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Abuse in psychiatric wards is an issue that is often neglected by society. Many psychiatric hospitals are notorious for usually getting away with whatever mistreatment goes on in the specific psychiatric hospital. Fortunately there are many groups and individuals that have decided to make a stand against abuse in psych wards.
1.)Mindfreedom: An organization that actively speaks out against abuse and mistreatment in psych wards. It was founded in 1990 and is active internationally.
2.)CCHR international: Another organization that speaks out against abuse in psych wards. It actively fights against abuse in psych wards through protests. CCHR may be controversial due to it’s affiliations but it means well.
3.)Mad in America: An organization that aims to reform psychiatry and also fights against psychiatric ward abuse. It’s named after a book of the same name by Robert Whittaker that also asks moral questions regarding psychiatric practices. You can read a survey conducted last year(2018) by the organization here that shows how many people feel about psychiatric hospitals.
4.) Deinstitutionalization movement: A movement advocated for the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients. The movement was founded shortly after the community mental health act was passed which helped create more humane treatments that don’t require institutionalization for the afflicted. The deinstitutionalization movement was active during the 1950s and during the civil rights movement.
5.) Mental patients liberation front: An advocacy group that assists mental health patients and fights against abuse in psych wards.
6.) Psychiatric survivors movements: A movement composed of former psychiatric patients who were unsatisfied with their psychiatric treatment.
7.) Patient’s rights advocacy services: These groups serve as watchdogs that make sure Psych ward staff don’t abuse the patients in their care.
8.) Landmark court decisions and misc actions that fight against abuse in psych wards: There were many court battles that helped shut down asylums and grant more protection to psychiatric patients.
Rosenhan experiment(1973): An experiment that exposed how easy it it is to wrongly institutionalize people.
O’Connor vs Donaldson(1975): A court case that helped establish a new policy where non dangerous people who can live on their own or with the help of family members cannot be institutionalized.
Rogers v. Okin(1975): A patient has the right to decide what treatment options they receive as long as it’s not an emergency:
Addington v. Texas(1979): A court case that resulted in making burden of proof a requirement before institutionalizing a person. In other words, a person cannot be institutionalized unless there is sufficient credible evidence that the person needs to be institutionalized.
So as you can see, there are many people who fight against abuse within psych wards. With growing awareness of the abuse that happens in many psychiatric hospitals, it’s no surprise that all insane asylums have been shut down. Perhaps one day we will abolish the unconstitutional 5150 hold and shut down all psychiatric hospitals. And instead of confining patients to a facility, the mental patients can be offered alternative, more humane, non invasive and non confining treatment options.
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For the past 200 years, there have been individuals and groups who protested abuse of psychiatric patients. In the 1960's, we were told that it was inhumane to keep psychiatric patients in hospitals for long term "warehousing" so they were released. Now they live in cardboard boxes in the woods and under bridges. The road to hell. . .
It doesn’t hide the fact that many of those people suffered some form of abuse/torture from the same people that were trying to “help” them. listverse.com/.../
Even today, many former patients don’t think very highly of psychiatric hospitals. www.madinamerica.com/.../
And many prisoners don't have a high regard for prisons, proving what?
Prisoners are usually criminals except for the ones that are wrongly imprisoned.
No one likes being confined, so it is not surprising that they would have unpleasant comments about the facilities. That doesn't prove that they did not need to be confined.
The point is that it’s a human rights violation to institutionalize people for petty reasons like depression and stress. That’s an abuse of power right there. Not to mention the many case of abuse within psychiatric hospitals.
Where are people being hospitalized involuntarily solely for depression or stress? I don't think that happens in my state.
I don’t know specific cases of people getting institutionalized for those reasons, I’m only using that as an example. What I’m saying is that people often times get wrongly institutionalized for many reasons, whether it be misunderstandings, corruption, framing etc. You can read about them here listverse.com/.../
You have cited 10 examples that include cases in foreign countries and cases that happened 75 years ago. Undoubtedly, there are instances where power has been abused. When you give enough people this kind of per, there will be some who will abuse the power. The appropriate response is to pursue corrective or punitive action against those specific abusers, not to change the rules that apply to the 99.99% who do their jobs properly.
