Tennessee Scientologist Stands Up for Patients’ Rights

Scientologists are standing up for the rights of those who aren’t able to stand up for themselves.

In Tennessee, Scientologists are outspoken about helping those being abused in the mental health field. They work with the Nashville chapter of Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR Nashville) to help victims of psychiatric abuse document their cases and file complaints.

On the CCHRNashville.org website, the question is posed: “Victim of Brain Stimulation?” followed by the text, “Do you know someone who has been damaged by experimental psychiatric treatments including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS) or any other electric shock or magnetic wave to the brain? Report abuse.”

CCHR has long been an advocate for human rights, especially patients’ rights in the field of mental health. Per the international CCHR website, cchr.org, “CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful.”

Brian Fesler, who serves on the board of CCHR Nashville, said, “CCHR volunteers are getting the word out and finding more and more people coming forward with stories of abuse. They are working hard every day to help those who have been hurt at the hands of psychiatrists.”

CCHR is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health watchdog. It was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology with the mission to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. Fesler says, “CCHR has supporters from many faiths.  Human rights abuse doesn’t discriminate and neither do we.”

CCHR receives reports about abuses in the field of mental health and is especially interested in situations where persons experienced abuse or damage due to a false diagnosis or unwanted and harmful psychiatric treatments, such as psychiatric drugs, electroshock (ECT) and electronic or magnetic brain stimulation (TMS). CCHR is often able to assist with filing complaints, and can work with a person’s attorney to further investigate the case. To contact CCHR Nashville for more information, visit cchrnashville.org.  

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Touring Exhibit Opens in Atlanta

“Dr. Death” isn’t so unusual in the psychiatric industry – exhibit documents the pseudoscience and sordid history of psychiatry.

“That’s almost more than I can stomach, but at least I know the truth now,” said one visitor exiting “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death,” an international touring exhibit which opened Sunday for a week-long stay in Atlanta.

Hosted by Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Georgia, the museum-style displays document a side of psychiatry’s past that is rarely seen. Historical and contemporary footage, including interviews with over 150 experts and survivors, covers the brutal psychiatric treatments of the past and trace its history through the labels and drugs used today. Georgia State Senator Donzella James, officiating the ribbon cutting, told attendees, “Don’t take my word for it. I’m here today to help open up this [exhibit] so that you can come and see for yourself, and know what psychiatry is doing.”

Deb MacKay, regional coordinator for CCHR, said that plans for the exhibit were already in place when Atlantans received news about the indictment of psychiatrist Narendra Nagareddy, nicknamed “Dr. Death” after thirty-six of his patients died while he was prescribing them controlled substances.  "Dr. Death is just a footnote in a long history of medical abuse,” said MacKay, “That’s ‘business as usual’ for many in this profession.”  MacKay was standing near an exhibit vignette titled Psychiatric Criminality which notes “psychiatrists and psychologists have an inordinately high number of criminal convictions as compared to other sectors of the health care profession.”

The exhibit brings facts and figures on such topics as “using ‘science’ to promote racism” and “labeling and over-drugging children.”  A section is devoted to electroshock, explaining concerns that led to a demonstration in downtown Atlanta last weekend, where hundreds of participants representing CCHR, the Nation of Islam, the NAACP and Concerned Black Clergy protested the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting and denounced the APA’s request to the FDA to allow electroshock on children and teens who are “treatment resistant,” meaning drugs didn’t work.

With eight million children in the U.S. already on psychotropic drugs and a growing awareness of the harm and inefficacy of these drugs, protesters feared the label “treatment resistant” would be applied to thousands of children to justify giving them electroshock.

At a press conference following the march, one survivor of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) said he received “30 rounds of electroshock” in one year at age 21.  He described how he had no memory of his high school years and broke into tears while recounting “sitting there, and my father having to teach me how to tie my shoes again.”

“This is unconscionable to even consider doing this to a child,” said Dr. Linda Lagemann, a clinical psychologist who retired after 23 years in practice. “Someone’s getting rich and someone’s getting hurt. This really must be stopped.”

