{"id":4345,"date":"2024-10-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/?p=4345"},"modified":"2024-10-03T17:52:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T22:52:06","slug":"exhibit-exposes-psychiatric-human-rights-abuses-at-congressional-black-caucus-foundation-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/2024\/10\/07\/exhibit-exposes-psychiatric-human-rights-abuses-at-congressional-black-caucus-foundation-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibit Exposes Psychiatric Human Rights Abuses at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Citizens Commission on Human Rights\u2019 exhibit exposes the history to the present day of harmful and racist practices in the mental health system that constitute human rights violations, and calls for laws to ban harmful practices, in line with international human rights standards.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by\u00a0CCHR National Affairs Office<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights abuses in mental healthcare were the focus of a global traveling exhibit by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an international mental health industry watchdog.  The exhibit was displayed recently at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit brings to light the history to the present day of human rights abuses from psychiatric practices.  Today, those practices include forcibly admitting people \u2013 even children \u2013 to psychiatric facilities, forcing them to take harmful drugs against their will, and subjecting them to seclusion and restraints, which have caused injury and death.  Mental health patients can even be subjected to involuntary electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or electroshock). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coercive mental health practices violate international human rights standards, with the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for<\/a> an end to all involuntary mental health treatment.  CCHR advocates for state and federal laws to eliminate coercive practices and ban electroshock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the exhibit opening ceremony, Dr. E. Gail Anderson Holness, Pastor at Adams Inspirational AME Church in Washington, DC, and former Faith Based Outreach Coordinator at the DC Department of Behavioral Health emphasized, \u201cWe believe mental health is a human rights issue,\u201d also adding, \u201cWe support recovery because recovery is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrienne L. Schaffer Esq. (Col. Ret. USA), Founder and Executive Director of the Military Children\u2019s Six Foundation and former US Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps Officer, talked about her organization advocating for the well-being of military children and youth, as well as educating and empowering them to self-advocate, stand up for others, and ultimately take on rights-based leadership roles.  These rights could include human rights in the field of mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs these young individuals mature into roles of leadership or influence, whether within their home countries or abroad, they can act as change agents and ambassadors for human and child rights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Cecala, a Chicago civil rights attorney, fights in court for his clients\u2019 right to make their own medical decisions.  \u201cThe most important issue that confronts society today is the human rights of people that are in the mental health system,\u201c he said.  \u201cIt is a failed philosophy that needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The damage caused by coerced mental health treatment was the reason behind the 2023 call<\/a> by the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for nations to end all forced mental health treatment, the organizations saying that coercive practices \u201cviolate the right to be protected from torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facts presented in the CCHR exhibit detail the sordid history<\/a> of human rights violations in psychiatric practices, including brain-damaging psychosurgery and electroshock, and reveal the prime role of psychiatrists in instigating and perpetuating the systemic racism still ingrained in today\u2019s mental health system.  In 2021, both the American Psychiatric<\/a> Association and the American Psychological<\/a> Association admitted to long histories of racial abuse and to the systemic racism still present in their practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many convention visitors viewing the exhibit reached out to CCHR for help in protecting mental health human rights in their states.  Many had their own distressful stories of family members or friends who were harmed in the mental health system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDamaging and potentially fatal procedures that are passed off as mental health treatment must stop,\u201d said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  \u201cCCHR is dedicated to ending abusive psychiatric treatments and practices and restoring human rights to mental healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citizens Commission on Human Rights\u2019 exhibit exposes the history to the present day of harmful and racist practices in the mental health system that constitute human rights violations, and calls for laws to ban harmful practices, in line with international human rights standards. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Citizens Commission on Human Rights\u2019 exhibit exposes the history to the present day of harmful and racist practices in the mental health system that constitute human rights violations, and calls for laws to ban harmful practices, in line with internationa","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,209,154,93,58,113,148,207],"class_list":["post-4345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-muddy-river-newsletter","tag-abuse","tag-apa","tag-coercive-psychiatry","tag-ect","tag-human-rights","tag-racism","tag-united-nations","tag-who"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NMpC-185","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cchrstl.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}