Atarax/JCAHO
Hoo boy, that shit is powerful. I’ve been having trouble sleeping due to anxiety and my doctor prescribed an antihistimine, Atarax. I like it because it sounds like a planet dreamed up by L. Ron Hubbard. I also like it because I slept, slept, slept — until right now. My dog has been loving this unemployment thing. We just bask in the nap-ness of life. Here’s a little something from a dedicated reader who has a finger on the pulse of the Ancora mess, especially in the context of accreditation:
Despite the Dept. of Justice’s [scathing] report on Ancora it maintains full Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations accreditation . The kick in the head is that JCAHO did its site inspection on January 9, 2009 and the DOJ did its inspection from January 12 to January 15, 2009. Apparently JCAHO perceived a completely different institution. Kings County Hospital’s Behavioral Health Department maintained full JCAHO accreditation despite the death of Esmin Green, its 2009 DOJ report, and a lawsuit filed in 2007 . Connecticut Valley Hospital similarly maintained full accreditation despite its August 2007 DOJ report .
Someday a reporter will consider what JCAHO accreditation means when it comes to mental hospitals and whose interests JCAHO is putting first, i.e. the hospitals who pay for the accreditation or the patients whose misfortune it is to be in these institutions.
liz | 12:44 PM | hospitals / hospitalization, media
Liveblogging Primetime Outsiders
All the below is about this show.
Madigan: They didn’t flatter you with that lighting.
David Oaks: You’re looking so handsome! I had no idea. Your eyebrows are very sexy. (I’m completely sincere.)
“But critics worry …” That’s journalism-speak for “We don’t have any specific sources who say this, but we’ll generalize it so we have reason to focus on …”
… violence. That’s what they’re focusing on. Why am I not surprised?
So of all the things they could talk about related to Mad Pride — and related to mental health — this is what they’ve come up with: criminals and violent crime. Ugh. TV is so predictable and depressing.
Okay, so now we’re telling the story of a kid with hallucinations and delusions (the CIA, yadda yadda) who KILLS HIS MOTHER? Does the average American viewer understand how fucking rare this kind of thing is? That it’s not the necessary result of deciding not to take meds?
On to the withdrawal story: Clearly, the program wasn’t looking for a success story. This poor woman who decided to do the show so they could feed off her misery — I knew that’s what they wanted. Is she doing the withdrawal in conjunction with a doctor? Who the hell knows? The show doesn’t tell you. It hardly tells you her name. And …
Oh! There it is again: “Critics worry … ” (that she’s going to be “a time bomb” without her meds). Who are these critics worrying about this girl? Frank Rich? David Denby? I’d love to know.
“Violence is unpredictable with or without drugs.” Brilliant script.
Blurry homeless images. Madigan cello-ing. … This show is so bad, it’s like a joke. I guess it all goes back to what producer Ia Robinson told me, when we discussed my being on the show: She doesn’t have any friends or family who have mental problems, so the whole topic was like “walking on the moon.” Yes, that’s the phrase she used. The show should’ve been blasted out to Mars.
Except Joey P. He’s delightful and a voice of reason.
liz | 9:34 PM | SCHIZOPHRENIA, alternative treatments, bipolar disorder, celebrities, criminal justice system, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, meds, philadelphia, side effects, stigma, suicide, violence
Why Haven’t I Made This Joke Before?
I’m always complaining about writing yet another post on Ancora, but what’s funny about its name is that it means “again” in Italian. Dovrei dire, “Ancora parlo di Ancora? E ridicolo.”
Of course, it’s not funny at all for people who are trapped there. The most recent news comes in a report on the psych hospital’s operations in 2008, and of course, it’s nothing we didn’t know already. It’s just depressing. From the Courier-Post Online:
Ancora Psychiatric Hospital remained a dangerous place in 2008, with patients there subject to “serious, frequent and recurrent harm,” according to details of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation released on Monday.
A letter to Gov. Jon S. Corzine from acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King was sharply critical of practices at Ancora, the Winslow Township hospital that is the state’s largest psychiatric facility.
Staff at Ancora frequently used excessive restraint to control patients, failed to appropriately monitor patients who were engaged in aggressive or self-destructive behavior, and did not provide adequate mental health treatment for those hospitalized there, the letter states.
Click here for more. But not while you’re eating.
liz | 2:37 PM | hospitals / hospitalization
Goodbye, Anti-Sacred and Profane Writing Machine
After a long battle with cancer, PW staff writer, Guardian columnist, punk-rock novelist, NME gadfly, gender-twisting rebel comedian and poet Steven Wells has gone on to other things. Well, not really. According to Steven, there’s no such thing as the afterlife, and if there is, I guarantee he’s really, really pissed off right now. I can just picture him at St. Peter’s Gates, saying, “Fuck me! This shit actually exists?”
We’ll all miss Steven so much, and I’ll say more about that later. For now, I’m wishing the best to all family and friends who are hurting. That’s what Steven really cared about in the end, though he was very passionately annoyed by knitting, as well.
