Tina Minkowitz - The Abolition of Forced Psychiatric Interventions
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2018
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on MIA Radio, we interview Tina Minkowitz. Tina is an attorney and survivor of psychiatry who represented the World Network for Users and Survivors of Psychiatry in the drafting and negotiation of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Tina is a strong proponent for the abolition of all forced psychiatric interventions and played a major role in attaining a shift in international law in favor of such a ban.
In this interview, we talk about how the United Nations came to support the abolition of forced psychiatric treatment and why Tina believes that abolition of forced treatment, not reform, is necessary.
In this episode we discuss:
- How Tina came to be interested in the intersection of international human rights law, disability rights law, and the issue of forced psychiatric treatment
- Why Tina believes in the abolition, not reform, of forced psychiatric treatment
- That the threat of forced treatment against some psychiatric survivors can be traumatic to the entire survivor community
- The barriers to the abolition of forced treatment, including public perceptions of people labeled mentally ill and lack of awareness of non-coercive alternatives
- That advocacy is needed to eliminate the 72-hour hold, not just ECT, forced drugging, or outpatient commitment
- Why forced treatment constitutes physical violence
- That we don't need to put in place alternatives to the current mental health system in order to demand an immediate stop to forced treatment
- How mental health policy should center what we now consider alternative practices, such as peer-run services, hearing voices groups, and in-home supports
- How the issue of forced treatment fits within the disability rights framework
- Tina's current activities with the Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
Relevant Links:
The Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
Campaign to Support CRPD Absolute Prohibition of Commitment and Forced Treatment
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice. |
| 0:13.4 | Hello, this is James, and welcome to episode 35 of the Madden America podcast. This week, Emily |
| 0:19.8 | Shira Cutler interviews attorney Tina Minkowitz. |
| 0:24.0 | Today we will be speaking with Tina Mankowitz, an attorney and survivor of psychiatry, |
| 0:29.8 | who represented the world network of users and survivors of psychiatry in the drafting and |
| 0:35.8 | negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights |
| 0:39.2 | of Persons with Disabilities. |
| 0:41.5 | Tina is a strong proponent for the abolition of all forced psychiatric interventions and |
| 0:47.1 | played a major role in attaining a shift in international law in favor of such a ban. |
| 0:52.6 | She believes in the development of authentic user and survivor |
| 0:56.0 | perspectives in human rights. Tina, thanks so much for joining us today. Could you tell us a bit |
| 1:02.1 | about your background and what led you to your interest in international human rights law? |
| 1:07.2 | Well, thank you very much for having me on this podcast series. |
| 1:12.6 | So I am a survivor of forced psychiatric interventions myself, |
| 1:19.2 | and my interest in law essentially stemmed from that experience in which law was an agent of the oppression and |
| 1:32.6 | violence and discrimination that was perpetrated against me. |
| 1:38.1 | Law was an agent of disempowerment in my life. |
| 1:44.6 | And somehow both because of that and in spite of that, I was drawn to law as the area that |
| 1:53.6 | that needed to be changed because law is an institution created by human beings and it can be changed equally by human beings. |
| 2:06.1 | And when I was in law school, I became interested in international law. |
| 2:15.9 | For many reasons, it's simply an area that's interesting to me as a very fertile and |
| 2:23.5 | interesting field where a number of very foundational issues in human life and society are |
... |
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