Dear Citizen,                                  July 1st, 2014

           
           It seems in this day and time there is so much clamour about mental health issues and treatment. The crusade for expanded mental health treatment is always a prelude for abuse. People sometimes cite that need also as a cover for their inadequacies. This must stop. 

            Mental health therapy should be kept absolutely personal. Therapists are not part of the judicial system and corrections. Therapists who practice in accordance to The Hippocratic Oath are never supposed to control and punish the people whom they are supposed to serve. Because of that principle, a therapist should never collaborate with those who do. Judges and police punish while therapist heal. Forced psychiatric treatment is unwarranted and is not symptomatic of a relatively free society. While it is permissible for people to cite mental health issues to lessen punishment for an alleged crime, people who seek this type of treatment require total privacy and anonymity. 
Psychiatric treatment on many occasions makes matters worse for the patient. It is unfortunately too often that psychiatric abuse has inflicted harm to people in terms of social status, reputation, emotional well-being, physical and neurological health.

       The promotion of disability and impairment are strictly forbidden by The Hippocratic Oath in the field of medicine. It should remain so. Even a criminal needs to be protected from medical harm. There simply is no psychiatric solution to emotional pain, character and psychological issues, and even criminal behaviour. 

             Anti-psychotic medications(neuroleptics and atypical) should be banned. These "dopamine blockers" have wreaked havoc and devastation among so many
unsuspecting patients. In addition, ECT treatment should have limited application to those who have severe substance addiction and obviously multiple doctors need to provide approval.

            In China and in many of the "Islamic" states, the practice of medicine is used for punishment and control purposes. That  should never happen in the USA.

           
                                        Very Truly Yours,

                                        Harsha Sankar
                                        908 Valley Ridge Road
                                        Covington, Virginia 24426