Hello,
I have been working with a group of people in the United States who work to abolish all forms of involuntary psychiatry, including psychiatric incarceration in hospitals, forced administration of psychiatric drugs, unwanted "treatment," and other coercive interventions. We advocate for safe, humane, effective ways of helping people who are going through hard times. We are made up of people with lived experience, psychiatric survivors, providers, attorneys, authors and others. We know involuntary psychiatry has harmed a lot of people and that it is on the rise in some places. We also know we are not alone. The United Nations, the World Health Organization, the disability rights, psychiatric survivor and peer movements throughout the world, investigative journalists and dissident mental health professionals, are with us in this fight. This is not a necessary evil. There is an urgent need to take direct, effective action to abolish involuntary psychiatry – here in the United States as well as in other countries. We hope to gather supporters of abolition, show the strength of this position, and find others to work with on developing effective campaigns.
Guiding Principles
We have established the following Guiding Principles, which we hope you will
endorse.
- Abolish all involuntary psychiatric and psychological interventions, including forced hospitalizations, forced drugging, and related coercive practices.
- End all legal and social discrimination based on psychiatric or psychological diagnostic labeling or actual or perceived disability.
- Establish non-coercive supports and services for people when they experience emotional distress or life crises, including, but not limited to community mutual aid, peer support, voluntary crisis sanctuaries, as well as the right to voluntarily access all mainstream services and affordable housing free of coercion.
- Reject the criminalization and forced psychiatrization of social problems, difference, disability, and struggles for survival.
- Recognize the social and economic causes of emotional distress, and work to meet everyone’s basic needs in the community, including ending poverty, overcoming social exclusion, and promoting disability justice, human rights, and carceral system transformation.
There are three ways you can endorse; (1) publicly as an individual, (2) publicly for an organization, and (3) endorse, but not publicly. If you want to endorse publicly both individually and for an organization, please so state in the additional information section at the end of the
endorsement form. We review all of the endorsements so it will take a bit of time before your endorsement shows up on the website.
Please Support PsychRights
It will be greatly appreciated if you make a donation to PsychRights. You can donate online through PayPal, including using a credit card, or Network for Good, and checks can be sent to The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, 406 G St Ste 206, Anchorage, AK 99501.
Sincerely,
James B (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.
President
