“Where Would I Be if I Didn’t Believe in Me?” – Corrine A. Taylor

Where Would I Be If I Didn’t Believe in Me

 

My name is Corrine A. Taylor, I just titled this piece, “Where would I be if I didn’t believe in me?” Every time I sit down to share an aspect of my story I do it from a place of my heart space wanting to share awareness in the world, knowing there was a period of my life where I knew nothing and only accepted what the psychiatrist and social workers told me. I was desperate to live a well life but didn’t know how. I have learned that I am not the only one and there are many more people just not knowing and accepting to be labeled and drugged. However, I have come to a place of awareness to know that this is just my story and everyone else’s story needs to be respected and validated as I choose to tell my own, knowing that each and everyone of us is worthy to live a well life. I am focusing on the aspect of my life of not being forced to take drugs and why I chose this title, “Where would I be if I didn’t believe in me?” for the Campaign to Support CRPD Absolute Prohibition of Commitment and Forced Treatment.

When I got to a place of awareness of what is happening with psychiatry and choosing to accept a mental illness diagnosis and label for so long, accepting drugs, dying slowly waiting for the cure to be better, to live the life I wanted, I decided, no more. I had been on a journey for peace in my mind body spirit since I was a child, but was interrupted by abandonment, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, along with poverty and poor education. When I said no more to the last psychiatrist I was seeing and she offered me more drugs, I had been involved with the recovery community and learned a lot of the history about mental health in our world. So I was informed and I had a choice. I choice to feel what I needed to feel, let go what I needed to let go, forgive others and myself, and to learn, relearn and learn each and every day. That meant I could no longer accept the mind numbing drugs that never allowed me to fully accept and let go the affects of trauma.

When I had that last session with the psychiatrist and she offered me more drugs, different drugs, I had to tell her no each time. I could still remember the look on her face. I could still remember the confidence in my being that I knew what I needed and what I was asking for and what I expected to get as my human rights. I could still remember the last session with the therapist I saw, giving me suggestions that I should still see her or come back to her soon, that I would need to come and dump on her all the things happening in my life instead of dealing with them. Talking to her and dumping them on her that meant, not facing the situations that I was dealing with outside of her office. That meant not connecting and disconnecting, not building relationships, and more than that, not trusting myself.

But I believed in myself that day. I believed in the journey that I have been living. I saw all the hard lessons things that I past through, learn and like sharing with others, the way that I learn from others. I had people who became friends who supported me and believed in me and helped to ease the burden of an oppressive existence of poverty and lacking. Gave me strength within the Bible stories I learned as a child of not giving up and persevering. I choose to share my story at www.theproject321.com it is the lessons I learned taking the time to take care of myself and learning the lessons from all of my experiences, especially the hard ones.

I am glad I believed in me. Working behind the scenes at a mental health clinic really helped, as I saw the psychiatrist and social workers have all there faults, insecurities, judgments, behavior issues, or really just being as human as I am. It made me strong to believe in myself. When they came at me with negative reports, I was able to stand up for myself. I saw them with all their human flaws, but deserving dignity and respect and I knew that I deserve the same and so does everyone else. If that last psychiatrist with the look on her face that she new what was best for me, had decided to call the cops and lock me up, forced the drugs on me that she was offering me, where would I be today. I have been working to live for the last five years, connecting with my children and supporting them emotionally. Made friends and allies in the community, and living my life included in society, not on the couch drugged, overdosed, dying slowly accepting a diagnosis, and label. I ask again, “Where would I be if I didn’t believe in me?” I know where I ended up when I didn’t believe in me, accepting one mental illness diagnosis one after the other, one drug after the other, and not living up to my full potential as a human being. That is all that I want. Feel I deserve and so does each and everyone of us.

AFTERSHOCK, by Connie Neil

An offering in support of the CRPD campaign, an excerpt of my (as yet) unpublished non-fiction book about my ECT and forced drug experience and my work to recover a mental balance.

 

Connie Neil

Shock survivor and anti-psychiatry activist

 

AFTERSHOCK

 

They wheel me into the white, tiled room and shunt me onto a table. “Oops-a-daisy. Slide over now, there’s a good girl.”  Globs of cool slime smudge onto my temples, my chest, and the electrodes are lodged in those spots. The needle pierces my vein and fuzz creeps into my mind.

Wait! I can’t breathe.’  I can’t move or speak. My lungs are paralyzed. I try to tell them, try to scream for help, but a mask with a hose attached blocks my mouth and nose, and I know no more. Except I feel that I am dying.

How long after? Hours? Days? I have no idea how I got here. “Hush now, Connie, don’t make a fuss.” Am I making a fuss?

