Statement by Sherry Taub at 'Mental Illness Awareness Day'
Long Island, NY,  Nov. 13, 2003

Supported Recovery, Not Forced "Treatment"

Why is "treatment" in quotes? Because if it isn't voluntary, it isn't treatment.

"Treatment is like sex.  It has to be consensual."  -- Vicki Fox Wieselthier

SELF-DETERMINATION. Deciding for ourselves what we will do with our bodies and what we will or will not accept having done to them is both a fundamental civil right, and a central, precious human right. Informed, uncoerced choice is a cornerstone of self-determination. Try to remember this, no matter how many times you are pressured to make "choices" that you don't feel sufficiently informed about, or that don't feel right for you.

A SAFE PLACE.   In recovery from emotional distress, finding a safe place is essential.   Nothing has so robbed us of that hope as the threat of forced treatment. 

In its position statement on involuntary outpatient commitment the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS) declared: "When all is said and done, we know what works and what doesn't work. Force doesn't work. Force is violence that encourages helplessness, kills self-esteem and chases away hope for recovery."

FORCED ELECTROSHOCK.    Only a few miles from where we sit eating lunch today, at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, electroshock treatment is FORCED on people who have repeatedly said NO and gone to court trying to defend themselves from this assault on their bodies and minds. Electroshock is forcibly administered at South Oaks, SUNY Stony Brook, North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish-Hillside. I have been a peer advocate for people in this terrifying position. They have asked me to try to get the facts about forced shock into public view.  

FORCED SHOCK IN THE NEWS.   On September 22 Governor Pataki vetoed a bill that had passed both houses of the legislature by wide margins, which would have required the state to regularly collect information about electroshock -- including forced electroshock -- and make that information available to the public.

An investigation undertaken by the original sponsors of this legislation revealed that in the previous year, applications for forced electroshock increased 73%.   That's no typo.  A 73 percent increase in forced shock applications in New York State.  Many more people are getting shocked against their will.  

WHAT YOUR LEGISLATORS HAVE DONE.  WHAT PATAKI DID.    Uncovering this shocking fact required a legislative investigation -- precisely because the state was not required to collect or publicly report such information.   In their investigative report legislators spoke of the need for laws requiring data collection on electroshock use, including whether it is forced, who pays for it, and how many deaths or injuries result.   But when the electroshock reporting bill passed both houses of the legislature by sizable majorities, the governor vetoed it. He admitted acting under pressure from the psychiatric and hospital associations, and claimed that it would somehow stigmatize the practice of electroshock.  This is like claiming that the FDA's oversight of prescription drugs somehow stigmatizes the people who take them. Or is the governor worried that a reporting bill might stigmatize those who force electroshock on others? Now, THAT would be a stigma I could live with. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO.   If you support passage of a reporting bill -- one that would require the state to make information on electroshock use public, so that we can have informed public policy concerning it -- please go online to

http://www.petitiononline.com/ECTny

to read and in agreement sign the petition.  Then tell others about this opportunity to take action.   More background information and actions you can take to support a democratic process and override the veto is available at http://survivorlink.org/. More information on electroshock is available at http://ect.org/.

Fred Frese and TAC: the Treatment Advocacy Center

Fred Frese, a featured speaker at this conference, sits on the boards of both the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), the only citizens group that supported Pataki's veto of the electroshock reporting bill, and the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC).  

The webpage of TAC's New York branch declares its success at uniting (around forced treatment laws) family members who "want to nurture and protect that individual from the illness" and those who might otherwise have "opposing" interests, but who are "member individuals and organizations working to preserve the quality of life in the community, and support reform to make the communities safer and more habitable."

Former NAMI board member D. J. Jaffe, one of the founders of TAC and currently a coordinator of its New York branch, launched a campaign to toughen involuntary outpatient commitment laws throughout the United States with these words: "From a marketing perspective, it may be necessary to capitalize on the fear of violence to get the law passed."

At the top of TAC's webpage, whttp://www.psychlaws.org/, people are invited to bookmark their "news ticker," which is designed to keep the public informed about every news story in the country that links psychiatric issues with violence.  

TAC's campaign is national -- a state by state attack on our civil rights -- exploiting fear-mongering, stigmatizing news stories about Violent Crazies, about the supposed "dangerousness" of the "untreated mentally ill," in order to drum up support for passage of more and more forced treatment laws, more and more regressive legislation.  

We must strongly object to our being characterized as an inherently violent subclass of people by those who incite and promote such fears in order to justify policies of coercion, force, and violence toward us.   

If you are here because you believe in and hope for recovery in a climate of respect for our human rights and equal citizenship, you may wish to question Mr. Frese about the methods and goals of NAMI/TAC.

______________________________________________________________________

The petition is online at: whttp://www.petitiononline.com/ECTny

More on electroshock at: http://ect.org/

______________________________________________________________________