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Update: Revised Bill Passes

April 8, 2024.  The amended bill passed both the House and the Senate on April 3rd and the Governor signed it on April 8th.  It is set to go into effect July 1st.

Update:  Not Dead Yet?

March 28, 2024. There was a series of procedural moves resulting in an amendment to S1254 that allows electroshocking children down to age 14, but imposes a lot of requirements.

(2) Electroconvulsive therapy may be administered to a child fourteen (14) years of age or older only if:

(a) There is informed consent by the parent, guardian, or custodian of the child and all reasonable attempts have been made to contact any noncustodial parent with all information regarding the proposed therapy;

(b) The child does not object to the procedure after being informed of the proposed therapy and alternatives;

(c) No parent, guardian, or custodian of the child objects to the proposed therapy;

(d) All other accepted methods of treatment have been exhausted; such treatment is necessary to save the child’s life due to potential suicide; or such therapy is necessary to prevent irreparable injury resulting from conditions of self-harm, starvation, dehydration, or physical exhaustion bordering on serious collapse, to the extent that such condition is life threatening;

(e) The child has received thorough, independent psychiatric assessments by, and approval for the therapy from, two (2) separate American board of psychiatry-certified psychiatrists specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry, at least one (1) of whom shall demonstrate advanced certification in electroconvulsive therapy.

(f) The child is given a cognitive assessment that includes an assessment of memory, which shall be performed:

(i) Prior to administration of the therapy;
(ii) Immediately following termination of the therapy; and
(iii) Three (3) to six (6) months post administration of the therapy; and

(g) The therapy is performed in a facility licensed as a hospital pursuant to chapter 13, title 39, Idaho Code.”;

Stay tuned.

Update: Bill Killed?

March 27, 2024, We have been informed by an Idaho House member that being placed on the General Orders Calendar means it is unlikely to be seen again this session.

From: Representative Todd Achilles <tachilles@house.idaho.gov>
Date: Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: Bill S1354

Thank you for your note.

S1354 has been sent to general orders which means it is highly unlikely to be seen again this session.

This is a controversial topic and I appreciate your perspective so that we can develop the best policy for Idaho families.

 

Best,

Todd

It looks like we killed it.

Thank you to everyone who e-mailed Idaho House members!!

Update:  Placed on General Orders Calendar

March 26, 2024.  S1354 was listed on today’s Third Reading calendar, which means it was set for a final vote before it would be sent to the Governor for signing into law.  The current bill status states that today it is “to be placed on General Orders, no objection” and is now listed on tomorrow’s “General Orders” calendar.  We don’t know what that means for sure, but it has clearly been slowed down by our efforts.  Perhaps they are going to return it to the committee.  We received copies of the more than 50 e-mails to the Idaho House and will be posting some of them in the comments section.  If you sent an e-mail to the Idaho House members you can post it there.

Update: Vote Delayed

March 25, 2024. S1354, the bill to allow electroshocking children down to the age of 12 was set to be voted on the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives today, but they didn’t get to it. Over 50 e-mails have been sent to all of the members of the Idaho House of Representatives. We know of at least one member who was going to vote for it who is going to vote against it as a result of the e-mails. If you haven’t sent an e-mail opposing S1354 to all of the members of the Idaho House of Representatives there is still time to do so by sending it to idahohouse@psychrights.org .

 

Oppose Idaho Bill to Allow Electroshocking 12-Year-Olds

March 24, 2024. We just found out that Idaho is set to pass a bill, S1354, to allow children down to the age of 12 to be electroshocked. See Statement of Purpose. The bill passed the Idaho Senate and may be scheduled for a final vote in the Idaho House tomorrow. See Bill Status.

Our partner, PsychRights, has set up the e-mail address idahohouse@psychrights.org to go to all of the members of the Idaho House of Representatives as individual e-mails from the sender.