Perhaps my name brings me back to this world. I know nothing else. They show me how to hold a spoon and eat. That man – Bob — keeps fidgeting around saying, “Hush,” and that he is my husband. That shrieking noise is my baby, they say, held up to me by a leering old woman. I know nothing; care less.

Something bad has happened.  I no longer exist. A shell is left in my place.

* * *

That was my first shock treatment and it was in a general hospital with anaesthetic and so-called relaxing drugs, a kind of chemical curare that stops all automatic movement –like breathing, like heartbeats. This method today is called the improved gentle ECT form by Max Fink, teacher of ECT. (Fink, 1999)

      Like any sane person, given the disastrous reaction, I refused the next session. True to protocol, that is the signal I am clearly insane and cannot be trusted on the streets of Hamilton. I am institutionalized “on the mountain”, the crazy house the Ontario government runs with our tax dollars, for 20 more ordered against my will and without anaesthetic, so I can feel the full horror of destroying my mind.

If they knew the truth, I reasoned, of the permanent brain damage that was done by this seemingly barbaric operation, it would be outlawed, banned. There must be some major accident, something broken in the machine, which caused this horrendous aftershock for me.

But no:  they already knew. This burning my brain away, this slump in my ability to learn was exactly what was planned. No, mine was a typical case handled in the socially accepted manner.  Troublesome, opinionated, loudmouth rule-breaking new mother must be brought into line, or buried where nobody can hear her complaint. Shock will fix her.

And what did they wipe out? My acting/writing career, musical training, 8 to 15 years of memory, any trace of self-confidence, my IQ, EQ, every Q.  All depleted or burned away with every session.

Where can I go to learn to be whole? Shrinks? Hell, no. To whom can I appeal when my every comment is deemed crazy? Neat trick, these bio-psychiatrists and their ilk concocted. This treatise is not about me:  I am fine, perfectly fine, just fine, really fine; fine with my alternatives to achieve adequate balance but nowhere near what I was put into this lifetime to achieve. Yes, I am fine, but what of the millions over the past (2016 – 1939 which equals) 77 years who succumbed to this torture? Shock is ordered by an elitist group of mostly men upon women who make up two-thirds of the targeted victims fed electroshock purported to be a cure for depression, for sadness, for frustration, for reaction to reality that is unfair (Burstow, 2014, pg 195).

And what behaviour did I exhibit that was “a danger to myself and/or others”, the criteria for locking away recalcitrant members of society exhibiting egregious harm? I had a baby, got flu, and failed to wrest control of my baby’s care from my obsessed mother-in-law where I was parked while hubby wrote his final exams in another city. Shock was what I deserved, they judged. My adult history showed no crazy markers to convince authorities I was in need of their ‘help’. Before their infringement I had many successes.

 

What I Lost to Electroshock

We set out in two cars towing a trailer of our dismantled farm porch theatre set on a crisp winter day to drive 150 miles past Montreal to Lennoxville where Bishop University hosted the Inter Varsity Drama League Festival. Long trip. It was Ryerson’s first entry in five years. Fellow actor Robin Brewer and I sampled the whiskey bottle to keep warm until Donald Sutherland, our English teacher and chaperone, poured the remainder out onto the snow at our second stop. No more booze.

For our technical rehearsal, we re-constructed the set, designed and built by Bill Underwood, the only one not studying Radio and Television Arts. He later made his theatrical career at Stratford. The set was praised for simplicity and atmosphere by our adjudicator, Montreal producer Rupert Caplan. In the brief time allotted, we ran lights and cue-to-cue lines while director Ken MacKay roamed the gods checking that our projection was clear.

It would be surprising if we did not do well as Ryerson attracted talented young people. And we cleaned up with Tennessee Williams’ 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, his one-acter that the controversial Hollywood movie Baby Doll was based on. We took Best Production, Best Director, Best Actress and Honourable Mention for the lead actor.

At the awards dinner, when Rupert Caplan announced, “The winner is Connie Neil” he looked at me in surprise, did not recognize me off-stage, the mark of a talent for disguise. As I rose and walked forward, he added, “and accepting for Connie Neil is . . .” I had to tell him, “Connie Neil”. He fumbled, “Is it you?” I nodded.  For the part of simple-minded Baby Doll I was padded to a plump roundness so that my ripped costume after the rape only revealed blood and bruises, and not my usual sleek shape. He said, “Although this is not a great play, it is an example of how a good performance can make a play great because the audience believes in it. Connie achieved a great degree of believability. She is a promising young actress.” Two universities choose that play; only ours won awards.

