I’m glad you have had more positive experiences. Several cited examples in this thread of quite the opposite happening.
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My experience goes back 30 years to 1985. I was at the private Brattleboro Retreat, the private Hartford Institute For The Living on the adolescent Tompson Unit, the public Worcester State Hospital and currently am a patient at the public Randolph Center in Charlotte, NC, among other places.
My experiences are varied, but generally speaking the public health facilities have tried to get me on my own as much as possible. They are not interested in harboring anyone who does not need it.
I would consider hiring the sleaziest ambulance-chaser law firm and setting them on each and every doctor that took part for malpractice.
I would also sue police department.
I do not normally approve of time-honored practice of suing people over trivial stuff, but this is different. It would make them think twice doing it next time.
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Even if you’re there for medically valid reasons, they don’t want to bother helping you in any way at all until you’ve submitted to their authority. Even if someone had bothered to prove her claim, it would have made no difference. There are 5 lights. You’re not going anywhere until you stop seeing only 4, and start seeing what you’re told.
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And yet most of you complain about the lack of mental health care in the USA. How quaint.
You yourself said that the public facilities are overflowing a few comments upthread.
I suppose a lot of neurotypical, having not necessarily been exposed to being treated for mental health problems (besides a lot of them getting a prozac script) don’t have perspective on how tough treating these issues can be.
Which isn’t to say that the cops don’t abuse the mental health care system (they do, we have documentation eg officer Schoolcraft).
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Yes, and that is not to say there is not enough mental health care.
There are huge problems. Medication doesn’t always work; I have bad reactions (IE extreme manic episodes) with SSRIs. Old medications like Thorazine, Lithium, or Haldol (look this one up, it makes Thorazine look like a walk in the park) can turn you into a fairly non-functional zombie.
Personally, I take a Risperdal variant called Invega, a once a month shot. I am impressed with this drug, the side effects are minimal.
Absolutely. They send a special team of police to collect me when I lose it, It is a team made by Charlotte to handle the mentally ill. I still ran into one particular cop the last time, who taunted me. I may be schizo-affective, but I have lucid memories of my psychosis, and this guy deserved to be beaten.
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well, maybe other people in other cities have had other experiences? And I imagine that a lot has changed in 30 years, especially as the mentally ill have become criminalzied in a lot of places and the mentally ill have largely fallen through the cracks. You may be an exception, you may even be an average experience. Maybe there are extremely negative and abusive experiences that people have had with the system?
Certainly you’re famililar with assumptions being made about your experiences, and how annoying that can be. Well, when it’s you making the assumptions it’s not suddenly… how did you put it… Quaint.
I am glad your local PD has their act together. Have you ever been picked up in NYC? Maybe try it sometime, if you’re so sure it’s a bed of roses, and the stories are made up/exaggerated. What ccould go wrong? Your certainty should carry the day, and obviously anyone who says otherwise is… well you havent outright said ‘is lying’ but what else could you mean?
Also, maybe consider that being fed into that system at the word of an officer is one way to punish an innocent, at the word of an officer, as documented in a few other stories in the thread. It is proven a NYC polic officer can shoot an unarmed person without sanction… so… just maybe they abuse this sytem too? Despite your lack of personal experience of it, maybe it’s someone elses experience and your turn to listen to it?
I’ve surely gone toe to toe with an officer over honesty, and won the day. They’re no more or less reliable a witness than anyone else, including the mentally ill.
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I’ve experienced mental heath care up and down the east coast. I was in Worcester State Hospital, for Christ’s sake.
And I have experienced it over those three decades.
I fell through the cracks, I wasn’t even diagnosed until I was 32.
The vast majority of abuse I have experienced is with the private mental health care system.
Where is this different in the US? North Dakota?[quote=“AcerPlatanoides, post:31, topic:54382”]
I’ve surely gone toe to toe with an officer over honesty, and won the day. They’re no more or less reliable a witness than anyone else, including the mentally ill.
[/quote]
I haven’t argued that. She was held for EIGHT days with forced medication, there is a reason for that.
Are you calling her a liar? or not? And that is not an essay question.
I am saying that your experience is yours. I am not sure what it has to do with this story, but do tell us all about yourself if that somehow gives you added credibility (it does not with me) from which to detract from the credibility of others.
Also, I’ve been fairly polite, and I’d appreciate the same in return.
You addressed a lot of fluff. My bad for including it. What about this:
also, you said:
there is a reason for that.
I will not take your word for this unless you tell us what you think that reason is, or is likely to be. It’s just innuendo otherwsie.
What motivates this woman than does not motivate, say, you or me?
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Not telling the whole truth.
She has legitimate mental health issues that need to be addressed.
Then why was she released?
Nobody can. That’s not even a resonable expectation to have of someone.
I’m out. Thanks for the convo. Honestly.
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OK, lets just agree to disagree =)
No, i really am out. But I won’t try to prevent you from keeping up with your half of ‘us’ agreeing to disagree.
For me to do my half, I would have had to have disagreed. I don’t and din’t. I asked what you meant and how you know so much about her experience. That’s not disagreeing, that’c conversation. But cast me in the drama in whatever role is needed!!
And it was, honestly, nice talking with you. 
Well, there’s the rub, isn’t it? Generally, the overstretched public health workers do a good job of looking after those who need it. Sometimes, though, they don’t.
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Well, we’ve been well informed about one party – prone to violence and mis-truths, attempts to modify the public record to whitewash its own history.
The other party has had its story validated by a third-party (the press).
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This probably doesn’t count as trivial.
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I’ve worked in the NYC mental health and city hospital system for years, and based on the few facts of the case were published, it sounds to me like the article is providing a completely inaccurate picture of what happened. Psych units at places like Harlem Hospital are usually full, and there are tons of people malingering symptoms trying to get admitted to get a warm bed. The bar for what constitutes “crazy” in the eyes of the NYPD and mental health professionals in NYC is really, really high, and people who are objectively very ill get sent home all the time even if they aren’t faking symptoms. The notion that a NYC city hospital psych unit would waste a bed holding someone involuntarily for eight days simply for being delusional is preposterous. Over half of the patients at the Harlem Hospital outpatient mental health clinic are delusional. This woman must have been psychotic to the point where she was dangerous. The first cops she encountered thought she was intoxicated. The second cops she encountered brought her to the hospital. The psychiatrists at the hospital thought she was sick enough to require emergency medication. Then after being admitted, other psychiatrists also thought she was sick enough to require involuntary treatment and medication for eight days. All of those trained professionals all shared the same opinion, and the only evidence we have that they might have been wrong is this woman’s word, and the fact that Obama actually does follow her on Twitter. Whether Obama actually follows her or not is completely irrelevant in terms of determining whether she required hospitalization at the time. My guess is that she was screaming over and over again for days that the voices tell her she’s a special person with magical powers, and she can prove it because Obama follows her on Twitter.
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You know, reading the headline I can’t help feeling that Captain Picard missed a bet by not trying this tactic: “Yeah, yeah, there are five lights. Can I go now?”
Hell, both Stephen Harper and Obama follow me Twitter, and Angela Merkel has sent me a Facebook friend request. I will not, under any circumstances or medication, recant that assertion. Police please note: I am a White Male.
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