News Release

NCD #00-282
January 20, 2000
Contact: Mark S. Quigley
202-272-2004
202-272-2074 TTY
mquigley@ncd.gov

National Council on Disability Calls for Changes in the Treatment of People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities

WASHINGTON--People labeled with psychiatric disabilities are routinely deprived of their rights as citizens and human beings. This conclusion is reached in the National Council on Disability's new report on the countless problems facing individuals with psychiatric disabilities: From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves.

From Privileges to Rights, which was released today at the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems' Winter Conference 2000 in Orlando, Florida, is based on the 1998 hearing conducted by NCD in Albany, New York. NCD heard testimony from mental health professionals, lawyers, advocates and relatives of people with psychiatric disabilities. Most important, however, was the testimony given by people with psychiatric disabilities themselves. Passionate and eloquent, they described in graphic detail how individuals with psychiatric disabilities have been beaten, shocked, isolated, incarcerated, raped, deprived of food and bathroom privileges, and physically and psychologically abused in institutions and in their communities.

From Privileges to Rights notes that people with psychiatric disabilities are the only Americans who can be denied their freedom, who can be institutionalized or incarcerated without being convicted of a crime, with minimal respect for their due process rights. When people with psychiatric disabilities die in facilities supposedly designed to serve and protect them, their deaths are rarely investigated, and when they are, criminal charges are seldom filed.

The compelling testimony heard and studied by NCD has resulted in a number of recommendations for change in the way that people with psychiatric disabilities are treated. "The most important change required," said NCD board member Rae Unzicker, "is the elimination of coercion." Ms. Unzicker, who also serves as president of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy added, "In the Albany hearing, involuntary commitment and forced commitment were repeatedly described as the most painful and difficult experiences in people's lives."

"People with psychiatric disabilities are American citizens who have the right to expect the same treatment accorded other citizens which is based on the principles of law," said NCD chairperson Marca Bristo. "Laws, policies and practices that restrict the rights of people with psychiatric disabilities solely because of their disabilities, dishonor our nation's basic principles of justice and landmark civil rights laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."

From Privileges to Rights calls on the President and Congress to address the many problems faced by individuals with psychiatric disabilities and ensure that these individuals are fully and substantively involved in making policy changes that will enable them to claim their full citizenship rights. NCD also recommends that the use of involuntary treatments such as forced medication and inpatient and outpatient commitment, be viewed as inherently suspect, because they are incompatible with the principle of self-determination.

NCD is an independent federal agency currently coordinating a multi-year study for the President and Congress on the implementation and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws.

For more information, contact Mark S. Quigley at 202-272-2004 or visit NCD's award-winning Web site (http://www.ncd.gov).