Victimized by Mental Health

I was contacted by a lady who claimed she was abused by mental health practitioners. I could tell by the way she spoke over the phone that she was quite damaged; her ability to communicate omitted any periods and paragraphs. In other words, it was one long stream of (un)conciousness.

Deciding to check this out, I visited her at her trailer home near the beach in Santa Cruz. Her trailer home was fine in itself but inside it was packed to the gills with only a small thin path to walk from one room to another.

I asked her if we could take a walk while she relayed her story, which she agreed to do. She told me it started when her cat got sick. Listening to the story for over half a mile - and we're still on the cat - mind you, I decided to chime in and ask more specific questions about the actual abuse. As it turns out she has been on psych meds for a little less than ten years.

Not wanting to walk any longer, I stopped by a fence overseeing the beach while she relayed her story of her cat again. While we spoke, I noticed that her eyes would continually roll up to the top of her head up and down up and down. This while she was crying about how she was not able to help her cat.

I then noticed that where I stopped to talk didn't just overlook the beach but we were about 75 feet above the beach on a ledge. Realizing that this probably wasn't a very smart place for us to be standing in light of her condition, I started walking back towards her house.

Asking her what help she has been getting, she told me that she sees her therapist regularly, is involved with witchcraft and other "New Age' practices but she is now scared that Homeland Security is watching over her due to her witchcraft. She felt that her phone is being bugged as well. I asked how she knew that, and she can only say that the local police show up at her house somewhat regularly to spy on her and occasionally take her away to the hospital.

This was a real sad day as it demonstrated to me that underneath all the hype about psych meds helping depression and disorders, here was a "living" breathing example of the damage that Psychiatrists cause with their cauldrons of boiling chemicals.

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Complaining Into Thin Air

A lady who was illegally involuntarily committed here at the Barbara Arons Pavilion has been attempting to achieve some sense of justice for what she has been put through. (The Judge at the Certification Review Hearing saw that there was insufficient evidence of her being a danger to self or others.)

Complaints have been filed with the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County, to the Dept of Health Services Licensing and Certification Division, the Office of Civil Rights in the Dept of Health & Human Services as well as a direct complaint to the Medical Director, Dr. Michael Meade, the Medical Director of Valley Medical Center's psychiatric facility.

Apparently, they do not open the mail as nothing was heard back from any of them.

The Medical Board was able to get the offending Psychiatrist to finally get her records sent but there are key notes missing for some reason, so those now need to be gotten.

Unfortunately, the lack of effective oversight appears to be more of the rule than the exception.

For one thing, when I visited the Board of Psychology in Sacramento, they went over the complaint process with me - they use the Medical Board for complaints - there are so many complaints that are submitted that they just cannot handle all of them.