4. Congress of the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry

"Into the Next Millenium – Moving Forward to Our Own Future"

Luxembourg, February 19-21, 1999

Peter Lehmann

Report of the Chair

In our last conference in Reading we decided a 12-point-programme. Point 1 was to strengthen communication inside the Network and to strengthen the connection between the board and the regions. Only 2 newsletters in this period are not to be called a big progress.

To publish a documentation about our aims, point 2: a publication about the history and aims of the Network was published by a German author, Karin Roth, but in the German language; beside this articles about ENUSP have been published by us in different magazines, for instance Out Loud and the Mental Health Observer.

Make use of new technology, point 3, we tried to install chat-programmes for the board to communicate quicker and cheaper, but we did not succeed. But meanwhile we succeeded with e-mail-contact, and our Dutch friends developed the first Internet-presentation.

Building links and help to develop the user/survivor-movement, point 4, we tried by using the working-groups from ERC, the European Regional Council, which is the European section of the World Federation for Mental Health, and other working-groups and congresses.

Seeking funding to finance net-workers in countries that are not linked to the network, point 5, is as problematic as point 6, helping to raise finances to make seminars on national levels. We tried to organize an international congress about self-help, alternatives and advocacy in Germany, but we did not receive the money we wanted from the European budget "Promotion of Mental Health". We have very, very little knowledge in the field of raising money.

Collate knowledge about law and forced treatment, point 7: I guess this is a field nothing happened. Point 8, run mutual actions against compulsion and for the right to get the help needed: In April 1997 we wrote a Comment to a WHP-paper: "Quality Assurance in Mental Health Care. Draft: Human rights of people with mental disorders" with proposals about national legislation, monitoring bodies, equity and access to treatment, specific facilities. There we pleaded for

• better conditions on the psychiatric wards

• will declarations in advance to protect from unwanted treatments or to get the treatment people want

• loss of license to treat in case of treatment without informed consent

• involvement into education and examination of psychiatric workers on a paid level

• money for user-run and controlled alternatives

• psychology-based treatment in psychiatry and not drug-based treatment

• involvement in ethic committees and monitoring bodies that register new treatment measures.

Originally the comment should be published in the WHO-series of documents on Quality Assurance in Mental Health.

Now it is published in worked-over form in "Forum – The Declaration of Madrid and current psychiatric practice: users' and advocates' views", in: Current Opinion in Psychiatry, Vol. 12 (1999), No. 1, p. 6-7, a magazine of the World Psychiatric Association.

At STAKES, a Finnish organisation, I held a speech about promotion of mental health and perspectives of users, ex-users and survivors, afterwards it was published. Speech and article should be the basis for the called application.

At the 5. International congress on World Association for Emergency Psychiatry, you can call it "International Organisation of the Friends of Forced Treatment", I held a speech about ways to avoid forced treatment, and this speech was published [in: Michel De Clercq / Antonio Andreoli / Suzanne Lamarre / Peter Forster (eds.): "Emergency Psychiatry in a Changing World". Proceedings of the 5th World Congress of the International Association for Emergency Psychiatry, Brussels, Belgium, 15-17 October 1998 (International Congress Series No. 1179). Amsterdam / Lausanne / New York / Oxford / Shannon / Singapore / Tokyo: Elsevier 1999, pp. 95-104].

Maths published it, too, in the latest European Newsletter.

Point 9, collect and distribute knowledge about certain themes like electroshock, Psychiatric Will, alternatives. I participated at a Dutch Congress on will declarations in advance. A book about electroshock should be published by the Canadian Don Weitz with contributions by different European activists, but there some problems in communication and a lack of mutual information, so the project was a failure. The board of ENUSP supported the proposal: Romme and Escher for Alternative Nobel prize, as appreciation for their creation of the Hearing-Voices-Network, but this action was without success.

To strengthen relations with European and international bodies, point 10, I participated at the WFMH congress in Lahti, where between others an international Panel of (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry was held. It was not easy to get this congress-participation for a lot of ENUSP-activists paid. We brought in a resolution at the WFMH congress, that the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry are considered as the authority on (ex-)users and survivors' issues, which was accepted after a short discussion. In Lahti Karl Bach, the former chair of ENUSP, gave a keynote speech about new strategies to understand madness, challenging the medical model and proposing a user-developed model of support.

Being part of the Executive committee of ERC I took part at some board-meetings and conferences of the ERC and I tried to influence the new statutes of Mental Health Europe, the independent part of the European section of the ERC, to strengthen the position of (ex-) users and survivors of psychiatry.

My board-colleagues or Clemens mainly did the communication with the European Disability Foundation and other European Organisations and groups.

Build new structures of mutual co-operation between the network and European NGOs allies, point 11, was in principal the same work as in point 10.

The last point, 12, fight to directly represent us in the international arena some board members, me included, participated at the Congress "Manage or Perish: the Challenges of Managed Mental Health Care in Europe", October 7 – 10, 1998, Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Geneve, run by the World Psychiatric Association. Some of our contributions have been published in: José Guimón / Norman Sartorius (eds.): "Manage of Perish? The Challenges of Managed Mental Health Care in Europe", New York / Boston / Dordrecht / London / Moscow: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers 2000.