Those are only 10 of the many examples of people who’ve been wrongly institutionalized. I can list an endless amount of cases in which people have been wrongly institutionalized or mistreated in some way by psychiatric ward staff. And it’s even more disgusting when psychiatric wards mistreat minors. www.buzzfeednews.com/.../shadow-mountain
To top it off, it’s even worse when psych wards are used to institutionalize people for political reasons.
When you have large groups of people speaking out against psychiatric wards, it’s relatively safe to assume there needs to changes.
Large groups of people say that the Earth is flat and that NASA never put a man on the moon.
In smaller numbers and they have no proof to support their claims. People who speak out against abuse in psych wards have proof to support their claims.
If their proof shows widespread abuse in the US, give me a few citations.
I’ve given you several cases and one study. Visit their websites for more proof. By the way, they are not saying that all psych wards are guilty of abuse, only some.
Of course you can find examples of people misusing power. Politicians take bribes. Comptrollers embezzle funds. Prison guards beat prisoners. Examples do not prove that there is a need to reform any of those systems;. they only prove that the guilty individuals need to be brought to justice.
When new cases pop up every year, it’s kind of obvious that there should be revisions and inspections on how psych ward staff behave themselves.
How many psych wards are there in the country and how many reported cases of abuse?
I don’t know exactly how many psych wards there are in the US, nor do I know how many cases of abuse there are annually. But there are numerous cases that go unreported much like cases of male victims of domestic violence.
So we should reform the entire system because you don't know how widespread the problem actually is. Okay. We'll start tomorrow.
It’s not just one person who criticizes the way certain psychiatric wards are being utilized. There are so many people who have inside experience that actively criticize the psychiatric wards that don’t treat patients right.
It’s quite simple, if “pro psych ward” folks want people to stop criticizing psych wards, then they should speak out and demand that corrupt psych wards get their acts together.
On a side note, I’ve already posted statistics, here they are again. www.madinamerica.com/.../
You should read into political abuse of psychiatry. canadafreepress.com/.../...ow-practiced-in-the-u.s
The source you cited is a based source which employed a very flawed methodology in conducting its poll.
Biased
Sources that defend psych wards can also be biased as well.
Do you consider a source that states mental health patient rights as “biased”? www.mentalhealthamerica.net/.../mental-health-rights
Your whole premise is you assuming that all the groups listed above are “extremists” when most aren’t. Mental health patient advocates are not extremists, they are one of officially recognized safe guards that are there to protect patients from abuse and discrimination. In fact mental health hospitals are required to allow their patients to be in contact with mental health patient rights advocacy services. http://www.ochealthinfo.com/bhs/about/pr
And you still haven’t addressed the political abuse of psychiatry article that describes how liberal psychiatrists wrongly attach labels to people they disagree with.
Thanks for explaining all of this to me but I worked in a psychiatric facility for five years before I went to law school.
Yes, I remember you talking about it in another post.
Again, if there are people who don't follow the rules, you don;t solve the problem by changing the rules, because. . . guess what. . . they won't follow the new rules either. That solution just makes life more difficult for the people who are already following the rules. It is a mere pretense of solving a problem, a charade, an illusion.
Undoubtedly, there are people who don't follow the rules, and those people should be punished. Why don't you want to follow that strategy?
It’s a good strategy on paper but it’s more difficult to incorporate.
It is easier to prosecute bad guys than it is to change an entire system.
You’ve got to find the bad guys first.
You have numerous reports, right? Make an example of a few hundred and the institutions will get the idea to do a better job policing themselves.
Improvements won’t happen overnight, they’ll take time.
Of course. And changing the rules doesn't change the dark side of human nature.
It won’t, there will always be evil people but many evil people can still be kept in check.
what experience do you have on this? It's something we don't hear much about. I think our society uses drugs as a solution way too much when the real issue is dealing with trauma that caused the problems in the first place.
You don’t hear about abuse in psych wards very often because it’s something that society doesn’t take seriously.
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