Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

Earlier this year a 7-year-old boy in state custody prescribed mind altering drugs threatened to kill himself, then he did. This summer another child on powerful drugs also threatened to kill himself, his mother called Help Me Howard, what happened after that? Tonight here is Patrick Fraser with a story we call a mothers hope.

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By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

A criminal investigation has begun into the death of a patient on a waiting room floor at a city-run psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn last year, the Brooklyn district attorney said on Tuesday.

The district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, said that a grand jury had begun an inquiry into the death of Esmin Green, 49, who died early on June 19, 2008, about 24 hours after arriving by ambulance at Kings County Hospital Center’s psychiatric emergency room, where doctors said she was schizophrenic and ordered her to be involuntarily committed.

According to hospital protocol, Ms. Green should have been given a medical examination before she was admitted.

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By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 3:56PM BST 15 Jul 2009

Internet addiction has become a growing problem in China, where officials believe as many as four million people spend more than six hours a day online.

Several clinics have sprung up, offering parents the chance to “cure” their children of the uncontrollable urge to blog or play online games.

Tao Ran, from the Beijing Military General Hospital, runs a camp which gives addicts a mixture of counselling, military discipline and hypnosis.

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By Jennifer K. Woldt of The Northwestern

While a former psychiatrist who had inappropriate sexual contact with a female patient he was treating avoided a prison sentence, a judge said he has already faced substantial consequences for his actions after losing his medical license and his career.

Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Key withheld sentence and placed Charles D. Morgan, 63, of Neenah, on probation for six years Thursday for a conviction on two counts of sexual exploitation by a therapist. As a condition of his probation, Key ordered Morgan to serve nine months in the county jail and perform 200 hours of community service. An additional three months of jail time was imposed and stayed.

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“Inside Outside” is a work of hope created by former patients and film-makers Pat Deegan and Terry Strecker. The film depicts the lives of eight people with very significant histories of institutionalization, as they transition from nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals into the community. In the spirit of the President’s New Freedom Initiative and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead Decision, the film carries the message that recovery and life in the community are possibilities even for people who are viewed as the most chronic or impaired. The film leaves audiences of professionals and people with psychiatric disabilities alike, cheering for these eight individuals as they make their journey from inside institutions to full community inclusion on the outside. Produced for the US Department of Health And Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services. This is Part 1 of 2 parts. Producer: Pat Deegan, Ph.D and Terry Strecker
Production Company: Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.

PART 1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-udSAzbbM[/youtube]

PART 2

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6DnRvbgvjw[/youtube]

By Getahn Ward
THE TENNESSEAN

Psychiatric Solutions Inc. has been hit with a lawsuit that accuses the company of negligence in its oversight of employees at a residential psychiatric facility in Florida.

Abuse including beatings by employees at the Manatee Palms Youth Services in Bradenton caused plaintiff Nicholas E. Rossi to suffer severe emotional distress and bodily harm, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Manatee County Circuit Court. Rossi was a resident at the facility from September 2004 to May 2005.

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By Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer (Newsobserver)
State mental health officials were informed earlier this week they could lose federal funding at state psychiatric hospitals in Raleigh and Butner as soon as Feb. 20, potentially costing more than $1.2 million a month in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, federal inspectors were at both facilities Thursday and today reviewing new complaints of patient abuse and neglect.

The loss of Medicaid and Medicare money at Central Regional Hospital, which includes a new $130 million building in Butner and the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus in Raleigh, comes at a critical time for a state Department of Health and Human Services already facing deep budget cuts. It cost about $10 million a month to operate the two hospitals.

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Violence and Sexual Abuse Found at City-Run Psychiatric Unit
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

The federal government has documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients at the psychiatric unit of a city-run Brooklyn hospital where a woman died in June on the floor of the emergency waiting room while staff members ignored her.

After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice portrayed the unit at Kings County Hospital Center as a nightmarish place where patients were not treated for suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and were frequently abused by other patients.

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By Jeff O’Brien

Wed, Feb 4, 2009 (5:25 p.m.)
A former nursing assistant at Centennial Hills Hospital faces additional charges of sexual assault and lewdness involving patients after a sixth woman came forward with allegations of misconduct.

Steven Farmer, 56, was in Clark County District Court Wednesday for a procedural hearing. His trial, which was set for Monday, was rescheduled for June 22. That trial

is for sexual assault charges involving five women, all alleged victims he encountered

while working at either Centennial Hills or at a previous job at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital.

A separate trial was set for May 26 on charges involving the sixth alleged victim, who came forward with her allegations in November. He faces one count of sexual assault, five counts of lewdness and two counts of indecent exposure over an incident involving the 51-year-old patient at Centennial Hills Hospital. The woman said Farmer sexually assaulted her and repeatedly lifted up her hospital gown sometime in May 2008.

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Feb 4 2009  Birmingham Post

A mental health patient walked out of a Birmingham psychiatric hospital unchallenged with a door security pass belonging to a member of staff.

But West Midlands Police have revealed that the teenager was only reported missing two days later on Sunday morning.

He had used the swipe card to calmly pass through a number of electronically controlled doors and out of the intensive care unit in Edgbaston on Friday and was finally tracked down in Sparkhill by police on Monday afternoon.

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