Canada: Mentally ill prisoners "warehoused" - CBC

"Canadian penitentiaries are becoming the largest psychiatric facilities in the country," said Howard Saper, correctional investigator of Canada.

"The Correctional Service of Canada assumes a legal duty of care to provide required mental health services, including clinical treatment and intervention. In failing to meet this legal obligation, too many mentally disordered offenders are simply being warehoused in federal penitentiaries. This is not effective or safe corrections."
Commissioned by the correctional investigator, the expert report entitled Under Warrant: A Review of the Implementation of the Correctional Service of Canada's Mental Health Strategy was written by John Service, former chief operating officer of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
In reviewing offender access to mental health services, the report found that the intermediate care component of the correctional service's mental health strategy has not yet been implemented due to a lack of funding. Offenders requiring intermediate care fall between those needing primary care and acute inpatient care.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/09/23/mentally-ill-prisons023.html#ixzz10O4Gfhv2

Fortunately, there are often nutritional solutions. Because they require only proper physical screening and appropriate (orthomolecular) vitamins, they are easy and inexpensive. Let's get started!

Alex Schauss - Vitamin C for Hepatitis C and Heroin withdrawal

Information on physical causes of mental health problems, behavior and learning difficulties, and violence

http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/

Related symptom checklist

http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/content/questionnaire.pdf

The Extraordinary Walker Exam

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/stradford.htm

29 Medical Causes of Schizophrenia

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/causesofschizophrenia.htm

Some of our previous posts on the prison system

http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/04/culture-soaked-in-alcohol-and-drugs.html

http://pharmaceuticalsanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/08/nyt-mentally-ill-offenders-strain.html

For more information on nutrition and mental health, please see our Links section. 

For further information on Corrections Canada

http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/

Ivan Zinger, LL.B., Ph.D.
Director of Policy and Senior Counsel
Office of the Correctional Investigator
(613) 990-2690

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."

Link

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Obituary: Judi Chamberlin

Sad news: After a long illness, Judi Chamberlin, mental health rights activist, has died.
Her blog will remain open for a time; please visit and leave your respects.