Psychiatric abuse and fraud
Tristan
The Soviet Union used to commit dissidents to psychiatric "hospitals"
for being so "insane" as to oppose the system.
China still uses this practice, as it did against the falun gong.
Not long ago in the U.S., homosexuals were often forced to undergo
psychiatric "treatment."
In the present U.S., abusive involuntary commitment is still
commonplace, but it's all about money.
U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder of Colorado held hearings
investigating the practices of psychiatric hospitals in the United
States. Her committee's summary: "Our investigation has found that
thousands of adolescents, children, and adults have been hospitalized
for psychiatric treatment they didn't need; that hospitals hire bounty
hunters to kidnap patients with mental health insurance; that patients
are kept against their will until their insurance benefits run out; that
psychiatrists are being pressured by the hospitals to increase profit;
that hospitals 'infiltrate' schools by paying kickbacks to school
counselors who deliver students; that bonuses are paid to hospital
employees, including psychiatrists, for keeping the hospital beds
filled; and that military dependents are being targeted for their
generous mental health benefits."
The supposed experts responsible for these "diagnoses" are
usually biased in favor of commitment because of their personal economic
concerns or their affiliation with the psychiatric "hospital" or ward
where the "patient" is or will be confined. Psychiatric "hospitals",
like all businesses, need customers. In the case of psychiatric
"hospitals" [or wards], they need patients. They not only want
patients, they need them to stay in business. Similarly, individual
psychiatrists and psychologists need patients to make money and earn a
living�.Keeping all those psychiatric beds filled is critical, and
administrators are aggressively ensuring that they will be. Some
facilities even resort to paying employees and others bonuses of $500 to
$1,000 per referral.
An administrator at a psychiatric "hospital" told me
competition between psychiatric hospitals is "cut throat". Combine this
intense competition with America's poorly written involuntary commitment
laws and judges who refuse to impose protection from unwarranted
commitment that bona-fide due process requires, and the result is a lot
of people being deprived of liberty and suffering psychiatric stigma
unjustifiably."
--Lawrence Stevens, a lawyer whose practice has included representing
psychiatric "patients" who have been abused in this manner. His
articles are not copyrighted. You are invited to make copies.
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/unjustif.htm
UPDATE
"Some psychiatric hospitals made a practice of admitting adolescents in
distress, using the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The federal
government finally intervened, charging the hospitals with fraud and
assessing fines of millions of dollars. Many of these children did not
have bipolar disorder at all, but were acting inappropriately because of
stresses in their families, with their friends, and at school." --Edward
Drummond, M.D., Associate Medical Director at Seacoast Mental Health
Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in _The Complete Guide to
Psychiatric Drugs_ (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 2000), pages
13-14. Dr. Drummond graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine
and was trained in psychiatry at Harvard University."
See also:
http://www.cchr.org/take_action/report_psychiatric_abuse.html
"Vulnerable people who have sought help from psychiatrists and
psychologists have been falsely diagnosed and forced to undergo unwanted
and often harmful psychiatric methods."
P.S. A person is also charged for the payment of his own involuntary
commitment. If you don't have insurance, they can and will seize your
assets or put a lien on your house. So if you go to a hospital or local
mental health clinic for help with depression, you could end up being
hospitalized because you're a threat to yourself. The "screener" who
decides you should be involuntary committed may be a social worker or
"counselor," not a psychiatrist, who usually just rubber stamps what the
"screener" says.
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2004/Bills/PL05/55_.PDF.
While in theory, a patient is entitled to a hearing before a judge
before longer term involuntary commitment, in practice this provides
little protection.
1. In most states, you can be held for 3 days just on the recommendation
of a "screener," who need not even be a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists
just rubber stamp the screener's recommendation.
2. You can be and many people are involuntarily committed if they are
considered a potential danger to themselves, i.e., if they've had
thoughts of suicide. But thoughts of suicide are a common symptom of
depression; indeed, it's one of the standard DSM-IV diagnostic criteria
for clinical depression.
3. For the reasons noted above, it's in the financial interest of both
screeners and psychiatrists to commit people.
4. It often 20 days or longer to get even a preliminary hearing before a
judge, during which time the person remains committed.
5. Judges usually just follow the recommendation of the
psychiatrist/screener, who have a vested interest in commitment. Unless
you can afford to hire your own lawyer and psychiatrist, you may stay
committed.
6. The person is often released before a hearing can be held, which is
often weeks. That still amounts to tens of thousands of dollars in
hospital and other medical bills. If you don't have insurance, they can
and will charge you for it.
qqq
psychiatrists are simply a modern day equivalent of witchdoctors. They
often do irreparable harm to "patients" by their trial and error methods
of prescribing dangerous psychotropic drugs that have not been adquately
tested or researched, with no scientific basis for prescribing those
drugs other than their own half-baked theories of brain function. It is
a shame these guys are even allowed to practice medicine as they are far
worse than most regular doctors, who in and of themselves are often
incompetent. This is the reason why we have so many malpractice suits,
not just because of greedly lawyers. Tom Cruise was correct in his
assessment of psychiatry as a bogus profession.
Tristan <twe...@aol.com> wrote in news:4aba2898$0$5010$607e...@cv.net:
> and earn a living�.Keeping all those psychiatric beds filled is
Dr. G
news:4aba2898$0$5010$607e...@cv.net...
It's a shame, but what you posted is basically true. I worked in this field
for over 30 years before retiring last year, not as a clinician but in
medical research, management, teaching, and just about every other capacity.
I saw how psych departments used "bounty hunters" to commit patients. I've
seen doctors add a $200 "consultation fee" for looking at a patient's chart
for 30 seconds. As the old bromide goes, there are good and bad people in
every field, and not all healthcare personnel are like this. But they are
mainly looking out for their own interests.
JA Golczewski, Ph.D.
Updates on Health and Life extension
https://sites.google.com/site/jgolczewski/jgolczewskihome