23-05-2019 03:49 PM
23-05-2019 03:49 PM
Tina Minkowitz
Is an international human rights lawyer and a survivor of Psychiatric abuse
Who has worked
Towards the development
Of the UN Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The CRPD
Has been ratified by many countries
Including Australia
But has yet to be implemented
These new brief points
Outlined by Tina
Represent an insightful shift
In Focus that I think we should all consider
From forcing a medicalised view
Which is often Violently and harmfully enforced on those who refuse it
To a human rights based view
That does not indoctrinate or harm, but respects the individual in crisis, as well as the community.
Very well worth a read
https://www.academia.edu/39229717/Positive_policy_to_replace_forced_psychiatry_based_on_CRPD
25-05-2019 10:55 AM - edited 25-05-2019 11:00 AM
25-05-2019 10:55 AM - edited 25-05-2019 11:00 AM
25-05-2019 10:57 AM - edited 25-05-2019 11:03 AM
25-05-2019 10:57 AM - edited 25-05-2019 11:03 AM
I'd just like to say that it took me three tries to post that document.
Despite it being an incredibly positive move forward that is about
createing services that are supportive and not harmful.
It was really hurful, and retraumatizing when my posts were deleted.
They were deleted bcause I contextualised the doctument by saying how important
it was to me since I am a victim of repeated violent abuse in forced psychiatry.
The reality of the situation is that if a person made involuntary in a public hosptial is seen as 'insane' or 'floridly delusional' and refuses that explanation, or a medical view and the drugs that go with it they are violently forced. A person is deprived of non-psychiatric options and forced violently into psychiatry. Its a serious issue of abuse.
Speaking my truth is a very important part in healing from and overcoming abuse
I was never, ever helped by the so-called 'medical model' but I do have severe trauma to
recover from because of the repeated violence.
It has been helping me to idenify as a victim of institutional violence.
It helps me feel and know that it was not my fault. That the institutions that harmed me were to blame.
That the institutions that covered up when I tried to speak out were to blame.
that the institutions that denied me the support I always knew I needed: to work through the metaphors and altered states that they called 'delusional' which never were and to integrate and makes sense of them.
When I try to speak out strongly against abuse, and it is covered up, that is re-traumatising and it is abuse. It is not for the sake of other victims that my abuse is hidden, it is for the sake of perpetrators.
But it is 2019
Soon the Royal Commission will begin
Now is a time for all those who experienced Violence, abuse and exploitation in all forms throughout the disability sector, including attempts to cover up abuse, including in online forums, to speak out.
This is one of our avenues to get services that are not abusive, this is one avenue to finally getting peace and justice.
I am not nor have I ever been a person with a 'mental illness'
but that view was violently forced upon me
as it is on all people seen 'insane' who refuse it in Australian psychiatric wards once made involunary
I know this from over 13 admissions over 20 years and from speaking to many others who refused
This abuse needs to come into the open so that all of us who have experienved Violence, neglect and exploitation, in all seetings and contexts feel safe to talk
so that all this violence can be exposed and examined
Here is a snapshot from the terms of reference of our Royal Commission.
It will start soon and continue for 6 years
Nobody, ever, should be silenced for telling their story of abuse -no matter how widespread
the abuse or how much people don't want the truth to come out
If you need urgent assistance, see Need help now
For mental health information, support, and referrals, contact SANE Support Services
SANE Forums is published by SANE with funding from the Australian Government Department of Health
SANE - ABN 92 006 533 606
PO Box 1226, Carlton VIC 3053