Trending...
- SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT NAMES GLENN DERRY EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MSG VENTURES
- Citizens for West Virginia Election Integrity Calls for Urgent Reforms to Safeguard State Elections
- IFA Names Richard Weissman of The Learning Experience as 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year
CCHR joins survivors of electroshock torture in NZ in condemning a very late apology issued by a psychiatric association, spanning half a century of neglecting the abuse endured. The group wants justice for victims of analogous abuse in the U.S.
LOS ANGELES - nvtip -- The U.S.-based Citizens Commission on Human Rights International joined former child victims of psychiatric electroshock torture in New Zealand in rejecting a very late apology from the local psychiatric association for failing to protect them.[1] The mental health industry watchdog has been at the forefront of the campaign to ban electroshock use and helped its chapter in New Zealand to expose the torture of children at the now-closed Lake Alice psychiatric institution in the 1970s. After more than 50 years, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) formally apologized last week to the survivors for the abuse they endured. Advocating for justice, CCHR demands a more sincere apology, rigorous accountability, and rightful compensation for the survivors not only in New Zealand but also for those brutally treated with electroshock in the U.S.
The RANZCP apologized for the "torturous actions carried out and directed by psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks,"[2] a member of the College who was responsible for electroshocking children without anesthetic, including to their legs and genitals.[3] Leeks died in January 2022, aged 92.[4] Eleven months later, only then did the College posthumously rescind his fellowship with it.[5]
In 2021, the Lake Alice survivors were granted a Royal Commission—the highest form of government inquiry in New Zealand—to testify about the terror and trauma they still suffer from their 1970s treatment. In December 2022, the Commission confirmed the hospital had been a place of misery, neglect, terror, fear and torment.[6] Despite the lapse in time, there are now recommendations that the survivors be adequately compensated.
Recent local media reported, "Vulnerable children in the adolescent unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital faced unimaginable abuse. They were drugged, punished with electric shocks and subjected to physical and sexual assaults."[7]
Dozens of survivors and their supporters, including CCHR New Zealand's director Mike Ferriss, heard from the RANZCP president Elizabeth Moore. Some of the survivors called the very late statement of professional regret "hollow lip service and a fairy tale apology."[8]
In the full written apology released to the media, the RANZCP wrote "We know the courageous attempts to raise concerns by young, vulnerable people detained at Lake Alice were ignored."
More on nvtip.com
CCHR says there is a growing trend for psychiatric associations to apologize for everything from psychiatrists' role in the Holocaust euthanasia murders of mental patients and eugenics to racism. In January 2021, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a formal apology for what it said was psychiatry's "role in perpetrating structural racism" and that psychiatrists had subjected indigenous people to "abusive treatment, experimentation, victimization in the name of 'scientific evidence,'…." APA said it had "historically remained silent on these issues."[9]
In 2010, Prof. Frank Schneider, President of the German psychiatric association broke the society's 70-year silence and apologized for Nazi psychiatrists who had forced patients "to be sterilized, arranged their deaths and even performed killings themselves." Patients were killed in the gas chambers, from lethal doses of drugs or by prescribed starvation.[10]
Some psychiatric associations, however, have not been so forthcoming. For example, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which in 1997 investigated apartheid crimes, reported that the South African Society of Psychiatrists "did not play a proactive role in ensuring that the human rights of mentally ill people were upheld" during apartheid.[11] A UN report had concluded that the society had resorted to "blatant falsehood in its defense of South African psychiatric care."[12] Black patients were warehoused in privately owned institutions, electroshocked without anesthetic, and used for unpaid labor. According to a 1983 World Health Organization report, "This situation has no parallel in the history and present state of psychiatric care; it certainly does have a parallel in the ownership and trading of slaves." The report further stated that "in no other medical field in South Africa is the contempt of the person, cultivated by racism, more concisely portrayed than in psychiatry."[13]'
CCHR says more than just apologies are needed and they must also be given without added platitudes about how conditions have "changed." The RANZCP apology drew harsh criticism when it added, "We are committed to people receiving the best mental health care, guided by evidence and expertise" and "Now, psychiatrists work transparently and collaboratively, in teams, with supervision, and ongoing training and development."