At the Banff School of Fine Arts that summer I took both acting and playwriting to help decide where I best fit. At the auditions for their mountain dialect play, they moved me up to advanced acting, the Shakespearian studies, and gave me the lead of Barbara Allen in the 3-act play Dark of the Moon. In this challenging role I was wooed by a witch-boy, raped in church, gave birth on-stage, mob-killed and left dead and sprawled on a rock for the witch-boy to play with. Brought the house down. People hung around backstage to weep and tell me how strongly I affected them with my performance.

I also got high marks in playwriting.

For my final Ryerson year I took the lesbian role in Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit”, the play of three disreputable characters in a waiting room for the afterlife that for them is hell. I received Honourable Mention for acting: No mean feat in competition with eleven universities.

Aside from these honours I performed in musical and comic revues, dance shows, piano recitals, singing, radio and TV acting and wrote a number of plays.

All this stopped with electroshock. In reviewing old papers I came upon letters of congratulations; there had been national newspaper coverage. One was signed “Sharon”, and from the content we had been close.  She named people I recognized, but she is lost in the area of my brain burnt out by thoughtless shock docs. What does it matter to them that a few lists or personnel are missing? It matters not at all.

Oh sure, my interests were still present, but all I was capable of was chorus work, minimally. Once I was helping choreograph Toronto City Hall Revue dance numbers. In the grand finale the lead dancer was to lift me, spin around and roll me out for the big finish. Because I had demonstrated both male and female roles, in performance I lifted him, spun him around and rolled him out for the final TA-DA. Did not even realize I had done it until we were in the wings and he asked, “What was that all about?” All I could do was laugh, and never tempt that brain shock mistake again on stage. Performing, even as an amateur, was over. That little brain glitch meant I was unreliable on-stage.

One reason I did well performing was my prodigious memory: All the script changes were imprinted on my mind. If an actor was in the wrong place or gave the wrong line, I could cover because I remembered every nuance of the rehearsal period. All gone now. No more connections. And what enrages me today is that psychiatry knew this destruction is the result of ECT, always the result, and in their arrogance, their greed, their lusting for the easy way around difficult personalities, they hide the truth they know; brain damage is always the result.

 

What Little They Disclose

Today there are legislated informed consent discussions as in the 2002 Andy Behrman memoir Electroboy. I notice the bio-psychiatrist and not the shock doc gives the information to him and his parents, outlining the different methods and expected results. It is now admitted the chief problem is memory loss, a condition even my nice psychiatrist suggested was brought on in me by my “mental illness”. They like to blame the victim:  it is how they are trained.  The classifications are: 1) neurotransmitter theory shows ECT is like antidepressant drugs and affects serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine; 2) anticonvulsant theory claims ECT seizures condition the brain to become seizure-resistant; 3) neuroendocrine theory says these convulsions cause the hypothalamus to release mood stabilizers; and 4) brain damage theory admits that the damage created gives the illusion of mental stability.

Note that these are theories, not proven scientific facts that explain how ECT treats depression or mania. The fact that ECT results are unproven does not stop psychiatrists from charging ahead, delivering their shocks and, when they fail to ‘work’, adding more series of shocks until you no longer complain. You learn what torture comes from objecting.

 

 

THREE DECADES LATER

Close to the end of this retreat with meditation teacher Cecilie Kwiat at the Dharma Centre of Canada I was able to report that I could see what was hidden behind that all-encompassing blob of anger that dogged my steps for the past five years. Every word of those complaining 560 pages in my crumpled discarded memoir was filtered through the veil of my unrelieved anger; and I thought all along that anger, rage, fury was all that there was.

Since I had loosened up throughout this year, attending four retreats and finishing the story of what ECT had done to my very long life, I volunteered as copywriter to publicize teachers. Research for this chore interested me in attending Body, Speech & Mind with Albertan Cecilie Kwiat. She was a close student of Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche and had produced that text book from her (and other’s) notes of his teachings on a sea journey to Peru. And I had studied that text with both Buddhist nun Karma Chime Wongmo and the Rinpoche. I thought I knew the subject. I thought it would be easy.

But just as Cecilie taught, every moment brings a brand new “I” with a possible fresh outlook and opportunity for insight.

She arrived in time for the Namgyal Memorial weekend, a gathering that brought many old students to the centre to pay tribute to our lama who passed to the higher realms ten years past.

When I turned in my seat during the temple rituals I caught her brilliant smile, her hearty laugh, and I realized I had met her once before during a longer retreat that she attended with a few of her students. Seated side-by-side in the Tea House I had heard her answer a student’s questions with such clarity that I had to comment, “That was perfect,” and she smiled, “Thank you.”

