Our Guiding PrinciplesAbolish all involuntary psychiatric and psychological interventions, including forced hospitalizations, forced drugging, and related coercive practices.
End all legal and social discrimination based on psychiatric or psychological diagnostic labeling or actual or perceived disability.
Establish non-coercive supports and services for people when they experience emotional distress or life crises, including, but not limited to community mutual aid, peer support, voluntary crisis sanctuaries, as well as the right to voluntarily access all mainstream services and affordable housing free of coercion.
Reject the criminalization and forced psychiatrization of social problems, difference, disability, and struggles for survival.
Recognize the social and economic causes of emotional distress, and work to meet everyone’s basic needs in the community, including ending poverty, overcoming social exclusion, and promoting disability justice, human rights, and carceral system transformation.
We developed our Principles statement as a way to find and gather allies who support the total abolition of involuntary psychiatry. The Principles are clear about this aim and do not allow for any exceptions. They are also clear that doing away with psychiatric violence and incarceration does not mean neglect. On the contrary, the Principles call for non-coercive supports and for non-discrimination and social/economic justice.
Invitation to Endorse Our Principles
Here are some ways you can join this effort:
- Sign up as an endorser of the Principles and let us know what you would like to bring to this struggle and your ideas. All endorsers will receive email updates with opportunities for networking and suggestions for action.
There are three options to endorse:
- Publicly as an individual
- Publicly on behalf of an organization
- If you are not able to endorse publicly, let us know who you are and why you cannot be public
We also encourage you to use the Principles in your own advocacy. Here are some ideas about how:
- Find allies in your state or city, or in online communities
- Use the Principles any other way that you can think of to advance the Abolition goal!
- Challenge organizations and individuals who are in a public role to take a stand for abolition
- Let us know what you are doing with the Principles and connect us with other endorsers, and any opportunities to collaborate together