However, a recent WHO and United Nations guideline clearly shows there is ongoing abuse, stating: "Coercion remains a core component of existing mental health laws across jurisdictions and is a major concern." Such practices include "involuntary hospitalization, involuntary medication, involuntary electroconvulsive therapy, seclusion, and physical, chemical and mechanical restraint." These "violate the right to be protected from torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment…." and should be prohibited.[14]
More on nvtip.com
To prevent the abuse of patients, the guideline says access to justice is "essential to accountability." Bypassing colleges and associations who may put reputation above protecting patients or admitting to their abuse, implementation of the guideline would allow "persons interacting with mental health services to challenge human rights violations and to enforce rights, including the right to an effective remedy…. Effective remedies also entail the duty to investigate and bring to justice those who are responsible, to hold them to account, combat impunity and prevent repetition of violations."[15]
In the meantime, CCHR continues to call for all electroshock treatment to be prohibited, with its most recent protest held on February 22 outside an American College of Psychiatrists' convention held in New Orleans. Report abuse to CCHR.
About CCHR: CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry. It has obtained over 190 laws to protect the rights of mental health patients, including the prohibition of dangerous psychiatric treatments with criminal penalties if administered.
[1] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[2] www.ranzcp.org/news-analysis/apology-to-the-survivors-of-lake-alice
[3] www.cchrint.org/2022/12/30/lake-alice-psychiatric-hospital-children-were-tortured/; www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/royal-commission-of-inquiry-into-state-care-finds-lake-alice-children-were-tortured/ZB3EVQL765ATLMDKSX6XHSTXEA/
[4] www.stuff.co.nz/national/rnz/300963742/why-a-key-figure-at-lake-alice-was-not-charged
[5]www.ranzcp.org/news-analysis/apology-to-the-survivors-of-lake-alice
[6] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[7] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[8] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[9] www.cchrint.org/2021/01/26/american-psychiatric-associations-apology-for-harming-african-americans-rejected/ citing www.medscape.com/viewarticle/944352?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=345404PY&impID=3143084&faf=1; www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-apology-for-its-support-of-structural-racism
[10] www.cchrint.org/2021/01/26/american-psychiatric-associations-apology-for-harming-african-americans-rejected/, citing www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/speech-schneider.html#0; link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-011-0243-1; www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/travelling-exhibition.html; www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/stations-of-the-exhibition-1.html
[11] www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%204.pdf
[12] "The Case for South Africa's Expulsion from International Psychiatry," United Nations Centre Against Apartheid report, May 1984
[13] "Apartheid and Health," WHO report (Geneva) 1983, pp. 166-248
[14] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/18/who-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices/
[15] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/18/who-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices/
The RANZCP apologized for the "torturous actions carried out and directed by psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks,"[2] a member of the College who was responsible for electroshocking children without anesthetic, including to their legs and genitals.[3] Leeks died in January 2022, aged 92.[4] Eleven months later, only then did the College posthumously rescind his fellowship with it.[5]
In 2021, the Lake Alice survivors were granted a Royal Commission—the highest form of government inquiry in New Zealand—to testify about the terror and trauma they still suffer from their 1970s treatment. In December 2022, the Commission confirmed the hospital had been a place of misery, neglect, terror, fear and torment.[6] Despite the lapse in time, there are now recommendations that the survivors be adequately compensated.
Recent local media reported, "Vulnerable children in the adolescent unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital faced unimaginable abuse. They were drugged, punished with electric shocks and subjected to physical and sexual assaults."[7]
Dozens of survivors and their supporters, including CCHR New Zealand's director Mike Ferriss, heard from the RANZCP president Elizabeth Moore. Some of the survivors called the very late statement of professional regret "hollow lip service and a fairy tale apology."[8]
In the full written apology released to the media, the RANZCP wrote "We know the courageous attempts to raise concerns by young, vulnerable people detained at Lake Alice were ignored."
