Joint Statement on COVID-19 and Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities

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One of the first outbreaks of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Korea was in a psychiatric institution, and it was only through the advocacy of KAMI (a human rights organization led by people with psychosocial disabilities) that those who were infected got proper treatment and avoided additional deaths.

In Italy, we have heard about an upsurge in compulsory psychiatric treatments, and in France, people with a psychosocial disability who are infected with COVID-19 have been turned away from mainstream hospitals and treated instead in psychiatric institutions or in mobile hospitals that lack the necessary infrastructure.

In Rwanda, we have been told that people with psychosocial disabilities who are wanderers, along with children who live in the streets, are totally helpless during the lockdown, lacking food and water, and have been beaten with whips by security personnel while going out to search.

The UK has loosened criteria for involuntary commitment, in flagrant violation of its international human rights obligations.

We are also starting to see cases of COVID-19 infection in US psychiatric institutions, and (as good news) it has been reported that an institution in Oregon placed a moratorium on involuntary admissions.

Meanwhile, the community of people with lived experience of psychosocial disability or psychiatry has been connecting in all the ways we can, especially online, to provide peer support and share information. Our love, creativity, and solidarity are needed now more than ever and show us our strength in the midst of crisis.

Regional and international organizations have come together in this global pandemic to issue a joint statement making recommendations to governments on how to respect and ensure the human rights of people with psychosocial disabilities who are among the groups that are more vulnerable to human rights violations as well as infection with and severity of the illness.

The Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry has dedicated a webpage to this joint statement, with downloadable versions in English and Spanish. Other translations will be added as available.

The complete statement in English, composed jointly by the groups listed, is below.

-Tina Minkowitz

***

COVID-19 and Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities

Pan African Network of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities

Redesfera Latinoamericana de la Diversidad Psicosocial

TCI Asia Pacific (Transforming communities for Inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities, Asia Pacific)

European Network of (Ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP)

Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (CHRUSP)

World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP)

26 March 2020

We, persons with psychosocial disabilities from regional and international organizations across the world, are concerned about the vulnerability of persons with psychosocial disabilities to COVID-19 infection and deaths. “Persons with psychosocial disabilities” refers to a historically discriminated and marginalised group that includes users and ex-users of psychiatry, victims-survivors of psychiatric violence, mad people, voice-hearers, and people with psychosocial diversity.

People with psychosocial disabilities may be at increased risk of contracting coronavirus as a result of:

  • their being placed and/or deprived of their liberty in psychiatric units and institutions, social care institutions, vagrancy homes, unregulated and informal ‘shelters’, jails, prisons, and correctional facilities, where they are unable to exercise social distancing as per their will and preferences;
  • the inherent risk of infection in these environments, exacerbated by their being overcrowded and unsanitary, and places where ill-treatment tends to occur;
  • barriers in accessing health information, including lack of information in plain language and communication support;
  • barriers in implementing preventive hygiene measures due to poverty, unequal access to resources within households and homelessness;
  • mistreatment and abuse;
  • lack of social support networks and inclusive communities; and
  • the systemic discrimination against persons with psychosocial disabilities, especially of women, children, older persons, LGBTQIA+ persons, indigenous persons, persons of diverse race, colour, descent, caste, national or ethnic origin, persons of different religious affiliations, persons with other disabilities, and other groups otherwise facing multiple and intersectional discrimination.

People with psychosocial disabilities may also be at increased risk of developing more severe symptoms and dying due to:

  • poor nutrition, healthcare and sanitary conditions in psychiatric units and institutions, social care institutions, group homes and prisons;
  • weakened immune systems due to poor nutrition, neglect, institutionalization, and homelessness, including in children and older persons with psychosocial disabilities;
  • long-term consequences of physical, psychological and sexual violence and abuse, particularly against women with psychosocial disabilities;
  • reluctance to access the health system due to experiences of discrimination, dismissiveness, neglect, violence, and traumatization in that system;
  • underlying health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension caused or exacerbated by psychiatric drugs, often administered against people’s will or under coerced consent; and
  • barriers in accessing healthcare and lack of health insurance coverage.

States have the responsibility under international law to respect and ensure the human rights of people with psychosocial disabilities on an equal basis with others. This responsibility is heightened during a national and global emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The vulnerabilities highlighted during the pandemic as a result of structural discrimination, discriminatory legislation, and practices of exclusion and violence both in communities and in medical and social care settings, must be taken into account and remedied both during the emergency and afterwards.

We remind states that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires states to abolish involuntary admissions and treatment in mental health settings and to release those detained and treated against their will under such regimes. This obligation is not suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, as discriminatory detention is never justified, nor is the administration of mind-altering treatments against a person’s will.

