stärkere Einschränkung ihrer Rechte zugemutet werde als Nichtbehinderten, lasse dies eine Ungleichbehandlung erkennen, die nach Maßgabe des Diskriminierungsverbots (Artikel 5 UN-BRK) nicht zu rechtfertigen sei.

Darüber hinaus sei die Einschätzung einer Nichtzustimmungsfähigkeit in eine Behandlung fachlich hochgradig instabil, weil handhabbare Kriterien bislang nicht zu finden sind, zwischen Einsichtsfähigkeit und Nichteinsichtsfähigkeit zu unterscheiden.
Nach Artikel 12 UN-BRK bestehe aber die Verpflichtung, die Unterstützung (“support”) für Menschen mit Behinderungen so zu gewährleisten, dass sie autonom entscheiden – die unterstützende Entscheidungsfindung (“supported decision-making”). Diese anspruchsvolle Form der Unterstützung im Sinne von Assistenz dürfe weder über die gesetzliche Vertretung, noch durch eine zwangsweise durchgesetzte Entscheidung, die Dritte für eine betroffene Person getroffen haben, ersetzt werden62.

Der Sonderberichterstatter über Folter des UN-Hochkommissariats für Menschenrechte, Juan E Méndez, erklärte in der 22. Sitzung des “Human Rights Council” am 4. März 2013 Zwangsbehandlung in der Psychiatrie zu Folter bzw. zu grausamer, unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Behandlung. Er forderte, dass alle Staaten ein Verbot aller nicht einvernehmlichen medizinischen bzw. Zwangsbehandlungen verhängen sollten, einschließlich nicht-einvernehmlicher Psychochirurgie, Elektroschocks und Verabreichung bewusstseinsverändernder Drogen, sowohl in lang- wie kurzfristiger Anwendung. Die Verpflichtung, erzwungene psychiatrische Behandlung zu beenden, sei sofort zu verwirklichen und auch knappe finanzielle Ressourcen können keinen Aufschub der Umsetzung rechtfertigen63.

Auch der frühere Bundesrichter Wolfgang Neškovic kritisierte das Zwangsbehandlungsgesetz. Die Kriterien seien “bevormundend und paternalistisch”. Sie “ignorierten das Selbstbestimmungsrecht”, sie “entwürdigten den Patienten zum Objekt”. Genau das habe das Patientenverfügungsgesetz verhindern wollen. Das sollte nicht nur für Komapatienten und Demenzkranke, sondern für die gesamte Gruppe der “Einsichtsunfähigen” gelten. Wenn der Patient seinen Willen aktuell aber nicht klar äußern könne, müsse “auf dessen ausdrückliche Verfügung oder seinen mutmaßlichen Willen anhand konkreter Anhaltspunkte zurückgegriffen” werden64.

Die Kritik an Zwangsbehandlung stützt sich auf Verfassungsrecht. Es muss auch für den Einwilligungsunfähigen gelten. Das Bundesverfassungsgericht habe Art. 2 Abs. 2 Satz 1 GG menschenrechtlich zutreffend als Aktivrecht jeder Person ausgelegt: “Jeder hat das Recht auf Leben und körperliche Unversehrtheit.” Art. 2 Abs. 2 Satz 2 GG laute konsequent: “Die Freiheit der Person ist unverletzlich.” Das bedeute, jeder erfahre sich als Person, indem er über sich, das eigene Leben und die eigene Unversehrtheit zu allererst ihres/seines Körpers selbst entscheidet. Darum habe das Verfassungsgericht zutreffend formuliert, es sei unzulässig, stellvertretend, und sei es als Psychiater aus gesundheitlichen oder anderen Gründen der Rehabilitation, eine Person zwangsweise zu behandeln. Die Selbstbestimmung des Menschen schließe alle kranken oder gesunden Befindlichkeiten ein.

Indem das Bundesverfassungsgericht über die historisch herkömmliche Begrenzung des Kerns der Menschenrechte als Abwehrrechte hinausgehe, folge es der BRK der Vereinten Nationen von 2006. Sie sei auf Vorschlag der Bundesregierung im Dezember 2008 vom Deutschen Bundestag als Gesetz übernommen worden. Die Behindertenrechtskonvention gehe folgerichtig im Sinne der Wirklichkeit des Menschen und seiner sozialen Bedingungen darüber hinaus. Sie verlange, die sozialen, technischen und wissenschaftlichen Bedingungen zu schaffen um Behinderungen zu überwinden. Die Behinderten würden ansonsten um ihre Grund- und Menschenrechte gebracht, obwohl sie nominell gelten65. Die “Freiheit zur Krankheit”, als Ausfluss des allgemeinen Persönlichkeitsrechts und der allgemeinen Handlungsfreiheit werde durch die Entscheidungen der Gerichte bekräftigt.