Georgia may soon join a growing list of states to enact protections against ECT for minors.  Senator James is championing the effort and recently called for legislation to ban its use on children. She said Georgia’s provisions to protect children and others from ECT were grossly insufficient and cited a World Health Organization recommendation to governments that: “There are no indications for the use of ECT on minors, and hence this should be prohibited through legislation.”

At the exhibit, Georgians can show their support for Senator James’ legislation by signing a petition for the ban of ECT on children.

The exhibit is free and runs through Sunday, May 29, 11 am to 7 pm daily at Piedmont Park Greystone, 400 Park Dr NE.  It has toured more than 441 major cities in the U.S. and around the world and has educated over 800,000 people on the history and contemporary practices of psychiatry.

CCHR is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health watchdog. Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969. CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. CCHR has helped to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive mental health practices.

Diverse Organizations Call for Ban on Electroshocking Children

Anticipation mounted as hundreds of activists, clergy, civil rights advocates and supporters lined up to march in protest of electroshock on children during the annual convention of the American Psychiatric Association. But no one could foresee what would happen next.

One would expect the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the international mental health watchdog, to take a stand against electroshocking of children.  But when CCHR takes that message to the heart of Atlanta during the annual convention of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)—and is joined by representatives of the NAACP, the Nation of Islam, 10,000 Fearless Men, Black Lives Matter and Concerned Black Clergy—one has to look deeper.

“Electroconvulsive Therapy,” otherwise known as “ECT” or electroshock treatment, is a controversial and “archaic technique invented in the 1930s, [which] sends jolts of electricity into the brain, inducing a seizure. It’s associated with numerous side-effects, including short and long-term memory loss, cognitive problems, unwanted personality changes, manic symptoms, prolonged seizures, heart problems and death,” reports Natural News.

Participants in the protest reported that bystanders were “shocked” to learn this practice is still common, stunned to learn that the APA is currently pressuring the Food and Drug Administration to expand its use against children.  “You mean they still do that?” responded one of the march viewers, a security guard on the property where the APA event took place.  “I thought that went out in the ‘40s!”

Not so, says Mental Health America, reporting that “ECT is administered to an estimated 100,000 people a year, primarily in general hospital psychiatric units and in psychiatric hospitals.”  And this while FDA agencies are already aware it is a dangerous procedure.  In fact, the FDA’s Office of Device Evaluation, a part of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, issued a draft guidance in early 2016 recommending a “prominently placed” warning on ECT devices to include “The long-term safety and effectiveness of ECT treatment has not been demonstrated.” 

The same report lists effects known to be associated with ECT, ranging from long-term problems with “autobiographical memory” (knowledge about one’s own life), to pain and skin burns, to “insufficient, or lack of breathing” and heart attack, stroke and death.

So as the march led to a panel discussion on ECT, and the panel discussion into a symposium the following day, attendees asked, “Why on Earth would anyone in their right mind push to use this against children?”  Especially when one speaker, an ECT survivor who received “30 rounds of electroshock” in one year, at age 21, described how he had not one memory from his high school years, and broke into tears while recounting “sitting there, and my father having to teach me how to tie my shoes again.”

One participant seemed to have the answer.  “This is unconscionable to even consider doing this to a child,” said Dr. Linda Lagemann, a clinical psychologist who retired after 23 years in practice. “Someone’s getting rich and someone’s getting hurt. This really must be stopped.”

Long-term Georgia State Senator Donzella James, speaking during the panel, called for state legislation to ban the use of ECT on children. She said Georgia’s provisions to protect children and others from ECT were grossly insufficient and cited a World Health Organization recommendation to governments that: “There are no indications for the use of ECT on minors, and hence this should be prohibited through legislation.”

The unanimous, resounding and spontaneous support for James’ proposal, a proposal so natural it should have long since been law, suddenly explained what brought together this particular mix of political persuasions, religious affiliations and socioeconomic delineations, and gave hope that, at least when it comes to our children, we can find unity amongst diversity.