Violating Human Rights

How easy is it to be committed? Very easy. Consider the following examples:

Seventy-four-year-old William, suffering congestive heart failure and reliant on an oxygen tank to breathe, said, “Yes,” in 1992 when his homecare nurse asked if he felt depressed. Within 30 minutes, an attendant from a local psychiatric hospital arrived and when William refused to go with him, the attendant called the police. The officers unhooked
the oxygen tank, searched him for weapons, put him into a police car and drove him to a medical hospital which transferred him to a psychiatric facility. With no examination, William was committed as “suicidal,” and held involuntarily for 72 hours—for “observation.” The next day a psychiatrist said he needed to be detained another 48 hours and possibly as long as six months. William was “saved” only by the onset of a heart attack. He was transferred to a general hospital where a medical doctor determined that William had no need for psychiatric confinement. William’s health insurance was billed $4,000 for four days in the psychiatric facility (even though he had only been there two days, and not by choice), and he was billed $800 personally.

In 1997, Massachusetts parents rushed their 8-year-old epileptic son to a hospital for a medication adjustment after he experienced hallucinations. Instead of adjusting his medication, staff committed him to a psychiatric facility. It took the frantic parents an entire day to secure his transfer to a medical hospital for appropriate care.

In 1999, psychiatrists in Germany involuntarily committed a 79-year-old woman because neighbors reported she had acted “strangely.” Despite her long-term diabetes and liver, kidney and heart conditions, she was prescribed between 5 and 20 times the normal dosage of powerful tranquilizers. Six days later the woman was rushed to a hospital emergency room, where she died. An autopsy determined that she died of breathing difficulties—a complication of tranquilizers.

When 19-year-old “Jo” was persuaded to admit herself to a psychiatric hospital in England while recovering from eating problems, she was told she would be able to rest, go for walks and receive counseling. “My psychiatrist’s idea of counseling was to put me on antipsychotic drugs, and whenever I had a problem” to increase the dose, she told a London newspaper in 2000. There was nothing to do but eat, watch television and smoke. On the drugs, “I became aggressive, and for the first time, I started to cut my arms,” she said. “The longer I was in there, the less sane I became.” When she ran away, she was returned to the hospital and involuntarily committed. A patient raped her. But when she reported this to staff they told her the man was “just ill.” It took several months before Jo’s mother was able to secure her release. “Looking back it’s hard to believe what happened to me. I went in for a rest but came out a total wreck.”

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