[rm_-rf_slash]

American asylums are a perfect example of the sin and corruption at the root of American society: dehumanizing and illegal detainment of human beings to preserve power and profits.

...

In the 1970s, a researcher sent fake (healthy) patients to asylums. They were loaded with powerful antipsychotics and not allowed to leave until they faked the cures the psychologists expected to see.

When the fake patients were all out the story blew the lid on the American psychological profession, so the psychologists said "bring more fakes, we can sort them out."

The original researcher said "sure."

The psychologists proudly stated a few weeks later that they had weeded out several dozens of "fakes."

There was no second fake cohort.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment

[openasocket]

I can't speak about asylums in the 70s, but I think modern mental health centers have problems, some different, some similar. First is that these tend to be either state-run or contracted, and there is a great incentive to provide the bare minimum of care. There is also a serious issue with organization. My father used to work at some of these institutions. He's a psychologist with a PhD and 20+ years of experience treating the mentally ill. His bosses, who are in charge of running the place and determining policy, had high school educations. The nursing staff, who spent most of the time with the patients, also had high school education (maybe some nursing school education, but usually not). I think we should increase funding for mental health clinics, and put the professionals in charge.

Also, I understand the aversion many people have to even the concept of asylums, but the problem is in the implementation, not the concept. De-institutionalization is great, asylums should be an absolute last resort and many cases can be more easily dealt with in out-patient care or medication. But, absolute de-institutionalization means the mentally ill wind up homeless or in prison.

[DanBC]

There's also a problem that the money saved by closing the big institutions wasn't put back into better community (outpatient) care. So people have to be acutely unwell to get any treatment. People with chronic problems don't get the treatment.

[warfangle]

A lot of really good therapists don't accept insurance. A lot of really good psychiatrists don't take insurance.

Insurance covers on average two sessions of therapy annually.

Therapy is only effective over long periods (years) of regular (weekly/biweekly) sessions.

It's a fucking travesty.

I spend close to $500 per month, after insurance, for my mental healthcare. This is a therapist and a psychiatrist.

None of this is covered by my insurance.

I pay what I can with an FSA but it's extraordinarily exhausting.

[DanBC]

It's tempting for some people to think "That was 40 years ago, and it couldn't happen now".

Things are much better (if only because all those big institutions were closed), but we stills see examples.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-...

This woman told her doctor that President Obama followed her on Twitter. That's very easy to check, 5 minutes tops. No one checked, they assumed it was a delusion, and she was detained against her will, deprived of her liberty.

The submitted article has some really disturbing parts:

> A technician rifled through Trimble’s purse for sharp objects and then a nurse told her to strip down to her underwear. It was then, she said, that she realized the doors to the psychiatric ward had locked behind her.

> Trimble, who has recently reached a settlement regarding her hospitalization, recalled shaking with fear and “deep, shameful humiliation” as the nurse examined her body, noting the location of any identifying marks. “All you can do,” Trimble said, “is stand there and let it happen.”

There's considerable overlap between "people who've experienced abuse" and "people who have mental illness". You can imagine jut how traumatic this kind of treatment could be to some people.

> Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out.

This is bizarre. There's no shortage of people who would have an actual need for those beds.

[throwaway729]

But there is a shortage of people with (good enough) insurance who would have an actual need for those beds.

The article even indicated this:

Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out.

[jlubawy]

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie I'd highly recommend "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", both are excellent.

[vomitcuddle]

don't you mean psychiatrists, not psychologists?