[Magdalen] Washington Post article on involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill

[Susan Hagen]

I don't think this woman is any danger to other people.  I think she
is someone who needs a safe place to live and consistent services to
see that she takes some minimal care of herself.  Virginia at least is
very short on safe housing and consistent community based outpatient
services.



On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 9:03 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems to me that there is too much concentration on people like this
> woman and not enough on the truly dangerous-to-others people who are out
> there. Maybe because it's easier to round these little sheep up and confine
> them. Then people who really need help get thrown in jail and those who are
> truly dangerous are free to hurt others. It pisses me off. Sorry for the
> language.
>
> On Monday, February 2, 2015, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 03/02/2015 00:21, Ann Markle wrote:
>>
>>> Susan, I read this article -- for some reason, it took me all day.  I
>>> remember making home visits to clients sometimes, and finding their living
>>> quarters in a condition that didn't seem good to me, but it's a hard line
>>> to draw, between "each to his (or her) own," vs. "these conditions are
>>> hazardous to the client and other building residents, or signs of
>>> worsening
>>> condition."  The article in the NY Times was almost opposite, about the
>>> closing of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Center and a man who had been admitted
>>> for the better part of 30 years, and what would be his life now.
>>>
>>
>> Here in the UK we had a situation a few decades ago where the decision was
>> made to close the long-term psychiatric units.  In the case of many
>> residents it is (to say the least) questionable whether they should have
>> been in such a facility but the fact was that they were and so it was a
>> question of what to do with them.  They were going to be turfed out of what
>> they regarded as their home.
>>
>> I agree that for many (most?) pf the residents of these psychiatric
>> institutions that was not an appropriate placement had they been considered
>> on first presentation, but this was not the situation we were in.  I am far
>> from convinced that what happened was appropriate or exhibited sufficient
>> pastoral care for these long-term residents.
>>
>> Roger
>>



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