/24-7PressRelease/ - VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, September 21, 2005 - Vancouver: Breaking news. Over 300 psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health professionals worldwide have been criminally convicted of sex crimes in the last 27 years according to various court documents and media reports gathered worldwide by chapters of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a psychiatric watchdog group. Hundreds of others have lost their licenses in that same time period. These figures do not take into account women who have been reluctant to file charges or who were unwilling or unable to come forward.
More than 15 psychiatrists have lost their license to practice worldwide in just the past 2 months making it a possible case of one psychiatrist loosing their license every four days for sexual related incidents with woman patients or in one case a child female patient.
According to evidence given during the trial of psychiatrist Dr. Larry Anderson in July, 2005 , he once put sexual instructions onto what a female patient thought was a prescription for anti-depressant drugs. This former female patient told Anderson's B.C. Supreme Court trial that instead of a renewal of a prescription for her continued depression, Anderson handed her something completely unexpected. (The prescription read: Take one erection and put it in an appropriate space. Do what is needed to obtain satisfaction.) (Court case # 31377)
Other civil court case documents gathered show that over 10 civil suits for sexual assault filed against psychiatrists have been filed by women in British Columbia, Canada, alone, in the past 15 years. Three of these civil suits were filed against one psychiatrist by three different women. This figure does not include the numerous complaints of sexual assault filed and dealt with, in house, by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the body that disciplines doctors.
Brian Beaumont, spokesperson for the British Columbia chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights said, "Psychiatric sexual assault is a very common occurrence over the world, but all too often the perpetrator is only slapped on the wrist by being given a fine or suspension from practice. The complaint processes are thwarted, in part, by the erroneous belief that psychiatrists are somehow above the law and above reproach. However, in light of their track record, psychiatrists should be prosecuted just like any other common criminal".
Studies show that between 6% and 13% of psychiatrists and psychologists sexually abuse their patients and, according to one American Journal of Psychiatry study, 80% of psychiatrists reporting sexual contact did so with an average of six patients.
According to a 2001 study, "Sex Between Therapists and Clients," by Kenneth Pope, a former head of the ethics committee for the American Psychological Association, 1 out of 20 clients who had been sexually abused by their therapist was a minor, the average age being 7 for girls and 12 for boys. The youngest child was 3.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.
If you know anyone, including a child, who has been abused or harmed by a psychiatrist, please call The Citizens Commission on Human Rights at 1 800 670 2247. Complete confidentiality is assured.
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