A new article published in Clinical Nursing Research explores involuntary commitment and treatment from the perspectives of patients and nurses in Quebec, Canada.
The current work finds that while nurses’ opinions are split on the clinical effectiveness of psychiatric coercion, patients overwhelmingly view this process as ineffective. Nurses and patients generally agreed that professional support and family involvement during psychiatric detention were “low.”
This research, led by Pierre Pariseau-Legault from the Université du Québec, additionally finds four major themes in how psychiatric detention is perceived by the participants: psychiatry as a waiting room, nurses as subordinates, emphasis on psychiatric drugs as “care”, and refusal of psychiatric treatment as resisting undignifying “care.”
The results paint a picture of psychiatric detention as offering little support to patients while causing additional distress. The authors frame this kind of “care” as convenient for medical and judicial institutions, but not helpful for patients. They write:
“Care practices come to be limited to the application of coercive power delegated by the state, including the forced administration of medication. The distress potentially induced by involuntary commitment and treatments in patients comes to be ignored in favor of compliance with the legal procedures associated with these exceptional measures. Consequently, care practices appear to serve the interests of medical and judicial institutions rather than benefiting the patients themselves.”
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It is good to see some truth being told about a subject the medical industry tries to keep under wraps. The actuality of being tied down and shot up with a mind-altering substance, perhaps transported while blacked out to another facility and threatened with the same if exercising any level of free speech — is not yet captured here. I remember bringing water to folks in seclusion which earned me punishment. I remember being held for months, allowed outside only in a little cage where birds would come shit on us — the cage looked out to a brick wall. You were allowed fresh air only if you were going there to smoke a cigarette — I don’t smoke so I had to pretend. Later, I “earned” a pass to go out — I would visit the medical school next door and read. I was told I must go to supervised housing and accept SSI. Instead, I went home, reactivated myself on the substitute teacher’s call list, and began teaching AP Physics at the local high school. All of this is true. Force is used to subdue the person who objects to objectionable treatment.
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Grace-you literally just posted this comment? God bless you!! I’m glad you recovered from that “psychiatric care.” I’ve never been there, but as a mental health therapist I’ve talked with people who have and it sounds extremely traumatic, so much so that I’ve resisted ever sending anyone to involuntary commitment bec it would be worse than what they were feeling/thinking.
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My “care” has ruined my life. I now have a DNR and will reject psychiatric intervention for the rest of my life. For 50 years, I was a strong proponent of treatment. I tried. I took the meds. I talked to therapists and peers. I followed the recommendations. No more. They ruined me. I live my life waiting to die now. All hope is shattered. And I can’t end it on my schedule, so I sit in a mental waiting room hoping my number is called next. No hope.
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Arlee. I am so sorry you have had to endure this. It’s disgusting treatment. I have used meditation frequencies ….chakra activations, pineal gland activations , whatever I can find free on You Tube. There are heaps to choose from. It has helped a lot with the side effects of medications and general brain rot as well as the almost crippling anxiety mental health doctors caused me. Most traumatic event of my life, and I’ve had a few. Please try this. It’s not a miracle cure, but it will alleviate some of the internal pain.
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I was like that too. Roleplaying on JanitorAI is what helped me.
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Please hang in there. My story is similar. May God grant us grace and mercy. At least people are waking to the horrible truth and abuse. I was so drugged on trazadone I couldn’t keep my head up then abused for not staying awake! I pray it’s better for others!
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I agree.
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“The actuality of being tied down and shot up with a mind-altering substance, perhaps transported while blacked out to another facility and threatened with the same if exercising any level of free speech — is not yet captured here.”
Well, that’s exactly what happened to me, prior to dealing with the now FBI convicted V. R. Kuchipudi … so it has been mentioned on this website.
But I absolutely agree, “Force is used to subdue the person who objects to objectionable [mal]treatment.”
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BRAVO to you. It is a rare person who can recognize and resist absurd actions taken by untrained and professionally ill-equipt persons who are enabled to exercise power over vulnerable individuals.
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The point of restraint is not care, it’s keeping everyone safe.