More on nvtip.com
- sliQue Robotics Launches Campaign to Transform Business Ecosystems
- Vane Airport Media Inc, The Best Travel Idea of 2025
- Dove Men+Care is partnering with Marshawn Lynch to drop the B.O. - everywhere. Introducing _EASTM_DE
- Protect and License VST and AU Audio Plugins with Plugin License 1.0
- Gold Coast Health Plan Distributes $225,000 for Fire Relief and Preparedness Efforts
CCHR says there is a growing trend for psychiatric associations to apologize for everything from psychiatrists' role in the Holocaust euthanasia murders of mental patients and eugenics to racism. In January 2021, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a formal apology for what it said was psychiatry's "role in perpetrating structural racism" and that psychiatrists had subjected indigenous people to "abusive treatment, experimentation, victimization in the name of 'scientific evidence,'…." APA said it had "historically remained silent on these issues."[9]
In 2010, Prof. Frank Schneider, President of the German psychiatric association broke the society's 70-year silence and apologized for Nazi psychiatrists who had forced patients "to be sterilized, arranged their deaths and even performed killings themselves." Patients were killed in the gas chambers, from lethal doses of drugs or by prescribed starvation.[10]
Some psychiatric associations, however, have not been so forthcoming. For example, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which in 1997 investigated apartheid crimes, reported that the South African Society of Psychiatrists "did not play a proactive role in ensuring that the human rights of mentally ill people were upheld" during apartheid.[11] A UN report had concluded that the society had resorted to "blatant falsehood in its defense of South African psychiatric care."[12] Black patients were warehoused in privately owned institutions, electroshocked without anesthetic, and used for unpaid labor. According to a 1983 World Health Organization report, "This situation has no parallel in the history and present state of psychiatric care; it certainly does have a parallel in the ownership and trading of slaves." The report further stated that "in no other medical field in South Africa is the contempt of the person, cultivated by racism, more concisely portrayed than in psychiatry."[13]'
CCHR says more than just apologies are needed and they must also be given without added platitudes about how conditions have "changed." The RANZCP apology drew harsh criticism when it added, "We are committed to people receiving the best mental health care, guided by evidence and expertise" and "Now, psychiatrists work transparently and collaboratively, in teams, with supervision, and ongoing training and development."
However, a recent WHO and United Nations guideline clearly shows there is ongoing abuse, stating: "Coercion remains a core component of existing mental health laws across jurisdictions and is a major concern." Such practices include "involuntary hospitalization, involuntary medication, involuntary electroconvulsive therapy, seclusion, and physical, chemical and mechanical restraint." These "violate the right to be protected from torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment…." and should be prohibited.[14]
More on nvtip.com
- The Dallas Group of America, Inc. Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Landmark Facility
- Kelvin Emtech and Colm Engineering Unveil Strategic Joint Venture, to Boost Data Center and Building M&E Capabilities
- Scale Computing Announces Chris Barton, Founder and Creator of Shazam, as the Keynote Speaker for Platform//2025
- Citizens for West Virginia Election Integrity Calls for Urgent Reforms to Safeguard State Elections
- Patton Launches SFP-based RS-232/422/485 Serial Device Server
To prevent the abuse of patients, the guideline says access to justice is "essential to accountability." Bypassing colleges and associations who may put reputation above protecting patients or admitting to their abuse, implementation of the guideline would allow "persons interacting with mental health services to challenge human rights violations and to enforce rights, including the right to an effective remedy…. Effective remedies also entail the duty to investigate and bring to justice those who are responsible, to hold them to account, combat impunity and prevent repetition of violations."[15]
In the meantime, CCHR continues to call for all electroshock treatment to be prohibited, with its most recent protest held on February 22 outside an American College of Psychiatrists' convention held in New Orleans. Report abuse to CCHR.
