"Smallville" mental hospitals vs. real mental hospitals

[KryptonX81]

Originally posted by Nospam
I took no offense. You are correct in pointing out that the facility Clark was in was in all likelihood a manifestation of Clark's fears and really nothing like a real mental health facility.

Actually, what I was saying was that since Clark was in there for being dillusioned to the point where he was a severe danger to himself and others, the place where he would be housed would likely be quite diffrent from someone who was in there for depression.

[Khyla]

Originally posted by SpeedDemon77
...But IMO it seriously lacks when it comes to taking care of many of its citizens and I just can't find a way to justify that at all.

And money isn't even a determining factor from what i've seen. what's ironic is that individual's right's seem to play an important part in the refusal to provide help, they use the excuse that an adult must want help, it can't be forced on them, even when the person is delusional and doesn't know that they need help. Yet the trend in the country today seems to be to choose what's best for us in the name of for ex: Homeland Securtiy, etc. OVER our Rights and Freedom. go figure


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ACTUALLY YOU ARE BOTH RIGHT:

Originally posted by SpeedDemon77
[B... so the Zoner was simply using whatever thoughts they had access to through Clark's own memories and in his mind. [/B]

Originally posted by KryptonX81
Clark was in there for severe dillusions, paranoia, and agression. Id imagine that they would put him in a much more secure place than you guys.

and that would be a place from Clark's memory, such as Belle Reeve or other places when Lex had a psychotic break, and maybe where Ryan had gone for observation/therapy.

[hanemg]

I’ve either worked in/visited/or toured 8 different psychiatric facilities in 2 states, 2 of them were state psychiatric hospitals, 1 a private psychiatric hospital, and the other 5 all psychiatric units in general hospitals and in almost 17 years of practice I’ve never even seen a strait jacket in real life. And I can’t even imagine a psychiatric unit that allows motorized beds let alone one that would rise several feet in the air allowing someone all kinds of ways to harm themselves. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen if it hasn’t already.

As for the rest, with respect to individual experiences I think group and individual therapy sessions along with psychiatric medications are the main benefits to hospitalization. If all you’re planning to do is check into a hospital and then stay in your bed all day then all I have to say is that it’s a real expensive hotel with lousy room service. The people I’ve worked with generally have positive feedback about group and individual therapy and find it helpful. I will, however, be the first to admit that “helpfulness” is unfortunately all too often a factor of the competence of the therapist leading the group and the make-up of the group itself which sometimes is a victim of hospital policy. Still, while I’m sure there are many facilities that are less than stellar, I think they are the exception rather than the rule, because I’ve seen quality work in facilities without a great deal of resources.

With all due respect to Scientologists and their unofficial spokesperson, Mr. Cruise, I think their view of psychiatry borders on the paranoid and from writings I’ve seen by Mr. Hubbard I would even venture to say that’s exactly what it is, paranoid. While I agree that diet, exercise, and positive behavior/habits are essential when dealing with a mental illness I also don’t think you can downplay the importance of medication.

Unfortunately, I do agree with the earlier statement in this thread that all too often matters of medication are trial and error. We still lack a lot of understanding regarding some brain chemistry, but we have made several advances over the years and a lot of new medications have been developed that work a lot better with fewer side effects than in the past. I think anyone that takes medication today is much better off then they were even 10 years ago.

In regards to the legal issues dealing with individual rights and hospitalizations, though, I think it’s important to realize that personal freedom shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly. The law offers the benefit of the doubt to the accused, but also has to be written to affect the rule not the exception. For every person that legitimately needs hospitalization, but refuses it there are a dozen more that have problems, but are truly in their “right minds” and don’t want the help offered for whatever personal reason. However, there are resources in each state for involuntary hospitalization of those individuals that people feel are not in their right minds.

Each state is different, but in mine a person simply has to contact the County Attorney of the county in which the individual in question is a resident and file a petition for involuntary hospitalization. You state why you feel that this person is in need of involuntary hospitalization and if the County Attorney agrees that this meets the grounds for the petition an order is written and sent to the District Judge who then reviews it and if he/she agrees with the legality of the petition he/she signs a detainment order and law enforcement will then pick the person up and take them to the community mental health center (a neutral 3rd party) where a Qualified Mental Health Professional (QMHP) evaluates them. This is a person with certain credentials and experience that make them qualified in the eyes of the state to evaluate the individual.