We call on national and local governments to implement the following measures:

Institutional Settings

  • Drastically reduce the number of people in psychiatric units and institutions, and institute a moratorium on involuntary admissions. Ensure that no one is compelled to remain in such settings against their will, where they are at greater risk of infection, more severe illness, and death.
  • Urgently implement sanitary and preventive measures to avoid infections in psychiatric units and institutions, social care institutions and group homes, including environmental cleaning and disinfection, air circulation, regular hand hygiene and free access to sanitary supplies such as soap, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and paper towels. People should not have to go to a centralised place to get sanitary supplies. Staff must be required to comply with all sanitary and preventive measures.
  • Stop the use of seclusion, restraints, non-consensual medication, and any restriction on using the lavatories in psychiatric units and institutions. In addition to being contrary to people’s dignity and integrity, these practices inevitably generate unsanitary conditions and cause severe stress and physical deterioration, resulting in weakened immunity.
  • Provide people in psychiatric units, institutions and group homes with access to the latest information about COVID-19, and enable them to keep in touch with their friends and family. People should not be banned from leaving their rooms or having contact with the outside world as a way to prevent infections. While preventive measures to avoid infections from visitors are needed, blanket policies barring visitors are disproportional and can expose people to further abuse and neglect. Alternative means of keeping in contact, such as telephone and Internet, must be allowed without restriction.
  • Drastically reduce the population in jails, prisons, and correctional facilities, including by releasing those who are in pre-trial, imprisoned for non-violent offences, or scheduled to be released soon, including persons with psychosocial disabilities on an equal basis as others.
  • Ensure in each and every case that people deprived of their liberty and those in congregate settings are tested in a timely manner, given their differential vulnerability, and that all such settings implement proper sanitary and preventive measures. When an outbreak occurs in an institutional setting, those affected must be moved to competent healthcare facilities, and the rest should be removed from the infectious environment. Any quarantine efforts must not result in persons being put into more restrictive environments, such as solitary confinement.

Non-discrimination

  • Ensure that persons with psychosocial disabilities have equal access to testing, healthcare and public information related to COVID-19. Quality healthcare should be provided to those infected without discrimination of any kind, and regardless of health insurance coverage. Persons with psychosocial disabilities should not be diverted from mainstream hospitals to psychiatric units and institutions for treatment, where healthcare for COVID-19 is often of a lower standard.
  • Public restrictions based on public health, and actions of law enforcement and security personnel, must not discriminate in any way against persons with psychosocial disabilities. Psychiatric coercive measures must not be used as any part of the response to COVID-19. Human rights standards and mechanisms offering protection to persons deprived of their liberty and those in congregate settings, including those in psychiatric units and institutions, must remain in effect and not be reduced as part of emergency measures.
  • No one should be compelled to take psychiatric drugs or other treatments that inflict suffering and that compromise their health or immune systems. Compulsory treatment orders must be lifted, and no new ones introduced, as required by international law.
  • Ensure persons with psychosocial disabilities are not discriminated against in accessing the temporary measures implemented by governments to ensure the continuity of services during the COVID-19 outbreak, including education and social protection programs.

Community Support

  • Ensure continued access to support for people experiencing distress or unusual states of consciousness during the COVID-19 outbreak, including through call-in and online psychosocial support and peer support, based on respect for individual will and preferences.
  • Step up efforts to develop a wide range of community-based services that respond to the needs of persons with psychosocial disabilities and respect people’s autonomy, choices, dignity, and privacy, including peer support and other alternatives to conventional mental health services.
  • Guarantee voluntary access to psychiatric drugs during the COVID-19 outbreak for those who want them, and offer support to anyone who wants to come off their medication or experience home-based withdrawal.
  • Prepare and encourage communities to be supportive of one another in an inclusive way, including of persons with psychosocial disabilities, during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is especially important since mandatory quarantine, home confinement and information overload may result in heightened states of distress.
  • Provide practical support, such as support with obtaining food and supplies, for people with psychosocial disabilities who may be unable to leave their homes due to quarantine or experience difficulty with leaving home during this period of heightened concerns about contamination.
  • Consider flexible mechanisms to authorize people with psychosocial disabilities to be able to leave their homes during mandatory quarantines, for short periods and in a safe way, when they experience particular difficulty with home confinement.
  • Adopt additional financial measures to support people with psychosocial disabilities who may need to self-isolate during the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly those who live in poverty, or are unemployed or self-employed.
  • Encourage media to report responsibly and accurately about the COVID-19 outbreak and the general population to exercise critical thinking and judgment when reading and sharing information on social media platforms.

Vulnerable Groups

  • Provide access to domestic violence information and services to support people, including children, experiencing abuse and violence at home. People with psychosocial disabilities, of any age, may experience increased risk of abuse and violence during home quarantine or home isolation.
  • Conduct community outreach activities to identify and rescue persons with psychosocial disabilities deprived of their liberty or ill-treated at home or within communities, including by shackling and pasung* and provide adequate support to them in a manner that respects their human rights.
  • Ensure access by homeless people, including those with psychosocial disabilities, to preventive measures against COVID-19 infection, such as access to well-supplied and clean sanitation facilities, as well as testing and treatment, without discrimination, and in a manner that respects their human rights. Governments must ensure that people with psychosocial disabilities who are homeless during the period of social isolation are not mistreated by authorities and provided with water, food, and shelter on equal basis with others.
  • Guarantee the continued provision of harm reduction services, such as needle and syringe programs and opioid substitution therapy, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among drug users.

Participation

  • Consult and actively involve persons with psychosocial disabilities and their representative organizations in the state response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Involve persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in the independent monitoring of institutional settings.

Editor’s Note: Find more information about pasung here.

***

Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

75 COMMENTS

  1. To UK readers.
    The “Coronavirus Act” passed by parliament contains a little morsel for you to chew on. The Mental Health Act has been modified to allow a person to be sectioned on the recommendation of a solitary registered medical practitioner, removing the safeguard requiring at least 2 independent medical opinions.

    Read more about it (including a pdf link to the Act) here:
    https://in-this-together.com/coronavirus-giving-your-freedom-away/

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        • 10 should scare everyone. I guess the rationale behind the “MH” article is that doctors are in short supply and (maybe) all those “mentally ill” won’t observe proper social distancing and will require more lock ups.