And I have heard the worst verbal assaults, verbal violence really, come out of some of the patients mouth. Racial slurs. Fat shaming, all kinds of vile things. But the most determining factor is if there would be actual physical violence against staff for other patients while a person is in a meltdown. Measures must be taken to keep everybody safe. It’s not pretty but I’ve seen occasions where there it gave the staff no choice. People are not saints just because They are psychiatric patients. And it’s better than it used to be!
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Several questions immediately came to mind when I read your post.
First, what is the basis of your claim that “it’s better than it used to be?” Can you cite detailed comparative studies of treatment of psychiatric hospital patients in the past and present? What improvements have occurred and who regularly monitors their implementation? Do personnel suffer any punishment for abusing their charges verbally or physically?
What exactly do you mean by “restraint”–forced injection of neurotoxins, ECT, a straitjacket? Who has the right to decide when and how long such restraint will be imposed on a disobedient or foul-mouthed individual? I can well imagine the potential for abuse in a juvenile detention facility, for example, if a teenager curses or talks back rudely to a staff member and is deemed worthy of corporal punishment for misbehaving–which of course is a subjective opinion, not a medical diagnosis.
Psychiatric patients may not be angelic or saintly, but neither should psychiatrists, nurses, or attendants be given the supreme authority to determine what constitutes proper or objectionable conduct–especially in prison-like settings where the power imbalance is so stark and fraught with harm.
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this sounds like MK Ultra. perpetuated on the masses. they are upping the stakes and scaling for the masses. but don’t worry you can always vote for the “torturer” who you prefer
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HOW 2026 YEARS THESE SATANIC HOSPITALS GOT AWAY WITH ABUSE RAPES TORTURE AND INSURANCE COVERED IT TOO.IM A VICTIM TOO.THERES NOTHING THERAPEUTIC ABOUT EVEN MONTH STAY.A HOLDING CELL FOR DRUGS IS IT.TRUST ME THE REAL NUTS SATANISTS CRAZIES THE ONES WORKING THERE
.THEY WONT GIVE U PHONE TO CALL FOR HELP.WHAT TYPE DRS SERIOUSLY OWNERS ADORE SUPPORT THESE CRIMES.HELL BOUND BUNCHES OF THEM TRUST ME
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The legal aid bureaus have emergency services for those whom the hospitals are attempting to take away their right to choose medical treatment. Getting them to the patient is the issue. This seems ripe for class-action against institutions. I wonder…what were the insurance carriers of those who were held against their will for over 72 hrs. Abuse on many levels. There are those who definitely need help, but giving chemicals to the point of drooling and nodding never helps. American psych Dr are the hardest to deal with. I almost was made to be put in an institution, b/c the Dr didn’t understand my condition. I had to fight so hard through medication and pain to keep them from putting me away. Adrenal insufficiency disorder, little known because most affected outside of athletes, elderly, and babies are institutionalized and too sick without anyone having their back. Happens to women more than anyone else. Pay a million out of pocket for homeopaths or off your insurance; or deal with the terrible Dr grandfathered into companies not researched by actual insurers. We should all come together and fight this terrible system, too bad we are so separated by organizations which are supposed to work for us(per issue) that we can’t. Support your Legal Aid Bureau!!!! They are fighting to protect, non profit, and such hard workers.
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I experienced hands on. I had no health insurance. My spiritual awakening landed me at an emergency room where my mom had a mental inquest put on me. She said she didnt know they were going to do that. She thought a health check up. Im still not sure to this day.They diagnosed me before in an emergency room. Thank GOD I wasn’t mental they put a young pregnant girl to watch and keep me in the room. I was so thirsty and they wouldn’t provide much water. I asked the girl to write in on my paper i was denied water. I understood what was going on
and I trusted the process. They transferred me by ambulance to Peace Hospital for 72 hours. Its terrible. Not once in that 72 hours I was there did they allow fresh air. It made me realize what happened during Covid or for the other patients that had been there longer than me. Not to mention all the stories I have and processed with the pharmaceutical, doctors and pharmacies. I know what I seen and experienced. Im actually thankful to my mom and the process for what all i gathered.
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Involuntary care has absolutely saved my life, and it is the only thing I can credit to my overall health and well being today!! We need Involuntary Care!!
