“When is it OK to punish patients?”

I’ll never forget when a social worker, from a psychiatric unit, asked me this. I was providing training.

Of course, the short answer is NEVER. I gave long answers too.

Yet, I could not convince her. In systems of coercion, abuses flourish.

Wow, I didn’t expect this tweet to get so many likes - but I’m glad it has.

I’m glad to see many are shocked at this. It IS shocking.

Join us in our outrage & learn more about the consumer/survivor movement.

This is just 1 issue for many of us who’ve been in psych units.

Folks asked, what did she want to punish?

It doesn’t matter, because no punishment is OK.

How did she want to punish us?

She said to ‘take away our privileges’. What she meant was to breach basic human rights like liberty, or freedom from torture, cruel & inhuman t/ment.

These things are made possible because psych units already take away so many basic human rights. Regularly, casually, without consequence. And basic humanity & ethics get lost.

When you give a group this kind of power over others, in closed, locked spaces, this is what happens.

There is a great need in mental health systems for better training, standards, etc, etc.

But I don’t think that’s the real answer. It won’t stop people like this.

I think what we really need is this:

Equal rights under the law. With protections & remedies.

#CRPD #OPCAT

If you want to make a difference, why not check out the consumer/survivor campaign currently running about stigmatising & discriminatory reporting on the ABC: http://www.pleasedont.com.au