          In America it’s mostly the right wing who’s afraid. But even they tend to be in awe of SCIENCE.

          My brother works for Big Pharma. THE DISEASE KILLS PEOPLE. IF MOM OR DAD LEAVE THE PROPERTY THEY WILL DIE!!!

          He gives much worse death rates than those I read in other places. I read that even frail octogenarians in nursing homes are more apt to beat the bug than die. 90% survival odds in worst case scenarios.

          Joel assures me that there is at least a 15% chance that Mom and Dad will die if infected. Both are under seventy and have health issues. So some precautions make sense.

          But locking us up for six months? I don’t see that as sustainable. Yet Joel assures me it’s absolutely necessary or PEOPLE WILL DIE.

          People die every day. This is not the Bubonic Plague. And it’s not even the Spanish Flu. People didn’t hide at home during that epidemic as I recall. Now we have better sanitation and nutrition.

          But we won’t if the economy collapses and hundreds of thousands become homeless while starving on the streets. 🙁

          IMHO this is a scare tactic as a bid for power by Big Pharma/Big Government. Since Joel only hears what Big Pharma says, working 13 hours a day all week from home, he is brainwashed. For all practical purposes.

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          • I agree with a lot of this. But that doesn’t mean CV19 doesn’t pose a serious threat. The Spanish Flu (to which I guess we’re now largely immune) killed about 10% of the “civilizd” world I think. And this is an engineered virus most likely, developed as a bioweapon.

            Our collective immunity has been compromised, likely due to widespread vaccination. This may explain some of it. I am following the protocols, still I’m over 60 and continue to shop for supplies, go to the chiropractor and walk around the neighborhood while terrified people around me wear masks everywhere they go. Still I don’t go around licking toilet seats. I use rubbing alcohol on my hands when I come home, which is at least as good as hand sanitizer. I am wary of shared surfaces, but don’t worry so much about walking past people at the supermarket, as it appears this is not an airborne thing unless someone coughs or sneezes. It’s a heavy virus that falls to the floor and doesn’t hang in the air like measles — to which I am immune since I had it as a child, like just about everyone my age.

            Famous last words? We’ll see. But I agree there’s lots of exploitation and hysteria, and the media is having a field day pumping up people’s adrenalin.

            Ever see Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind? I’m reminded of the fake plague (anthrax?) staged to keep people away from the landing site, where they left dead cattle laying around to deter people. Not saying this is happening, but they may be throwing a lot of death in our faces to achieve an exaggerated effect. We can’t know for sure till it’s over. But Italy is certainly no hoax, even though there may be explanations. And I won’t be heading back to NYC any time soon. Everyone should definitely be careful.

            However true martial law is no joke — they can shoot you on a whim, with few questions asked. And economic collapse benefits the 1% for sure — people would have to work for whatever they’re offered.

            And why did the site Auntie directed us to pop up when I clicked the “reply” button under Rachel’s comment?

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          • Rachel, where have you read that “even frail octogenarians in nursing homes are more apt to beat the bug than die. 90% survival odds in worst case scenarios”? Very large numbers of people have allegedly already died in care homes in France and Spain. I have read that according to experts up to 100,000 people may die in French care homes.

            I think that the fatality rate for frail octogenarians is much higher than 10% – and even higher if they live in care homes. Let’s remember, too, that many people die because there are not enough respirators.

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          • In America there have been 143,000 cases severe enough to be diagnosed. The asymptomatic do not count. 2,500 deaths out of those. If you have a calculator you can crunch the numbers.

            Italy is far worse. The worst as far as fatalities go. With 7% of recorded cases dying.

            Please read my comment below. I believe social distancing is a necessary evil after all. But with proper medical care the death rates can be kept very low.

            The idea is that with fewer cases there will be more medical resources for those who do get sick.

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        • Also @Joanna — That 3.4% is probably grossly exaggerated and based on the fact that mainly the people who are being tested have more severe symptoms to begin with and are from high risk groups. What I’ve been hearing is that when more widespread testing is done, including asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic people, the mortality rate will turn out to be more like .4%, as opposed to .1% for the “regular” flu.

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    • I’m not in the UK, does anyone know if it is even possible TO get around being detained under the three doctor rule? Just wanted to point out that though I don’t agree with the UK measures going on now (and am not for forced psychiatry), it occurred to me that it may be that roughly the same number wind up detained under the one doctor rule as the three doctor rule because let’s face it, usually once a person is put in front of these psych panels, you can pretty well assume they are not going to be let go. Three doctors, one doctor, what difference does it make really in a way, these processes work like a one way street the end result always seems to be the person gets held, only exception being if there is a shortage of beds. I would imagine a three doctor panel is like a dystopian American Idol where all the judges always put everyone through to the next round…(Although admittedly American Idol always was dystopian…)

      Really, the underlying violations of rights that is forced psychiatry is still there no matter how many doctors are on these panels. And that’s the core issue.

      And do they even have any extra space TO detain a huge mass of new people?

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    • Meanwhile, at the same time that the corona virus has been used to justify and facilitate the confinement (… and derogation of other rights, but I’ll leave that more usual material alone for here and now …), the head of the Prisoner Governors’ Association recommended releasing prisoners to avoid the obvious consequences of confining people in the middle of an epidemic/pandemic. (And Iran pardoned 10,000 prisoners for the same reason.) [REF: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/25/release-prisoners-or-face-jail-pandemic-says-chief%5D

      That opposition in the treatment of two different classes of “under-people” serves to paint a clearer line about which lives are determined to be “grievable” (to use Judith Butler’s term) or “worth preserving” or “worth living” … and which ones are not.

