Posted by JahL on May 20, 2001, at 11:23:47
In reply to Re: fellow foxhole veterans » JahL, posted by Elizabeth on May 19, 2001, at 13:44:33
> > What confuses me is that the psychiatric profession has supposedly embraced the "disease model" of addiction, but people diagnosed as substance abusers are still stigmatised even in the realm of psychiatric treatment.Elizabeth, the following story unfortunately illustrates your point only too well:
" May 15 - The NHS has come under renewed fire from mental health
advocacy groups after a West Sussex man admitted in court Monday that he helped his
manic-depressive daughter commit suicide when she begged him to help end her suffering.J L, a builder, watched his 22-year-old daughter Sarah take an overdose of pills, and then,
after she had become sleepy, helped her put her head in a plastic bag and smothered her with a pillow.
He called police immediately afterward and said what he had done.Sarah had suffered from depression and drinking problems for years and had attempted suicide many
times — three times in the week she died. She had recently been ejected from psychiatric care for
smoking cannabis."It's the last sentence that really gets me. Apparently committing the heinous crime of smoking a joint precludes you from life-or-death psychiatric treatment.
Given substance-abuse can be a symptom of mental illness I wonder if patients are 'ejected' for exhibiting other symptoms. Being 'too depressed' maybe...?
J
poster:JahL
thread:17065
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010515/msgs/63698.html