Posted by Omega Woman on January 2, 2004, at 2:28:39
Is anyone aware of a "Tell moderately Sick people they are fine" policy within British Psychiatry. I'm looking for any info to find the policy's which tell Psychiatrists to do this, and the people who make this policy.
This is a letter which i'm sending to a friendly Psychiatrist within the system. I'm holding of sending it till I get some feedback from here.
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Dear *****
******* whats going on in British Psychiatry ? I have seen a pattern emerging which crystalized on New years night.
After the Bells I tracked down a friend of mine who is a young guy with symptoms of alcohol induced dementia (Korsakoffs). I know this because I spent three months in the summer trying to build a small recording music project with him. It proved impossible because of his Paranoid delusions. Many times he thought Rappers in the Radio were talking to him, that there were cameras in the trees..etc etc..
When I met him on New year he seemed really well. I said you look really well and he told me "oh there was never anything wrong with me".
Today I realised that this was what my Psychiatrist had said to me three years ago upon follow up visits following a three week stay in the wards. I also remember that another friend with acute Schizophrenia. (He could barely orientate himself within any situation) had also said that his Psyciatrist had told him there was nothing wrong with him. This person was killed in his flat three weeks later. His pattern of behaviour had been Paranoid misperceptions of other peoples intentions. He was regularly beaten up because he reacted to them.
What is going on ? It appears like those of us who exist with Moderate symptoms which fall through the cracks of a severe DSM classification are given a complete bill of health. This has the effect of making us feel better about ourselves in the short term. In the longer term we wake up to our persistant moderate problems, but absolutely no recognition or support.
Something is severely wrong with the system. Dont people who work within it want to be competent anymore ? Obviously people do, but only to appear so to their peers. This is very disapointing to me. I get the feeling that in the main Psychiatry attracts Black and White logical thinkers, much like the Police or Army. Civil Service etc. To someone on the outside its seems like these people subsume any intelligence about the way things really are, to following any policy which lands on their Desktop.
What i'm hoping you could tell me is what has been the health directive which tells Psychiatrists to be like this ? Is this due to a small minority of Borderline Psychotics faking some extra symptoms or a report in personal perception of negative labelling gone awry ? Whatever the case, it does'nt justify whats going on. Telling someone with moderate problems they are fine is'nt going to beat persistant organic dysfunction. But telling them they can get better with support and medication might do. If anything its the moderate cases who might benefit the most.
Perhaps the Policy is borne of lack of resources. If this is true its still wrong to tell sick people they are well. In fact its a destructive thing to do in general. If someone has nowhere to turn and are driving their friends and family crazy, this might be the last straw.
Perhaps it might be helfull to Re-open my friend Roberts case files and see whether he was taken off his medication in the weeks before he was killed. I remember thinking he was doing really well. Was this another case of the unrealistic high self esteem which comes from being told "you are fine, you just have a few problems". It would not be surprising if people had to die before some Psychiatric policy makers bothered to think properly about what they do. Many Psychiatrists over 40 still have don't accept BioPsychiatry as valid. It seem like proper learning has been forgone in the persistance of daily pressure. Is there something about the Job which could make Doctors as hopeless as their patients ?All this makes me think if this is just my experience then what is really going on everywhere else ? Perhaps a classification needs to be introduced for moderate cases and an appropriate scaled down therapy.
Maybe you could ask your colleagues if you dont know what i'm going on about, as i'm still not sure whether you are responsible for applying Diagnosis. A reference or link would be great, and perhaps i'll tackle the issue higher up the ladder.
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poster:Omega Woman
thread:295623
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031231/msgs/295623.html