Jim Gottstein, MindFreedom Board Member and president of PsychRights sent the Idaho House the following e-mail which might be useful in drafting your own e-mail:

This is to express vehement opposition to S1354.  I am the president of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) whose mission is to mount a strategic litigation campaign against forced psychiatric drugging and Electroshock.  Electroshock, euphemistically referred to as Electro-Convulsive Therapy or ECT, is barbarous when administered to adults, and should be a crime when administered to children.   The people supporting S1354, whether intentionally or not, are not telling the truth.  Please find attached PsychRights and Committee for Truth in Psychiatry submission to FDA opposing reclassification of electroshock machines, March 25, 2016, documenting the great harm from Electroshock without any lasting benefit.  The evidence cited therein as well as a tremendous amount of other evidence has been compiled on the Electroshock Webpage at PsychRights.org.

Please do not allow S1354 become law.

The short notice was unavoidable, but it is conceivable we can stop this train.

8 Comments

  1. Dr. Daniel Fisher sent this e-mail.

    To members of the Idaho House of Representatives,

    I am writing to strongly oppose S1354, which would make it legal to submit children as young as 12 to electroconvulsive treatment (ECT, aka shock treatment). I am a psychiatrist, an neurochemist, and Chairman of the Board of the National Empowerment Center. I feel, that as an expert in the field I should provide information regarding mental health treatment to decision makers in all realms of society. ECT is an extremely controversial procedure that has caused life-changing harm to many. Yet adults who elect to undergo this procedure are not given the opportunity to provide truly informed consent. The situation is even more egregious for children, who are not developed enough to give informed consent.

    ECT involves serious risks. In fact, many believe it has destroyed their lives. The risks—permanent amnesia and permanent deficits in cognitive abilities—have been confirmed by researchers such as Dr. Harold Sackeim, a well-known proponent of ECT, whose 2006 study in Neuropsychopharmacology (www.nature.com/npp/journal/v32/n1/full/1301180a.html) concludes: “This study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings.”
    I testified before the Neuroscience Advisory Board of the FDA in 2011 when the agency was contemplating moving ECT equipment from Class III to Class II. I pointed out that a Class III meant the ECT device and procedures need to be shown to be safe and effective. The Advisory Board voted 10-8 to preserve the Class III status of ECT. However, neither the manufacturers nor practitioners of ECT have proven the device or practice to be safe and effective (for adults or young persons) nevertheless, this down grading of classification occurred for certain conditions, such as catatonia, but not all conditions for adults. There has been no such hearing for young persons, and no reduction in classification has occurred for young persons under the age of 18. Here is a link to my testimony: https://power2u.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/OralRemarksToFDA-1.27.11.pdf
    I have developed and propose Emotional CPR instead of ECT, for all age groups. (Www.emotional-cpr.org)
    Please do not allow S1354 to pass and become law. The well-being of many Idahoans depends on your actions.
    Sincerely,

    Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD (he,his,him)
    Board Certified Psychiatrist
    President of Board, NEC, Inc.
    Vice President, NCMHR

    http://www.power2u.org
    ntro to eCPR
    https://youtu.be/g0nf5X8bcI4

  2. Care Wang sent this e-mail.

    Hello,

    I’m writing to express my strong opposition to S1354. Electroshock can cause memory loss, cognitive deficits, and permanent brain damage. No study has ever found a beneficial effect of electroshock lasting more than four weeks, and rather than decreasing the risk of suicide, research has found that it is associated with increased mortality. See this document for more information: PsychRights and Committee for Truth in Psychiatry submission to FDA opposing reclassification of electroshock machines, March 25, 2016.

    It would be extremely dangerous to allow a “treatment” with serious risks and no proven long-term benefits to be used on children, especially since their wishes can be ignored if their parent or guardian feels differently. There are many other ways to respond to minors’ mental health issues that would not damage their developing brains. Please do not allow S1354 to become law.

