DAA News Network
Indonesia: Caged and chained up: the fate of many people with mental health problems
Posted 22/07-11 at 13.56
PBS NewsHour has produced a hard-hitting programme on the treatment of people with mental health problems in Indonesia. Yayasan Galuh is an institution near Jakarta, where some 260 patients spend their days on a hard tile surface rimmed by open s ...
UK: Police apologise after Pilkington inquiry
Posted 08/06-11 at 12.48
Four police officers will face misconduct proceedings over their force's failure to help the family of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled daughter in 2007 after years of torment by youths. An Independent Police ...
Ireland: Little help for disabled parents who have children taken into care
Posted 06/06-11 at 21.01
In the majority of cases brought by Ireland's Health Services Executive against parents with learning difficulties, their children have been removed and taken into care. Deirdre Carroll, chief executive of Inclusion Ireland, says, "We unde ...
Nepal: “Psychiatric patients …are treated like animals.”
Posted 10/10-10 at 13.35
In an extremely disturbing report, Jagannath Lamichhane , a global mental health rights activist based in Kathmandu, claims that people with mental health problems face inhuman treatment whether in institutions or the wider society. Describing th ...
USA: Reports shows continued abuse of disabled people’s human rights
Posted 29/08-10 at 19.30
The UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States carried out once every four years. It provides an opportunity for all States to report on what actions they have take ...
Indonesia: Fight to unshackle people with mental health problems
Posted 14/06-10 at 12.53
Especially in rural areas of Indonesia, crude physical restraint is often being used on people with mental health needs. This has led to many being chained or put in wooden stocks for long periods. This is known as "pasung" and is said to effect u ...
Ghana: Disabled children excluded from school and used for ritual sacrifice
Posted 12/06-10 at 14.04
Areport soon to be released by the Network of Journalists for the Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa, Ghana Chapter alleges that disabled children in remote rural areas are being prevented from going to school and in so ...
USA: Disabled child starved to death in state care facility
Posted 26/05-10 at 17.26
Johnny Andron, a ten-year-old disabled boy, died of starvation while in foster case in Michigan. His mother, Elena, a single parent, had asked for help when she lost her job. The ‘help’ was to take her son into care. ...
USA: Torture alleged at ‘special needs school’
Posted 06/05-10 at 01.23
Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) has claimed that in the name of ‘treatment' disabled children and young adults are in effect being tortured at the Judge Rotenberg Centre (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts. According to their report, JR ...
Canada: Calls to close institutions for people with learning difficulties.
Posted 19/11-09 at 19.24
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) have renewed their demand for the closure of all segregated institutions. This comes in reaction to a report of 43 cases of abuse in Nova Scotia between October 2007 and July 2009. The CDSS claims ...