Rights group

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 8

Rights group

By

SARAH SANDS

The Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights, a group formed by the Church of Scientology, has opened an office in Christchurch because of recent reports it has received that psychiatric treatment at Sunnyside Hospital has interfered with individuals’ rights. In recent weeks the Citizens’ Commission has been advertising in local community newspapers asking that anyone who has had psychiatric or drug abuse in an institution to contact the group.

The person in charge of the new Christchurch office, Mrs Dianne Monk, said the group had had several telephone calls including two saying that Sunnyside Hospital used the controversial “deep sleep” therapy. This therapy used drugs to place patients unconscious for up to three weeks, she said. More than 40 people in a Sydney hospital had died as a result of this type of deep sleep therapy, said Mrs Monk.

The medical superintendent of Sunnyside Hospital, Dr Les Ding, said yesterday that the hospital did not use deep sleep therapy, a treatment that had been banned by the Australasian College of Psychiatrists.