Someone you don’t want to date…
…especially considering the last sentence.
AP-A New Hampshire nurse is scheduled to plead guilty today to charges she used her position to have a former boyfriend involuntarily committed to a mental ward.
Thirty-year-old Julia Lynch of Rollinsford is scheduled to appear in Portsmouth District Court today on charges of false swearing and tampering with public records at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where she was a nurse. She’s also charged with stalking and false imprisonment.
Prosecutors say she filed paperwork with the hospital saying her former boyfriend needed emergency psychiatric help last fall. In response, police took him into custody and brought him to the hospital for an evaluation. He did not need psychiatric care.
Lynch faces similar charges involving a second former boyfriend last spring.
[Story courtesy Joe G. Image courtesy Funny Designs.]
liz | 1:01 PM | Uncategorized
Top o’ the mornin’ to ye
Mentally ill murderers go free without any mandate for compliance, putting the burden again on the correctional system to deal with mental health issues.
A public defender tells the Reno Gazette Journal: “I see AB193 as a codification of one of the criminal justice system’s ‘dirty little secrets,’ namely that the jails and prison systems have become the primary mental health providers in our communities.”
Legislators take issue with pleas of insanity
[Thanks KR!]
liz | 10:44 AM | Uncategorized
And you thought the U.S. system was broken…
90% of depression sufferers in China fail to get proper treatment
liz | 3:09 PM | Uncategorized
Medisucks/ShrinkRap
A new study shows that people plagued by Part D are having trouble getting access to their psych meds. Scroll down here. Also, there are some other good stories on that site.
Plus, I got an email from someone over at ShrinkRap, which is a blog written by psychiatrists. As I am very fond of my psychiatrist, I like the site. I suppose if you think psychiatry is bunkum, you won’t want to hang out there. Then again, you’re probably not hanging out here, either.
liz | 1:19 PM | Uncategorized
Two things
New website for returning veterans
Guardian “celebrates” 20 years of Prozac (Thanks Simon)
liz | 10:32 AM | Uncategorized
What you’re doing tonight
What: Fundraiser for the Painted Bride Quarterly, with special guest RICK MOODY!
Where: World Cafe Live
When: 7:30 p.m.
liz | 5:20 PM | Uncategorized
News bites
From Kent: living in a walkable neighborhood will lessen depression in older men
Doug Supernaw: Former country superstar. Now starring in a courtroom near you.
Un-P.C. headline of the day: Mental illness sent high-school athlete ‘right off his rocker’
liz | 2:07 PM | Uncategorized
Thank you, Josh C.
So generously, Josh C. took the time to write in. I can’t say how much I appreciate these words. However, despite his eloquence, I realize I have increasingly failed in my mission to REPRESENT (oh yeaaaah) the 2-1-5. Josh, never fear–there is nothing I love more than Philly, not even my parents or my hamster or my boyfriend or apple turnovers. This city is my true love, and since it’s so stupid and funny, I should really write about it more often.
But Josh, have you checked out the website Philadelphia Will Do? It’s hilarious. It’s all about Philly, every little bit of it. I’m completely addicted. And yes, it is by my colleague, but I swear I’m not recommending it for that reason. He’s a weird kid. He’s like 16 years old but has a Philadelphia institutional memory that confounds me. He’s all, “Dilworth this, and Dilworth that.” I wasn’t even born then! Sometimes I wonder if aliens have landed in Philly and taken over his body. I mean, if aliens are going to land anywhere, it’ll be Philly. No matter where they were from, they’d feel right at home.
Anyhoo, if you’d like to see what prompted all of this, Josh’s comment is after the jump. Though you can read it for yourself, I just want to quote the last part of it, just in case (like me) you see a jump and think, “I’m so tired…” He writes: “The dark corners of human life, whether they be mental illness or something else, are always going to be there and sometimes we have to visit those places in order to appreciate the light in our lives.”
So wise. Thank you, Josh, for taking the time to write and for making my day. I appreciate it.
[Photo of Milton Street, funniest Philadelphian, hands down.]
liz | 12:20 PM | Uncategorized
It was awful/Cute Fix
Last night, after giving a speech to a NAMI group in Glenside, I kind of fell apart. It’s hard to talk about that stuff sometimes. Other times, it’s a breeze, and I walk away feeling chipper and helpful. But last night I just kept thinking about everything that happened to me in the years when I was acutely ill and my illness wasn’t manageable, and the words “It was awful” were reverberating in my brain. I started having all kinds of unpleasant memories, and I felt exhausted both from the memories and from the experience of getting lost a bazillion times when I was driving there and back. I felt like I had spent the whole night trying to be like everyone else–acting as though life was effortless. But it’s not effortless, and I think that’s why I kind of broke down. I spent seven years of my life in the most horrible circumstances, and I know I have PTSD from that, not to mention from the time I was raped, which really is when all my problems began.
Anyway, I was feeling so upset, I made a video talking about it. I’m thinking of taking it down now, but on the other hand, I feel like it was honest, so maybe I’ll leave it up. I don’t know.
Meanwhile, enjoy this cute photo of a funny squirrel. It makes everything better, doesn’t it?
liz | 10:49 AM | Uncategorized
A thoughtful response to TTWS: Print Edition
From Kent R.:
Is it really Asparagus Month? Man, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had asparagus. No wonder things have been so hard recently.
In seriousness, though, I want to say that I’m very glad you included that statement from Philip Dawdy, Liz, because it seems to be very much the case that most people who get caught up in the mental health system do not have appropriate representation in court, or anywhere else. It may be expedient to treat people like products on a factory assembly line in the short run, but it the long run it can have devastating effects – both for the people treated that way and sometimes even for society at large.
I am also very glad you included that statement from Benedict Carey, because I’ve always resented the way psychiatrists use that phrase “lack of insight”. In common usage, it seems to refer to someone who does not reflect on themselves or what motivates them, but in psych-speak it seems to mean a less than wholehearted acceptance of whatever diagnosis any particular psychiatrist wants to apply to someone. Just like the term “Schizophrenia”, it seems to refer to something different when used psychiatrically than is the popular perception of its meaning. I think the public perception about those terms is of something that is actually more perjorative than what is meant in a mental health context.
The use of that particular term has always been a particular sore point for me ever since I snuck a peak at some of my mental health records – (which was probably the only way I would’ve ever seem any of them) – and saw it on there. If the powers-that-be are going to use a term like that in someone’s records, shouldn’t they at least put a lot of thought into what they are saying, and put it in some kind of context so as not to be any more slanderous than necessary?
liz | 4:52 PM | Uncategorized
