My cousin Debra Shulkes, who has died aged 46 of cancer, was an editor and translator, as well as an advocate for the human rights of people with psychiatric diagnoses. Working with the European Network of (Ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP), Debra was determined that people who had endured misguided or even coercive treatment should direct their own care.
An Australian who had made her home in Prague’s expat community for the past two decades, Debra worked as a freelance editor, translator and researcher (she spoke Russian and Czech as well as English). Most recently Debra was editing Birdsong, an anthology of writing of users and survivors of psychiatry funded by the Wellcome Collection, to be published next year.
