I really hope in a few decades people will realize that the warning signs were fucking BLARING with the mental health care system in the US. The carceral approach to mental health care is evil. It is shockingly easy to reach out for help, falling for the 988 ad campaign, and end up in hell. The approach to mental health care is punishment-based, not treatment based. Not about helping anyone, just torturing and drugging into compliance. It’s about giving sadists and underpaid, undertrained “behavioral techs” free access to a vulnerable population. No one advocates for the mentally ill, and many of them can’t advocate for themselves.
When I was stupid enough to reach out for help last year, they joked about how the legal three day hold only counted for business days, so they could hold me for a full week. They really do not like doing one day stays.
They threw away my grievance forms - I was physically assaulted by staff, had vape smoke blown in my face. I ended up losing my job because I disappeared without being able to communicate and they didn’t give me work release forms.
It was really my final straw with the entire system. My mother used troubled teen facilities and hospitals when I was a child to punish me for speaking up about her alcoholism and sexual abuse - I’ve never seen the system work.
If you look at his other comment you start to see why people don’t reach out. I’ve never been in custody, I’ve always known that no matter how bad it is, inpatient care rarely helps. I’m rare in that I know someone who has been helped by it, but I know multiple people who were hurt by it.
Forcing people into inpatient care is dangerous for the sane and insane alike. There’s a long history of pathologizing dissenters and locking them up for it. But also locking people up against their will, in a system that those who volunteered for it often regret doing so, is not conducive to improving mental health.
You have to improve the system, fix it so a traumatized veteran would rather be receiving care than living on the streets. Once reaching out becomes the thing that those who’ve recovered from mental illness recommend doing rather than recommending against, then we can begin discussing ways to push the unwilling towards treatment.
I really hope in a few decades people will realize that the warning signs were fucking BLARING with the mental health care system in the US. The carceral approach to mental health care is evil. It is shockingly easy to reach out for help, falling for the 988 ad campaign, and end up in hell. The approach to mental health care is punishment-based, not treatment based. Not about helping anyone, just torturing and drugging into compliance. It’s about giving sadists and underpaid, undertrained “behavioral techs” free access to a vulnerable population. No one advocates for the mentally ill, and many of them can’t advocate for themselves.
That was a lot of action for a one-night stay.
When I was stupid enough to reach out for help last year, they joked about how the legal three day hold only counted for business days, so they could hold me for a full week. They really do not like doing one day stays.
They threw away my grievance forms - I was physically assaulted by staff, had vape smoke blown in my face. I ended up losing my job because I disappeared without being able to communicate and they didn’t give me work release forms.
It was really my final straw with the entire system. My mother used troubled teen facilities and hospitals when I was a child to punish me for speaking up about her alcoholism and sexual abuse - I’ve never seen the system work.
Oh my god that’s awful
Sorry you experienced that. I hope there’s something to eventually counter all that you’ve dealt with.
Universe doesn’t care, but we do.
Shockingly easy to reach out for help, but those most in need of it are incapable or unwilling to do so, so what then?
See my other post above.
If you look at his other comment you start to see why people don’t reach out. I’ve never been in custody, I’ve always known that no matter how bad it is, inpatient care rarely helps. I’m rare in that I know someone who has been helped by it, but I know multiple people who were hurt by it.
Forcing people into inpatient care is dangerous for the sane and insane alike. There’s a long history of pathologizing dissenters and locking them up for it. But also locking people up against their will, in a system that those who volunteered for it often regret doing so, is not conducive to improving mental health.
You have to improve the system, fix it so a traumatized veteran would rather be receiving care than living on the streets. Once reaching out becomes the thing that those who’ve recovered from mental illness recommend doing rather than recommending against, then we can begin discussing ways to push the unwilling towards treatment.