Some find it brutal. But if done the right way, for the right people, it can work.

Some find it brutal. But if done the right way, for the right people, it can work.

Whoever wrote this byline should be shot.

It’s trying to change policy really around three different issues. First, it’s trying to expand the use of civil commitments; that’s involuntary mental health treatment. It’s usually reserved for people who are a danger to themselves, danger to others, or unable to meet their basic needs. And he’s looking to expand that. It’s not totally clear how he’s gonna do that, because that’s determined by state law, but in any case, that’s one of his objectives.

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    28 days ago

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    [But] the tragic way this panned out was: the police came, they stopped him, they tried to handcuff him, because that’s how we take people to psychiatric hospitals. But he didn’t have hands, so they had to use zip ties. You know, that’s how we help people in America.

    In the end, he was taken to a hospital. They shepherded him through the system, so he went on to a conservatorship. Once he was conserved, he was sent to a locked facility with barbed wire all around it, way far out of Los Angeles. He was there for months, and no one even really knew; none of the people who had a connection with him even knew where he was. And then, eventually, he stepped down out of that, and went to live in an unlocked facility and got his GED. And when I talked to him, I said, “What do you wish the system had done differently?” And he said, “I wish they had conserved me sooner.”

    That’s a story that really sticks with me. It’s the happy story of civil commitment, but with a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering along the way. Way to go, Serge. Seems like he’s doing pretty well.

    Earlier:

    So this has been largely an initiative that is coming from, you know, blue coastal states. And what we’ve seen is that there’s been almost a reframing of coercion as a form of compassion

    The cognitive dissonance to tell this anecdote as a feel good narrative in an article discussing how involuntary civil commitments are used in cruel and ineffective ways and how that’s a systemic issue.