FWD: Electroshock Bill: Testimony needed / Time Sensitive

From: Tom Behrendt <6sj7tb@gmail.com>
Date: February 2, 2025 at 11:30:00 AM EST
Subject: Electroshock Bill: Testimony needed / Time Sensitive

If you have free time this afternoon, please forward this info to anyone who might be interested in submitting testimony or testifying at Monday's 11:30 AM Eastern Time public hearing via Zoom or in person in Hartford.

https://narpa.org/ect-legislation/Urgent-Alert-HB6837.pdf

HB No. 6837 An Act Extending the Authorization of Shock Therapy by a Patient's Written Consent or Probate Court Order.

It's important that the legislators hear from us. We hope to get folks to testify in person, via remote video and/or by submitting written statements. Nothing about us without us!

Here is the web page for the bill, HB 6837.
Here's the text of the bill.
This is the LINK to submit written testimony: https://www.cga.ct.gov/aspx/CGATestimonySub/CGAtestimonysubmission.aspx?comm_code=ph.
And here is the LINK to register to speak: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_11owomJTTmWgOvtEMH18VA#/registration

Key talking points:

Ø The present time limits are important safeguards and have been part of the Patients' Bill of Rights for decades. These time limits protect the rights of patients

Ø We should not diminish these safeguards for the sake of convenience of hospital staff or court personnel

Ø ECT causes memory loss, which is very often permanent

Ø ECT remains "the most controversial treatment in psychiatry" (National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on Electroconvulsive Therapy)

Ø ECT works by causing a grand mal seizure and damages brain cells

Testimony from Kathy Flaherty, from NAMI--CT, and from Tom Behrendt is already posted here, and others will be added. The psychiatrists and staff at U.Conn Department of Psychiatry, along with several probate judges, have flooded the Committee with testimony supporting the expansion of time limits. So it's important that the legislators hear from us.