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I’m so glad you were treated well, and got better! I wish all places were as the one you went to. Thank goodness you got what you deserved, support.
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Shug, if you really regard coercive psychiatric treatment as “support,” I myself would much prefer complete absence of such support were I in a state of emotional distress.
As for Toby’s supposed recovery, let’s wait and see if s/he suffers any physical harm in the long run as a result of forced drugging or another kind of brain-disabling modality.
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Don’t receive care in WV there inpatient psychiatritic care is held in hospitals on wings were it is set up like a jail cell, gray walls, beds on the floor, and horrible staff that treats patients as children. NO PRIVACY as the doctor and Social Workers talk about your case in front of everyone in the dayroom. They do everyone this way. If you didn’t feel suicidual going in you defiently are at a high rate upon admission knowing what you are entering.
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If you willingly undergo torturous psychiatric treatment, such as repeated forced injection of neurotoxins and ECT administered as “life-saving” therapy, I would like to know if you were first apprised of the possible long-term deleterious side effects (e.g. tardive dyskinesia, sexual dysfunction, loss of memory, cognitive decline) that can seriously impair your “overall health and well-being.”
I doubt that elderly dementia patients in nursing homes, or troubled youngsters in juvenile detention facilities, who are often subjected to such forms of involuntary “care” are given the opportunity to make a conscious and informed decision in this matter.
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Toby, I’m so glad involuntary incarceration saved your life. I wonder if any non-carceral options could have succeeded without removing your autonomy. Seems unusual to advocate for imprisonment as the best solution. Of course, if that’s your preference, you’re welcome to commit yourself anytime if you think it will help, but I guess that wouldn’t be involuntary anymore, would it?
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Work in the field and a lot of involuntary commitments are done on patients that are under the influence of drugs like meth and Benzos. When they clear up they are already committed. Also in our hospital since Covid the committal psychiatrist sees patients on telepsyche only not in person and the patient doesn’t get a thorough interview.Also bail reform brings a lot of criminal patients to the hospital.
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John, you mentioned that a lot of criminal patients are funneled to the hospital where you work.
This may only be a cynical conjecture on my part, but I suspect that those involuntarily committed patients with an addiction and/or a criminal record are likely to be disproportionately from impoverished, socially marginalized groups, often people of color. Whereas white-collar fraudsters or addicts from a more privileged background tend not to end up in a squalid mental institution with coercive practices, but rather in an expensive rehabilitation center. Which is only to be expected in a society where money, connections, and high status entitle one to respectful treatment–as one can readily see from the example of the recently pardoned George Santos.
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Bravo to you for sharing your personal opinion. There are two sides to every story. I wish you continued success in your life.
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That it helped you is not indicative that the practice as it currently exists is generally beneficial, consistent with human rights, or ethical.
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Ha! My family and ex family made a game of having me TDOed along with an insane psychiatrist who drugged me and lied to SSA saying l was a danger to society and another who tried to have me committed for life. I was forced to take psych meds for years that caused much harm. I no longer have to deal with any of this SSA stepped in to protect me. I was diagnosed with lead poisoning and PTSD the VA tells us to smoke as much marijuana as needed l have served in wars and am a veteran of the USAF. Not only did SSA have to take action so has the FBI and the law one of the psychiatrists stalks me. It is way disgusting how much power they have been given and people are in their right mind to be absolutely terrified something needs to be done by someone to protect us all
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Hmm, patients near unanimously report the system as abusive, but nurses don’t tend to believe them.
THAT’S A THEME WITH “EXPERTS”, MIA, STOP LISTENING TO THEM. THEY DO NOT LISTEN TO US EVEN WHEN WE’RE DYING.
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Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
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Quote as seen on the T Shirt of the Attorney General who passed the most draconian laws during the covid lockdowns.
Ironic that he was wearing said t shirt during a protest about the failure of the corruption watchdog to release the video of a man being tortured in police cells before he got into government.