This could be a stellar retreat. The morning after her first day of teaching as I lay between dreamland and waking I saw my brain, full of holes, covered in scabrous dead areas. This, I heard, was my leaky boat that would not carry me far on this river journey to enlightenment. Then, with tears wetting my face I heard my dead guru say, “You need mentoring!” Not even sure what that meant, I approached Cecilie after class and reported that little scene, expecting perhaps a name and phone number on a slip of paper. Instead, she made me cry. I tried to make my plea clear to her with dry eyes, but she poked me in the back, saying, “You’re frozen. Cry!”

She reached and captured my wrist and pulled me to her, seating me in her lap. Oh no! I must not sit in teacher’s lap! I would break her. Then what would the class do for a teacher? In my research I learned she had been run over by a gravel truck – twice – in a motorcycle accident in her youth, and was told she would never walk, never have a baby. But she fooled the doctors, and did both.

I was very awkward on her lap, trying to hold my weight off her while she questioned me about my history that I blubbered out to her, and she told me about her difficult childhood being called a Nazi because of her father. I blurted out, “Was he?” But that was not the point she was making. Some students were still in the temple. What a show we were putting on! They drifted away. Still on her lap like a toddler, she had me write in my notebook: “Here I am right now. As I am, may I be well and happy. May I be free from enmity.” It is the translation of White Tara’s mantra, my yidam, my guardian, and I had forgotten her Loving Kindness practice. That forgetting of crucial information was what was still, fifty years after shock, the plague accompanying ECT that thwarted my need for spiritual wholeness. I am ever unsure of what I know, what is missing.

I carried on with classes and exercises, but it took days to settle this stormy episode. I passed her a note for a private talk on vanishing emotions, a failing of mine because ECT was ordered for people who cause trouble, disturb others, have uncontrolled emotions; and so was my great fear. I over-react and, not only bury my emotions, I forget I have done so.

I explained to Cecilie that an unfeeling state makes everyday life easy, tempting, that nothing bothers me in that state, but because I do not notice the trigger, I cannot climb out. I am worried that outlawing my anger will kill all the emotions.

She talks about my heart, but I know my heart is closed. She tells me that is not true, that she does not work with people who have no heart: She can see my heart. Again she makes me write; “I aspire to be free from anger. I will un-armour my heart (and may armour it up again).

Her next class is on awareness of feelings and I take in what I can. There are fifty (some say 52) skulls worn by the deity as a necklace. These transformed mind states are now seen to be his adornment, his conquered wisdom. We must describe these mind states in our own language. We are often mistaken in what is our mind state, a result of conditioning. Change is all that is constant.

This has been a very cold and rainy retreat. The storm blew out our power for a day. Snow and mud makes walking a study in problem-solving – from one dry-ish clump leap to somewhere safe. We are to move from one form of meditation to another – sit, do body scans, review, walk slowly with one foot on solid ground, one foot over the abyss. Sheer boredom of looking at 25 of the negative, dismal mind states pushes me with my umbrella out of the temple to walk the centre, to sit under the shelter with the huge peace Buddha statue the Sayadaw, Rinpoche’s teacher, built here and all across the world. And here I caught a glimmering of another mind state.

I often wondered what I did in a past life to be born into this family. Cecilie phrased it differently: Whoever made me may have put me in this family, through attraction, to learn an important lesson. Could the lesson be Loving Kindness? To armour and de-armour my heart? Forgiveness? I already know anger.

I report that anger hides a great wall of refused and unresolved forgiveness. I see the wall, name it unforgiving, examine it and its many instances in my life.  I even refused under hypnosis – not just once – to forgive especially my father. No. I won’t. Even I know these denials expand to big trouble in river city. With that early decision, unforgiving moves to other beings until it is global: I am intransigent. I judge.  But now I think about who needs forgiveness (me, duh) and what qualities he (Dad) had and who this reminds me of (guess).

When Cecilie declares Congratulations! I stipulate I have not forgiven, only seen the awful wall of it. She repeats congratulations, that having seen it, the wall will dissolve bit-by-bit, one-by-one. She can see I can be kind and I agree I can be kind. I am kind. I wonder what is behind that dissolving wall.

To close the retreat we celebrate Cecilie’s 74th birthday on November 1st with two great cakes, balloons, gifts, and a healthy meal.

She took a compartment for her train trip back to Alberta, got in her car at the station drove off and hit black ice, a major accident. Many surgeries, many crises later, by Christmas, she was working her way into wheelchair rides and therapy to help her briefly stand. When my heart clutched at the photos in casts, amid hospital paraphernalia, what I take heart in is her still-brilliant smile.

If she can do that, so can I. Nothing can break Cecilie Kwiat. But just in case, I send her Loving Kindness.