Der Staat müsse es von jeher hinnehmen, schreibt Rinke 1988 in der Neuen Zeitschrift für Strafrecht, wenn der Bürger fürsorgerische Leistungen eigenverantwortlich ablehne66.

Zwei Jahre nach in Kraft treten des BGB-Gesetzes zur Zwangsbehandlung kann nur dessen Scheitern festgestellt werden: es hat das Ziel einer “Ultima Ratio” Regelung verfehlt, stattdessen Rechtsunsicherheit geschaffen. Der Versuch körperlich Kranke und psychisch Kranken ungleich zu behandeln und letztere rechtlich mit einem Sondergesetz zu diskriminieren, wenn sie einwilligungsunfähig diagnostiziert werden sollten, ist ein Verstoß gegen den Gleichbehandlungsgrundsatz von Art. 3 GG und gegen den Kern der BRK. Es darf kein staatliches Monopol gesundheitlicher Bevormundung mit Zwang geben. Freie Willensentscheidung mit körperverletzendem Zwang erreichen zu wollen, ist in sich paradox.

Entweder Grundrechte oder Behandlung um jeden Preis.

——————————————————————————–

1.BVerfG FamRZ 2011, 1128 und FamRZ 2011, 1927
2.BGH FamRZ 2015, 567 Rn. 12; FamRZ 2013, 1646 Rn. 12; FamRZ 2008, 866 Rn. 19 und FamRZ 2001, 149 f (BGH, Vorlagebeschluss vom 01. Juli 2015 – XII ZB 89/15 -, Rn. 17, juris)
3.ablehnend schon BVerfGE 58, 208 (226)
4.BVerfG FamRZ 2011, 1128 und FamRZ 2011, 1927
5.BGH, Beschlüsse vom 20. Juni 2012 – XII ZB 130/12 und XII ZB 99/12
6.BTDrucks 17/11513 und 17/12086
7.BVerfG, Beschluss vom 14. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1549/14, 2 BvR 1550/14 -, Rn. 27, juris
8.BGH XII ZB 99/12 und BGH XII ZB 130/12 Beschlüsse vom 20.06.2012
9.Inzwischen novelliert durch das am 26.02.2013 in Kraft getretene “Gesetz zur Regelung der betreuungsrechtlichen Einwilligung in eine ärztliche Zwangsmaßnahme” vom 18.02.2013, Bundesgesetzbl. 2013 Teil I Nr. 9
10.BGBl. I S. 266
11.BVerfG, BVerfGE 128, 282-322 S. 317 (Beschluss vom 23. März 2011 – 2 BvR 882/09)
12.BVerfGE 116, 69 S. 80
13.BVerfG, 2 BvR 228/12 Beschluss vom 20.2.2013
14.BVerfGE 128, 282 S. 318 ff. (Beschluss vom 23. März 2011 – 2 BvR 882/09)
15.BVerfGE a.a.O. (Beschluss vom 23. März 2011 – 2 BvR 882/09)
16.BverfGE a.a.O.
17.BGH, Beschl. v. 01.02.2006 – XII ZB 236/05 – Heitmann, jurisPR-FamR 9/2006 Anm. 1
18.Heitmann, Zwangsbehandlung und Verfassungsrecht jurisPR-FamR 13/2012, S. 18
19.OLG Zweibrücken, 1 Ws 90/11 Beschluss vom 01.08.2011 (juris)
20.BVerfG 2 BvR 1194/80 Beschluss vom 7. Oktober 1981 (BVerfG 58, 208 ff.)
21.BVerfG 2 BvR 1194/80; BVerfG 58, 208 (S. 227)
22.BVerfG a.a.O. S. 224 f.
23.BVerfG 2 BvR 882/09
24.BVerfG 2 BvR 633/11
25.BVerfG 2 BvR 228/12; zuvor schon BVerfG 2 BvR 2362/11 Beschluss vom 15.12.2011
26.BVerfG, Beschluss vom 28. November 2013 – 2 BvR 2784/12 -, juris Regelung
27.BVerfG, Beschluss vom 14. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1549/14, 2 BvR 1550/14
28.BVerfG, Nichtannahmebeschluss vom 07. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1180/15 -, juris
29.BGH XII ZB 99/12 Beschluss vom 20.06.2012
30.BGH, Vorlagebeschluss vom 01. Juli 2015 – XII ZB 89/15 -, Rn. 22, juris
31.BGH, Beschluss vom 11. Oktober 2000 – XII ZB 69/00 -, BGHZ 145, 297-310, Rn. 21
32.BVerfG Beschluss vom 23.03.2011 – 2 BvR 882/09
33.Institut für Menschenrechte, News vom 25.06.2013, “UN-Sonderberichterstatter: Absolutes Verbot von jeglichen Zwangsbehandlungen im Zusammenhang der psychiatrischen Versorgung”
34.Institut für Menschenrechte a.a.O.
35.http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/14thsession/GuidelinesOnArticle14.doc
36.vgl. TAZ vom 26.2.2008 auf Seite 21
37.Pressemitteilung des Deutschen Instituts für Menschenrechte vom 13.01.2013, ” Monitoring-Stelle fordert Enquete-Kommission zu Psychiatrie-Reform” unter Bezugnahme auf Valentin Aichele, Leiter derMonitoring-Stelle zur UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention
