Finally, coercive psychiatry can be put to a stop!

In Germany a new advance directive makes it possible

Berlin, 18/6/2009

After years of discussion, today a new law on the legal rules for advance directives has finally been adopted by the German parliament.

The legislature has clearly and with votes from all political parties agreed to make valid the will of the patient and by doing so also the self-determination in any situation against any medical and state paternalism, regardless of the type and stage of an illness.

The time finally belongs to the past that others – doctors and judges – define what the supposedly “objective” best interests of a person are and what should be undertaken or refrained from, against his/her declared will, with regard to these supposedly “objective” best interests of a person! This will have far-reaching effects with regard to court ordered guardianship: For the first time there is the chance that guardianship may no longer be enforced against the wishes and needs of the person in question and thus guardianship now has the potential to be transformed into a service that is loyal to the person in question.

The patient‘s will is now to be regarded as being legally binding in medical decisions, as already promised in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany and for over 60 years in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Each case of “medical” treatment against the written and actual will of a “patient” thereby becomes bodily assault and incarceration in a locked ward becomes deprivation of liberty.

On this occasion we would therefore like to make known our specific form of an advance directive, the PatVerfü with a built-in representation agreement, in which any torture-like bodily harm in the form of unwanted psychiatric treatment and any deprivation of liberty whatsoever due to a slanderous pseudo-medical psychiatric diagnosis is legally binding excluded. The associations publishing this form have joined forces to help this parliament´s promise to be accepted in the judiciary. It is this promise with which the validity of basic, civil and human rights for all, also for the psychiatrically slandered, hopefully becomes reality.

By supporting and encouraging all those with a PatVerfü who would nevertheless be incarcerated and endure coercive treatment and/or are threatened with these acts, to create precedents at all judicial levels Germany, it is our aim to make the PatVerfü „watertight“ in the courts. Our aim is that in the future all judges be made to adhere to this new law, to accept the patient‘s will without restrictions and to implement it with their decisions.

Our proposed form of an advance directive prohibits all psychiatric diagnoses from the outset. We do not believe in the existence of these so-called “mental illnesses”, because there is no objective criteria to prove them. The PatVerfü thus ensures the self determination of the person against psychiatrists trying to deny his or her free will, by claiming that they have an illness-incurred lack of „insight or the ability to behave in the light of this insight “.

Today is for us a day of joy!

The rigid implementation of this law would mean the end of forced psychiatry in Germany.
An illogical fact remains, however, in that psychiatric diagnoses and treatment against the declared will of a person can only be staved off by a PatVerfü and – to the contrary – is not excluded at all.

Actually, each psychiatric – just as with any medical – treatment should only be made with the “informed consent” of the individual, i.e. it is explicitly agreed to by the person after extensive consultation on the pros and cons thereof.

Thus, with the entry into force of the law, unfortunately a prior legally binding refusal of psychiatric coercive measures is only possible for those who already know that a PatVerfü is a loophole to prevent coercive psychiatry.

This is therefore the right occasion for a broad information campaign to make the PatVerfü public, so that increased use widens the loophole into a “door out of coercive psychiatry”.

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At www.PatVerfue.de information and the appropriate form is now free to download for noncommercial users.

Publisher of the PatVerfue:
Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Psychiatrie-Erfahrener: die-bpe.de, Irren-Offensive: antipsychiatrie.de, Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener Berlin-Brandenburg: psychiatrie-erfahren.de, Landesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener NRW: psychiatrie-erfahrene-nrw.de, Werner-Fuss-Zentrum: psychiatrie-erfahrene.de, Antipsychiatrische und betroffenenkontrollierte Informations- und Beratungsstelle: weglaufhaus.de/beratung.