A rising number of people in UK psychiatric hospitals are harming themselves or trying to take their own lives, according to statistics from the UK National Health Service. “The number of such incidents at 29 of England’s 52 NHS mental health trusts rose from 14,815 in 2010 to 23,053 last year, an increase of 56% over four years,” reports The Guardian. “The average number per trust rose from 511 to 795 last year over the same period.”
The statistics were obtained through freedom of information requests by the opposition Labour Party, reports The Guardian, and Labour “linked the increase to cuts in the number of doctors and nurses working in mental health units and their budgets.”
Self-harm by mental health patients in NHS has risen by 56%, figures show (The Guardian, August 27, 2014)
There were six kids in a high school close to where we used to live who were stigmatized with DSM labels, drugged, and then killed themselves violently (one lit himself on fire, a couple threw themselves in front of trains, for example).
When the first four killed themselves the rumors around town amongst the adults with each suicide boiled down to, “well, it’s okay, he was mentally ill.” But, I volunteered with kids from that high school, too. And the kids didn’t think it was okay, they were rightfully upset. Then came the fifth suicide, and sixth … and in jumped the psychiatric practitioners in mass to “save the day.” These suicides occurred between about 2006 to 2010. Not once did the psychiatric practitioners mention to the public that the antidepressants had recently had a black box warning stating they could cause “mania, suicides, and violence” put on them. It was all about covering up the harm they were doing and a need for more mental health screening.
And, by the way, there may have been a child abuse ring functioning in the neighborhood. I know, because I ended up being handed over medical evidence that my child was abused by men in the neighborhood, and medical evidence that these men were lying to doctors and having people misdiagnosed with “mental illnesses” to cover up their child abuse hobby. The private school where we had the misfortune of meeting one of the alleged child molesters announced it was closing it’s doors forever, within weeks of learning medical evidence of child abuse had been handed over to me – and I did hear rumor of “odd sexual behavior by many boys from that school.” I have learned there is a very large problem in the US with mental health workers misdiagnosing concerns or symptoms of child abuse with DSM mental disorders. I don’t know the real reason (trauma, abuse, etc.) why these children were diagnosed with “mental illnesses,” but real life injustices can cause distress. But psychiatrists are apparently “mindless,” and unaware of this simple reality.
And I’m a little confused about why psychiatric practitioners are not intelligent enough to understand it’s insulting for a doctor to ignore a person’s real life problems, and instead just defame the person with an unprovable “mental illness.” It’s insulting to be lied to and told you have a “life, long, incurable, genetic” brain defect, when in reality you have real life concerns. It’s insulting to be told you have a “chemical imbalance” that requires life long drugging. The ADHD drugs and antidepressants CAUSE suicides, violence, and mania, that then regularly gets misdiagnosed as bipolar. The antipsychotics are torture drugs that take all joy out of life and make one feel like a zombie and CAUSE extreme weight gain, diabetes, psychosis, and atrophy of the brain, exactly as found in long run medicated schizophrenics plus many more serious health problems. Personally, I’ve found those who work in the mental health industry to be hands down, the most disrespectful and delusional people that I’ve ever met.
I think it’s likely the kids in my old neighborhood, and those patients in the UK hospitals, are likely killing themselves because the “mental health” system is ass backwards, and completely insane, disrespectful, and depressing to deal with. And the psychiatric drugs absolutely can make a person want to kill oneself. I’m quite certain the problem is not just too few workers. The entire mental health system is doing everything wrong.
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UK – My son was sectioned for ‘assessment’ by a social worker who had never previously met him, with the support of a psychiatrist who had also never met him, and my objection to this course of action was overruled. He had never been in any trouble, or aggressive, and at that point he had never voiced suicidal ideation. His admission may have been the most traumatic thing he had ever experienced: he had just turned 18, was already frightened and confused by his disordered thoughts, which included the paranoid idea of a secret language, and was put in a room with someone permanently standing in his doorway who’s first language was not English. He begged not to be left there. The room was bare and shabby, the pillow smelt and the mattress smelt of someone else’s urine. The adults in the corridor beyond the open door were variously loud, aggressive, confused, or all three and an horrendous alarm sounded regularly. He was scared to death and concluded he could only be there because we didn’t want him. He became terribly depressed and it was clear the environment was doing him far more harm than good. In 6 days he was never even seen by a consultant. We succeeded in getting a multi-disciplinary meeting on the 7th day of his detention and he, my wife and I appealed to the 8 or so people present for his return home. They agreed. My son’s not necessarily helpful contribution to the meeting was ‘If you keep me here I will kill myself, if I can go home then I won’t’.