38.Institut für Menschenrechte a.a.O.
39.Stellungnahme der Monitoring-Stelle zur UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention anlässlich der Öffentlichen Anhörung am 10. Dezember 2012 im Rahmen der 105. Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages
40.BVerfG, 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011
41.Steinert, in: Ketelsen/Schulz/Zechert, Seelische Krise und Aggressivität, 2004, 44 , S. 47
42.BVerfG, 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011
43.Der Stern vom 31. Mai 2013, Neues Standardwerk der Psychiatrie DSM-5 -Psychisch krank über Nacht
44.Der Stern a.a.O.
45.Blech, J. in Spiegel online vom 12.04.2013 – “Normal von Allen Frances: Beichte eines Psychiater-Papstes”
46.BVerfGE 2 BvR 882/09 Beschluss vom 23.03.2011 und 2 BvR 633/11 Beschluss vom 12.10.2011
47.instruktiv BVerfG, 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011
48.http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml
49.statt vieler: Techniker Krankenkasse vom 05.01.2010: “Recht auf  Zweitmeinung”,
https://www.tk.de/tk/behandlungen/zweitmeinung/recht-auf-zweitmeinung/213558
50.Den jeweiligen Fragen der Umfrage sind einer Sammlung an Gesetzestexten und höchstrichterlichen Urteilen zugeordnet
51.BVerfG, Beschluss vom 07. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1180/15 und Beschluss vom 14. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1549/14
52.BVerfG Beschluss vom 14. Juli 2015 – 2 BvR 1549/14
53. http://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF-Dateien/UN-Dokumente/CRPD_Abschliessende_Bemerkungen_ueber_den_ersten_Staatenbericht_Deutschlands_ENTWURF.pdf
Abschliessende_Bemerkungen_ueber_den_ersten_Staatenbericht_Deutschlands_ENTWURF.pdf
54.Aichele, Valentin, Stellungnahme der Monitoring-Stelle zur UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention anlässlich der Öffentlichen Anhörung vom 10. Dezember 2012, im Rahmen der 105. Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages
55.http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CRPD/14thsession/GuidelinesOnArticle14.doc
56.BVerfG, 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011
57.BVerfG, 2 BvR 633/11 vom 12.10.2011: “In Deutschland existieren, nachdem von der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN) in den neunziger Jahren initiierte Versuche zur Etablierung medizinischer Standards für Zwangsbehandlungen nicht zu einem Ergebnis geführt haben (vgl. Steinert, in: Ketelsen/Schulz/Zechert, Seelische Krise und Aggressivität, 2004, S. 44 <47>), keine medizinischen Standards für psychiatrische Zwangsbehandlungen, aus denen mit der notwendigen Deutlichkeit hervorginge, dass Zwangsbehandlungen mit dem Ziel, den Untergebrachten entlassungsfähig zu machen, ausschließlich im Fall krankheitsbedingter Einsichtsunfähigkeit zulässig sind.”
58.BVerfG, Beschluss vom 20. Februar 2013 – 2 BvR 228/12 -, juris (Rn 60)
59.Falkai, Zwangsmaßnahmen: Verfahren transparent gestalten Presse-Information Nr. 47 /19.11.2012 der DGPPN
60.Drucksage 18-0606 S. 10
61.Sachs, Grundrechte: Körperliche Unversehrtheit und Selbstbestimmung JuS 2011, 1047
62.Stellungnahme der Monitoring-Stelle zur UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention anlässlich der Öffentlichen Anhörung vom 10. Dezember 2012, im Rahmen der 105. Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages
63.Statement by Mr. Juan E Méndez, SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT, 22 nd session of the Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 3, 4 March 2013, Geneva
64.Neškovic, Der Wille des Patienten geht vor – Der Tagesspiegel, 29.11.2012
65.Narr et al. Behinderung, Menschenrechte und Zwang 2011
66.Rinke NStZ 1988, 10 S. 13

