Nuanced History of Asylums Shows Context Matters

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A bottom-up approach to understanding the history of asylums allows us to learn from past successes and failures in the mental health system.

Measuring How Mental Health Professionals See Service Users’ Rights

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A new scale has been developed and validated to examine beliefs held by mental health professionals towards service users’ rights.

Refugees and Immigrants Experience Increased Medical Coercion

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Refugees and first-generation immigrants of African descent are at greater risk of experiencing medical coercion when compared to immigrants of other visible minority communities in Canada.

Humanizing Mental Healthcare by Reducing Coercive Practices

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A review of the literature demonstrates that coercive practices lack empirical support and violate human rights.

United Nations Rep Brings Attention to Human Rights Violations in Psychiatry

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Dr. Dainius Pūras argues that the status quo in mental health treatment is no longer acceptable and demands political action to promote human rights.

Study Identifies Psychiatric Patients at Greatest Risk of Coercion

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In an effort to reduce coercion, researchers isolate associated factors including age, relationship status, location, and diagnosis.

MIA Survey: Ex-patients Tell of Force, Trauma and Sexual Abuse in America’s Mental Hospitals

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In a MIA survey of people who had been patients in mental hospitals, nearly 500 respondents told of an experience that was often traumatic, and frequently characterized by a violation of their legal rights, forced treatment with drugs, and physical or sexual abuse. Only 17% said they were “satisfied” with the “quality of the psychiatric treatment” they received.

Psychiatric Diagnosis Can Lead to Epistemic Injustice, Researchers Claim

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A discussion of the role of epistemic injustice in the experiences of patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders.

How I Know That Psychiatric Hospitals Don’t Cure Gun Violence

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In this piece for the Hartford Courant, Kathleen Flaherty describes why President Trump's assertion that more psychiatric hospitals would prevent mass shootings is inaccurate and...

Training Program Decreases Police Force and Arrests for Mental Health Crisis Calls

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Colorado police trained in crisis intervention infrequently use force or arrest individuals experiencing a mental health crisis and are likely to transfer individuals to a treatment facility.

Care Homes Over-Prescribing Drugs for Residents with Dementia

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From The Guardian: According to a new Human Rights Watch report, U.S. nursing homes are inappropriately prescribing antipsychotics to an estimated 179,000 residents with dementia each...

He Tenido Un Sueño (I Had a Dream)

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In this piece for La Otra Psiquiatría, Fernando Colina describes his vision for a compassionate, non-pathologizing mental health system. Below is the full translation of his...

Mental Health Seclusion to be Scrapped After UN Condemnation

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From Stuff: In 2015, the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concern at New Zealand's use of seclusion against mental health patients. According to a...

Antipsychotics, Restraints, and Seclusion Raising Concerns

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From ABC Australia: Australia's high rate of antipsychotic prescriptions, as well as the frequent usage of restraints and seclusion, has raised concerns among Australian mental health advocates, researchers,...

Study Privileges the Voices of Persons Hospitalized Against Their Will

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How people are treated after being hospitalized can either help them to overcome the traumatic effects of coercion or make them worse.

Why We’ve Been Thinking About Madness All Wrong

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In this interview for Pacific Standard, David Dobbs, who profiled Nev Jones this month, discusses the ways that the mental health community is beginning to...

Child Abuse and Violence Survivors are Being Re-Traumatised

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From The Independent: Recently, psychiatric patients used the hashtag #AbusedByServices to tweet about their experiences being re-traumatized by mental health services. The hashtag reflects the...

The Rise of Solitary

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From Dissent Magazine: In her recently published book 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement, scholar and advocate Keramet Reiter discusses the...

Shocking Rise of NHS Abuse of Mental Health Patients

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From The Sun: Reports of abuse against NHS mental health patients hit a record high last year. In 2016, almost 200 cases related to the...

New Zealand Man Died After Being Restrained in Japan

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From The Guardian: Kelly Savage, a 27-year-old New Zealand man working abroad as an English teacher in Japan, was admitted to a Japanese psychiatric hospital...

Stories from the Psych Ward: Why Drugs Aren’t the Cure

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In this piece for Elephant Journal, one man tells his story of being locked up and forcibly drugged in the psych ward, and how he...

Risk of Suicide After Hospitalization Even Higher Than Previously Estimated

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New analysis of post-discharge suicide rates finds estimates 6 times higher than recent studies.

UK Trials Body Cameras for Staff in Mental Health Wards

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From Engadget: An early trial has found that staff-worn body cameras can reduce confrontation and aggressive behavior, including incidents of physical restraint, in psychiatric hospitals. "If...

Bill Could Make Drug Use Criteria for Involuntary Commitment

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From U.S. News & World Report: New Hampshire legislators are debating a bill that would make opioid use criteria for involuntary commitment to a psychiatric...

Physical Restraint in Mental Health Units is Traumatising Women

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From The Guardian: Recent research shows that one in five women and girls are physically restrained in mental health settings in England. There were nearly...