Our friend’s nephew was not so ‘lucky’. He experienced a sudden change in his usual way of thinking, also at 18, and was presented by his parents to a psychiatrist, who told him he had schizophrenia and would be on medication for the rest of his life. On his return home he killed himself.
Obviously it turned out it was his ‘disorder’ that caused him to do it. Not being given a BS stigmatising diagnosis with a dishonest dead-end prognosis.
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AngryDad,
I’m glad you were able to help your son, and I agree some of the social workers are among the worst, or most unethical, of the “mental health professionals.” I’m sorry about what happen to your friend’s child, and agree, defaming people with fictitious “incurable” diseases is a disgusting psychiatric industry habit. Why in the world would doctors have delusions taking away hope, is beneficial to a patient’s mental health? Of course it’s not, it causes suicides.
I just wanted to comment I found your pointing out your son’s “paranoid idea of a secret language,” in conjunction with his later being “put in a room with someone … who’s first language was not English” interesting. Perhaps your son’s “disordered thoughts” were actually prophetic, not “paranoid”?
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Blimey, I hadn’t thought of that. I certainly don’t like the prospect of some of his delusions being prophetic, but maybe I should consider them more carefully, just in case. I havn’t heard him say anything about a nice house on the beach and lots of pretty girls. Here’s hoping … (For him – I’m past it!)
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Well, we certainly don’t know, but it’s possible, and maybe that’s not a bad thing? And assuming a person’s seemingly irrational concerns, beliefs, or comments are occurring for a reason, even if we don’t yet understand them, is a respectful way of dealing with another human being.
And I can say, according to my medical records (I’d been whacked out of my mind on a hypnotic drug by doctors wanting to cover up prior malpractice, so don’t personally remember this). An unethical social worker claimed I said that “Jesus was a man talking through a woman’s body,” and He said the social worker was an unethical person who was orchestrating the attempted murder of me. And this drug induced conversation that I only know existed (because I was so drugged up) due to my medical records, was the supposed proof that I was insane, and needed to be committed.
As it turns out, the psycho doctor this social worker shipped me a long way to, has now been arrested by the FBI for having lots of patients medically unnecessarily shipped long distances to him, “snowing” patients, performing unneeded surgeries on them, resulting in many patient deaths.
Who is to say my drug induced conversation wasn’t inspired by Jesus? I’m sure Jesus would try to protect me from those sicko doctors, who did “snow” me and apparently wanted to kill me because I was an organ donor at the time, according to that hospital’s medical records.
Respecting others comments and concerns, even if we don’t personally understand or believe them, may be wise advise.
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“My son’s not necessarily helpful contribution to the meeting was ‘If you keep me here I will kill myself, if I can go home then I won’t’.”
That’s the insanity of these places. They put you in a literal shithole and mistreat you and abuse you and when you get totally depressed and/or angry – well, that’s proof that you need to stay there longer. Psychiatry’s “logic” 101.
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Surely cuts to the number of doctors and nurse should effect doctors and nurses. One would expect a rise in depression and suicides in staff, not patients.
Or is it the availability of human punching bags that sees a rise in this type of behaviour in patients, and no effects on staff?
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I expect there is a rise is stress related problems in staff due to cuts
(that has happened with all services across the UK, not just psychiatry) but it is also likely that any useful contact staff have with patients is severely cut, visiting times may be reduced, people will be in their own rooms more and not able to mix with other patients that they like, conflicts on the wards between patients will be more, harassment of patients by other patients will be increased as there will be less staff around to prevent it or deal with it when it happens, more drugs will be doled out to deal with the increase in stress and lastly, yes indeed, some staff will take things out on patients even more than they used to.
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Oh, I can see they make such a wonderful job “helping people”. I also tried to commit suicide in a hospital because of how awesomely they treated me. But I’m sure it will be interpreted as “we need more money/rights to restrain people/drugs/all of the above”.
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it will also be interpreted as, “We need to make sure staff are doing more tick box checks (otherwise known as, “Observations”) on patients – which leads to even less time getting to know the people they are supposed to be caring for.
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Another psychiatric success story…
—- Steve
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