Top 10 Forms of Psychiatric Institution Abuse
The validation of my sanity may well be dependent on labeling the other insane. As society has evolved, so have the definitions of sanity and in turn, madness. While at one time, even political disobedience was a good enough reason for someone to be sent to an asylum, today, we revere the rebel and praise volition as a worthy attribute. The definition of madness is thus, dependent on what the ‘sane’ of the era seek to prove. Conveniently, you and I label the 18th century treatments of Phrenology, Rotational therapy, Trepanation and bloodletting as absurd, barbaric and cruel. But one must understand that at the time, these methodologies were in keeping with the definition of madness. These methods found their fallibility in due time and today we can render them ineffectual. Similarly, what is to say, our ‘civilized’ sane method of the asylum, our methodology of diagnosis and admittance, hospitals and the pills and morphine that seldom cures, just renders the patient invisible, will not be meted out the same ineffectuality by the generations to come? Let us now explore our sane cures and take a look into the sanity of the psychiatric institutions that abuse and punish the patients feigning cure:
1. Misdiagnosis
The United States Supreme Court recognizes that psychiatry, although a science is also an opinion. To misdiagnose a mental patient
and mistakenly brand them as insane is a malpractice and a crime. But,
over the years many a case of deafness has been misdiagnosed as mental
retardation, behavioral changes because of allergies, toxicity and brain
tumors have been misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. The
person is rendered completely helpless because the psychiatrist is put
on a pedestal and a failure to take a second opinion has led to the
destruction of many lives.2. Labeled for life
Even
if we were to believe in the opinion of the expert psychiatrist and his
tools such as the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders), the institution is uncaring enough to subject individuals to
a label, they fully recognize can be incorrect. When someone faces
adverse conditions and undergoes behavioral changes, the psychiatrist
bound by only his ‘scientific’, ‘objective’ approach simply labels him /
her without a thought to the ostracization and suffering that label
entails. The mental illness label affects every part of the patient’s
life, be it their personal relationships, their professional lives or
their health. An hour long psychiatric interview can determine the
entire life of another. No one should be allowed such power. One mistake
on the part of the ‘expert’ can ruin someone’s life. When you are
labeled mad or insane, your thoughts, your speech and every action are
plagued by that label. You are rendered ineffectual to society and
helpless within and without.3. Disregard of Consent
Unfortunately, many people do not realize that the right of informed consent applies
to psychiatric patients, just as they would to any other medical
patient. They have legal rights to be properly notified, at the right
time, about the dangers of the treatment they are about to receive. But
since they are labeled as insane, the institutions take it upon
themselves to meet out any kind of treatment, they want to. Even if the
patient complains, even if the treatment is not working for the patient,
since every spoken word of the patient is treated as babble, the
institution has its way with them.4. Over – drugging
Seldom do psychiatric drugs
aim to cure the patient; mostly they are aimed at making them
invisible. Quieting them down, making them into functional individuals
for the sake of society’s normalcy. Every depiction if a psychiatric
institution has ghost like creatures dragging their feet down endless
corridors. It’s true, mostly the patients are kept on a high dose of
medications so that they can be controlled. Daily living difficulties,
disorientation, side effects such as abnormal weight gain, impaired
coordination, anxiety and the onset long term illnesses are a result of
such over-drugging.5. Violent Restraints
There
have been an alarmingly large number of reports of cases where patients
were harshly and violently restrained, often leading to serious injury,
sometimes even death. Restraint procedures for psychiatric patients
qualify as assault, and 
should be listed as criminal, though unfortunately, the law does not state this. The CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights)
has reported upto 150 restraint deaths that occur without
accountability every year in the US. These grisly fatalities have been
known to be caused by barbaric practices such as harsh beatings,
bloodletting, chest compression, traumatic asphyxia and other
psychiatric brutality that is part of the routine make up of a
psychiatric institution.6. Punishments & Isolation
In
most psychiatric institutions, the patients are treated as mere
children who need to be punished with childish measures such as standing
with the hands in the air, solitary confinement etc. While we all
understand a need for structure, basic respect cannot be compromised on.
Because complains and resistance to such treatment is never fully
acknowledged and it is easy to curb someone who is labeled mad, such
practices continue7. Abusive Therapies
In
the name of therapy, the mentally ill have had to undergo torture,
physical and emotional abuse since time immemorial. Today, in our
civilized psychiatrist institutions, some practices such as the use of
electric shock therapies and hydrotherapy (the use of ice cold towels or
high pressure jets to calm the patient) still exist. The mentally ill
have enough trouble orienting themselves to their everyday, psychiatric
institutions only make it worse, all the while feigning cure. Even in
the so called sophisticated clinical setting, often patients are
verbally abused and treated in a condescending manner because by virtue
of being the subject matter expert on ‘normalcy’ and ‘sanity’, the
psychiatrist simply can.8. Sane Cruelty
The
custodians of mental health aren’t supposed to turn perfectly humane
and many measures are taken in-keeping a requirement for structure and
protecting the sanity of the staff but a nature of cruelty towards the
mentally ill has been seen time and again. Because the patients are
mostly incapacitated in the institutions, drugged out of their senses,
some staff members tend to use this inability to their advantage. Cases
of rape, sexual molestation, rage beatings are not uncommon. Where
within the patient already suffers from the pain, anguish and turmoil of
being subjected to psychiatric treatment, the staff takes out its own
frustration or uses the helplessness of the patients to their own
advantage. There is truly nothing worse.9. Ineptitude
Since
the mentally disabled are not a functional part of society, the quality
of their care is barely a concern to institutions that house them.
There are 450 million mentally ill people in the world (Source: WHO
Mental Health Survey, 2010) and barely enough caretakers and
institutions. People with no training are also employed just because
they are willing. But this supremely compromises on the care that the
patient gets. There is a general attitude of ineptitude amongst mental
health workers. Of course, there are many qualified and adept
psychiatrists and support staff, but the everyday care quality is not a
concern for them.10. Inducing fear & force
In
1818, Dr. Benjamin Rush, renowned father of American psychiatry, and
the first President of the APA (American Psychiatric Association) had
been known to advocate the following “Terror acts powerfully upon the
body through the medium of the mind. It should be employed in the cure
of madness. Fear accompanied with pain and the sense of shame has cured
many a disease.” Fear is a powerful motivator in enforcing conformity,
obedience and submission to authority. But it is not a cure. To induce
fear in the mentally ill, and force them into actions and behaviour, is
the cruelest of acts simply because of their inability to fight back. To
induce such emotion, measures such as solitary confinement, public
humiliation, violent restraints and threats are used. This is a clear
violation of basic human rights.A person who is undergoing trauma every living day internally should ideally be taken care of, comforted and supported, and helped through as much as possible. Family members and people close to the patients admit them to psychiatric institutions seeking such utopia. Instead, the person is denied basic human rights, punished and cheated cruelly and stripped of free will, which is fundamental to human existence itself.
http://www.mindfreedom.co.uk/world-news/top-10-forms-psychiatric-institution-abuse/
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