Mental Illness-Jail All Of Us

I get the impression that big pharma's multi-billion dollar white powder pills and potions only make matters worse in too many cases. Medical science is still feeling its way around in the dark when it comes to the human brain. Hopefully centuries from now they will look back on the state of medical science as having been clueless about the human mind and how it works, or is supposed to work. For now the witch doctors billion dollar white powder pills and potions seem to do as much or more harm than good with all the negative side effects prescribed with limited efficacy.

They have no idea how to cure much of anything, but they are the ones regarded as demi-gods. I think scientific and technological progress might occur at a more rapid pace once they ditch the bad economic system working to prevent progress. The planet is sick, and so are millions of people. I think the two issues may be indirectly or even directly linked. I think the bad socio-economic system is not designed around the needs of people or  the environment we depend on so much as it is engineered around profit and the needs of a handful few privileged elite on our sick planet. Earth in general is running a fever.

People are often labelled crazy when they fall out of step with the cadenced insanity of the society around them.

TMcDermott, these three below are great resources.  They're all American, though; unfortunately there isn't really a Canadian equivalent as of yet.  The issues are the same in both countries, however. And there are two books by award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker (who runs madinamerica.com) called Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic, both of which I strongly recommend. Basically, Whitaker writes about the astonishing rise in chronic mental illness coinciding with the pharmacological revolution in the field.

And, just you know, I, too, have been on countless different medications.  I've been hospitalized, isolated, tied down, force drugged, force electroshocked.  You name it, it's been done to me. I've been diagnosed as depressed, bipolar, schizophrenic, schizo-affective, borderline personality, and those are just the ones I can remember.  

http://mindfreedom.org/

http://psychrights.org/index.htm

http://www.madinamerica.com/

Eventually, I came to the understanding that psychiatry is a pseudo-science marketing empire crock of shit.  As SOAP (Speak Out Against Psychiatry) advises, remember recovery starts with non-compliance.

Good luck to you.

In general, in BC anyway, long hospitalizations aren't really the problem anymore.  If you behave yourself ("Yes, I'm neurologically damaged, I'll take my drugs, just let me out for a smoke please."), you can usually get out in a matter of days or weeks -- they simply don't have the resources to hold people for longer.  The more sinister and overwhelming concern, however, is out-patient commitment where people are monitored and persecuted in their own homes.  That arrangement can last indefinitely.

The BC Civil Liberties Association points to Ontario's mental health legislation as better and more patient-oriented law.  In BC, you simply have to be diagnosed with a mental disorder and be "capable of deterioration" to be subjected to forced hospitalization, drugging and electroshock.

I'm a little concerned that your post perpetuates the mythical link between mental illness and violence.  Perhaps that wasn't your intention but it reads that way to me. 

 

This is why I'm puzzled about some of your other posts elsewhere. They're not congruent, much like mine.

The International Schizophrenia Foundation provides all the literature and access to resources for those wanting to get well, and I mean totally well. People who are mentally well do not need counsellors etc. because they are WELL, but what do I know?

The idea of getting arrested for being depressed saddens me.

Unless you're threatening or attempting suicide, a mental health arrest isn't that likely in this scenario. If you're manic or psychotic, however, your fundamental Charter rights (for instance, against arbitrary detention) will be overruled by the psychiatric industry. Ever seen a MHA takedown? Not pretty, not pretty at all.

And your point is what, exactly? Are you saying that the designated sane don't commit offences "against the public order"? Why do we have two standards? One for the designated sane and one for the psychiatrically labelled. It smacks of other-ism to me.

Again, this is also true for all other offenders. What's so special about the insane?

So, what you're saying is that even though there are myriad factors involved, we should just focus on the "insane" angle.

No, I don't think that's what you mean. You suggested clearly above that you feel the problem is the crazies threatening the public order.

Indeed they do. But what you don't seem to understand is that “they” includes people like me. I have a right to be safe, too. Safe from forced drugging and electroshock, involuntary hospitalization, stigma, discrimination, a long list of others.

You're quite right and that is why all of these acts involve different sections of the Criminal Code. Or are you suggesting that yelling on a street car is a "sane offence" while your other two examples are "insane offences."  I fear that you are, in fact, making that false distinction.

Don't know where you are but MHA arrests here (British Columbia) are easy and very often unjustified. Perhaps we have more bed space than your province does, I don't know. Perhaps you're in Ontario where your Mental Health Act is faintly more in tune with civil liberties.

Tragic. As is the case with all the people who commit suicide after being admitted to hospital and swallowed up by the psychiatric machine.

Of course. Being crazy and acting out (as opposed to just acting out) is an invitation to be tasered or worse. I'm not sure how your statement fits with the rest of your post, however. Are you saying we need to treat the mentally ill better? Or are you saying that we need more restrictive laws to make them smarten up?

Glad you're not my lawyer, by the way.

