Psychiatric Hospitals: Change Is Needed

Meg — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:00:41 +0000

Stephany of Soulful Sepulchur is one of the first blog friends I made when I started blogging. She took a personal interest in my situation because she has a daughter that was diagnosed as Early Bipolar 10 years ago and her daughter was placed on a myriad of psychiatric drugs for years. Her daughter Lindsay is now a young adult. At the point that Lindsay tried to come off of her psychiatric medicines, despite tapering off slowly and under the care of a medical doctor, the damage to her brain by the medicines and/or combination of medicines was already done and was irreversible. Lindsay is now institutionalized at Western State Hospital in Washington State with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and/or permanent psychosis (correct me if I’m wrong, Stephany). She also gained over 100 pounds, has thyroid issues and PCOS all caused by the medications she took over the years.

Lindsay was originally diagnosed as bipolar when she had a bad reaction to a medicine given to her for bed-wetting at summer camp. She was diagnosed as bipolar by a doctor that spent 10 minutes with her. And thus began her spiraling journey with psychiatric medicines.

Enclosed in the links below are some thoughts on her current situation. It breaks my heart how she is being treated as she has been deemed to be of no danger to anyone.

http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/

http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2010/01/some_thoughts_for_western_state_hospital_dshs.html

http://bipolar-stanscroniclesandnarritive.blogspot.com/2010/01/failure-we-all-pay-for-western-state.html

As parents of children with mental health needs we must be aware of what can happen in the world of psychiatric care. We must do what we can to ensure standards of care improve not only for Lindsay and other adults in her predicament, but also for our own children. After all, our children may need this kind of care some day as well.

Everyone in these facilities deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and given a reasonable opportunity to heal.

Raising Bipolar » mental health care

Psychiatric Hospitals: Change Is Needed