involuntary psychiatry
Adam Blatner
adam at blatner.com
Wed Jul 12 16:35:17 CDT 2006
What a constructive contribution, thank you! Adam
----- Original Message -----
From: <CathyNugent at comcast.net>
To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>; <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 12:06 PM
Subject: RE: List Digest, Vol 1, Issue 24
> Hello, everyone - This is Cathy Nugent, a psychodramatist in Maryland. I
> have been silent on the listserv, but have enjoyed the stimulating
> interchanges. I wanted to comment on the issues raised by the Alaska
> Supreme Court decision and Adam's commentary. One promising innovation in
> the psychiatric field has been the use of "advance directives." In the
> mental health arena, these are similar to advance directives that people
> develop in relation to serious illness and use of extraordinary measures to
> sustain life (i.e., people sign directives indicating whether or not they
> wish to be resusitated, etc.)..... In psychiatry, clients who are at risk
> of decompensating and becoming mentally incapacitated, have the opportunity
> when they are in a clear state to develop a plan for how they would like
> family, friends, significant others, and mental health professionals to
> intervene if they have a relapse and become psychotic or otherwise
> disabled. The client may indicate in the advance directive that he or she
> wishes to be given medication, or that other interventions be tried before
> medication, or that other steps be taken. Some mental health hopsitals and
> systems are using advance directives with success, and consumer groups seem
> to favor the idea since it promotes client integrity and autonomy.....
>
> I hope everyone is well and in good spirits.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Cathy
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: list-request at grouptalkweb.org
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:00:01 -0500
> To: list at grouptalkweb.org
> Subject: List Digest, Vol 1, Issue 24
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. new article (Adam Blatner)
> 2. involuntary psychiatry (Adam Blatner)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:00:55 -0500
> From: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
> Subject: new article
> To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> Message-ID: <008301c6a5bb$9a10d6a0$2f01a8c0 at dell>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi, for anyone who may be interested, I just had published a new article:
> -- Blatner, A. (2006). Enacting the new academy: sociodrama as a
> powerful tool in higher education. ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness &
> Transformation, 28 (3), 30 - 35.
>
> I'm working on some other things, probably due in Fall.
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:13:05 -0500
> From: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
> Subject: involuntary psychiatry
> To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> Message-ID: <009901c6a5bd$4d51db50$2f01a8c0 at dell>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> This article speaks to an interesting and quite complex problem, a problem
> of social
> policy. As the only MD psychiatrist who is also a psychodramatist in the
> USA, I have mixed
> reactions.
> On one hand, I'm somewhat inclined to support such challenges. I agree
> with about a
> third to a half of the arguments of Thomas Szasz, the libertarian
> psychiatrist. I fear
> that there is a tendency to support the convenience of the administration
> in any large
> organization or institution, whether it be a hospital, religious
> denomination, political
> structure, ASGPP, ANZPA, whatever. There are almost always reformers within
> most large
> organizations, and this tension keeps things cooking.
> The problem often deals with the folks who are at the edge of
> breaking the law in
> several ways: Those who are chronically homeless and create for those
> around them, not
> only themselves, a hygiene hazard, smells, excretion in public, etc.
> Others are clearly suicidal and we must come to a public policy
> decision as to what
> we collectively must do.
>
> Others are a drain on their family for the aforementioned reasons, and
> the family
> members are seeking some relief--these stories can be quite heart-rending.
> The number of
> free-spirited folks who don't hurt anyone is rather limited. The problem
> often involves
> types of harm that are in a fuzzy area of not quite criminal.
>
> The dual-diagnosis problems of illness compounded by drug taking has
> all become
> worse with the growing epidemic of methamphetamine addiction.
>
> And so forth...
>
> I'm concerned because although I am wary about tendencies within
> psychiatry to
> over-medicate, there is an equal if not greater tendency in our culture
> towards a rather
> global anti-psychiatry stance. The best policy requires the spirit of
> spontaneity,
> responding in the moment to the needs of the situation, unhampered by the
> cultural
> conserves of overgeneralizations, abstractions, artificial categories.
> I expect to see some further news about this and will be open to
> questions.
> Warmly, Adam
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <k.kade at att.net>
> To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>; <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 12:13 AM
> Subject: Alaskan Supreme Court recent ruling
>
>
>> Hello from Alaska. I love this group talk...It helps me feel connected
> up here in the
>> NOrth. This is an article about a recent ruling here...
>>
>> *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>>
>> June 30, 2006
>>
>> *
>> ****FREEDOMS FOR ALL,
>> IN TIME FOR THE 4th???***
>>
>> Alaska Supreme Court Strikes Down Forced Psychiatric Drugging Procedures
>>
>> *
>> In a resounding affirmation of personal liberty and freedom, the Alaska
>> Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in /Myers v. Alaska
>> Psychiatric Institute/ today. The court found Alaska's forced
>> psychiatric drugging regime to be unconstitutional when the state forces
>> someone to take psychiatric medications without proving it to be in
>> their best interests or when there are less restrictive alternatives.
>>
>> Faith Myers, the appellant in the case, reacted to the decision saying,
>> "It makes all of my suffering worthwhile."
>>
>> Myers' attorney, Jim Gottstein, said "By requiring the least intrusive
>> alternative to forced psychiatric drugging, this decision has the
>> potential to change the face of current psychiatric practice,
>> dramatically improving the lives of people who now find themselves at
>> the wrong end of a hypodermic needle.??o While he acknowledged that some
>> people find psychiatric drugs helpful, Gottstein said he pursued this
>> case because, in addition to the drugs' serious physical health risks,
>> he is concerned about the rights of those who find them both unhelpful
>> and intolerable. He continued, ??oFor people who want to try non-drug
>> approaches, the research is very clear that many will have much better
>> long-term outcomes, including complete recovery after being diagnosed
>> with serious mental illness. This decision restores the rights of
>> those people to pursue that potential."
>>
>> The Alaska Supreme Court decision noted the trial court's concern that
>> the statute did not allow the court to consider the problems with the
>> drugs even though "a valid debate exists in the medically/psychiatric
>> community as to the safety and effectiveness of the proposed treatment
>> plan." With this decision, trial courts are now required to consider
>> the safety and effectiveness of the drugs in deciding whether the
>> proposed psychiatric drugging is in the patient's best interest.
>>
>> The Court's Decision also makes specific mention that Alaska Statutes
>> require the hospital to honor a patient's previously expressed desires
>> regarding psychiatric medications.
>>
>> The full decision can be found on the Internet at
>> http://psychrights.org/States/Alaska/CaseOne/MyersOpinion.pdf.
>>
>> Detailed background about The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, a
>> non-profit organization, is available on the PsychRights web site:
>> http://psychrights.org/.
>>
>> # # #
>>
>> CONTACT:
>> Jim Gottstein
>> 907 274-7686
>> jim at psychrights.org <mailto:jim at psychrights.org>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.
>>
>> Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
>> 406 G Street, Suite 206
>> Anchorage, Alaska 99501
>> Phone: (907) 274-7686) Fax: (907) 274-9493
>> jim at psychrights.org
>> http://psychrights.org/
>>
>> * * *Psych Rights* ??
>> * Law Project for
>> Psychiatric Rights
>>
>> *The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm
>> devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of unwarranted
>> forced psychiatric drugging. We are further dedicated to exposing the
>> truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people
>> to be drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging
>> interventions against their will. Extensive information about this is
>> available on our web site, http://psychrights.org/. Please donate
>> generously. Our work is fueled with your IRS 501(c) tax deductible
>> donations. Thank you for your ongoing help and support.
>>
>>
>>
>
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