Australia: Ban Electroshock Therapy for Children!

  • by: Susan V
  • recipient: Victorian Government

In Australia, a Tribunal can override an adult’s decision not to undergo electroshock therapy. But far worse, it can also force this therapy on children against parents’ wishes.

Many had hoped Victoria’s new Mental Health Bill would ban this controversial treatment, also known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), especially for children. And unless something is done to change it, this new bill will go into effect, as is, on July 1, 2014.

ECT involves applying hundreds of volts of electricity to the brain, to purposely inflict seizures that exhaust and damage brain cells. Patients are left with memory loss, confusion and headaches, and some suffer permanent brain damage and even die from the treatment.

In 2008 alone, Australia conducted 12,000 ECT treatments - 203 of them on children 14 and under. Over 50 of these were toddlers!

Dr. Peter Breggin notes that ECT, along with lobotomies and insulin coma therapy, originated during a time when doctors sought ways to inflict controlled damage to the brain without destroying it altogether. Such destructive and ineffective treatments should no longer be used on anyone, much less children

Tell Australia to ban the use of electroshock (ECT) on children!

We, the undersigned, say no one should be forced to undergo this controversial and brain-damaging treatment, much less children.

Children’s brains are developing and susceptible to harm from many sources.  They easily suffer  traumatic brain injuries and are often exposed to brain-damaging effects from heavy metal and other neurotoxins.

Instead of adding another assault to children’s brains with a brain-damaging therapy, doctors should be screening for causes of  depression and behavioral symptoms in children and work harder to prevent accidents and exposures to brain-damaging metals and chemicals.

Furthermore, medical professionals should be screening and treating nutritional deficiencies that cause symptoms that need addressing.

On top of these concerns is the issue of parents’ rights to choose the treatment they believe is best for their children, and no Tribunal or country should be interfering with that right, especially when the treatment the government proposes is known to have brain-damaging effects and questionable efficacy.

In 2005, the World Health Organization advised that ECT should never be used on children and should only be an option for others who give informed consent.

We request that the Victorian Government amend its new Mental Health Bill to ban any forced treatment of ECT on adults and its use on children - period.

Thanks for your time.

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