M’hamed El Yagoubi, Campagne pour soutenir l’Abolition totale des soins et de l’hospitalisation sans consentement en application de la CDPH de l’ONU

http://cvjn.over-blog.com/2016/03/campagne-pour-soutenir-l-abolition-totale-des-soins-et-de-l-hospitalisation-sans-consentement-en-application-de-la-cdph-de-l-onu.htm

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.no/2016/03/contribution-de-mhamed-el-yagoubi-la.html

aussi en traduction italien, http://www.ilcappellaiomatto.org/2016/03/campagne-pour-soutenir-labolition.html

13 Mars 2016

Photo de Nathalie prise le mois d'août 2012 Pont de l'Arc, Aix-en-Provence

Photo de Nathalie prise le mois d’août 2012 Pont de l’Arc, Aix-en-Provence

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.fr/2016/03/contribution-de-mhamed-el-yagoubi-la.html

http://depsychiatriser.blogspot.fr/2016/03/contribution-de-mhamed-el-yagoubi-la.html

Campagne pour soutenir l’Abolition totale des soins et de l’hospitalisation sans consentement en application de la CDPH de l’ONU

Nathalie Dale. Née le 21 mai 1970 à Cagnes-sur-Mer. France.

Morte le 31 janvier 2014 à Aix-en-Provence. France.

Cause : Défaillance respiratoire au surcharge médicamenteux selon le certificat établi par le service de médecine légale le 03/02/2014.

1 – Détruite par un traitement psychiatrique non seulement inefficace mais dangereux et mortel dans son dosage à longue durée.

2– Traumatisée par l’enlèvement brutal de son enfant par le juge avec la complicité de la psychiatre de l’hôpital de Montperrin (Aix-en-Provence) et ses collaborateurs juste après l’accouchement le 30 mars 2010 à 10h00. Elle ne l’a jamais vu. Elle l’a reconnu dans sa déclaration administrative et lui a donné un nom.

– Dépossédée de ses allocations par les mandataires déléguées du « service juridique de la protection des majeurs».

4 – Hospitalisation sous contrainte à l’aide d’un arrêté préfectoral du 19 octobre 2010, non basé sur une enquête préalable mais sur une pétition d’une partie du voisinage aux comportements malveillants abusant de sa vulnérabilité. Elle aurait été sauvée si les services concernés avaient été animés d’un peu d’humanité et avaient pris en compte les nombreux rapports d’alerte que je leur avais adressés en tant qu’ex-mari et compagnon. Peut-être eux-mêmes sont-ils victimes d’un système incontrôlable et monstrueux. Un rapport écrit a été communiqué à la préfecture (Agence régionale de Santé) le 14 mars 2011 sur cet arrêté abusif violant totalement ses droits et sa dignité.

Le cas de Nathalie pointe les aspects les plus obscurs dans le non-respect des droits de l’homme et du patient en situation de handicap psychique : La maltraitance psychiatrique et l’abus tutélaire et curatelle.

Nathalie fut mise sous curatelle renforcée le 08 avril 2010 alors qu’elle était hospitalisée à l’hôpital de Montperrin. Elle n’avait pas été consultée pour avoir son avis. Un abus de sa faiblesse et les effets de sa grossesse ont été sans aucun doute une atteinte plausible à ses droits.

Elle fut éjectée de l’hôpital psychiatrique de Montperrin le 26 avril 2010 sans aucun centime, sans accompagnement social et sans suivi médical pendant de longs mois. Elle faillit mourir d’inanition dans un pays d’abondance, alors que l’hôpital et d’autres services prélevaient directement ses maigres allocations (AAH). Grâce à ma vigilance et mon soutien matériel et moral, elle a échappé à une catastrophe, mais pas pour longtemps.

