Thank you for your comment, Sean! Yes, I agree. As an adult, I have explicitly told providers that psychiatric institutionalization will only result in a deepened mental health crisis for me. Sexual trauma is an inherent in the structure of psych institutions. Strip searches are sexual trauma. They also provide a gateway to further sexual abuse because if these are sanctioned parts of the intake process, then so too is any further sexual exploitation. I also witnessed how staff, knowing how deeply residents feared the sexual trauma of strip searches, would use the threat of them as a mechanism of power and control.
Thank you for your comment, Sean! Yes, I agree. As an adult, I have explicitly told providers that psychiatric institutionalization will only result in a deepened mental health crisis for me. Sexual trauma is an inherent in the structure of psych institutions. Strip searches are sexual trauma. They also provide a gateway to further sexual abuse because if these are sanctioned parts of the intake process, then so too is any further sexual exploitation. I also witnessed how staff, knowing how deeply residents feared the sexual trauma of strip searches, would use the threat of them as a mechanism of power and control.
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