    Sincerely,
    Claire Wang

  3. Rudi Leibik sent this e-mail.

    Dear Member of the House of Representatives – I am writing to express my strong opposition to Bill S1354, which would make it permissible to subject patients as young as twelve years old to electro convulsive shock therapy. This so-called “treatment” has been classified as torture by the United Nations’ Rights of People With Disabilities, and there are organizations who have worked tirelessly to ban ECT altogether for its myriad of common serious long term effects. I implore you to take the time to get educated on this important issue, and to vote “No” on Bill S1354. Your leadership on this issue is vitally important. The time has come to end barbaric practices such as ECT permanently, and not to increase the use of shock treatment on ever younger, and more vulnerable populations.

    Thank you for standing up for human rights –

    Rudi Leibik
    (Concerned citizen, and voter)=

  4. This is from Jacek (Jack) Haciak

    Esteemed Idaho Legislators,

    I am a retired Licensed Psychologist and mental health program Director having practiced in five states, and now consult for legislators and mental health programs, and provide education and training. I strongly encourage you to vote NO on S1354.

    1. For adults to take the risk of diminished cognitive functioning, a common side effect from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), for their own lives is one thing. For adults to risk diminished cognitive functioning for children whose brains are yet to complete development around age 23 is an abdication of our responsibility to keep children safe.
    2. “The ECT Handbook,” Chapter 9 – Electroconvulsive Therapy in Children and Adolescents (2019, Cambridge University) provides this summary:
    “The evidence base for the use of ECT in children and adolescents aged under 18 years (hereafter referred to as ‘paediatric ECT’) consists of individual case reports, case series and retrospective chart reviews, but no Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). This limited evidence base alongside concerns about the effects of ECT on the developing brain may help explain the infrequent use of ECT by child and adolescent psychiatrists.”
    A. Individual case reports, case series, and retrospective chart reviews are limited methods of research which provide no conclusive evidence of any treatment being effective. It is basically a hindsight speculative review of “trial and error” outcomes for guesstimates about treatment effectiveness.
    B. The reason there are no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for ECT on humans under 18 years of age, (RCTs being the standard required for any reasonable level of confidence in treatment study findings) is because no research institute or university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) will ethically approve such a study given the medical risks to the youth. That is why the medical community instead is forced to use the inferior trial-and-error “research” estimating methods about the benefits of ECT for youth.
    3. Informed consent by an adult for accepting a medical risk just for themselves is very imperfect, and leads to unanticipated results on a regular basis. Having sufficient understanding of complex medical issues for confidently calculating a risk to ourselves is not possible, but for ourselves we may take chances we might not want our loved ones to take. For medical professionals to persuade a parent or guardian that they should feel comfortable giving informed consent for a medical procedure for their child which has never been researched by standard methods and found to be safe for children is deceptive and unconscionable, and thus why research institutes won’t allow it.

    Our youth depend on adults using common sense to help them stay safe, particularly when dire circumstances might tempt desperate adults to risk their children’s futures in an all-or-nothing roll of the dice, the outcome of which will become another after-the-fact statistic and being of no meaningful predictive value for the medical community’s unfounded reassurance that ECT is safe.

    Protect our children. Please vote NO on S1354.

    Thank you.

    Jacek (Jack) Haciak, PsyD, Director
    DynamicChanges LLC
    P.O. Box 13352
    Salem, Oregon 97309

  5. This is from Janna Weiss.

    Dear Idaho Legislators,

    Electroshock, also known as electroconvulsive “therapy” (ECT) is a barbaric and inhumane practice that causes permanent and debilitating brain damage. Electroshock (ECT) should be abolished.

