The Electroshock Coalition is presenting to the Public Health and Human Services
Subcommittee of the Austin City Council on Tuesday, April 3rd. It promises to be
strong and informative. They have a few brave shock suirvivors coming, and are going to make a strong statement.
Please come if you can!!!
If you don't know why electroshock therapy is bad, please read on!
Electrosock is used because it appears to be a short-cut to getting results in cases where drugs and therapy are working too slowly or not working at all. A person often appears to become calm and manageable. However this is probably the result of brain damage, and not the result of a cure to their illness. Electroshock induces new disabilities in the patients, replacing their original problem with permanent loss of memory and brain damage.
It is true that while in a vegetative state, a person appears to have fewer problems... But is that a cure? Dead people have fewer problems too, but we don't kill cancer patients to "cure" them. Destroying someone's brain to cure them makes no sense, and has not been proven to do them any good. Electroshock is very similar to lobotomy, only the equipment used is more modern than the icepick-like tool used to perform lobotomy, and the results take multiple procedures to achieve. But the destroyed brain tissue is just as dead. This brutal, and inhuman treatment needs to be stopped.
The Public Health and Human Services Subcommittee of the Austin City Council will hear testimony from the Coalition for the Abolition of Electroshock in Texas (CAEST). This group of activists, including a number of electroshock survivors, wants to make Austin, Texas an electroshock-free zone, calling for the two local hospitals that still do electroshock, Seton Shoal Creek and St. David?s, to stop. CAEST has been in dialogue with the principal electroshock facility, Seton Shoal Creek, for well over a year, and has staged three protests at that hospital. Despite these efforts, Seton continues to electroshock people.
On Tuesday, April 3, members of the electroshock abolitionist group will present a petition to the City Council, calling for: 1) a City Ordinance declaring any facility or individual who practices psychiatric electroshock to be ineligible for any contractual or other referral or funding arrangement with the City of Austin; and 2) a Resolution Statement describing the procedure of psychiatric electroshock, outlining the safety and efficacy information on electroshock, recommending a moratorium on the use of electroshock in Austin, and encouraging city hospitals to develop medical wellness programs in lieu of electroshock.
CAEST spokesperson John Breeding, PhD, states that, ?Electroshock is a severe public health danger, causing brain damage and disability in Austin citizens who receive it. We want Austin to be an electroshock-free zone, a safe place to get authentic help when you are having a hard time.? Another Coalition member, Lee Spiller, director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, states, ?We are not against Seton Shoal Creek. What we really want is for them to be one of the first psychiatric hospitals in the country to offer a comprehensive medical wellness program.?
CAEST medical adviser, Moira Dolan, MD, director of the Medical Accountability Network, has reviewed the ECT literature and provided Seton with documents summarizing the clear harm done by electroshock, and the lack of data supporting its supposed efficacy. Dr. Dolan states, ?The?scientific literature documents?that ECT causes brain damage and a host of other ill effects, and that it doesn't affect cures. ECT practice is a clear violation of human rights and medical ethics.?
Two recent survivors of electroshock at Seton Shoal Creek will testify at the hearing. Don Erickson received 10 electroshock ?treatments? in a four-week period in the summer of 2005, at the end of which he was severely disorganized, confused and suicidal. Erickson states, ? The psychiatric drugs weren?t working and I believed that ECT was the only hope. Now I know it was a lie and a big scam.? Evelyn Scogin received at least 31 electroshocks at Seton in five months during the winter and spring of 2005. She states, ?I lost a lot of memory, I could not recall how many shocks I had. I have a hard time now with learning and short-term memory. Before I was a teacher at the Texas School for the Deaf. Now I am unable to work.?
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