An "In Memorium" page is planned for this site. If you would like to contribute a piece to be added to this page, please Contact the survivorlink webmaster.

July 15, 2004

Testimony by Sherry Taub to request the NY State Olmstead planning group honor peoples' rights to live in unsegregated housing free from outside interference.

November 13, 2003

At Mental Illness Awareness Day, an annual Long Island, NY event, singer Judy Collins stated her opposition to forced psychiatric treatment and signed the petition to the New York State Legislature urging an override of Governor Pataki's veto of the electroshock reporting bill.

A call for human rights in psychiatric treatment was made at this event by Sherry Taub.

October 27, 2003

A press release regarding the petition to the New York State Legislature urging an override of Governor Pataki's veto of the electroshock reporting bill is now available at:

http://www.ect.org/news/nyveto.html.

You may sign the petition at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ECTny/petition.html

Other actions you may take regarding this issue are suggested below (October 20th entry).

October 20, 2003

On September 22, Governor Pataki vetoed an electroshock reporting bill which had been passed by both the New York Assembly and Senate. Since many Pataki vetoes have recently been overridden, at least one group holds hope that the legislation may yet be passed this year: http://www.mhanys.org/ff/ff030926.htm This smoldering issue, which has been kept alive by the dedicated work of behind-the-scenes activists, could easily be rekindled and erupt into public view. We cannot allow Pataki's veto to snuff it out.

People with little background in mental health can easily understand this issue. Electroshock is making a come back; people are being forced to undergo ECT without their consent. The Legislature has been frustrated in its efforts to gather reliable data about these trends. This bill does not seek to regulate ECT but merely seeks to gather basic information which the Legislature identifies as necessary to fulfill its responsibility to protect the public's interest. Despite pressure from powerful interests such as the New York State Psychiatric Association and the Greater New York Hospital Association, this bill easily passed both the State Senate and Assembly. However, the Legislature needs a clear signal from the public in order to gather the strength needed to overturn Governor Pataki's veto.

If you're a resident of New York State, here's what you can do:

1. Contact your state Senator and Assembly Member. Urge them to over-ride Pataki's veto of Senate Bill Number 2691, entitled: "AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to the oversight and regulation of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)." Let them know that special interests should not be placed ahead of the public interest.

Contact information for Assembly Members is available at: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ If your zip code includes more than one assembly district, look at the district maps available on the representatives' pages to determine which person you should contact.

Contact information for NY State Senators is available at: http://www.senate.state.ny.us/ Follow the link on the left to "Senators", then click on "Senate Lookup by Zipcode" on the new frame which loads.

2. Sign the petition to the New York State Legislature which is available at: http://www.petitiononline.com/ECTny/petition.html
If you would like the petition author, Sherry Taub, to contact you with news and actions which are being planned, be sure to check the box "Available to Petition Author" for the privacy setting. Alternatively, you can check for messages which she will be posting on this website, or subscribe to the survivorlink ECT action mailing list.

3. Ask your friends and relatives to consider signing the petition. Thousands of signatures on this petition can send a powerful signal to the Legislature, and will help focus media attention on this issue.

The solid backing this legislation received in both the State Assembly and the State Senate has re-energized me. With a strong showing of public support (New York State residents, that means YOUR support), we can overturn Pataki's veto. Victory is within reach. Let's be prepared for the legislature to reconvene before January. Together, we can bring the spotlight back to forced electroshock, as we did in 2001.

Anne Krauss

May 6, 2002

The grievance procedures for the agencies which administer the PAIMI (Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness) programs for New York State are now posted. Thanks, Allan and Tina, for helping.

May 4, 2002

An article entitled "The Internet, Information, and Censorship," which was published in the winter/spring issue of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy quarterly publication, The Rights Tenet, has been posted, for the convenience of Rights Tenet readers who would like to more easily follow the links.

April 29, 2002

The New York State Assembly's Report on Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is now on-line. This report was released in March of 2002 by the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which is chaired by assembly person Martin A. Luster. It is well worth a read, and is an excellent summary of the work which the Committee has done on investigating the issue of electroshock. Thanks again, Allan and Tina, for making this possible.

April 12, 2002

A Freedom Rally has been announced for May 2, 2002, outside the DoubleTree Hotel in Rockville, Maryland, to protest Dr. E. Fuller Torrey's agenda of force and coercion. Dr. Torrey recently wrote an article recommending that the federal Center for Mental Health Services should not be funded in its present form, because it supports organizations such as the National Empowerment Center, Protection and Advocacy programs throughout the United States, the National Mental Health Association, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and other programs and organizations which do not share Dr. Torrey's coercive approaches and/or his rigidly biological perspective on psychological distress. Confirmed speakers at the rally include Laurie Ahern, Larry Belcher, Justin Dart, Mark Davis, Dan Fisher, David Oaks, Larry Plumlee, Joseph Rogers, and Laura Van Tosh.

April 7, 2002

The Manhattan Psychiatric Center electroshock policy is now on-line. Thanks again, Allan and Tina, for making this possible.

April 3, 2002

The Creedmoor Psychiatric Center electroshock policy is now on-line. Thanks again, Allan and Tina, for making this possible.

March 27, 2002

The Pilgrim Psychiatric Center electroshock policy is now on-line. Thanks again, Allan and Tina, for making this possible.

March 24, 2002

On Friday, Allan sent me the New York State Psychiatric Institute eletroshock policy which he has finished scanning and converting to text. I've added it to the Electroshock section, together with a report from the Department of Health and Human Services titled Medicare Reimbursement for Electroconvulsive Therapy, which has statistics about how many single and multiple seizure procedures were covered by Medicare in 1998, 1999, and 2000. I've also added a link and some information about this report on the electroshock page.

March 16, 2002

The site is new. I've put this up quickly - in time for National Freedom of Information Day - March 16, 2002. I hope to have time to make it prettier later on. I'd like to thank Tina for obtaining the electroshock policies for the New York State psychiatric centers, via freedom of information request, and Allan for scanning them and OCRing (OCR stands for optical character recognition) the policy from Rockland Psychiatric Center, so that I could easily upload it as text. I haven't worked on the formatting - again, I hope to have time to make it prettier later - but I didn't want to delay making the information available to all, just because it wasn't pretty. In fact, no matter how nice I ever can make it look, this information is not and never will be pretty.