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REAL HELP
Workable Treatment
Dr. Loren
Mosher
The late Dr. Loren Mosher was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the School
of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. He was also the former Chief
of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health’s Center for Studies of Schizophrenia.
He wrote:
“I opened Soteria House in 1971 … There, young persons diagnosed as having
‘schizophrenia’ lived medication-free with a nonprofessional staff trained to
listen to understand them and provide support, safety and validation of their
experience. The idea was that schizophrenia can often be overcome with the help
of meaningful relationships, rather than with drugs. …”
The Soteria project compared their treatment method with “usual” psychiatric
hospital drug treatment interventions for persons newly diagnosed as having
schizophrenia.
“The experiment worked better than expected. At two years post-admission, Soteria-treated
subjects were working at significantly higher occupational levels, were significantly
more often living independently or with peers, and had fewer readmissions. Interestingly,
clients treated at Soteria who received no neuroleptic medication … or were
thought to be destined to have the worst outcomes, actually did the best as
compared to hospital and drug-treated control subjects,” Dr. Mosher said.
Dr. Giorgio
Antonucci
Dr. Giorgio Antonucci in Italy believes in the value of human life and that
communication, not enforced incarceration and inhumane physical treatments,
can heal even the most seriously disturbed mind.
In the Institute of Osservanza (Observance) in Imola, Italy, Dr. Antonucci
treated dozens of so-called schizophrenic women, most of whom had been continuously
strapped to their beds or kept in straitjackets. All “usual” psychiatric treatments
were abandoned. Dr. Antonucci released the women from their confinement, spending
many, many hours each day talking with them and “penetrating their deliriums
and anguish.” He listened to stories of years of desperation and institutional
suffering.
He ensured that patients were treated compassionately, with respect, and without
the use of drugs. In fact, under his guidance, the ward transformed from the
most violent in the facility to its calmest. After a few months, his “dangerous”
patients were free, walking quietly in the asylum garden. Eventually they were
stable and discharged from the hospital after many had been taught how to work
and care for themselves for the first time in their lives.
Dr. Antonucci’s superior results also came at a much lower cost. Such programs
constitute permanent testimony to the existence of both genuine answers and
hope for the seriously troubled.
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