Pharmaceuticals Anonymous

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Patton Report

Report on conditions at a California mental hospital, presented to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006

Excerpt from page 5 -
"Initial assessments at Patton are not individualized and fail to provide a basis for a diagnostic process that hassufficient reliability and validity. Moreover, initial assessments are routinely completed within 24 hours of admission to Patton, before the treating psychiatrist would be able toobtain input from other disciplines. The practice of finalizingassessments within 24 hours deprives the psychiatrist ofpotentially critical diagnostic information.
Annual update assessments are likewise inadequate. Many are based on outdated information and, therefore, do not provide anaccurate guide for the patient’s treatment. In fact, we found that Patton’s overall approach to ongoing psychiatric assessment reflects a lack of critical thinking and clinical inquiry. In many cases we reviewed, the psychiatrist failed to evaluate important developments in a patient’s condition that would suggest that the diagnosis assigned to the patient is not accurate. Without a proper understanding of a patient’s condition, Patton’s psychiatrists cannot make appropriate treatment decisions. Additionally, Patton fails to adequately assess the presence and impact of seizure disorders when formulating psychiatric diagnoses and assessments.
As a result of the deficiencies in psychiatric assessments and diagnoses at Patton, patients’ actual illnesses are not being properly treated and are permitted to progress. Additionally, patients are exposed to potentially toxic treatments for conditions from which they do not suffer, patients are not provided appropriate psychiatric rehabilitation, and patients’options for discharge are seriously limited."

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WHERE IS NAMI??