In a noisy hostel in St Maarten, I cannot sleep for the rowdy drunken crowd outside my dark window, so I practice Metta. They leave and later I see in my dorm a white-robed figure approach my lower bunk. She offers something in her right hand. Is it a blessing? I see a square of light before my open eyes. On it I see a quick sequence of hieroglyphics. There’s a dark horse’s head, but other images change so quickly I can hardly register them. Then it is over and I ponder these screened messages.

On February 15, Cecilie Kwiat passed on into communion with the enlightened who have no need of their corporeal body. I miss her. And thank her for that parting visit.

 

An Understanding Forgiveness

Our school reunion lunch was set for the hottest July day, so I left my car in Oshawa and sailed into Toronto on the commuter GO train – early.

Walking up from Union Station I was so early that I found the one shaded park bench on King Street and parked myself at the end where a man of a certain age invited I might sit and join him. He wore tan slacks and a woven beige golf shirt with new trainers on his feet and a neat pewter-coloured close-clipped hairstyle. His teeth were perfect.

“Can you tell me where the . . . uh . . . the . . .” He scowled and concentrated on the elusive words, then triumphant, “the Eaton Centre is?”

I could and did. It was within walking distance, but he stayed seated. That was not what he wanted. We spent an hour piecing together what he needed to say.

He tried again, this time searching for the French word for psychiatrist. “I was . . . sis . . . sis”

And I supplied, “Psychiatrist?”

“Yes, but . . . neuro . . . sus . . . sus . . “

“Neuro-surgeon?”

“No, neuro . . . neuro sus . . .”

“Neuro-scientist?”

“Yes!”

Lordy, I was sharing a bench with the enemy. In my mind, this was the guy who made the pills, who screwed up my brain, who pushed me to ‘gentle’ shock treatment. Does the neuroscience model of brain-based consciousness really hold up? Here was the scientist behind psychiatry. And just look at what he had become: a wreck, my victim.

We painstakingly translated his story. Six years previous he had a stroke, could not speak. But his wife helped him and they were just fine together. Every time his wife came up in what I loosely describe as conversation, he cried. I understood the stroke had taken away his emotional controls. Here waited the enemy, at my mercy.

He also could not recall the word for “tomorrow”, not surprising as he was captured in the ever-constant now. What he needed to tell me was that his wife had died two years back, was buried in Barrie, where he was headed, just resting and walking in between trains. He had come from Belleville and, just like me, had walked up from Union Station to this shaded bench.

He stopped trying to control his tears and the quavering in his voice: He must tell me his tale. The tears were just scrubbed away by his hand. It was difficult to piece together what disturbed him.

Neither he nor his wife realized that her stomach pains were serious: He particularly grieved that he did not understand in time. When finally she was settled into hospital, the medical staff and his wife dismissed him, saying to come back “Tomorrow”. But when tomorrow came, she was gone. And he was alone. “Alone,” he cried, “alone.”

Two years were not enough time for him to accept her death and his damaged condition. So, what to do with the rest of his life? How to go forward?

Because he emigrated from France, I asked if his words were easier available in French. But no, it made no difference. Did he have friends, support, family there? But no, and he loved Canada and his life here – before his calamities.

I spoke as a Buddhist of the essence of a person going on eternally. And this sparked an interest and further distress. She spoke in his head as she was dying and declared there was no more suffering, that she was happy now, that she was fine. And then he went to the hospital, pleased with her stated recovery, and found her dead. What he cannot set aside is that she died alone, and now he was alone, struck asunder. The only comment that brought him some lightening of mood was when I observed that, “with your close connection, you will see her again. She will wait for you. You will be together, not alone.”

“Yes. I know it.”

And with that, he stood, offered his hand to shake, to stroll back the way he had come. Done. I joined my fellows at our reunion lunch. Good lunch; but a better chance meeting that corrected my biased view of all psycho-workers.

No matter what we achieve in this life through education, fame, important works, in the end we carry the exact same personal conditions that are the core of our life. Previously I could not see the purpose of this exalted class of doctors that had threatened my safety, harrowed my career, and damaged my brain. But this archetype of soul examiner invited me onto his bench to reveal his crying heart. Such hurt revealed; I could not do other than extend my hand and grasp his.

I see with softer eyes.

 

References:

Behrman, Andy  (2002). Electroboy; A Memoir of Mania.

New York: Random House, Inc.

 

Burstow, B. & LeFrancois, B.A. & Diamond, S. (Eds.) (2014) Psychiatry Disrupted: Theorizing Resistance and         Crafting the (R) Evolution    

Montreal:  McGill-Queen’s University Press

 

Fink, M.  (1999).  Electroshock: Restoring the Mind.