      In other words, the same story that we here all now – except painted a lot more clearly on the background of the pandemic.

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    • Over the past few months, I have stepped back from the narrow focus of anti-psychiatry to study at the bigger picture. I believe this global crackdown has been in the planning for a very long while, and that Psychiatry Inc. has been a key player. Those on here who have been warning for years that Psychiatry is not about healthcare, but a form of social control, have been right all along. Those who dismissed these warnings as alarmist and paranoid will very soon learn what Psychiatry is all about.

      I also anticipate that MIA and other sites may be taken down soon. The lockdown is not just about keeping people off the streets, it is about the exchange of ideas and information on the Internet. They will justify it by saying they need to stop the spread of misinformation. There will be no warning, and no right to appeal.

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      • “I believe this global crackdown has been in the planning for a very long while, and that Psychiatry Inc. has been a key player. Those on here who have been warning for years that Psychiatry is not about healthcare, but a form of social control, have been right all along. Those who dismissed these warnings as alarmist and paranoid will very soon learn what Psychiatry is all about.”

        Absolutely, psychiatry and psychology will have been involved with the whole MSM brain washing saturation, they will have also pulled on/’used’ scientists and math models to game the predictions and have then made it real as seen in Event 201 and the BBC Haslemere pandemic program.

        There will be millions now unemployed, those who have not got savings to last at least 6 months and who are not on benefits will be coerced into crop harvesting or working some where in the supermarket system no doubt below the minimum wage, ofcourse this will include prisoners and people serving community service orders. But very many others will also have significant normal anxiety reactions to this onslaught and will indeed learn what psychiatry is all about.

        Remember what happened in WW2 Germany when the mass murder by psychiatry became clear to the general German public… there was an outcry for it to stop and Hitler ordered it be stopped – that’s saying something – but even he couldn’t stop almost all the psychiatrists murdering in the hospitals… around 400,000 in total. And yes psychiatry will just switch off sites like this and anything that opposes it and the general public will see what psychiatry really is: a eugenics movement of brutality abuse and drug torture – that comes to life in fascist control type situations – under cover of a pseudo medical profession.

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        • I like to think that societies have come a long way since WW11. That there was so much to be learned by what occured. That the atrocities were in fact exposed to the general world and the horror of what happened was frowned upon and the majority of people said it must never happen ever again.

          We moved on. All torture and eugenics are meaningless they have no purpose in psychiatry the majority of psychiatrists feel that they are in fact helping their patients. I think psychiatry is going to make a huge change and that this change could be in fact for the better of the population.

          I think fascism doesn’t work for people and that is widely accepted in our modern world and i believe that the medicalizing of human emotional suffering will grow out of itself and that psychiatrists will abolish their treatment of drugs because i believe these drugs will become too expensive and now governments will want to look at much cheaper options. That psyche drugs will be used minimally and in the short term just like they are used in developing countries and the poorer countries of the world. Therefore these medications will work properly and how they are intended in the short term.

          I think psychiatrists will be forced to look for alternatives now because they can’t allow whole societies to become long term patients. This is not productive and it would mean that the majority of the work force would be paying to keep half the population idol. Nobody wants that. Drugged people are unproductive no rational leader would want this for the majority of its population.

          Drugged people can’t even stack shelves or work in the fields. The motive is a healthy society. That is the motive. No world leader wants their society to become sick.

          Unless….there is a global benefit. I believe yes Covid 19 is infact instigated by world governments to control people. Also that they knew some would die but i think it is absolute and total GENIUS! Because this planet was heading for destruction and millions and millions were going to die. That is what the protestors of extinction rebellion have known for years.

          Now not only is this planet going to be saved there will always be enough food and water to go round societies will have localized pockets of communities and people will contribute the best way they can. Nobody’s work will be considered too menial because it all contributes to the existence of their community.

          I believe now psychiatric hospitals will in fact close because they will be considered harbingers of Coronavirus and i think here in the UK Open Dialogue will be introduced. Why would a leader want his population to be sick and drugged? And kept for by the state? Leaders want their population to be productive.

          Hitler’s intention was he wanted to create a super race and he wanted the Germans to become that super race and dominate the world. We have moved on since Hitler and it was not considered feasible that there was ever going to be a super race.

          The world has become a melting pot of peoples. However saying that population has grown so vast that our planet was buckling under us. Now maybe women will not consider themselves a failure if they don’t produce children. Not every woman is cut out for motherhood. I for one am so grateful i only had one child.

          To me Covid 19 is the best thing that ever happened to this World. I am grateful to world leaders if they instigated this. Minimal deaths and our planet instead of heading for distruction with mass loss of life now has a chance.

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          • “I like to think that societies have come a long way since WW11. That there was so much to be learned by what occured. That the atrocities were in fact exposed to the general world and the horror of what happened was frowned upon and the majority of people said it must never happen ever again. ”

            Here’s the problem right now…. have we really come a long way or did they learn that a democratic society can get away with mass murder so long as the general public at large, not just the families didn’t kick up a serious stink ?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zw9C73TtMo

            Psychiatrists will never give up their drugs and prisons, it’s what gives them power to control.

