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

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

The case of the woman in the article is very sad.  It appears she is
succumbing to the insidious effects of what we sometimes called Simple
Schizophrenia.  Stuff we take for granted comes very hard for folks with
this illness.  She has been battling it for decades and as she ages, she is
getting tired of fighting.

The dose of medications can be higher inpatient, and a side effect is often
drooling.  Hence one of the signs that one was a patient was the food
stains down the front.  As the lady says, hygiene is a choice. When nobody
is making you dress up, it's easy to let it all slide.

However, the court ought to be savvy enough to know to look beyond that! At
a minimum, this lady would probably do well in family care.  There the
person has a room, perhaps with a room mate, but under supervision of the
family care provider.  Of course, she probably would fight going to family
care (assuming Virginia even has such a thing), and, yes, that would be a
sign of her sanity.

On the other hand, she needs to have an advocate to stand with her as she
faces her tormentors, to work out with her the consequences of each thing
she might say, so that she can be intentional about what she says and how
she says it.  It sounds like she does not have such a thing.

I'm especially sensitive to this because a year before my retirement, I got
a young man in my program who had managed by his irascible demeanor, to
annoy most of the professionals on his team. His team leader was setting up
an interview in which she very cheerfully told others that she was going to
provoke him into a melt-down in the interview so that she could take away
his privileges and transfer him to the secure ward, where they would make
him be good.

I heard about this, and, during some time we were together, I just helped
him to see what the meeting was about, and what the consequences of his
behavior could be, and as a result, he went to the meeting knowing what
they wanted to do, and he did not fall for it, thus appreciably shorting
his stay with us, I have no doubt.  But the team worked very hard to screw
with this guy.  They did NOT like him, and it poisoned their actions.

I have no doubt that many so-called professionals had no desire to see this
lady improve.  Oh, they could write all the right notes in the treatment
plan, and they could "see" all the symptoms they wanted to justify her
stay.  I've seen that many times. And it may well be that at this point,
the damage is done, and it will take a whole lot of effort to get this
woman independent again.  And the system has to really WANT her to be
independent again.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 12:25 PM, Susan Hagen <susanvhagen at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is the link to the Washington Post article:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/ng34evr
>
> Susan
>
> On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 7:24 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > Roger, this is not the original article.  The original was a fascinating
> > piece that Susan Hagen (I'm pretty sure) posted about the involuntary
> > hospitalization of mentally ill people, and a woman getting trapped in a
> > system where she may have been showing symptoms of decompensation, but
> > probably not enough to justify involuntary admission.  If people were
> > routinely hospitalized against their will for neglecting to clean
> > themselves or their environment, I might be locked up periodically, too!
> >
> > The article about the British Psychological Society was one that I posted
> > related to "mental illness as brain disease or physical condition" -- or
> > not.
> >
> > Susan would have to re-post the URL of the original article, or it might
> be
> > in one of the responses that others have posted.
> >
> > Ann
> >
> > The Rev. Ann Markle
> > Buffalo, NY
> > ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
> > blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 4:17 PM, Roger Stokes <
> roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> >> wrote:
> >
> >> On 14/02/2015 20:12, Ann Markle wrote:
> >>
> >>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/t-m-
> >>> luhrmann-redefining-mental-illness.html
> >>>
> >>> In rereading, this is written by an anthropologist, and contains
> results
> >>> from some findings and discussion in Great Britain.  So I may have
> spoken
> >>> wrongly.  But check it out - I'd be interested in your reaction.  I
> agree
> >>> that findings/opinions change on this matter.
> >>>
> >>
> >> For various reasons I had not read the original article before but I
> have
> >> now done so.
> >>
>
>
>
> --
> Before enlightenment pay bills, do laundry.  After enlightenment pay
> bills, do laundry.
>