New York: Oxford  University Press

Hege Orefellen on Reparations

This is a presentation given by Hege Orefellen, survivor and lawyer, at a side event to the CRPD Committee on Article 15 (freedom from torture and ill-treatment) last year.  I am sharing it in the context of this Campaign, because thinking about reparations can help us to envision how to get from where we are now, with so much damage done and continuing under the regime of forced psychiatry, to a world where it is eradicated and people and society come together to heal and make lasting changes in how we treat each other.

Hege’s and other presentations and archived video from the side event are linked on the CHRUSP website Resources page and for the time being also on its sidebar.

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Aquí está una presentación realizada por Hege Orefellen, quien es sobreviviente y abogada, en un evento paralelo ante el Comité CDPD sobre el artículo 15 (prohibición de la tortura y los malos tratos) el año pasado. La estoy compartiendo en el contexto de esta Campaña, porque pensar en reparaciones puede ayudarnos a imaginar cómo llegar desde donde estamos ahora, con tanto daño hecho y continuando bajo el régimen de la psiquiatría forzada, a un mundo en el que se erradique este régimen, y la gente y la sociedad se unen para sanarnos y hacer cambios duraderos en la forma en que tratamos a los demás.

Las presentaciones de Hege y otras personas desde el evento paralelo, y el vídeo archivado, están vinculados en el sitio de CHRUSP, la página de Recursos y, por el momento también por su barra lateral.

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Torture and other ill-treatment in psychiatry – urgent need for effective remedies, redress and guarantees of non-repetition

Side-event to the CRPD Committee, 30 March 2015, PW, conference room

Hege Orefellen – World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and We Shall Overcome, Norway

As we have already heard from the strong testimonies here today, grave violations happen in the mental health setting. Deprivation of liberty can in itself be harmful. Indefinite detention is especially harsh, and commonly practiced against persons with psychosocial or other disabilities. Violent medical practises like forced electroshock, forced drugging, restraint and solitary confinement do not constitute help or care, nor does it have any legitimate purpose. It constitutes discriminatory and harmful practises that can cause severe pain and suffering, as well as deep fear and trauma, in its victims. Tina will talk about how these forced psychiatric interventions meet international definition of torture standards. I want to underscore the need for recognizing the severity of the harm done and the suffering inflicted on the victims. As a human rights lawyer, and as a survivor of forced psychiatry, I cannot say it strongly enough that these forced interventions, which always carry a factor of disability- based discrimination, needs to be categorized as torture and other ill-treatment, and be abolished. There is an urgent need for providing the victims with effective remedies and reparations. But there are obstacles;

We know the human rights framework regarding torture and other ill-treatment; the absolute prohibition, the states obligation to protect against it, the obligation to investigate allegations, and to give redress to victims. But when ill-treatment is carried out in the name of medical treatment, authorised by domestic legislation and enforced by national law, then there are no real protection or access to justice. There is no redress for victims, no accountability for perpetrators. The ill-treatment goes with impunity.

As Finn and Jolijn’s cases illustrate, there are a lack of effective remedies. We are rendered powerless in the hands of medical professionals who have been given the authority to define us out of our fundamental human rights. That is the situation that we, the survivors of forced psychiatry, are facing around the world today.

Recognizing forced psychiatric interventions as ill-treatment is a first crucial step that needs to be taken by the State parties. We welcome the increasing awareness among UN monitoring mechanisms, which is important to ensure justice and accountability on all levels. Especially we welcome the CRPD Committees General Comment No. 1 stating that forced treatment by psychiatric and other medical professionals is an infringement of CRPD Art 15. The Committee has spoken clearly both in the General Comment and in its Concluding Observations; there can be no legitimate detention in any kind of mental health facility, forced psychiatric interventions violate the prohibition on torture and ill- treatment as well as other provisions of the CRPD and must be abolished. We look forward to the Committees further development of jurisprudence under CRPD Art. 15, and encourage the Committee to take the urgent need for effective remedies, redress and guarantees of non-repetition into account.

The Committee Against Torture emphasizes, in its General Comment No. 3 (2012) on State parties obligation to ensure redress to torture victims, that the restoration of the dignity of the victim is the ultimate objective in the provision of redress.

According to the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violation of International Human Rights Law adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 60/147 (2005) redress includes five forms of reparation; restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. All of which are of great importance for victims of ill- treatment in the mental health system.

Restitution, a form of redress designed to re-establish the victim’s situation before the violation was committed, should include restoration of liberty, freedom from forced treatment, enjoyment of family life and citizenship, return to one’s place of residence, and restoration of employment.

Compensation should be provided for any economically assessable damage, such as physical or mental harm; lost opportunities, including employment and education; material damages and loss of earnings; moral damage; and costs required for legal assistance, medical and social services.