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        • @SPB – Excellent post! All of it is spot on, I just want to add something to this point…

          “But very many others will also have significant normal anxiety reactions to this onslaught and will indeed learn what psychiatry is all about.”

          As I said in my previous comment, I believe this Lockdown has been planned for a long time, and is designed to isolate each of us from all normal/healthy contact with other human beings to create a frightened, bewildered population. A tsunami of msm “fear porn” is transmitted into our homes each day, ramping up the panic to fever pitch.

          Here in the UK, I have been watching the whole thing unfold with keen interest. Churches were the first to bow to State authority and lock their doors. In the run up the Easter, the holiest day of the Christian year, this will cause enormous anxiety and agitation for many, and yet there has been very little discussion of this in the media – it’s almost as though it is of no consequence. Human touch has been all but outlawed, so we cannot comfort the bereaved with a hug or a handshake. Relatives and friends are forbidden from visiting the dying in hospital.

          Next to shut their doors by order of the State were pubs, hairdressers and cafes – all sources of normal human interaction, enjoyment and solace. We have been ordered not to visit each other’s houses for any reason, groups of more than 2 people are forbidden from meeting on the streets, and country walkers have been “shamed” by police drone footage for breaking the Lockdown rules. This shuts down escape into nature at a time of year when everything is coming to life, and the weather is suddenly beautiful. Millions of self-employed have been forbidden from meeting customers and earning a living, putting them at severe risk of bankruptcy and forcing them into dependency on the State. And there is no end in sight… the torture of hope vs uncertainty will take a massive toll on everyone in the coming weeks.

          And so, with every single form of human contact and escape cut off, where are people going to turn for help? The one place that is still up and running and open for business – the doctor. Every population in the “free world” has been primed for years by Psychiatry Inc. to do exactly that… and they will. And when they do, the answer, as always, will be an open-ended prescription for a toxic, addictive drug, and another, and another. Then, when that doesn’t work, it will be forced hospital admission, forced drugging and electro-shock.

          Yes, I believe Psychiatry has its fingerprints all over this Global Lockdown, and this will become increasingly apparent over the next few months and years.

          So, of course I’m anti-psychiatry. Aren’t you?

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          • “And so, with every single form of human contact and escape cut off, where are people going to turn for help? The one place that is still up and running and open for business – the doctor. Every population in the “free world” has been primed for years by Psychiatry Inc. to do exactly that… and they will. And when they do, the answer, as always, will be an open-ended prescription for a toxic, addictive drug, and another, and another. Then, when that doesn’t work, it will be forced hospital admission, forced drugging and electro-shock.”

            I’m surprised many on here have not worked this out and grasped through their own experience what will happen and are not actively debating it yet.

            https://youtu.be/gEosWBZrM7M?t=2674

            Staff Nurse at HNS

            “Someone please explain how relatives are being told *DO NOT ATTEMPT RESUSCITATION* is being placed on suspected or confirmed covid19 patients.

            Now we know why these people are dying…becasue they are doing NOTING TO SAVE THEIR LIVES!!!!

            I don’t care if the Trust suspend me for putting this out there. The nation must know the truth!!!!”

            I think that they are treating them but with polypharmacy including ‘sedatives’ .

            Let’s remind people from the FDA themselves:

            https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-warns-about-serious-breathing-problems-seizure-and-nerve-pain-medicines-gabapentin-neurontin

            “Our evaluation shows that the use of these medicines, often referred to as gabapentinoids, has been growing for prescribed medical use, as well as misuse and abuse. Gabapentinoids are often being combined with CNS depressants, which increases the risk of respiratory depression. CNS depressants include opioids, anti-anxiety medicines, antidepressants, and antihistamines.”

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  5. OH

    “Maybe comment histories should be removed for the time being?”

    I agree OH

    “Ever see Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind? I’m reminded of the fake plague (anthrax?) staged to keep people away from the landing site, where they left dead cattle laying around to deter people. Not saying this is happening, but they may be throwing a lot of death in our faces to achieve an exaggerated effect. We can’t know for sure till it’s over.”

    Yes indeed.

    “But Italy is certainly no hoax, even though there may be explanations.”

    Remember German psychiatrists mass murdered using sub lethal doses of barbiturate to induce pneumonia just so they could say they died of pneumonia to cover up their killing. In the UK we have had Jane Barton and the mass drug killing at Gosport hospital. Dr Barton and others have not been prosecuted and the horror covered up at highest levels –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zw9C73TtMo

    Take a look at this:

    “FDA warns about serious breathing problems with seizure and nerve pain medicines gabapentin (Neurontin, Gralise, Horizant) and pregabalin (Lyrica, Lyrica CR)”

    “Our evaluation shows that the use of these medicines, often referred to as gabapentinoids, has been growing for prescribed medical use, as well as misuse and abuse. Gabapentinoids are often being combined with CNS depressants, which increases the risk of respiratory depression. CNS depressants include opioids, anti-anxiety medicines, antidepressants, and antihistamines.”

    https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-warns-about-serious-breathing-problems-seizure-and-nerve-pain-medicines-gabapentin-neurontin

    So maybe we should ask ourselves: are these virus patients being sedated and if so with what and what are the doses? Ofcourse we will never know.

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  6. Tina, your incredible work and involvement with the CRPD and CHRUSP and tackling these issues is really amazing and very much needed. It boggles the mind that trying to protect vulnerable people’s rights and liberties is always such an uphill battle. Bravo for all you have done and continue to do!

