Stop Stigma, Stop Abuse of Mentally Ill Patients
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Psychiatric Patients' Abuse
In the US, despite laws, mentally ill patients have ZERO rights. Absolutely none. They are shunned, anything they say is disregarded. It is time to stop the stigma and to start respecting the mentally ill, treat them with dignity. No one wants to be mentally ill. It's a chemical flaws. According to the Guardian, "in the US, drugs are given to dull mentally ill patients' capacity to have any feelings — not just painful ones. Frequently they cause what becomes a cascade of unintended effects — effects which then get treated by additional drugs". Under the guise of mental health, “the person is denied basic human rights, punished and cheated cruelly and stripped of free will, which is fundamental to human existence itself.” Misdiagnosis Although the United States Supreme Court recognizes that psychiatry, it recognizes that science is also an opinion. To misdiagnose a mental patient and mistakenly brand them as insane is a MALPRACTICE and a CRIME. But, over the years many a case of deafness has been misdiagnosed as mental retardation, behavioral changes because of allergies, toxicity and brain tumors have been misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. The patient is rendered completely helpless because the psychiatrist is put on a pedestal and a failure to take a second opinion has led to the destruction of many lives. Violent Restraints There have been an alarmingly large number of reports of cases where patients were harshly and violently restrained, often leading to serious injury, sometimes even death. Restraint procedures for psychiatric patients qualify as assault, and should be listed as criminal, though unfortunately, the law does not state this. The CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) has reported upto 150 restraint deaths that occur without accountability every year in the US. These grisly fatalities have been known to be caused by barbaric practices such as harsh beatings, bloodletting, chest compression, traumatic asphyxia and other psychiatric brutality that is part of the routine make up of a psychiatric institution. Punishment and isolation In most psychiatric institutions, the patients are treated as mere children who need to be punished with childish measures such as standing with the hands in the air, solitary confinement etc. While we all understand a need for structure, basic respect cannot be compromised on. Because complains and resistance to such treatment is never fully acknowledged and it is easy to curb someone who is labeled mad, such practices continue Abusive therapies The mentally ill have enough trouble orienting themselves to their everyday, psychiatric institutions only make it worse, all the while feigning cure. Even in the so called sophisticated clinical setting, often patients are verbally abused and treated in a condescending manner because by virtue of being the subject matter expert on ‘normalcy’ and ‘sanity’, the psychiatrist simply can. Labeled for life Even if we were to believe in the opinion of the expert psychiatrist and his tools such as the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the institution is uncaring enough to subject individuals to a label, they fully recognize can be incorrect. When someone faces adverse conditions and undergoes behavioral changes, the psychiatrist bound by only his ‘scientific’, ‘objective’ approach simply labels him / her without a thought to the ostracization and suffering that label entails. The mental illness label affects every part of the patient’s life, be it their personal relationships, their professional lives or their health. An hour long psychiatric interview can determine the entire life of another. No one should be allowed such power. One mistake on the part of the ‘expert’ can ruin someone’s life. When you are labeled mad or insane, your thoughts, your speech and every action are plagued by that label. You are rendered ineffectual to society and helpless within and without. Disregard of consent Unfortunately, many people do not realize that the right of informed consent applies to psychiatric patients, just as they would to any other medical patient. They have legal rights to be properly notified, at the right time, about the dangers of the treatment they are about to receive. But since they are labeled as insane, the institutions take it upon themselves to meet out any kind of treatment, they want to. Even if the patient complains, even if the treatment is not working for the patient, since every spoken word of the patient is treated as babble, the institution has its way with them. Source: https://www.cchrint.org/2014/11/13/top-10-forms-of-psychiatric-institution-abuse/ |