Rehabilitation for victims of forced psychiatry should aim to restore, as far as possible, their independence, physical, mental, social and vocational ability; and their full inclusion and participation in society. Victims of forced psychiatry may be at risk of re-traumatization and have a valid fear of acts which remind them of the ill-treatment they have endured. Consequently, a high priority should be placed on the need to create a context of confidence and trust in which assistance can be provided. Needless to say, when the ill-treatment has been carried out by medical professionals, within the public health system, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the same system to regain that trust from its victims.

Satisfaction should include effective measures aimed at the cessation of continuing violations; verification of the facts and public disclosure of the truth; an official declaration or judicial decision restoring the rights of the victim; sanctions against persons liable for the violations; investigation and criminal prosecution, public apologies, including acknowledgement of the facts and acceptance of responsibility.

The right to truth is especially important for victims of forced psychiatry, were ill-treatment for so long, and on such a large scale, has been carried out under the guise of medical treatment. We need truth about what happened to us, truth about the consequences, public recognition and apologies, as a first step in a process of social reintegration, justice and healing. Since coercive mental health practices represent patterns of violence against persons with psychosocial and other disabilities, we need reparation on a collective, as well as an individual level, and we hope the CRPD Committee will take this into account in its future work and recommendations. State parties should develop procedures for redress covering all victims of forced psychiatric interventions.

Guarantees of non-repetition should include taking measures to combat impunity, prevent future acts, as well as reviewing and reforming laws contributing to or allowing these violations.

State parties should now recognize the immediate obligation to stop ill-treatment from being carried out through forced psychiatric interventions, undertake necessary action to repeal legislation that authorizes forced psychiatric treatment and detention, and develop laws and policies that replaces coercive regimes with services that fully respect the autonomy, will and equal rights of persons with disabilities.

Thank you.

 

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Tortura y otros malos tratos en psiquiatría – necesidad urgente de compensación, reparación y garantías de no repetición.

Evento paralelo a la sesión del Comité CDPD, marzo 30 de 2015, PW, Salón de Conferencias.

Hege Orefellen – Red Mundial de Usuarios/as y Sobrevivientes de la Psiquiatría y la organización We Shall Overcome, Noruega.

Como hemos escuchado en los poderosos testimonios de hoy aquí, ocurren graves violaciones en el sistema de salud mental. La privación de la libertad en sí misma puede ser muy perjudicial. La detención indefinida es particularmente severa y comúnmente practicada contra las personas con discapacidad psicosocial y con otras discapacidades. Las prácticas médicas violentas como los electrochoques, la medicación forzada, la restricción física y el confinamiento en solitario no constituyen formas de ayuda o cuidado y no cumplen ningún propósito legítimo. Se trata de prácticas discriminatorias y perjudiciales que pueden ocasionar fuerte dolor y sufrimiento así como profundo miedo y trauma en sus víctimas. Tina hablará de cómo estas intervenciones psiquiátricas forzosas constituyen tortura a la luz de los estándares internacionales. Deseo subrayar la necesidad de reconocer la severidad del daño y sufrimiento infligido a las víctimas. Como abogada de derechos humanos y sobreviviente de psiquiatría forzada, no puedo enfatizar lo suficiente el hecho de que estas intervenciones forzadas, que siempre conllevan un factor de discriminación por motivos de discapacidad, deben ser categorizadas como tortura y malos tratos y deben ser abolidas. Existe una urgente necesidad de proveer a las víctimas recursos y reparaciones efectivos. Sin embargo, hay obstáculos.

Conocemos el marco de derechos humanos sobre tortura y malos tratos, la prohibición absoluta, la obligación de los Estados de proteger a las personas contra ella, la obligación de investigar las denuncias y de otorgar reparación a las víctimas. Sin embargo, cuando los malos tratos se realizan en nombre de un tratamiento médico, autorizado por la legislación nacional y son ejecutados por el derecho interno, no podemos hablar de protección real ni de acceso a la justicia. No hay reparación para las víctimas ni justiciabilidad para los responsables. Los malos tratos quedan impunes.

Como ilustran los casos de Finn y Jolijn, las medidas de reparación efectiva son inexistentes. Quedamos impotentes en las manos de profesionales de la medicina a quienes se les ha otorgado la autoridad de definirnos por fuera de nuestros derechos humanos fundamentales. Esta es la situación que quienes somos sobrevivientes de la psiquiatría forzada enfrentamos hoy en todo el mundo.