The point of the post is that'll is important to differentiate between thugs and entrepreneurial accused, and individual pushed by the context of poverty, homelessness or substandard housing , trauma, childhood horrors, limited education, addictions and mental health related disabilities. I work exclusively with the latter. Most lawyers only focus on the charges. They will exchange shorter prison terms for pleas. However their clients are then released to the same conditions that gave rise to the offences in the first place. The rearrest and reincarcerationrates rates are high. In Toronto I can often offer my clients an additional option to the trial or plea commonly offered. If the client chooses and the Crown accepts they can chose to take court mental health diversion. In this program the Iindividual works with social workers for between 6 months and a year to establish practical stability. If successful the Crown either withdraws the charges or stays them ( usually in drug cases). Success is defined as housing, benefits and establishing a successful relationship with community support agencies. Thie Province put real money into this program and as a result it is often easier to get clients practical supports after arrest than it was before. While this is going on I sort out ID issues, benefit issues, sometimes apply for Criminal Injury compensation and most importantly help clients find sustainable housing. If the client wants to we also refer to detox followed by harm reduction supports. This process also helps keep immigration deportations away. Over 90% of my clients succeed. Sometimes the resolutions are very creative. For example one of my current cases is with a long term client who is diagnosed with schizophrenia and chooses not to take medication. He also refuses to sleep outside any building as he believes the air poisons him. He sleeps parks. On this occasion he chose to sleep in a park in the city core. When he was awakened by a large delivery truck and was very angry.He threw stones at the workmen and threatened to break their legs. Upon arrest he hit a cop. There were many witnesses. In regular court if convicted with his current record he would face at least 2 months in prison. Through the mental health system I have negotiated a resolution that prohibits him from sleeping anywhere in the core of Toronto and in any park with early morning business related pedestrians. It will be solved through a peace bond and the assault, threatening bodily harm and resist arrest charges will be withdrawn. This process is very important for clients accused of trafficking because of the Tory mandatory 1 year minimum for trafficking. My job is to try to keep my clients out of jail and/ or hospital by networking community alternatives. The point of all this post is many people are charged with criminal offences that can lead to jail. Jails are appalling. On the mental health side it is very difficult to get an absolute discharge from the mental health hospital system. I believe that in many case the legitimate sociatial concern with safety ( don't throw rocks at people) can be better served by working on changing the context of people's lives instead of by locking them up. Currently over 40% of all federal and provincial prisoners are people diagnosed with major mental health disabilities. Statistically very few are detained for major charges. Most are detained for a combination of substantive minor charges and breaches of court orders. Most are in pretrial detention because the cannot get bail or serving sentences of 90 days or less. Most are very poor and live with concurrent serious mental health and addiction disabilities. These are my clients. Additional another truly appalling fact of many of their lives is that their criminal records document that many have spent about 1/3 of their lives detained, Ina kind of sequential perceptual incarceration. When clients live in better housing with more supports their rearrest and reincarceration rates decrease dramatically,

specifically I do not blame the victims of discrimination in employment for the discrimination. My point has always been the in a Capitalist Canada Law is never fair. it is always about power. Poor people are always at a disadvantage. Rich powerful disabled individuals get more "justice" than poorer disabled people. I believe there is a fundamental contradiction between capitalism and both formal legal equality and formal enacted human rights. Overall from the SCC down Courts tend to by strong on equality and accommodation rhetoric and very weak on real enforceable proactive decisions. I work on a few employment human rights cases and have won some of the only cases in Ontario, However all those involved discriminatory firings. Discrimination in hiring is rampant but legally VERY hard to prove in Courts. The only real legally enforceable limitations on what is legally called "employers rights" that I have seem come with Unionization.

That may have been what you intended but that's not what you wrote.

Interesting statistic but we have to keep in mind with all this kind of analysis that “mental illness” is an entirely subjective judgement so when we say Crazy Group A does this and Sane Group B does that, we don't even know what we're counting. With an diagnostic error rate approaching 50%, making any such kind of “scientific” statement is dangerous.

Isn't this true for everybody in our society. Is there really a need to specify “clients”?

True enough. And, having been through both systems, I can tell you that the criminal justice system is a vast improvement over the mental health system. In my crazy state about three years ago, I racked up several charges. Most of the activities that led to them were minor (dialling 911 repeatedly, re-arranging things on store shelves, pouring table salt out of shakers at a restaurant, etc.) but I was also charged with assault
for throwing a cup of coffee at a psych nurse. [Aside: strange how throwing an innocent person onto the floor, restraining her, injecting her with neurotoxins, and essentially jailing her without a court order isn't assault yet throwing paper coffee cups is.] Anyway, I was offered NCRMD and declined and chose to take my chances in court. A minor jail stay versus indefinite incarceration with drugs and electroshock? You bet I opted for jail. You'd have to be crazy not to :)

Well, you did in my case. I shared my very good reasons to believe I'm being discriminated against due to my bringing my former lay-off to the attention of the Human Rights Tribunal. You flew into the thread to say something like "Hey, it's not discrimination if you just don't like somebody so chill." Later, I reiterated that I can't even get interviews and suggested that not liking me wasn't a possibility until the interview stage. I don't think you responded, though. It certainly seemed to me I was being blamed.

Today In Ontario your charge could be resolved through Mental Health diversion ending up with the charges being withdrawn. Thus no jail and no record.