MindFreedom member, Alex Chung has been working tirelessly for human rights since launching a new MindFreedom affiliate in November 2020. Alex lives in Victoria where he is pursuing a doctoral degree at University of Melbourne. He is focusing on disability rights, Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) and involuntary ‘treatment’. Not content to study the problem from an academic perspective, he is willing to get into the weeds and fights for individuals. Recently, a psychiatric survivor called MindFreedom’s headquarters in Eugene to report that she was being held against her will within Alfred Hospital in Victoria while being forced to take powerful, mind-altering psychotropic drugs. MFI staff helped the caller enroll in our Shield program, then immediately referred her to the liaison of MindFreedom Australia, Alex Chung.
Right away, Alex posted a free ad, recruiting a team of pro bono attorneys and licensed psychologists to assist our Shield member her at her Mental Health Tribunal (MHT). While the team did manage to get our member released, they are still fighting her outpatient court-ordered treatment. What they found is that individuals in Victoria are routinely having their rights violated in the mental health system. Therefore, they ask you to sign and help them circulate the following petition