    Re staying connected, since March 20 I am no longer receiving notifications of any new comments posted to MIA blogs I have subscribed to and wondering if anyone else is having this same issue?

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  7. I really don’t know what this shut down of the whole planet is all about?? I checked and during January 2020 in the UK 56,702 people died of natural causes. Why lock down the UK because of something like 700 deaths?

    Why lock down the whole world?? What is this all about???

    All I know is that our planet was heading for distruction. Climate Change, Pollution, Lack of resources and Population Incrase were making our planet head for disaster.

    I find now that the planet is in fact at present surviving. In Venice the canals are now running clear and fish and wild birds are to be seen there. Dolphins are swimming in the ports where yachts used to harbour and now have left so the sea there is running clear. In the Indian Ocean Dolphins are seen in Mombai swimming in the harbour. Where they never swam before.

    In my local area here in Wales the UK Montgomeryshire Canal is running clear. My tap water which i couldn’t drink before is now running pure and my cat can drink it which he never would touch it before.

    The weather here which was stormy and areas were flooded is now calm.

    I am self isolating at home but honest to God what is new for me??? I am always isolated so is my son and my friends.

    People in institutions are more at risk than ever though and my heart goes out to them especailly orphanages and the children there.

    I don’t see this current climate going away for some considerable time.

    I hope everyone stays safe and well.

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    • The Venice story in circulation is a hoax. The reason you would normally not see the fish in the canals is because the boats would churn up sediment on the bottom making the water murky. It may actually be more dangerous for fish there, now, because the clearer the water the easier it is for seabirds to catch the fish.

      And the dolphin photo was taken somewhere else from what I read.

      Not that reduced water pollution is a bad thing overall though.

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      • Actually ThereAreFourLights the sediment stirred up by gondolas in the venetian canals is pollution and wild birds only take what they need unlike mankind. Nature has a way of balancing out before humankind steps in to corrupt it.

        And the voice in the background of the dolphins being filmed at an Italian harbour is in fact Italian. I know i used to work in Naples when i was young.

        Air pollution globally is down. This planet for the first time in generations has a chance. It’s peoples have a chance. If this is instigated by governments for global change it is in my opinion total GENIUS!!

        We were heading for mass distruction and millions and millions of lives would have been lost.

        All i know now my tap water is now running pure and my cat charlie can drink it whereby he wouldn’t touch it before and i couldn’t drink it.

        Maybe just maybe humanity has a chance!

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        • Air pollution is down etc., but at what cost? More than 37,000 people have died and so many more will die – what about all these lost lives, all these people who could not breathe, all these people who died because there were not enough respirators? And I don’t think that the pandemic will be enough to bring real global and lasting change in attitudes towards the environment!

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          • Though it is referred to as “Communist” China, true communism was defeated in China shortly after the death of Mao. It is now unrestrained capitalism in effect there. The fact that it is run by something called the “communist” party is similar to the US often being run by the “Democratic” party, which has nothing to do with true democracy. What we’re up against is the international ruling class, which is a monolith.

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    • Bippyone, you don’t seem to see how fast the numbers of deaths are rising because of this pandemic. And if lockdowns had not been introduced, these numbers would be much larger. Even in the UK it is already more than 1400 deaths – twice more than only 3 days ago – and the number is still rising!

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        • Here is a translation just did from the description below the video:

          Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi, specialist in microbiology and infectious epidemiolgy, headed the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at the University of Mainz for 22 years. He has written an open letter to the Chancellor with five questions asking for immediate answers to establish the justification for the current massive restrictions on our fundamental rights. The video explains the questions and their background. The full letter with questions, background and references can be viewed here: https://c.gmx.net/

          For reasons of space here only references, the details can be removable from the letter:

          [1] Specialist dictionary Infection Protection and Infection Epidemiology. Keywords – Definitions – Interpretations. Robert Koch Institute, Berlin 2015. https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/Service… (accessed March 26, 2020)

          [2] Killerby et al., Human Coronavirus Circulation in the United States 2014-2017. J Clin Virol. 2018, 101, 52-56

          [3] Roussel et al. SARS-CoV-2: Fear Versus Data. Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents 2020, 105947; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…

          [4] Charisius, H. Covid-19: How well does Germany test? Süddeutsche Zeitung.
          https://www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundhei… (accessed 27.3.2020)

          [5] Johns Hopkins University, Coronavirus Resource Center. 2020, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html (accessed 26.3.2020)

          [6] S1 guideline 054-001, rules for conducting the medical morgue. AWMF Online, https://www.awmf.org/uploads/tx_szlei… (accessed March 26, 2020)

          [7] Martuzzi et al. Health Impact

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  8. In Canada we are now under the Emergency Measures Act, which was an act that apparently replaced the older War Measures Act and allows extra powers for the Prime Minister and Cabinet. They have already tried to abuse our rights by decreeing they may try to put everyone under surveillance to ensure they stay home. They came up with a ridiculous suggestion–that they actively trace all people’s movements via their Smartphones. Obviously, if you don’t have one or just leave your phone at home, the entire plot fails rather miserably. I haven’t followed the news on what happened but others I know who did said that the idea was rebuked, and the public from what I saw were largely complaining about them even trying to track us all.

