Responsibility, accountability and punishment all do have an essential and pivotal role in our society in order to live within boundaries of civility. Unfortunately, contemporary psychiatry views all of this differently. Throughout the course of time, as a society, we have institutionalized mental patients with some form of mistreatment and abuse. Locking patients in a cell, caged in 8’ by 10’ rooms, being subjected to humiliation, mental, verbal, physical and even psychological abuse is not the answer. Reasonable, caring people would definitely disagree. The million-dollar question is why as a civilized society do we not bring about desired changes? Even our elected government officials do not realize that there is room for much improvement. It’s quite obvious, it all has to do with maintaining social control and hold down behaviour to determine what is acceptable and is deemed abnormal, inappropriate, weird/strange, bizarre behaviour. However, we don’t track down, apprehend, lock up, and punish corrupt politicians who constantly implement arbitrary laws that only benefit the rich and ultimately stick it to the poor and other disadvantaged people. Do we go after Wall Street brokers who have literally stolen and screwed working class people’s lives and deprived them of their life savings? If that isn’t two-tier justice, I don’t know what justice is. The history of asylums can be traced back as early as 490 in Jerusalem, Unfortunately, even after all these years, advances in treatments are still lagging behind and are regressive in nature. Psychiatric wards have not fully evolved to treat patients with due respect, understanding compassion. To name a few people, going back in time, French historian, Michel Foucult, condemned the use of institutionalized torture. Former prominent psychiatrist, Franco Basaglia, condemned his own profession of its abuses, including torture, humiliation, clearly stating that it serves as unnecessary punishment and cruelty. Thankfully, the horrific tortures of asylums of the past are history now but there is still much room for improvement Today, at Riverview Hospital and places like Colony Farm in Coquitlam, B.C., patients are not re-habilitated but drugged into a stupor. Doctors, nurses and staff basically just pump their patients with mind-altering, brain/nerve damaging drugs; so therefore, the profession of psychiatry does not have the patients’ best interest at heart. How could those who study and train as medical doctors, swear under the medical oath not to do harm patients end up doing the exact opposite. If the majority of society was well informed they would find it utterly and totally untenable. There are solutions to urban psychiatric wards such as safe houses for people in mental crisis/emotional distress. A couple of examples are a runway house in Germany, Soteria house in California. The cost of “imprisoning” people in psychiatric wards is roughly about a thousand dollars per day per person to run and operate. I encourage and implore people to fully lobby their MP’s and their Provincial MLA’s to bring about progressive measures to treat patients with dignity and the respect they so fully deserve.
Comments