Nathalie subit un internement psychiatrique du 19 octobre 2010 au 19 janvier 2011 suite à un arrêté préfectoral. Nathalie fut mise sous contrainte des « soins » obligatoires sous le contrôle de la même psychiatre au CMP (Centre médico-psychologique). Aucune écoute dans la dignité et le respect de ses droits mais des séances « expédiées » avec des menaces de retournement à l’hôpital psychiatrique et la prescription de « médicaments » aux effets dévastateurs et mortels : Lexomil, Imovane, Lepticur, Sulfarlem, Clopixol, etc. Elle passait les trois quarts de la journée dans son lit. Immobilisée, l’incapacité de se lever ou de faire quelques pas. Les traitements prescrits pendant les RDV qui ne duraient que quelques minutes n’ont pas été modifiés. Je dis quelques minutes parce que je l’ai accompagné plusieurs fois à ce centre (CMP) obsolèteLexomil, Imovane, injection (coplixol), lepticur, sulfarlem, etc. Aucune visite chez elle ni par les infirmières ni par cette la psychiatre. Tous les RDV se faisaient le matin à 09h00 dans ce centre. Nathalie ne manifestait aucun trouble et aucune inquiétude au début de la journée. Elle est matinale. Son fonctionnement global est normal. A partir de midi, les effets dévastateurs des traitements imposés commençaient à être visibles. Ils provoquaient un ralentissement de ses perceptions et de ses réactions. Sa langue se diluait, ses yeux se fixaient en haut, confusion et perte dans l’espace et le temps, la bouche ouverte avec sa langue qui descendait, toujours sèche, difficulté d’avaler, des mouvements et des réflexes de ses deux épaules perceptibles, tête baissée sur la table quand elle est sur son canapé, un ralentissement du fonctionnement de son corps, perte de sensations et de perception . Quand elle marche et quand elle parle, aucune coordination, elle tombait, elle éprouvait des difficultés cinétiques pour aller aux toilettes faire pipi. Parfois, elle le faisait dans son lit non par imprudence mais par l’incapacité de se mouvoir. Elle ne sentait plus ses jambes. Quand elle faisait un effort pour quitter son lit, elle tombait par terre sans pouvoir avoir la capacité de se redresser. Elle restait allongée avec sa langue qui sortait. Quand elle prenait son bain, ce qu’elle aimait faire tous les jours chez elle, elle aimait rester au contact de l’eau fraîche, pas trop, elle restait longtemps endormie. Elle ne prenait pas son traitement au-delà de ce qui est prescrit.

L’intervention des services de la préfecture en collaboration du personnel de la psychiatrie le 19 octobre 2010 entre 20h et 00h ont laissé des traces profondes dans le reste de sa vie. Terrorisée et mise dans un état psychologique dégradé de façon irréversible, alors que ces services savaient très bien qu’elle était fragile, dépossédée par leur pouvoir inhumain, poussée par leurs mécanismes destructeurs à l’irréparable et à l’impensable juste pour satisfaire une pétition d’un groupe de voisins violents et animés par un esprit communautariste défaillant.Elle ne pouvait pas sortir, quand ils étaient devant l’immeuble où elle habitait par peur. Quand je l’accompagnais tous les jours, dès qu’elle voyait un véhicule des services de la police ou de la gendarmerie, elle paniquait parce qu’elle a intériorisé le contenu de cet arrêté préfectoral qui fait froid dans le dos. Les pires dictatures n’auraient pas pu le faire. Et pourtant, cette décision mortifère est prise par la préfecture des Bouches-du-Rhône, haute représentation de l’ Etat de «droit». La France.

Ces éléments de connaissance sur les effets dévastateurs des traitements qu’elle prenaient ont été codifiés et mis en manuscrit pendant un longue période surtout depuis juin 2011 jusqu’à la fin de vie 31 janvier 2014. Il aurait été plus parlant si la victime était là pour témoigner. J’ai pris le risque de mettre en ligne ces quelques éléments dans une méthodologie crue pour ne pas trahir son vécu infernal que j’ai bien assumé son partage.

Ces pratiques « médico-psychiatriques », aggravées par l’enlèvement de son enfant et l’internement abusif et la privation de ses allocations par le service de curatelle ont été administrées jusqu’à l’étouffement fatal le 31 janvier 2014. Et pourtant, le dernier rapport communiqué aux services concernés sur la gravité de son état de santé et d’atteinte à ses droits a été fait le 07 octobre 2013. Un autre rapport a été communiqué le 28 décembre 2013 au Député chargé de la mission d’information parlementaire sur les dérives de la psychiatrie en France, M. Denys Robilard. Malheureusement, aucune suite.

