Tag: Human Rights

‘A Playground for Predators’: Diane Dimond on The Abuses of Guardianship

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Our guest today is Diane Dimond, a longtime, award-winning investigative journalist specializing in crime and justice issues. As a freelance journalist, syndicated columnist, and...

Mental Health Care Must Support Consent and Basic Human Rights

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Despite the UN’s strong stance against involuntary treatment, many countries continue to uphold legislation that encourages it.

When It Comes to Mental Health Problems, The Disability Framework Fails

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Treating those struggling with emotional distress and troublesome behaviors as mentally disabled is a barrier to arriving at humane and dignified ways of assisting them.

CRPD Consultation on Deinstitutionalization: A Reparations Approach

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The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has announced a series of regional consultations on deinstitutionalization.

The Cost of Being Psychotic in America

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People living with psychosis—people like me—are dying because we are being discriminated against by people who’d rather see us hurt than attempt to work with us and give us the decency and respect that should be accorded us as a human right. And nobody deserves to be assaulted or shot after they’ve reached out for help.

“Reimagining Psychiatry:” An Interview with Peter Stastny

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Peter Stastny is a New York-based psychiatrist, documentary filmmaker, and a co-founder of the International Network toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). He has been...

Humanizing Mental Healthcare by Reducing Coercive Practices

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A review of the literature demonstrates that coercive practices lack empirical support and violate human rights.

Open Dialogue and a Human Rights Approach to Mental Health Care

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Analysis suggests that Open Dialogue aligns with human rights-based perspectives on mental health care.

UN Report Criticizes Biomedical Approach to Mental Health

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UN official writes that States should focus instead on resolving social inequality and injustice as determinants of health and human rights.

Users and Survivors Respond to World Psychiatric Association: “We Will Not...

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In an open letter to the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), users and survivors defend the UN CRPD and call for relinquishment of psychiatric power.

Debate Ensues Over Rights-Based Approach to Mental Health

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Debate ensues as scholars and policymakers discuss how to bring a rights-based approach to mental health policy.

United Nations Rep Brings Attention to Human Rights Violations in Psychiatry

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Dr. Dainius PĆ«ras argues that the status quo in mental health treatment is no longer acceptable and demands political action to promote human rights.

When Mental Health Treatment Becomes a Violation

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From InDaily: "In the early 2000s when I was detained in a psychiatric hospital I was treated against my will, I was even secluded....

Sociologist Questions Effectiveness and Ethics of Mental Health Services

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Medical sociologist David Pilgrim argues that mental health care is neither effective nor “kindly,” as it often relies on flawed research and ineffective treatments.

What Is It Like to Be Sectioned?

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From ShortList: "'I asked to go out for a cigarette but was told that if I tried to leave I would be sectioned against...

Immigrant Shelters Drug Traumatized Teens Without Consent

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From ProPublica: "Emotional distress and mental health issues are prevalent among these children, sometimes a result of traumatic experiences in their home countries, at other...

Psychologists Respond to Mental Health Crisis at the Border

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From The American Psychological Association PsycIQ: "When three women who had been forcibly separated from their children by immigration officials filed a lawsuit on June...

AP Exclusive: Washington Psychiatric Hospital Called “Hell”

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From WSMV: "Despite a shakeup in leadership and vows to correct problems, the hospital continually puts patients at risk, according to a recent surprise federal inspection....

Joint Public Statement on U.S. Immigration Policies

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Several psychology groups have released the following public statement on U.S. immigration policies and practices: "This statement is an official statement of the specific signatories...

The Drugging of Migrant Children: A Symptom of a Systemic Issue

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Isolation, demeaning behaviors on the part of staff, forced injections and tranquilization — former patients of detention and residential facilities have been describing this inhumanity as the norm for decades. It is our acceptance of this as a norm that allows for abusive situations to arise so easily.

Doctor Drugging Migrant Kids Lost Certification Years Ago

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From Reveal News: "The psychiatrist who has been prescribing powerful psychotropic medications to immigrant children at a federally funded residential treatment center in Texas...

Eugenics Never Went Away

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From Aeon: Eugenics was a mixture of science and social movement that aimed to improve the human race over generations. Those of good stock were...

Mental Health Industry Should Embrace Choices Beyond Drugs

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In this video for NowThis, Yana Jacobs critiques the mental health industry standard of prescribing drugs as the first-line treatment for "mental illness." She emphasizes...

The Mental Health Act Review: Everything Remains the Same

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From Tales from the Madhouse: On May 1st, the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act published a 60-page interim report. The report makes it clear that no...

Closing the Asylums

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In this piece for Jacobin, John Foot describes the Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia's efforts to revolutionize the mental health system in Italy. Basaglia sparked a...