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      • All I could picture was some kind of online map anyone could access that positioned all of us as little blinking moving lights, and that they’d let the online Lord of the Flies types sort everyone out…

        And then meanwhile, they apparently are still allowing international flights into the country. From affected areas. I swear if you watch the news long enough everything they say gets canceled out later by something else they say. We were led to believe they were going to shut down the flights save for shipping concerns. Now suddenly that has disappeared. Or we had one report here a while ago from a doc who said the virus was no big deal and stop panicking, literally the next story on the same news station was the WHO rep screaming “THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!” and telling us how we were all going to die…

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    • @ThereAreFourLights
      In this area, they have requisitioned a National Park Resort a “Recovery Centre”. “The extensive facilities and open spaces will be utilised to help treat those in need and those recovering from the virus.” The government has already put money in, and has started work – “the facility will be available to those in need as soon as possible.”

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  10. Status of COVID-19

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19

    Status of COVID-19

    “As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) in the UK.

    The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.

    The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.

    The need to have a national, coordinated response remains, but this is being met by the government’s COVID-19 response.

    Cases of COVID-19 are no longer managed by HCID treatment centres only. All healthcare workers managing possible and confirmed cases should follow the updated national infection and prevention (IPC) guidance for COVID-19, which supersedes all previous IPC guidance for COVID-19. This guidance includes instructions about different personal protective equipment (PPE) ensembles that are appropriate for different clinical scenarios.”

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  11. What do people think about my theory that the authorities will want to close down psychiatric hospitals because they will become harbingers of coronavirus? That they might just introduce Open Dialogue Therapy for people? Nick Putman is working on introducing it to the NHS.

    Psychiatrists might just have to retrain and actually become useful in their jobs?? Am I being totally optimistic??

    I know one thing after Covid 19 things will never be the same on this planet.

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    • If psych hospitals become harbingers of contagion they will lock people up indefinitely. Turn the wards into those asylums that make psychiatrists teary eyed with nostalgia.

      Worried that homeless rates will skyrocket thanks to businesses shutting down. And large numbers of homeless people will be another excuse to set up more long care asylums. 🙁

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  13. A lifetime of revolving through abuse, trauma, rejection, and then loneliness-anxiety-depression-hopelessness induced substance abuse and self destruction as an adult has made me 37 and im elderly health; I even have a colostomy bag after losing my colon to bleeding ulcers.

    Where are these “psychiatric survivors” that are healthy and/or care about their health, beyond making it just a few more days at least? How did they get that way? What would I have to do?

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    • Sorry about your situation. I’ve been through a lot of trauma too and then psychiatry very nearly killed me, I now say “I’m old before my time”. I still haven’t fully regained my health, either, have some mystery ailment doctors are dragging their feet about identifying. I had a few things help me out though, allowed me to recover from some of the worst aspects of the pill harm, though I’m not sure how far they’d go in helping out others. It sounds over the top but one thing I learned to do was forage for wild plants for food and medicine. Obviously it can be helpful to be out in nature in general to feel better, but wild food has more nutrients than grocery store stuff so if you know what you are doing, can be a huge help to health. Now a very useful skill to have given the current grocery store shortages…Of course there’s a lot that goes into studying this subject, took me about three years to be really proficient at identifying the herbaceous wild plants in my area. Also I did a few other things I feel helped me too.

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    • What helped me was learning not to worry about what other people think about me and my life; doing things I love and supporting struggles I find important (the struggle against coercive psychiatry is one of them); trying to find people who accept me as I am; learning to appreciate more all the good things in my life instead of suffering because of unachieved goals or dreams.

      I have to disagree with Bippyone that life is worth living only if we are loved. Those of us who feel truly loved by many people are lucky. Some people do/did not feel loved even by their own parents… I personally started feeling much more free and much less frustrated when I realized that I might never find someone who would love me in a romantic, passionate way and that I should not feel like a failure only because I have not found such a person.

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  14. Hi Jeffrey C, i too suffered abuse and have spent the last 45 years involved with the psychiatruc system. i have been isolated these last ten years since my husband died and my son left home. now it is worse then ever. i dont see a soul. I feel more like a none-person than ever before.

    you sound Jeffrey C that you have suffered so much and i too have suffered and dont love myself at present. i have survived all my suicide attempts and was contemplating attempting my life again. the hardest thing for some people especially those in emotional pain is to love yourself.

    my life really isnt worth living. then i asked myself this question i might think my life isnt worth living and not value the love i feel my own love is really unimportant. however, the love of my friends is important. two very special friends. and the love of my son. their love is more important then what mine amounts to. their love is precious! should never be lost! i hope jeffrey c you are loved and have someone who loves you because if you have living is worth every pain you have. Because being loved is the very essence of living. x Thank you so much Steve! x

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    • Bippy, the love of my parents is the only reason I’m still here. As soon as they’re gone, out the door I go, so to speak. It’s been agonizing having to live this way, too. Just constantly worrying about your parents, because of course I have a survival instinct and would like to enjoy life, and do in a sense here and there — playing guitar, etc — , but I’m certain that I want nothing to do with this world without them, and so far the world has shown the same attitude toward me.

      This situation has been a race to the grave ever since I was a young adult, just trying to die before my parents. But not wanting to. It’s agonizing.

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  16. Tina, could you post any links (they can be in French) proving that in France “people with a psychosocial disability who are infected with COVID-19 have been turned away from mainstream hospitals and treated instead in psychiatric institutions or in mobile hospitals that lack the necessary infrastructure”? This is horrible!

    Thank you!

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  18. Anti-psychiatry MIA readers concerned about the site being shut down might want to leave their contact info with some of us who are hoping to carry on the struggle no matter what. I’ll see if we can agree on a way of doing this, maybe an email address of someone trustworthy people can send their own email addresses to. Stay tuned.