    Psychiatric expert Dr. Peter Breggin states:

    ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, shock treatment, electroshock) involves the application of two electrodes to the head to pass electricity through the brain with the goal of causing an intense seizure or convulsion. The process always damages the brain, resulting each time in a temporary coma and often a flatlining of the brain waves, which is a sign of impending brain death. After one, two or three ECTs, the trauma causes typical symptoms of severe head trauma or injury including headache, nausea, memory loss, disorientation, confusion, impaired judgment, loss of personality, and emotional instability. These harmful effects worsen and some become permanent as routine treatment progresses.
    http://www.ectresources.org/

    The S1354 bill appears to give parents a right to informed consent and a right to discontinue treatment, however it is easy for hospitals and courts to deny parents their right to informed consent and to discontinue treatment through involuntary hospitalization. Whether by (so-called) informed consent at the hands of their parents, or involuntarily by court order, children risk permanent and severe brain damage. Neither courts nor parents should have the right to inflict permanent brain damage on children (or on adults).

    No emotional disorder or emotional distress, no matter how severe or intense, and regardless of duration, causes permanent and disabling neurological damage.

    I worked in hospital psychiatry with acupuncture and herbal medicine with excellent results. Acupuncture is known to positively affect the brain by increasing endorphins, leading to a feeling of well-being. Other gentle practices, treatments, and interventions that reduce psychological distress and increase a feeling of well-being are well-known and readily available, such as mindfulness meditation (taught in hospitals, schools and prisons), time spent in nature, physical activity, healthy nutrition, supportive social environment, including a community of peers.

    We should be informing parents of genuinely healing and health-promoting short-term and long-term solutions to their child’s emotional distress, and providing support for families. S1354 is not a suitable or safe answer to the psychological and emotional distress of children.

    Please work compassionately, collectively and speedily to abolish the harmful, inhumane, barbaric and outdated practice of electroshocking human beings.

    Here is a link to my 2011 letter to the FDA regarding electroshock. John Breeding’s detailed discussion of the harm of electroshock is below my letter.

    Sincerely,

    Janna Weiss, PhD, LAc
    New York

  6. From Clare Cortright.

    Legislators,

    I am a lawyer, a person with lived experience of serious mental illness, and a mental health advocate. Do not pass S1354. It is abhorrent that anyone would even consider legalizing electroshock on the developing brain of a child. We know of the harms of electroshock and like all psychiatric, medical interventions still less than we should about catastrophic consequences we learn of from the irreparably damaged victims. Even a minor has sovereignty as the only person who will actually experience this intervention or live with whatever consequence may come. No doctor, no parent, and certainly not the State of Idaho has a greater stake and interest in the child’s life than they have in their own life. Although I am a resident of California, we are watching. And we are increasingly speaking out about the barbarities being inflicted on people with mental illness or alleged to have it.

    I am frequently contacted by and quoted in the national press – recently the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Guardian, Axios, Mother Jones, Politico, etc. concerning mental health policy and law, and I’d be happy to talk about this too.

    Clare Cortright, Esq.

  7. This is the e-mail Susan Rogers sent.

    To whom it may concern:

    I am writing to strongly oppose S1354, which would make it legal to submit children as young as 12 to electroconvulsive treatment (ECT, aka shock treatment). I am the director of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse, and I work to provide accurate information to people with mental health conditions. ECT is an extremely controversial procedure that has caused life-changing harm to many. Yet adults who elect to undergo this procedure are not given the opportunity to provide truly informed consent—let alone children.

    Although many believe they have been helped by electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)—in which seizures are electrically induced, usually to treat severe depression—ECT also involves serious risks. In fact, many others believe it has destroyed their lives. The risks—permanent amnesia and permanent deficits in cognitive abilities—have been confirmed by researchers such as Dr. Harold Sackeim, a well-known proponent of ECT, whose 2006 study in Neuropsychopharmacology (www.nature.com/npp/journal/v32/n1/full/1301180a.html) concludes: “This study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings.”

    Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, testified before the FDA when the agency was contemplating moving ECT equipment from Class III to Class II; this reclassification subsequently took place. Here is a link to Dr. Fisher’s testimony: https://power2u.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/OralRemarksToFDA-1.27.11.pdf

    Please do not allow S1354 to pass and become law. The well-being of many Idahoans depends on your actions.

    Susan Rogers
    Director
    National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse
    https://www.mhselfhelp.org/

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