Anitpsychiatry influences threaten to hijack Canada's mental health stratety

Nov. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- The antipsychiatry views of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Law Advisory Committee (LAC) betray the Commission’s commitment to promote mental health and wellness for all Canadians. LAC’s views are also incompatible with the mental health legislation of the majority of provinces that have broadened the committal criteria in recent years to prevent substantial mental or physical deterioration and protect a mentally ill individual’s right to be well.

LAC believes that involuntary hospitalization and treatment are violations of human rights. The recommendations of its recent report, Equality, Dignity, and Inclusion: Legislation that enhances human rights for people living with mental illness will make it more difficult to hospitalize and treat the people who need it most.

Mental health advocate Lembi Buchanan examines the antipsychiatry influences of civil libertarians, human rights activists and consumer survivors on Canada’s mental health policy in her report, The Emergence of the Recovery Movement: Are medications taking a back seat to recovery?

Not everyone considers the appropriate use of psychiatric medications as a crucial aspect of treatment for people diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Rather than embracing advances in neuroscience research along with new and innovative treatments with fewer adverse side effects to correct chemical imbalances, antipsychiatry proponents question the medical model of mental illness as well as the therapeutic benefit of antipsychotic agents. Instead, they believe that freedom of “choice” is a basic right, regardless of the patient’s state of mind. As far as they are concerned, the patient, not the physician, is considered the expert when it comes to personal treatment options despite the severity of these life threatening brain disorders.

A summary and the full report can be accessed on www.whychoicematters.com.