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  20. OK folks here’s what I’m getting closer and closer to concluding:

    For most of us it’s no longer a stretch to believe that this virus was deliberately introduced for some reason or another, as we know by now this system has no respect for human life. The only remaining question is why.

    I believe it’s VERY likely that this is a move on the part of Pharma to terrorize people into not only agreeing to be vaccinated once they “discover”a vaccine (or more likely unwrap a one that already exists), but to beg for such, and agree to universal state mandated vaccines for everyone. Bill Gates has been promoting this for years, yet still more & more people are refusing the vaccine for the “regular” flu. So this is their final solution.

    They have already convinced people that web censorship of anti-VAXX info, to which they openly admit, is a GOOD thing. It’s a short step from there to get people to accept state mandated vaccines. This would also explain the well known spate of “mysterious” deaths and disappearances of doctors and others who promote natural healing, especially those who have done research debunking pro-vaccine propaganda. And it is consistent with what Auntie mentions regarding sites such as MIA being either shut down or — more likely — being shut out of search engines, Facebook, and the like. So fuck with that.

    I have already concluded that the human race has had its collective immunity compromised by so-called vaccines, which have taken the place of our bodies’ existing, and very effective, immune systems.

    Auntie & SPB I’d like to dialogue with you some more about this, either here, privately, or both.

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    • Two additional bits of info:

      a) They have just announced a vaccine, which they supposedly have been working on since January (the same company that came up with the Hep C cure); and

      b) Many of the curve projections, etc. are based on info from the Gates Foundation.

      Both of these are consistent with my above post, and I didn’t know of them when I posted it.

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  21. Actually Oldhead while i am no advocate for psyche meds and being forced to take them i do not despise all medicine.

    i was around as a child in 1956 when my brother contracted polio and when it was rife amongst the community i lived in. i also remember having chickenpox and germain measles. my other brother had hooping cough and germain measles at the same time.

    the mortality rate for children and babies was high.

    then scientists discovered vaccines and marie curie discovered penicillin.

    so many lives were saved.

    i dont believe this is a conspiracy by governments in cahoots with drug companies. i think that is rediculous.

    i do think there might be a possible conspiracy but like my friend who is extremely wise says it could simply be a force of nature and something that has raised its ugly head out of nowhere.

    then believe you me if drug companies discover a vaccine that saved your life you would be eternally grateful.

    my brother has remained a cripple all of his life and they discovered the vaccine too late for him but not for millions of other children and now polio is virtually wiped out. vaccines are a good thing. my brother spent his 4th birthday in an iron lung and his childhood in and out of hospital having operations on his foot. he was in calipres and called cripple by other children and neighbours. i am proud to say he has had quite a remarkable life though.

    i was so glad to have my son vaccinated. thank god.

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  22. Thank you, Tina, and everyone involved in the drafting of this statement. Although it is not possible for me to imagine that any of the good things proposed here will be brought into effect, I believe that it is vital to propose them, in part because they will serve as useful evidence in future. And let us not forget other effects of psychiatric drugs that make those who take them (whether voluntarily or by force) more vulnerable to infection, discrimination and/or ill treatment, among them muscle stiffness, pain and spasticity; dizziness; dehydration; constipation; blood vessel hemorrhage; osteoporosis; damage to the brain, heart, kidney, liver, pancreas, intestines, and other internal organs; seizures; obesity; parkinsonism; dystonia; dyskinesia; akathisia; confusion, memory problems and other cognitive difficulties; depression; tremors, hallucinations; anxiety; “paranoia”; suicidal and homicidal thoughts and feelings; and of course withdrawal “psychosis.”

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    • Thank you so much Irit Shimrat for making one of the most important comments i have ever read on this website.

      Not only do psyche drugs cause what you have said but they also cause permanent insomnia and vivid dreaming, they cause permanent reacurring mania but one of the most heart rendering things they cause is breast formation in young adolescent boys. Also psyche drugs can cause sexual dysfunction as well in both men and women and this can form itself in impotence as a well as increased sexual labido.

      If i am not mistaken didn’t Freud express how important our sex lives were and i cannot imagine what he would have said about what psyche drugs do to young adolescents just starting out on their sexual relationships. I can’t imagine anything more cruel or disturbing especially as no conversation between any adult psyche person ever tells them the truth and they go onto believe it is there fault.

      The emotional torment caused by psyche drugs on young teenagers must be the most tortuous cruellest thing that can ever be done to another human being by those that insist they care for others.

      One day somewhere in the deep future people will look back in horror and think how was it ever possible to inflict so much pain in the name of care onto vulnerable people.

      Those presently inflicting that pain are so thick skinned though they really have no conscience and simply do not care as they believe that those suffering emotional overwhelm are in fact sub human. What they really don’t know though is that emotional overwhelm can happen to anyone at any time of their lives.

      I would like to thank everyone on Mad In America for this website and the wonderful work people do on here.

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      • Thank you for your comment, Bippyone. I have never understood how “mental health professionals” see “improvement” in inmates/outmates whom they have turned into zombies; “patients” whose bodies, minds and souls have so obviously been destroyed by “treatment.” I had left “sexual dysfunction” (among other things) off my list of the effects of psy neurotoxins because it seemed less directly relevant to covid-related risks, but I’m glad you brought it up, as it’s important and should not be forgotten.

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