“Stop Shocking Our Mothers and Grandmothers”

ELECTRO-SHOCK PUBLIC PROTEST

A public protest meeting against the psychiatric practice of electro-shock treatment, also known as ‘electro-convulsive therapy’
(ECT), will be held on Saturday, May 3rd at the GPO, Oliver Plunket Street, Cork.  The protest will take place from 1pm to 4pm and is being organised by MindFreedom Ireland which campaigns against the abuse of human rights in the field of psychiatry.  A number of survivors of electro-shock will address the meeting.

The practice of electro-shock involves the placing of electrodes on a person’s forehead and administering an electric current of up
to 400 volts precipitating a grand mal seizure or convulsion which is disguised by anaesthetic.

Electro-shock causes brain damage and memory loss and today is on the increase worldwide.  The most recent year for which figures are available in Ireland show that 1,483 people received electro-shock in 2003.  It is often administered against a person’s
will and as such, is a direct assault on the human rights of that person.

A recent study led by psychiatrist Dr. Harold Sackheim of Columbia University, New York, a lifelong defender and promoter of electro-shock, confirmed that it causes permanent brain damage and dysfunction.

The Cork protest is being held in conjunction with a similar protests in  Ottawa, Canada to coincide with Canadian Mothers Day and to highlight the fact that worldwide, 60% of those receiving electro-shock are women, many of them mothers and grandmothers.

Director of MindFreedom Ireland Mary Maddock said “Electro-shock is a barbaric assault on the individual.  As a young mother after the birth of my daughter, I was subjected to 16 sessions of it and suffered permanent memory loss as a result. I have spoken to many
others who have received it both in Ireland and abroad and all have received permanent brain damage.  MindFreedom Ireland is
calling for the total abolition of electro shock”

“Psychiatry is the only place where you damage the brain and call it a cure” says Dr.Peter Breggin, founder of the International
Centre for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology.

MindFreedom Ireland,
16, Manor Close,
Thornbury Heights, Cork, Ireland
Phone: 021-4894303.
Web-site: WWW.MINDFREEDOMIRELAND.COM