MINDFREEDOM IRELAND PRESS RELEASE
7th MAY 2018.PROTEST AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL PSYCHIATRIC ELECTROSHOCK.
A protest against the controversial psychiatric practice of electroshock, still used in Irish hospitals today, will take place in Cork next Saturday, May 12th.
The procedure, carried out under general anaesthetic, involves passing an electric current through a person’s brain sufficient to cause a grand mal epileptic seizure.
Proponents cannot say definitely how it works but reserve the right to administer it. Opponents say there is no scientific evidence that so-called mental illnesses exist and equally that there are no biological markers to prove that electroshock works, even as it definitely causes cognitive impairment and permanent memory loss.
The latest figures from The Mental Health Commission show that electroshock was given to 243 people in Ireland in 2015, two thirds of them women.
The protest is the 10th organised by MindFreedom Ireland, a Cork based psychiatric survivor group which campaigns for human rights and against forced treatment.
It is being held this year to coincide with a ‘First Do No Harm’ protest against the American Psychiatric Association held in New York last Sunday and the worldwide International Protest to Ban Shock Treatment on May 12th.
It takes place at 2pm outside the park on The Grand Parade, Cork and testimony will be given by people who have had personal experience of the procedure.
END
Jim Maddock,
MindFreedom Ireland,
Cork
May 7th, 2018.
Phone: 086 0624445.