The QMHP then evaluates the individual in regards to 4 criteria. 1) Does the person’s behavior stem from mental illness (e.g. if someone is threatening someone else is it because they are mentally ill or is it a criminal matter and that person simply needs to be jailed) 2) Does the person present a danger to himself or someone else? (This can be an immediate danger or a possibility of danger such as if the person is neglecting himself, making poor decisions that could place him in harm’s way, etc.) 3) Will the individual receive benefit from the treatment proposed? (We shouldn’t be about confining people just to get them out of our way) 4) Is the treatment venue proposed the least restrictive environment? (This helps us from needlessly confining someone that could get just as much benefit in a more comfortable environment or even at their own home if they are safe enough for this).

Now admittedly there is one draw back to this method. Someone has to be willing to initiate it. I know I mentioned several steps, but to be honest it’s much quicker than it sounds. I’ve filed several on people in our ER and even some on our unit if they are in need of higher levels of care than we offer and I’ve filed, had the judge sign, and handed them off to the Sheriff’s Dept. all in under an hour. If you have a cooperative court system (and don’t be too quick to automatically assume you don’t) it flows pretty smoothly. The police sometimes have difficulty freeing up an officer to transport, but depending on the situation even that can be done quickly. I had a guy attack his mother with a hammer late one Sunday evening and we filed, had him assessed and had him on his way in about than 4 hours (he was under guard by the police the entire time by the way).

But, as I said, you have to find someone willing to file. Often family want to bring someone to the hospital and just dump them off saying essentially “You fix them.” I realize their frustration as they have often been dealing with the situation for several days, weeks or months, previous to this moment, but just so a problem that’s taken that long to come to a head won’t just go away just because you think someone else should now be responsible. And often they have gone through this song and dance before, but for some reason think this time will be different so they don’t follow the advice they were given from last time.

I can think of one situation where we worked with a family on the procedure to obtain guardianship of their elderly sister who didn’t want to get help and couldn’t live on her own. It took 3 times admitting this woman to the hospital, trying to get her to accept nursing home placement and finally having to discharge her to one of her sisters before the family finally got it through their heads that things weren’t going to change unless they took the time to go to the courthouse and file the paperwork as was suggested at the time of the first hospitalization.

Other times, I’ve had family members say that won’t file for involuntary hospitalization because they didn’t want the person mad at them. I can certainly understand this, but my belief is that I’d rather have someone alive and mad than not alive at all. And I’ve also seen people say a few days later that their family member taking the steps to force them into a hospital was probably the best favor that they could have done them.

I apologize for the long windedness of this, but mental health is my passion and I hate to see it get a bad rap. But, that said I think we have to realize that this is TV and is meant to show the “madness” as a chaotic and frightening thing so Clark would choose surrender rather than continue to live that way.

[freefall]

Thanks for sharing another very informative post on the issue hanemg. Truth be told, generally in my country mental health hasn't been given that much thought of. There's still a very prevalent stigma of people having problems with their mental health, depression etc. The usual preconceived notion is just like what you said, these people are chaotic, frightening and dangerous and we should stay far away from them.

But even if they're not, there's another equally disheartening situation. Family members usually opt just to treat them by their own methods, not admitting them to the hospital or seeking professional help, because of "embarrassment" and "shame" due to the stigma I've mentioned about earlier. And even if they don't care about what other people think and that kind of stuff, there's always the problem of money. Health services are in the process of being privatized here, and it's very hard to get proper treatment if you're having financial difficulties.

[Khyla]

Hey hanemg , I sent you a PM

[LowellCounty]

Thank you HANEMG for a wonderful post.

As a mental health professional, myself, you are right on all points.

Labyrinth was wonderful from Clark's point of view. Tom Welling really excells in these dark dramas and I hope he pursues those kind of scripts after Smallville. I am torn between the often wrong representation of psychiatry and mental health in TV and the movies and the freedom of speech and expression. Despite my career and passion for mental health, I ultimately fall on the side of freedom of expression in the arts. Yes, there are no straight jackets, no objects that drill into your head and there are people who really care. But, as a mechanism to advance the story and for the sake of creativity, I ignore those mistakes.

[jon-el87]

In defense of the episode, the mental hospital in Labyrinth, isn't supposed to be a real mental hospital. It's an illusion, created in Clark's mind by the phantom. The phantom (being from another planet) would have no idea, of what mental hospitals looks like and would have to rely on Clark's knowledge. And Clark, on turn, have extremely limited knowledge about mental hospitals (having merely visited Lex in one years ago, never been a patient or worked in one) and his perception of them, likely comes from films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.