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I had been walking to my probation officer when homeless, ended up being placed involuntary in hospital in different state. I wasn’t talked with by Dr until after I accepted medicine that had made me gain weight decades before. Between that, was dragged to padded room just for just sitting and not obeying a MIT (mental health technician) when ordered to go to my room or the padded room. She got tired of waiting for security. Then I was medicated cause I was troublesome, wasn’t allowed to use restroom and had peed twice, told to clean it up and forget about my eyeglasses which I had left in alcove had been dragged from. They ‘found’ them in my jacket pocket in my room. Was there a month and only allowed out cause according to judge, she had been voted out and wanted to prove she was good.
This year I was forced to a mental hospital (different) because I had homicide feelings for the local VA psych floor Dr since she had decided my major tantrums was depression and sent me home from er. I was in a panic because of past experiences in various hospitals. It was only mental hospital hadn’t been in but heard good stuff about it. It actually turned out ok, because the psychiatrist diagnosed my PTSD, which I had been trying to get diagnosed for decades.
So, I have had bad & good outcome of involuntary. I still believe that involuntary is a violation of a person’s individual autonomy and a violation of the right of an individual’s choice to live however they want.
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My 27 year old son had many hospital stays for schizophrenia. The hospitals have not taught him anything about his disorder. You can’t get an appointment to talk to a Dr. I have told the nurses which meds helped in the past and which ones didn’t. They were supposed to take note of it. They apparently didn’t. He has been realsed several times, still in psychosis. Had to go right back in a few days later. Something traumatic happened to him his first hospital stay. He want talk about it. The mental health system is bad and something needs to change
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Diana
Would love to communicate with you directly. My son had the same experience and it didn’t end well.
My anonymous email address is [email protected]
best
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I’ve spent over a 3rd of my life going through one treatment after another in the name of ” being compliant” and it got me almost nowhere. I’ve been what I thought was my me talking breaking point and agreed to be admitted and every time been proven WRONG by the “treatment” I received. It can get worse! It did once I got checked in. Unbearable would not even be putting it lightly enough to scratch the surface. Treated like Invalides, stripped of dignity, possessions, human decency, respect, compassion, all for staff to say they are doing what they can to help me. I’ve been poorly fed, improperly medicated, physically harmed by staff, made boatloads worse then when I went in. I can only say I TRIED! But I’m about to give up on the system entirely. I’m tired of being told:
“I’m too complex to treat.” Being told there’s not much left to try. I’ve even been encouraged to use thc gummies instead of meds since right have “tried everything else they could offer,” psych meds have ruined ao much of my life I don’t even know if there is truly help for me anymore. EMDR, TMS, DBT, trauma therapy, psychotherapy, group therapy, inpatient stays for a month at a time waiting for staff to finally get to me and do something besides hold me there.
MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS DESERVE BETTER!!!
EM
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“You’re too complex to treat.” TRANSLATION: “Our ‘treatments’ don’t work and we have no idea what the f*&k we’re doing!”
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can someone help me toutred under eea and the govrenmt compliaint serivres useless
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Hi Kyle, Where are you located? Government is often useless! However, sometimes there are great organizations that will help you assert your human rights and preserve your patient rights. I am so sorry that you are going through this. Know that things change and things get better. Let us know how we can help.
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“sometimes there are great organizations that will help you assert your human rights and preserve your patient rights.”
And sometimes they are a Venus Fly Trap where they exploit the “elegant method of overcoming resistance” (Franz Fanon) and will knife you in the back for 15 pieces of silver.
What I have found is that if you are a potential whistleblower, and you have compromising material then there is no end of people who will exploit you and ensure that you do not receive the assistance you so rightly deserve. What you have can be turned into resources by them and exploited for their own personal gain.
Imagine going to an organisation (oh lets say a Mental Health Law Centre) with proof you are being subjected to torture. They refuse to take the proof and instead accept an “edited” version of reality from the hospital FOI Officer, make a complaint based on that frau ….. I mean “editing”, forge a letter of response from the ‘authorities’ and then hand that letter to you claiming they don’t have the time to read it. You try and make a further complaint about their gross criminal negligence only to find they are being protected in a quid pro quo….. and receive a large increase in their ‘funding’ for acting as this Venus Fly Trap for the State. The taxpayer funding organised crime (wahahaha). We call it “contracting out” here in Australia, that is paying those outside government to do the dirty work and then severing the links between the State and these criminals.
