Tag: forced treatment
We Should Not Forcibly Commit the Homeless During Hurricanes
From Pacific Standard: In an effort to protect homeless individuals from the effects of Hurricane Irma, officials from the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust used the...
State Permanently Closes Psychiatric Hospital
From The Boston Globe: The state of Massachusetts has permanently closed the Westwood Lodge psychiatric hospital due to issues of patient safety, quality of care,...
9 Arrested so far in Patient-Abuse Scandal at Whiting Forensic
From the Hartford Courant: Nine state mental health workers at Whiting Forensic have been arrested and charged with cruelty to persons in the largest patient-abuse...
Reporter was Locked in Mental Hospital for 10 Days
This piece from Newsner chronicles the life and work of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, a journalist who went undercover to expose the conditions at an infamous mental...
Forced Psychiatry – A Legal Perspective
In this two-part video series for AdvancingMentalHealth.org, attorney Gary Brown questions the constitutionality of psychiatric confinement and discusses forced treatment from a legal perspective.
Part I →
Part II →
Criticism of Coercion and Forced Treatment in Psychiatry
A recent editorial, published in BMJ, argues there is an increase in coercive measures in psychiatry that are damaging to individuals diagnosed with mental illness.
State Sees Boom in Number of Psychiatric Beds
From The Boston Globe: Massachusetts has seen a significant increase in its number of psychiatric institutions since 2015. However, many psychiatric patients are still waiting for...
Chinese Psychiatric Patient Wins Long Battle for Freedom
From South China Morning Post: A middle-aged Chinese man diagnosed with mild schizophrenia has won a four-year, high-profile legal battle to be released from a...
Shocking Rise of NHS Abuse of Mental Health Patients
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...
The Risk That Survives a Psych Ward Stay
From OZY: The suicide rate for former psychiatric inpatients is 44 times higher than that of the general population. According to Australian psychiatrist and professor Christopher Ryan,...
Mental Health Patients Wait Over Three Years to be Discharged
From The Telegraph: Mental health patients across the UK are waiting for years to be discharged from psychiatric units. At least 91 patients have waited...
Death of Psychiatric Patient at Florida Facility Leads to Lawsuit
From the Hartford Courant: In 2011, Melinda Jakobowski, a psychiatric patient at the Florida Institute of Neurologic Rehabilitation, died from a sudden heart failure after...
The FBI and Defense Department are Investigating UHS Hospitals
From BuzzFeed News: America's largest chain of psychiatric hospitals, United Health Services, is currently under investigation by at least three federal agencies including the FBI...
Psychiatrist Arrested for Death of Patient
From The Times of India: A psychiatrist from the Uma Nalini Mary Clinic and Research Institute was recently arrested on charges of homicide of a middle-aged patient....
Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy Without Patient’s Consent Rises
From The Irish News: Although the use of ECT has been steadily decreasing internationally, the use of ECT in Northern Ireland has significantly increased over...
Is There Institutional Racism in Mental Health Care?
From BBC News: Black people are overrepresented in the UK's mental health system and are at an increased risk of being forcibly committed, diagnosed with...
New Zealand Man Died After Being Restrained in Japan
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...
Mo Hannah: Changing the Teaching of the Biological Model
Maureen Hannah, a Professor of Psychology at Siena College, New York, tells of experiences with the psychiatric system, both personally and professionally, and how poor care in the mental health system led to an unexpected and devastating family loss.
Irish Teen Seeking Abortion Put In Mental Hospital (The Onion)
From The Onion: “Thank God that in America our mental health facilities are too poorly funded for something like this to happen.”
Article →
Psych Ward Reviews: A Yelp for Psychiatric Facilities
From Undark Magazine: A new app, Psych Ward Reviews, gathers anonymous reviews of patients' experiences with inpatient treatment at public and private psychiatric and general...
Jim Gottstein: Patient Rights in Mental Healthcare
Jim Gottstein, president and founder of the organisation Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, talks about his own experiences with the psychiatric system, patient rights in mental healthcare and the recent trial between Wendy Dolin and the UK Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline.
Chaya Grossberg: A Naturopathic Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing
Chaya Grossberg shares her own experiences of the psychiatric system and how she now helps and supports those struggling to withdraw from their psychiatric medications.
Gary Sidley: Alternatives to Bio-Medical Psychiatry as Ways of Responding to...
Dr. Gary Sidley worked within NHS mental health services for 33 years in a variety of nursing, psychological and managerial roles. In the 1980s...
The Fictions and Futures of Transformative Justice
In this interview for The New Inquiry, two co-editors and three writers of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements discuss prison abolition and...
Doctors Tortured Patients at Ontario Mental-Health Centre
From The Globe and Mail: A judge has recently ruled that patients at a mental health facility in Ontario were tortured by doctors over a...