Steven was often told he was anti-American. I loved his passion, and he cracked us the fuck up every day. This video was part of a series he did for PW called Steven Wells’ America, in which he took sacred cows and basically grilled them for dinner. Below, he reflects on the religiosity of an America that voted for Bush a second time (Steven was a staunch atheist). Toward the end he smiles a bit, so you know that he knows he’s being ridiculous. And that’s part of what was so cute about Steven — he’d rant, but then laugh at himself.
liz | 10:41 AM | BIG PHARMA, Funny or Offensive?, GLBT, Song of the Day, alternative treatments, anxiety, celebrities, children, cute fix, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, media, meds, military, philadelphia, phobias, politics, random, religion, suicide, violence
I Don’t Understand Health Insurance
I mean, I love it, but I hate thinking about it. I just sent in a mess of claim forms to Aetna hoping to get back some semblance of money with which to pay my shrink. They were all, “Talk to the hand” about half the charges because I hadn’t met my deductibles at that time. My plan isn’t quite what you call a “high-deductible” plan, though, I don’t think. I’m not sure. But:
The investment firm Fidelity recently surveyed employees at various companies who had opted for a high-deductible health plan linked to a health savings account. About half of those workers said they or a family member had chosen not to seek medical care for minor ailments as many as four times in the last year to avoid paying the out-of-pocket expenses.
As any doctor will tell you, small health problems left untreated can become big problems, warns Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy at the health care advocacy group Families USA. “This is just one of the many high-deductible pitfalls consumers need to watch out for,” Ms. Stoll said.
Patient Money: The Many Hidden Costs of High-Deductible Health Insurance
liz | 1:42 PM | hospitals / hospitalization, meds
Codey Will Transform System?
The headline at NJPoliticker.com reads: “CODEY BILLS WOULD TRANSFORM PATIENT CARE AT STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS”
Explanation:
A package of bills sponsored by Senate President Richard J. Codey that are designed to protect patient safety and improve employee training and oversight at state psychiatric hospitals was approved yesterday by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. … Sen. Codey worked closely with the Public Advocate’s office in drafting these bills, in part, to address a number of injuries and deaths that had arisen recently at state facilities such as Ancora Psychiatric Hospital.
Bill S2492, would require the Department of Human Services (DHS) to establish a training program for staff members who work directly with patients at state psychiatric hospitals in order to ensure the delivery of safe, secure, and therapeutic care. Utilizing best practices in patient treatment, the curriculum would include topics such as state and federal reporting requirements, patient safety, disease prevention, health wellness activities, anger management, skilled decision-making and how to deal effectively with life-threatening emergencies. … The bill would require DHS to establish an on-site educational assessment and remedial instruction program at each state psychiatric hospital in order to evaluate the proficiency of all staff members who work directly with patients.The bill would also require the commissioner of DHS to establish minimum educational standards for staff members at a hospital who work or will work directly with patients. … Employees already working directly with patients at the time of the bill’s enactment would be required to undergo an evaluation to determine if they meet the educational standards or require remedial instruction through the on-site education program.Any employee that refuses to participate in the training program or fails to meet the educational standards and refuses to participate in remedial instruction, would be terminated from employment at the hospital. …
The second bill, S2493, would require current and future employees of state psychiatric hospitals, developmental centers and veterans’ memorial homes to undergo drug testing for controlled dangerous substances as a condition of employment.
The last bill in the package, S2494, would require DHS to report the number of physical assaults and deaths that occur at state psychiatric hospitals. The report would be a public record, posted on the official DHS website, and updated quarterly, but would not contain any identifying information about patients or staff members.
As a longtime fan of Sen. Codey’s commitment to mental health matters, I do think it’s a good move. But is it transformative? As an astute TTWS reader notes:
It’s hard to see how these three bills alone will transform patient care at New Jersey’s state psychiatric hospitals which includes Ancora, let alone insure the care long required by law, New Jersey Statutes Annotated 30:4-27.1(c), It is the policy of this State that persons in the public mental health system receive inpatient treatment and rehabilitation services in accordance with the highest professional standards and which will enable those hospitalized persons to return to their community as soon as it is clinically appropriate.
Too often words and deeds fail to intersect at our nation’s psychiatric hospitals. Transform and its variants are now used so frequently that any change is considered transformative. More recently at another New Jersey state psychiatric hospital where a new building was going to lead to transformation (click here, paragraph 5), the reality belied the representations, ex. Developing therapeutic alliances between patients and staff remains a challenge, with differences in race, ethnicity, social class and education creating a ‘them versus us’ scenario.
“When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Humpty Dumpty
liz | 1:05 PM | DISABILITY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, bipolar disorder, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, media, meds, politics
Would You Like to Rub My Brain?
Don’t answer that. I got an email from Maiken Scott, behavioral health reporter for WHYY, the PBS affiliate in Philly. She wrote:
Last year, I met with Dr. John O’Reardon, a U Penn scientist who invited me to cover a new treatment for severe depression as it develops and undergoes scientific testing. This approach is called DBS, or Deep Brain Stimulation. It is already being used successfully in the treatment of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. O’Reardon is passionate about helping people with treatment-resistant depression, and he cares deeply about his patients. Yesterday, I was in the OR at Pennsylvania Hospital, and watched the procedure. I had previously met with the patient. Her name is Tara, she is 50 and has suffered with depression for almost 40 years – we spoke at length before her surgery. I have started to file stories and we’re covering this as it develops both on air and on the web. I plan to follow her for the rest of the year, as she recovers and as scientists learn whether this treatment will bring her relief.