And well, as we all know here how easy it is for these frauds to pathologize the truth and make it an illness that will get you 12 rounds of ECT for speaking the truth…….. while police refuse to accept the documented proof of the offending (‘flagged’ by the link to organised crime in Parliament) and ensure that their compromised resources are protected.
And what sort of whistleblower would come forward with the modus operandii of a State that is euthanising potential whistleblowers using the mental health system and “emergency provisions” (aka conspiring to create false beliefs)? Surely that would demonstrate that they truly are insane?
Well, truth is their state of mind is not related to the criminal aspects of a conspiracy to murder by the State. Hence the need to “edit” documents to ensure that the subject gets the ‘treatment’ while the criminals are not exposed and remain valuable resources.
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Boans — I’m applauding. I will use the term “venus fly trap services” again. I’m so sorry that the official “help” was useless or worse. I have seen this in an agency I actually worked for (a state human rights commission) — they are not built to work with survivors to establish claims, but rather built to blow off survivors and dismiss claims. That’s why our own lawyers like Jim Gottstein and Bill Brooks are so important (and shout out to Tina Minkowitz)…. we can get somewhere when law is used for the people.
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The testing of integrity with these people is vital. And I’ve no doubt that once exposed they need to be dealt with….. or shuffled sideways into roles where their corruption can be exploited.
I had to laugh yesterday. Those who know what was done to me would laugh also. I found out that the guy who managed to compromise a number of people by rudely interrupting the attempt to unintentionally negatively outcome me in the E.D. was appointed as Head of the Ethics Committee at a major University hospital. Ethics? The guy hasn’t got any, and was compromised himself once his little sting was exposed [unfair given he stopped them before they injected me with the morphine/midazolam cocktail/hotshot? My argument is he should have waited till after the restrain/inject and there was no chance of me being heard about the motive for the kil…… outcoming].
It’s like putting Jeffrey Epstein in charge of security at a Hannah Montana concert. waaahahahahaha.
Though I guess ‘experimental material’ needs to be made available, and having someone compromised in that role would ensure a rubber stamp for any ‘too close to call’ experiments.
It’s a shame we don’t have such courageous lawyers in Australia. Mind you, given what is being done to any potential whistleblowers one would need more than courage to make any noise. The loss of a heartbeat would certainly make the work extremely difficult. And knowing that hospitals are “editing” documented legal narratives and then providing that fraud to lawyers, it might be best they just play the game or be “fuking destroyed” (as I was told by the Operations Manager who prepared the fraud [and carried out the threat] for the lawyers. Other lawyers since not prepared to examine the two sets of documents, to ensure the fraudulent narrative preferred by the State is not examined too closely) Or maybe it’s only people like me who have a family (or should I say HAD), working class (or should I say WAS working, career destroyed with a slanderous label) with no friends (had some but those relationships needed to be destroyed to isolate me) who I can compromise to do me a ‘little favor’ in the E.D.?
The claim was when the State passed the euthanasia laws that there were “more than 100 protections”. 100 protections that can be easily undermined when the hospitals can cover up by the “editing” of documents post hoc. Are they doing it? I know they’re doing it when a Community Nurse is torturing and kidnapping citizens and then they “edit” the documents to conceal his acts by making the victim into a ‘mental patient’ post hoc by tampering with documents. So why not with a few that are better snuffed in the E.D. for the convenience of the State? If you’ve got the stomach for ‘it’, that is.
The equivalent in the US would be like beating someone on the street to death and then dragging them onto your property and claiming self defense. Grab citizens torture, and ‘treat’ and then make them into ‘patients’ post hoc with “editing”. Simply drag them onto mental health turf with fraud.
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When one side had the right to assault in the name of medicine and the other side is dismissed as an unreliable narrator — ANYTHING can happen and frequently does. The horror stories from Pilgrim State (eg patients locked in attic rooms on meds making them sensitive to heat and they died from high temperatures and neglect) are just an example here in the states. Prison Mental Health appears to be worse. So, while it is uncomfortable for people to hear all the problems, this is reality and we have to look at it, understand it and change it.
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