Posted by Abby on January 29, 2000, at 23:30:33
In reply to The Gulag in America?, posted by Noa on January 28, 2000, at 21:24:20
> ABC News 20/20 just aired a piece about a guy who was hospitalized involuntarily because he was promoting unionization at his company. The company had the sheriff arrest him, and the company doctor, who never met the guy, suggested to the sheriff's office to commit the guy involuntarily because he was supposedly mentally ill and dangerous, even though he had no history of violent or erratic behavior. He had seen a psychiatrist for depression, and of course, his confidential info was distorted and used against him. He is suing, and some bigwhig attorneys are helping him because of the obvious civil/human rights issues. There will be a live chat about this story at abcnews.com at 11 pm eastern time.
Where did this happen? In New England, especially in Massachusetts, it's nearly impossible to get people committed. If you succeed, as we did in Maine with my mother, the hospital is likely to let the person go after a day unless they believe that the patient is violent or in imminent danger of committing suicide. This stuff is really tricky in practice. We got my mother to see a psychiatrist briefly, but she wouldn't release her records from the hospital which were closed. The new physician was relying only on her own self reporting. She edited out the hallucinations and delusions and her paronoia. Instead she talked about how she could improve her marriage.
poster:Abby
thread:19943
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000128/msgs/20049.html