Nathalie est victime des traitements « médicamenteux psychiatriques » abusifs suite à un internement illégitime et aggravé et une mise sous curatelle défectueuse et prédatrice.

Pour une provocation de plus, des acteurs institutionnels de la psychiatrie organisent à Marseille, Aix-en-Provence et Salon du 14 au 27 mars 2016, ce qu’ils appellent «Semaines sur la santé mentale». Il est plutôt réel de dire «Semaines sur l’institutionnalisation de la maltraitance psychiatrique mortifère».

Collectif Vérité et Justice pour Nathalie

www.cvjn.over-blog.com

M’hamed EL Yagoubi

compagnon de Nathalie

Fait à Marseille, le 13 mars 2016

CAPA video and petition to Canadian Govt

CAPA has joined the call to action urging the Canadian government to follow the guidelines of the UN Declaration for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Although Canada signed this convention, they added a reservation which undermines one of the convention’s most important protections!

Allowing substitute decision making means that people with disabilities, including those in the psychiatric system, are often given “treatment” they do not want because somebody else decided it was best for them.

Check out our video below, sign the petition and go to chrusp.org for more information.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp2Y5YxwIdU]

Peter Gøtzsche – FORCED ADMISSION AND FORCED TREATMENT IN PSYCHIATRY CAUSES MORE HARM THAN GOOD

http://www.deadlymedicines.dk/forced-admission-and-forced-treatment-in-psychiatry-causes-more-harm-than-good/

By Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor, MD, DrMedSci, MSc

8 March 2016

Forced treatment in psychiatry as we currently know it cannot be defended, neither on ethical, legal or scientific grounds. Ethically, the patients’ values and preferences are not being respected, although the fundamental human right to equal recognition before the law applies to everyone, also to people with mental disorders.1,2 This is clear from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,2 which virtually all countries have ratified. However, we ignore the convention and continue to discriminate against people with mental problems.

Please consider this. Doctors cannot give patients insulin without their permission, not even if the lack of insulin might kill them, and they cannot give adult Jehova’s witnesses blood transfusions without their permission, even if the lack of blood might kill them. The only drugs that can be given without permission are also some of the most dangerous ones. Psychiatric drugs are the third major killer after heart disease and cancer, with an estimated 539,000 deaths in the United States and European Union combined.1,3 Only soldiers at war and psychiatric patients are forced to run risks against their will that might kill or cripple them. But there is an important, ethically relevant difference: soldiers have chosen to become soldiers; psychiatric patients have not chosen to become psychiatric patients.

In many countries, a person considered insane, or in a similar condition, can be admitted to a psychiatric ward on an involuntary basis if the prospect of cure or substantial and significant improvement of the condition would otherwise be significantly impaired. After having studied the science carefully over many years, I have come to doubt that this is ever the case.1

Forced treatment most commonly involves the use of antipsychotics, but they are very poor drugs. The placebo controlled trials are seriously flawed because they have not been adequately blinded.1 Antipsychotics have many and conspicuous side effects, so most doctors and patients can guess whether an active drug or a placebo is given, which exaggerates the measured effect markedly.1 Furthermore, almost all patients in these trials were already in treatment with an antipsychotic drug before they were randomised after a short wash-out period. This cold turkey design means that abstinence symptoms – which may include psychosis – are being inflicted on patients who get placebo. Even helped by these formidable biases in the trials, the outcome is poor. The minimal improvement on the Clinical Global Impressions Ratings corresponds to about 15 points on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale,4 but what was obtained in recent placebo controlled trials in submissions to the FDA for newer antipsychotics was only 6 points,5 although it is easy for scores to improve quite a bit if people are knocked down by a tranquilliser and express their abnormal ideas less frequently. Thus, the FDA has approved newer antipsychotic drugs whose effect is far below what is clinically relevant. Old drugs are similarly ineffective.1

