Hospital staff often abuse
their power and use it to discipline, punish and control consumers
and survivors. This must stop.
Staff often refuse to respect patients'
rights such as the right to refuse treatment. This must stop.
Staff usually don't inform patients
of their rights and the side-effects of medications. This must
stop.
Patients should be given a statement
about all their rights as soon as they're admitted.
Patients are treated by their label
(diagnosis), not as whole human beings. This must stop.
Patients' emotions and behaviours
are often misinterpreted as symptoms. This must stop.
Staff often ignore physical needs
in a psychiatric hospital, and sometimes confuse them with psychiatric
symptoms. This must stop.
The psychiatric system pays little
attention to basic human needs (housing, finances, employment,
education, social life). It is vital that these needs are fulfilled
and consumer/survivors be treated as human beings.
Police should be trained by consumer/survivors
in dealing with psychiatric patients to prevent needless violence
towards consumers and survivors
Overdrugging and ECT are destructive
acts that should be outlawed. The Patients Council opposes electroconvulsive
therapy, or shock treatment.
All treatment of consumer and survivors
should start with talk therapy and alternative natural therapies.
The Patients Council opposes forced psychiatric treatment.
Consumers and survivors should be
the decision-makers in the mental health system because they are
most affected by this system.
Survivors and consumers should be
actively involved in the planning and delivery of support.
Institutions are inhumane and a health
hazard. They should be closed down and replacedwith community
supports run by survivors and consumers.
The existing mental health system
will try to prevent consumer/survivors from building an advocacy
and self-help support network. We have the right to design support
models that accommodate us.
