Forced mental health care in CA harm more than healing

By Keris Mirk, special for Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

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The progressive values ​​and humane public policies are virtues in California. But not for people living with serious mental illness. For people with schizophrenia, our treatment adheres to an old, dangerous myth: “To save them, we must take their autonomy.”

Some say people with schizophrenia have what is called anosognoshosh, which means that they There is no insight that they have a disease and so they require enforcementS

Whether one believes in anosognosion or not, we must believe in humans and their humanity. Instead of describing their objections as a discrepancy, we must meet people where they are and to hear their “no” as a pronounced autonomy, a desire to be heard under their own conditions.

French doctor, Dr. Philip Pinell, at the end of 1700. Unnatural Men and women in his refuge. Today’s chains look different. California Disability Rights Detailed widespread storage of people in psychiatric establishments after doctors ordered them to be released in prisons, although they are facing any criminal charges.

Lack of prevention and early outpatient intervention are major problems.

Necessary persons who experience challenges to mental health significant work and commitment to build enough trust Enter them into the mental health system. Medicaid will not pay for such agreed efforts, leaving them deeper into the cracks of homelessness, deprivation or worse.

Many people do not fall – they are pushed – in crisis. Posted by poverty, racism and systems that criminalize diseases and treat trauma with handcuffs. This is not a humane concern; This is controlled, dressed in care.

A person with a “voluntary” court treatment without a home will be said to be able to live with their family. But families are not effective replacements for funded care systems. They are already stretched, grieving and navigating in a maze of waiting and delays lists.

Another missing piece in our system is the value of living experience.

When those who have experience in mental illness try to cooperate with politicians in order to develop voluntary services based in the community-especially for those who are restless or in a mental health crisis, they are often rejected. In recent years, their testimony has been opposed to several bills in California that expand involuntary treatment are often ignored or rejected instead of being recognized as informed, valuable insights.

Even worse, this perspective of life experience is defined as “letting people die with their rights.” Nothing can be more than the truth.

I experienced this. I navigated approaches for forced treatment, systems that locked me, injured me and caused me a lot of harm.

Telling my story causes me additional harm, although my intention is to help others. I can’t escape the stigma. People make assumptions about “limited” abilities and “irrational” beliefs. Parts of my history can endanger future employment, housing opportunities and social connection.

We can have an education, professional career and experience from living experience, but all this is delegitimized through the discriminatory lens of the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

I survived. Many others do not.

When I did not believe in myself, my suppliers, family and peers saw me as more than a set of symptoms; They saw a person with strengths and a deep need for connection, purpose and hope.

I use my experience to treat and advocate for systems that promote dignity. We don’t want people to die. We want you to Lively With their rights, without shame, trauma and system failures.

People with live experience know the intimate chasms of the system, so we can help repair it. We know that true health is not limited in time or transaction; It requires approaches that are non-registering, roots in dignity-as programs led by peers, culturally competent support and home models.

Media reflection, suppliers and selected employees claim that Safety requires coercionS But coercion creates resistance. People reach for freedom. The diagnosis of schizophrenia does not eliminate a person’s longing for freedom.

We used to be here: institutionalization of women for being “too emotional”. sterilizing those with disabilities “for your own good“Tear to local children from their homes to” civilization “, diagnosing enslaved Africans who escaped slavery with drapetomania (slave escape syndrome).

Now the concern for public safety seems to justify involuntary detention and forced treatment. We must learn from history; Do not repeat it.

Suppliers, administrators, family members, elected employees and people with live experience must work together. If there is no voice, we miss the opportunity to create true healing.

People living with schizophrenia deserve support, freedom, dignity and a system based on their potential, not just their pathology.

It is time to stop making mistakes for humane care and start investing in what works: trust, time, families, housing, cooperation and the belief that recovery is possible under the conditions of every person.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.