About CCHR: CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry. It has obtained over 190 laws to protect the rights of mental health patients, including the prohibition of dangerous psychiatric treatments with criminal penalties if administered.
[1] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[2] www.ranzcp.org/news-analysis/apology-to-the-survivors-of-lake-alice
[3] www.cchrint.org/2022/12/30/lake-alice-psychiatric-hospital-children-were-tortured/; www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/royal-commission-of-inquiry-into-state-care-finds-lake-alice-children-were-tortured/ZB3EVQL765ATLMDKSX6XHSTXEA/
[4] www.stuff.co.nz/national/rnz/300963742/why-a-key-figure-at-lake-alice-was-not-charged
[5]www.ranzcp.org/news-analysis/apology-to-the-survivors-of-lake-alice
[6] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[7] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[8] www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/02/lake-alice-survivors-react-to-apology-from-royal-australia-new-zealand-college-of-psychiatrists.html
[9] www.cchrint.org/2021/01/26/american-psychiatric-associations-apology-for-harming-african-americans-rejected/ citing www.medscape.com/viewarticle/944352?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=345404PY&impID=3143084&faf=1; www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-apology-for-its-support-of-structural-racism
[10] www.cchrint.org/2021/01/26/american-psychiatric-associations-apology-for-harming-african-americans-rejected/, citing www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/speech-schneider.html#0; link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-011-0243-1; www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/travelling-exhibition.html; www.dgppn.de/en/Core-areas/psychiatry-in-time-of-National-Socialism/stations-of-the-exhibition-1.html
[11] www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%204.pdf
[12] "The Case for South Africa's Expulsion from International Psychiatry," United Nations Centre Against Apartheid report, May 1984
[13] "Apartheid and Health," WHO report (Geneva) 1983, pp. 166-248
[14] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/18/who-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices/
[15] www.cchrint.org/2023/09/18/who-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices/
Source: Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
Filed Under: Non-profit
0 Comments
Latest on nvtip.com
- Malcolm Gladwell to Address Global IT and Business Leaders at Info-Tech LIVE 2025 in Las Vegas
- NC Health Official Urges Ban on Wilderness Therapy Camps Following Child's Death
- IFA Names Richard Weissman of The Learning Experience as 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year
- Breaking Barriers & Elevating Voices: The Top 50 Over 50 Podcast Awards Set to Make History!
- The Power Of Online Reviews & Why They Matter
- BangChain: The Next Moonshot Token Launching with Cutting-Edge AI Technology
- Connected Technologies Delivers Cutting-Edge Technology to Landmark Properties' Student Housing Communities
- Craft Holsters Unveils Comprehensive SIG Sauer Guides for Firearm Enthusiasts
- How Technology is Making the Florida Court System More Accessible
- Amazon Health Services CMO to Keynote Inaugural Emerge Innovation Experience at HIMSS25
- DivX Unveils Revamped Guide on Mastering PS4 Streaming & Media Playback
- Discover the Culinary Heart of Le Marche: A 5-Night Food & Wine Tour + Farm to Table Cooking Classes in Italy's Hidden Gem
- Kenmore® to Showcase Cutting-Edge Innovation and Design at KBIS 2025
- The One Experience™, Inc. Announces Presenting Sponsors and Partners for Flagship Event
- Introducing HOME-OMETRY, the Social Media Network for Real Estate
- Italian iGaming Landscape Expands with Notable Merger: Gaming Report Acquires Gaming Insider
- Retrospec Appoints Nick Marvik as New Head of Growth to Lead eCommerce Expansion
- National Pizza Day and the Big Game Collide on February 9th! Celebrate with Pizza, Cheers, and Meet Roberto, the Sleepy Pepperoni
- $27 Million Funding; Coverage on Sanjay Gupta/CNN for Treatment of Suicidal Depression; Nasdaq Tier Uplisting: NRx Pharmaceuticals: Stock Symbol: NRXP
- Advanced HDR by Technicolor Enables 2024 UEFA Championship's French Broadcast in High Dynamic Range