Whereas the benefits of antipsychotics are doubtful, the harms are certain, and the cold turkey design is lethal. One in every 145 patients who entered the trials for risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine and sertindole died, but none of these deaths were mentioned in the scientific literature.6 Therefore, if we want to find out how lethal these drugs are, we should look at trials in dementia, as such patients are not so likely to have received antipsychotics before randomisation. Randomised trials in dementia shows that for every 100 patients treated for a few weeks, one is killed by an antipsychotic, compared to those treated with placebo.7 It could even be worse than this because deaths are seriously underreported in published trials. For example, a review found that only 19 of 50 deaths and 1 of 9 suicides on olanzapine described in trial summaries on websites also appeared in journal articles.8

There is no evidence that mechanical restraint in belts or seclusion has any benefits, but these treatments can also be lethal. Violence breeds violence and when psychotic patients become violent, it is very often because of the inhumane treatment they receive. It may also be because they get abstinence symptoms when they drop a few doses of an antipsychotic because they are very unpleasant to take, which can include akathisia – an extreme form of restlessness that predisposes to both suicide and homicide.1

Electroshock is also forced on people although it doesn’t seem to work for schizophrenia and although the effect on depression is temporary, which often results in a series of shocks.1 About half of the patients get memory loss1 and the more treatments they get, the more severe is the memory loss.9 Some psychiatrists claim that electroshock can be lifesaving but this has never been documented whereas we know that electroshock may kill people: about 1 in 1000 patients die.10

Another reason for using force is if patients present an obvious and substantial danger to themselves or others, in which case they can be involuntarily admitted. However, this is not necessary. The National Italian Mental Health Law specifies that a reason for involuntary treatment cannot be that the patient is dangerous. This is a matter for the police, as it also is in Iceland, and patients in Italy can decide that they want treatment elsewhere.1

Forced treatment does more harm than good and it kills many people, not only because of the direct harms of the drugs but also because of suicide. A register study of 2,429 suicides showed that the closer the contact with psychiatric staff – which often involves forced treatment – the worse the outcome.11 Compared to people who had not received any psychiatric treatment in the preceding year, the adjusted rate ratio for suicide was 44 (95% confidence interval 36 to 54) for people who had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. These patients would be expected to be at greater risk of suicide than other patients (confounding by indication), but most of the potential biases in the study favoured the null hypothesis of there being no relationship. An accompanying editorial noted that some of the people who commit suicide during or after an admission to hospital do so because of conditions inherent in that hospitalisation.12

I fully admit that some patients are very difficult to treat optimally without using force. But it seems that, with adequate leadership and training of staff in de-escalation techniques, it is possible to practice psychiatry without using force.1,13,14 In Iceland, belts have not been used since 1932, and there are psychiatrists all over the world who have dealt with deeply disturbed patients for their entire career without ever having used antipsychotics, ECT or force.1

I believe we have to abolish laws of forced admission and treatment, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.2 Abandoning using force will be harmful to some patients but it will benefit vastly many more. We will need to work out how we may best deal with those patients who would have benefited from forced treatment in a future where force is no longer allowed.

Peter C Gøtzsche graduated as a Master of Science in biology and chemistry in 1974 and as a physician 1984. He is a specialist in internal medicine. Co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and established The Nordic Cochrane Centre the same year. He became professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis in 2010 at the University of Copenhagen.

References

1 Gøtzsche PC. Deadly psychiatry and organised denial. Copenhagen: People’s Press; 2015.

2 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. General comment No. 1 2014 May 19. http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/031/20/PDF/G1403120.pdf?OpenElement (accessed 1 April 2015).

3 Gøtzsche PC. Does long term use of psychiatric drugs cause more harm than good? BMJ 2015;350:h2435.

4 Leucht S, Kane JM, Etschel E, et al. Linking the PANSS, BPRS, and CGI: clinical implications. Neuropsychopharmacology 2006;31:2318-25.

5 Khin NA, Chen YF, Yang Y, et al. Exploratory analyses of efficacy data from schizophrenia trials in support of new drug applications submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration. J Clin Psychiatry 2012;73:856–64.

6 Whitaker R. Mad in America. Cambridge: Perseus Books Group; 2002.
7 Schneider LS, Dagerman KS, Insel P. Risk of death with atypical antipsychotic drug treatment for dementia: meta-

analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials. JAMA 2005;294:1934–43.

8 Hughes S, Cohen D, Jaggi R. Differences in reporting serious adverse events in industry sponsored clinical trial registries and journal articles on antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 2014;4:e005535.

9 Sackeim HA, Prudic J, Fuller R, et al. The cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy in community settings. Neuropsychopharmacology 2007;32:244-54.

