CT Mental Health System Reality, Past and Present
At one point, three state mental hospitals in Connecticut each housed about 2,000 patients. Many more were placed in other facilities under the control of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health.
Connecticut Valley Hospital is over 100 years old and still active. Whiting’s forensic department was recently separated by the governor amid allegations of abuse.
Dr. Steven Madnick, in his CT Viewpoints article “Those With Mental Illness Can Do Better,” wants to go back to when 6,000 people were in state mental hospitals. There seems to be The fact that he does not mention the negative aspects of these asylums indicates that he was not a consumer of these facilities.
Asylum = 1. Refuge from danger and misery 2. Hospital for the mentally incompetent and unbalanced. The words exchanged depend on the relative perspective of the subject.
So-called mental health examples: 1. Psychiatric hospital – hospital – facility – prison.
2. Patients – Residents – Consumers – Prisoners.
Mental health treatment is not an exact science. The first expectations in a mental health facility are the first ones patients have to ignore.
Connecticut Patient Bill of Rights:
1. To fully respect individual dignity and privacy, to be treated in a humane and dignified manner at all times, to participate in the development of professional treatment and discharge plans, and to receive reasonable notice of impending discharge.
2. If you become an incarcerated patient in the Connecticut mental health system, you will either have to completely ignore the above rights or face dire consequences.
Another reality of today’s world is that mental hospitals are separate from regular medical hospitals, leaving plenty of room for discrimination. An example of this is social norms being restricted or outright banished. For the past 26 years, the only place I’ve had privacy has been the men’s bathroom or shower. So where is this right to privacy?
You as a client are expected to be honest at all times when evaluators constantly exaggerate your lack of insight and judgment. , you are automatically ignorant. On paper, even if you help and respect others, it should be listed as a danger to yourself and others.
Connecticut Valley, Norwich State, and Fairfield Hills hospitals all had beautiful campus properties. To visitors, it appears to help the person inside recover. The reality is that most of the time, past and present, they are stored in warehouses. In other words, they are invisible and unnoticed. That is the real reason for mental health imprisonment.
Shock treatments, lobotomies, cold water wraps, restraints, and powerful drugs with high side effects are components of the mental health system. The respect and dignity found in most medical hospitals is not at the same level in the mental health system.
Dr. Madoncik writes: This means they are perfect for rehabilitating people. Both past and present realities have warehoused populations to ensure employment and retirement at the six-figure level. This means that it is necessary to isolate
A 2007 Department of Justice report on mental health facilities in Connecticut concluded that there was “no gradual move toward discharge.”
This lack of movement is still true 15 years later. Discharge is rarely mentioned if someone commits a crime. For that person, the average length of stay as a patient in our state is his 22 years. For a five day stay, that’s a long way.
Anthony Dyous has worked with the mental health system in Connecticut for the past 38 years. He is a patient at Whiting Forensic Hospital.
