Wednesday, December 24, 2008




Mental patients isolated for years despite laws

STAUNTON, Va. – Mental patients sprinkled throughout the nation's psychiatric hospitals are being locked up alone for years despite laws aimed at preventing the practice, because medical workers say they're too dangerous to handle any other way.

Health officials call them outliers — rare, unpredictably violent people who don't respond to medication or other treatment. Advocates call them victims of a system that has lost patience and creativity in caring for those who are most difficult to treat.

Loopholes in federal and state laws and impotent oversight allow hospitals to lock some patients away for the safety of staff and other patients. Some cases involving seclusion and restraints have resulted in costly lawsuits, yet they are so rare that many advocates had no idea there were similar situations in other states until The Associated Press inquired about it.

... news from ...
... the super-efficient bean counters ...
... private medical system ...
... your klepto-eugenic dollars at work ...


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# posted by intcoex : 2:32 AM




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