10 Read J, Bentall R. The effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy: a literature review. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc 2010 Oct-Dec;19:333-47.

11 Hjorthøj CR, Madsen T, Agerbo E, et al. Risk of suicide according to level of psychiatric treatment: a nationwide nested case-control study. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2014;49:1357–65.

12 Large MM, Ryan CJ. Disturbing findings about the risk of suicide and psychiatric hospitals. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2014;49:1353–5.

13 Fiorillo A, De Rosa C, Del Vecchio V, et al. How to improve clinical practice on involuntary hospital admissions of psychiatric patients: Suggestions from the EUNOMIA study. Eur Psychiat 2011;26:201-7.

14 Scanlan JN. Interventions to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint in inpatient psychiatric settings: what we know so far, a review of the literature. Int J Soc Psychiat 2010;56:412–23.

“I Must Have Died and Gone to Hell” Katherine Tapley-Milton

KT-ForcedDrugging(1) (docx)   KT-ForcedDrugging(1) (pdf)

I MUST HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HELL

by Katherine Tapley-Milton[1]

 

My psychiatrist at Centracare[2] was foreign and had an accent that was hard to understand. He always treated me like I was a bad child. When he was going away for a couple of days he overdosed me with 30 mgs of Haldol. He said that it was “to keep me out of trouble”. You had to stand in line for your pills and I had no option but to take the medication or else the staff would have gotten nasty and forced me to take it.

You didn’t want to buck the hospital staff or you would end up being pinned down with a needle in your butt. I heard that political prisoners from Russia complained to the Western media that they were tortured with a horrible drug. That drug was called Haldol. Psychiatrists here affectionately call it Vitamin “H”. The overdose of Haldol put me into an “oculorgyric crisis”, which is what happens when your eye balls roll back in your head and stick there.

Wikipedia comments: “Oculogyric crisis (OGC) is the name of a dystonic reaction to certain drugs or medical conditions characterized by a prolonged involuntary upward deviation of the eyes. The term “oculogyric” refers to the bilateral elevation of the visual gaze.”

It is excruciatingly uncomfortable and terrifying. When this reaction started to happen to me I went to the nurse’s station and begged for the side effect pill called Cogentin. She rudely informed me “You’ll have to get a lot worse before we’ll do anything about it.” I went into a small room and my neck arched back and my eyeballs were stuck staring up at a light bulb. I was in physical and mental agony and could not believe the cruelty of someone who would just leave me like that. The side effects of the medication went on for days and days. It seemed like an eternity.

The pay phone was my only contact with the outside world, but the competition for its use was fierce among the patients. Also, it was difficult to hear over the din of the ward. There was moaning, crying, and screaming. I remember calling my parents long distance and begging them to get me out of Centracare. However, I was certified which meant that legally I couldn’t leave. Sobbing into the phone I told my father, “I must have died and gone to hell.”

 

[1] The author is from Sackville, Canada

[2] Centracare was Canada’s oldest psychiatric institution. It has since been demolish.

Post on psychiatric torture by Initially NO

Initially NO has brought together art, graphics, narrative, essay, and articles of the CRPD containing rights that were denied to her, in a beautiful and moving composition asserting a claim for justice.  Since the art and graphics are integral to her work and I cannot reproduce the layout here, I am sharing her introduction and a few samples of the art work and urge you to visit the original for the full effect.

of our human rights

Rights denied me, again and again over a 14 year period (1998-2012) brings back such feelings that make me not wish to attempt to talk about this again. It hurts so much, it was so painful, it upsets me to remember, but it upsets me even more knowing that over 5700 people are subjected to such horror, every year in the state of Victoria, Australia, people who actively say no I don’t want this, very clearly and are then put on Community Treatment Orders, and tortured with forced injections, electricity, and verbally abusive appointments, that must be met, or they’ll be put into arbitrary detention again. It hurts me that the people who say no they do not wish to take psychiatric prescriptions are then subjected to the system longer.

When you refuse to be injected they do this. One ambulance man said to me he was just a small cog in a big wheel. That’s the symbolism here and the bombs in the body profiteering, Otherwise, that many hands on a small young lady, as I was, as strip her and stick her.

This is what happens when you’re given threats of worse treatments such as electro-shock and detention if you do not turn up to a fornightly ‘depo’ injection. I had to pretend to be happy with this senario to a point. (I’ve cut out the true-feeling related swear words here to fit with #UN CRPD Absolute prohibition.)

Article 15 – Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

1. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his or her free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.