CCHR Victoria News

Restraint is Criminal A Terrifying Experience The terror experienced by those forcibly restrained in a psychiatric ward can have a deep and lasting impact on an already fragile and vulnerable person. From the patient’s perspective, if they don’t die, they certainly...

Orders for forced ‘shock therapy’ breached human rights of schizophrenia patients, court rules ABC News, 1 Nov 2018 Orders forcing two Victorian patients with schizophrenia to undergo electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were made in breach of their human rights, the...

Are Psychiatric Drugs, Documented to Cause Violence behind the Shooting of Six Members of the Same Family at Margaret River? Media Release, CCHR Australia. 21 May 2018\ Are Psychiatric Drugs, Documented to Cause Violence behind the Shooting of Six Members of the Same...

Grandfather forced to undergo ECT before ‘preventable’ death By Aisha Dow, WA Today, 18 April 2018   In a desperate attempt to treat a crippling mental illness, Gerard Helliar submitted to hundreds of bouts of electroconvulsive therapy. Now a Victorian coroner...

Sweeping mental health reforms in NSW announced after Miriam Merten’s death By Nour Haydar, ABC News, 11 May 2018 Mental health units and emergency departments across New South Wales will have 24-hour supervision under a government plan to improve psychiatric care and...

Mentally Ill Wa Kids Still Put in Solitude Cathy O'Leary, The West Australian, 7 Feb 2018 Dozens of mentally unwell children in WA are still being put in seclusion rooms or physically restrained, some for more than 10 hours at a time, figures show. While WA’s Chief...

NSW Dad’s Antidepressant Warning After Eight-year-old Son Tries to Take His Life Emily McPherson, 9 News, 23 Jan 2018 A NSW father says he wants to warn parents about the dangers of antidepressants after his eight-year-old son tried to take his own life twice while on...

Antipsychotic Drugs, Restraints and Seclusion: Mental Health Treatments Raising Concerns by Katherine Gregory, ABC News, 27 Dec 2017 Melbourne woman Jessica* is still struggling to come to terms with the debilitating impact of being on antipsychotic medications for...

Are Psychiatric Drugs, Documented to Cause Violence Behind the Flinders Street Car Ramming? As the details of the horrific Flinders Street ramming attack have unfolded, it seems that “random” acts of violence are on the rise. But as some information has revealed,...

Sexual Abuse in Victoria’s Mental Health Wards Is Bad and Getting Worse Farrah TomazinThe Age, 11 December 2017 It was meant to be a place that kept her safe; a mental health hospital whose purpose was to treat the most fragile. Julie Preston was exactly that: a...

Antidepressant Use Doubles Nationwide Sky News, 19 November 2017 The number of Australians on antidepressants has doubled in the past 17 years with only Iceland having a higher usage of the drugs. More than 2.7 million Australians are on antidepressants, and with...

Rhonda gets justice for state’s “worst case of child abuse” Tobi Loftus, South Burnet Times 29 Oct 2017 RHONDA Trivett was sitting on her bed watching a movie on October 17 when she received a phone call she’d been waiting for since 1981. “It was (Queensland Health...

Brutal Rise in Electroshock Whilst most people are under the impression that electroshock therapy (ECT) is banned in Australia because the mere idea of electroshock is so abhorrent, its use has significantly increased and it is being used on the most vulnerable in...

Over 16,000 Australian Children Prescribed Antipsychotics Kate Aubusson, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 July 2017   A total of 16,570 toddlers, children and teenagers under 17 were prescribed antipsychotics in 2015, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data seen by Fairfax...

Nothing Short of a ‘Sea Change’ Will End Years of Gross Neglect in Mental Health Care UN News Centre, 6 June 2017 Citing decades of neglect in mental health care, a United Nations human rights expert today denounced “biomedical gatekeepers” who perpetuate stigma and...

Belinda Cleary, Daily Mail, 23 April 2017 A mother who watched as her 10-year-old son rocked in a corner of his room begging for someone to kill him to end his misery has revealed how anti-depressants turned her ‘gentle, loving’ son into angry and suicidal young boy....

WA kids under 7 years-old on antidepressants Cathy O'Leary, The West Australian, 15 April 2017Almost 5000 WA children under 16 years old are being prescribed antidepressants, which doctors argue reflects the rates of mental health and behavioural issues. Figures from...