Another phone call to the office - family says father threatened with forced electroshock.

The phone rings a bunch at the MindFreedom office. There's e-mail. There's postal mail.

And a theme are people who are disempowered, disrespected, marginalized, ignored, oppressed and even harmed directly by human rights violations in mental health care.

But it's a special situation when we hear about another threatened involuntary electroshock.

A credible-sounding man called, and said his family is scared. His elderly father had been losing weight... and ended up in a psychiatric institution.

The family claims that a psychiatrist there threatened involuntary electroshock over the father's wishes. And over the son and much of the rest of the family.

We're investigating it now. I personally phoned the institution and talked to three higher-ups. And the family is grateful. I hear they also got an attorney, and the hospital is apparently backing off. So this may not reach campaign stage. We're watching. But no matter what, it sure frightened and divided the family.

I wonder how many people know, right here in the USA, that there is involuntary electroshock over and against the expressed wishes of the subject, and sometimes even over some of their loved ones' objections?

You can find out more about some of our past campaigns.

Just use the Google search engine, with the words:

    forced electroshock

And then keep adding some of these names to that phrase, and search, one name at a time:

• Lucille Austwick
• Paul Henry Thomas
• Ray Sandford

These are all people that MindFreedom has gone to bat for publicly, to stop their forced electroshock. We won in each case. Why?

This Issue Unites the Public

Because as soon as the general public hears about these instances, and is convinced that they are real, there is near unanimous outrage. I'd informally estimate that 95 percent of the public is against involuntary electroshock over the expressed wishes of the subject.

And of course they should be!

This issue unites left wing, right wing, red, blue, libertarian, capitalist, socialist and anarchist.

There's more outrage than over waterboarding.

All think forced shock just plain stinks. In fact, even the World Health Organization is officially against forced shock, in writing, because of MindFreedom's work.

We must remember that forced shock continues right now, here in the USA. Sure, it's a small percentage of total electroshock.

You have to ask yourself how true the buzz words are that the mental health system has been using -- about empowerment, recovery, human rights, alternatives, advocacy, trauma-informed, person-center... How true are those buzz words, if individuals are still getting forced shock over their passionately expressed wishes.

In this case, the senior knew what he was talking about. He told his son, "Look would happened to Ernest." So he knows his history.

Go ahead and use Google to look up:

    Ernest Hemingway electroshock

You'll see the father was very informed about what can happen after forced electroshock.

Let's be there for other families. That's another great reason to join or renew your MindFreedom membership today, click here.