Reconocer las intervenciones psiquiátricas forzosas como constitutivas de malos tratos, es un primer paso fundamental que debe ser dado por los Estados Parte. Felicitamos la mayor conciencia que existe en los órganos de monitoreo de la ONU, pues es muy importante para asegurar la justicia y justiciabilidad a todos los niveles. En particular, felicitamos la Observación General No. 1 del Comité CDPD, que afirma que el tratamiento forzado por parte de profesionales de la psiquiatría y la medicina constituye una violación al artículo 15 de la Convención. El Comité ha sido claro, tanto en sus Observaciones Generales como en sus recomendaciones a los Estados, que no puede haber una detención legítima en ningún tipo de institución de salud mental; las intervenciones psiquiátricas forzadas violan la prohibición contra la tortura y malos tratos así como otras disposiciones de la CDPD y por tanto deben abolirse. Esperamos con atención el desarrollo de la jurisprudencia del Comité bajo el artículo 15 de la CDPD y solicitamos que tome en cuenta la necesidad urgente de medidas efectivas de reparación, compensación y no repetición.

El comité contra la tortura enfatiza en su Observación General No. 3 (2012) la obligación de los Estados Parte de garantizar la reparación a las víctimas de tortura y afirma que la restauración de su dignidad es el objeto último de las disposiciones sobre reparaciones. Según los Principios y directrices básicos sobre el derecho de las víctimas de violaciones manifiestas de las normas internacionales de derechos humanos y de violaciones graves del derecho internacional humanitario a interponer recursos y obtener reparaciones, adoptados por la Asamblea General en su Resolución 60/147 (2005), la reparación plena y efectiva incluye restitución, indemnización, rehabilitación, satisfacción y garantías de no repetición. Todas ellas de gran importancia para las víctimas de malos tratos en el sistema de salud mental.

La restitución, una forma de reparación diseñada para devolver a la víctima a la situación anterior a la violación manifiesta, debe incluir el restablecimiento de la libertad, el derecho a estar libre de tratamiento forzado, el disfrute de la vida familiar y la ciudadanía, el retorno al lugar de residencia y el restablecimiento del empleo.

La indemnización debe otorgarse por cualquier daño que pueda tasarse económicamente, tal como daño físico o mental, pérdida de oportunidades incluyendo empleo y educación, perjuicios materiales y lucro cesante, daño moral y los costos incurridos por concepto de asistencia legal, médica y social.

La rehabilitación para las víctimas de psiquiatría forzada debe dirigirse a restablecer, tanto como sea posible, su independencia, sus habilidades físicas, mentales, sociales y vocacionales, así como su plena inclusión y participación en la sociedad. Las víctimas de psiquiatría forzada pueden estar en riesgo de revictimización y sentir temor fundado de actos que les recuerden los malos tratos vividos. En consecuencia, debe darse una alta prioridad a la necesidad de crear un contexto de seguridad y confianza en el que pueda prestarse asistencia. Sobra decir que cuando los malos tratos son realizados por parte de profesionales de la medicina en el marco del sistema público de salud, será muy difícil, si no imposible, que el mismo sistema genere confianza para sus víctimas.

Las medidas de satisfacción deben incluir mecanismos dirigidos a la cesación de las violaciones continuadas, la verificación de los hechos y la difusión pública de la verdad; un pronunciamiento oficial o judicial restableciendo los derechos de la víctima, sanciones contra las personas responsables de las violaciones de derechos, investigación y procesamiento penales, disculpas públicas, incluyendo el reconocimiento de los hechos ocurridos y la aceptación de responsabilidad por los mismos.

El derecho a la verdad es particularmente importante para las víctimas de psiquiatría forzada, que han vivido maltratos por un largo tiempo y de manera generalizada bajo el pretexto de recibir tratamiento médico. Necesitamos que se conozca la verdad sobre lo que nos pasó, la verdad sobre las consecuencias, que haya reconocimiento y disculpas públicas, como primer paso en el proceso de reincorporación social, justicia y sanación. En tanto las prácticas coercitivas en salud mental representan patrones de violencia contra las personas con discapacidad psicosocial y de otro tipo, necesitamos reparaciones tanto a nivel colectivo como individual y esperamos que el Comité CDPD tome esto en cuenta en su trabajo y recomendaciones futuras. Los Estados Parte deben desarrollar procedimientos para reparar a todas las víctimas de intervenciones psiquiátricas forzadas.

Las garantías de no repetición deben incluir medidas contra la impunidad, para la prevención de actos violatorios en el futuro, así como la revisión y reforma de las leyes que contribuyen o permiten las violaciones de derechos.

Los Estados Parte deben reconocer la obligación inmediata de impedir que haya malos tratos a través de las intervenciones psiquiátricas forzadas, adoptar las acciones necesarias para abolir leyes que autoricen el tratamiento psiquiátrico y la detención psiquiátrica forzados y desarrollar leyes y políticas que sustituyan regímenes coercitivos con servicios que respeten plenamente la autonomía, voluntad y la igualdad de derechos de las personas con discapacidad.

Gracias.