Sounds very interesting to me, and Maiken is a really good reporter. Check it out here.
liz | 1:18 PM | alternative treatments, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, media, meds, side effects
Is Driving a Civil Rights Issue?
Thanks to Joe for sending me this article about a man who wanted a driver’s license despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia. In my experience in community mental health, getting a driver’s license was basically impossible with such a diagnosis; psychiatrists didn’t want to sign the paperwork allowing a person to apply for a license. It was something that distressed me to no end. When I reported the problem to the city authorities, they were appropriately appalled. But nothing changed. A man would go in, ask for a signature that would allow him to simply take a permit test, and be rejected. Yet at the same time he was being told not to define himself by his diagnosis; what a mixed message. He was being told he could recover and lead a “normal” life. But what kind of life is it without being “allowed” to drive?
What made me angry is that I know plenty of incompetent drivers who shouldn’t be on the road, and they don’t suffer from mental illness. I also know drivers who have severe mental illnesses who acquit themselves quite admirably on the roadways (myself included). It’s a violation, in my opinion, of a person’s civil rights to prevent them from applying to get a license.
One woman who did get approval was empowered by it. She failed the permit test again and again, but it never ceased to be a goal, which fit in with the messages given by the community health center: Make sure the clients set goals for themselves; it gives them hope. Perhaps it was an unrealistic goal for her. I don’t think she’ll ever drive. But it was the trying that mattered, and if she ever gets behind the wheel, I hope she drives far away into the sunset with a great song on the radio. Just for fun.
A Guy, a Car: Beyond Schizophrenia by Ronald Pies M.D.
liz | 9:01 AM | DISABILITY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, bipolar disorder, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, meds, side effects, stigma
Nightmares Do Come True
Don't let me blow away
Pretty much every night I have a dream that something horrible has happened to Hannah (pictured above), my sweet Chihuahua. Turns out, I have reason to worry. From ABC News:
Bystanders at a Detroit-area flea market were stunned this weekend when high winds from a passing storm picked up a couple’s Chihuahua puppy and blew her out of sight.
After two days of searching and consulting with a pet psychic, Tinkerbell was found almost a mile away in the woods dirty but unharmed. …
“We were shocked when we found her,” Dorothy Utley, 72, told The Detroit News. “You don’t know how happy we were. We love her so much.”
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a … Flying Chihuahua?
liz | 2:09 PM | cute fix, hospitals / hospitalization, media, philadelphia, random, violence
Funny or Offensive?: Psycho Donuts
Okay, I’ve been restraining myself from getting involved in this debate, though frankly I have no idea why. At any rate, here’s the deal: There’s a donut shop in Northern California that takes an insane asylum as its theme. There’s a padded cell, a “nutcase” art display, and strange videos like this one:
Stigma watchers are not amused. In an open letter to Psycho Donuts, the National Stigma Clearinghouse’s Jean Arnold wrote:
In this bring-the-kids mecca of mega-calories, children can pose in a padded cell encased in a straitjacket. … What’s endearing about a straitjacket? Why do straitjackets, a symbol of force and humiliation, appeal to advertisers and product marketers? We can’t answer that question, but the National Stigma Clearinghouse archive shows straitjackets have been used as a marketing tool for many years. Twice in our experience, the marketers have tangled with Human Rights commissioners.
Although straitjackets are now mainly found on bondage websites and in S&M shops, for decades they caused death and suffering to untold thousands of mental institution inmates. Children are especially vulnerable, according to research by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in 1998, accounting for 25% of the deaths. That study brought calls for nationwide reform.
… Unlike other powerful symbols of oppression (a lynching noose for example), it is sad that psychiatric medications, straitjackets, and padded cells are still used to amuse the general public. We respectfully ask Psycho Donuts to rethink the theme of their new store.
That’s unlikely. In an article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News, the store’s owner is quoted:
“I think that the community out there has taken what we’re doing and has turned it into something that was never our intention. When we’re talking about Psycho Donuts, we’re not referring to people; we’re referring to doughnuts,” Zweigoron said. “Our intention in all of this was never to hurt anyone. It was simply as a fun type of thing, adding an interesting and unique twist to selling doughnuts.
“There’s a Psycho Mouse ride at Great America, and there’s El Pollo Loco. At what point do you cross the line?” … “I find that the community at large is not offended by what we’re doing.”
But NARSAD disagrees. Below, a letter to the owners from the esteemed organization:
The website also has really good games on it, like Asteroids, which I just wasted 15 minutes on, and a virtual Etch-a-Sketch. The gallery has “weird” art, which is a stupid idea, but some of the artists seem vaguely talented. I like this work called The Lonely Satellite by Nicolas Caesar.
liz | 10:01 AM | Funny or Offensive?, hospitals / hospitalization, suicide
