Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) members advocate online for mentally challenged people to be hospital inpatients or outpatients rather than prison inmates. However, we are aware that institutionalized persons, whether in jails, nursing homes, or mental health facilities, are at risk for abuse and that all facilities require oversight, which is the responsibility of the United States Department of Justice (link below). A dear friend, Pam Wagner, was recently hospitalized and released. Her blog offers insight into how traumatic it is for patients to be removed from their homes and hospitalized. It is even more traumatic for people suffering mental disease to be removed from their communities and imprisoned, often in isolation, and subjected to potentially deadly restraint chairs, Tasers, and chemical sprays that police frequently use to control (punish) mentally ill inmates. Please see an excerpt from Pam Wagner's blog below wherein she describes her recent hospitalization. Despite her health challenges, Pam Wagner is a noted author and poet. Many people who have mental challenges are very intelligent and have made tremendous contributions in science, the arts, government, and other areas. Use the link after the brief excerpt below to read the entire account about her recent hospitalization as well as her poems, art, and other articles.
Pam writes: "I was admitted last Tuesday night, the 17th of July I believe it was, to the Institute of Living, the psychiatric division of Hartford Hospital in central Connecticut. I do not remember this. The fact that I have amnesia for it and for most of the Wednesday following only occurred to me on Thursday, a day and a half later, when I wondered -- the train of thought must have had to do with the seclusion episode that took place Wednesday evening and which I described in yesterday's blog post -- why they had been so violent with me, why they had so quickly secluded and threatened me with restraints in a situation that didn't come within miles of "requiring" them. Surely, I thought, the staff member who admitted me ..." Continue reading at the WAGblog site using this link http://wagblog.wordpress.com/
It is the duty of the United States Department of Justice to ensure the safety and humane treatment of institutionalized persons in America. For more information about the United States Department of Justice's oversight responsibilities, please visit the website at http://www.justice.gov/ . Put "institutionalized persons" in the search field for specific laws and responsibilities regarding protections for prisoners and sick or elderly institutionalized individuals in America.
Thank you for your commitment to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL and all institutionalized persons.
Pam writes: "I was admitted last Tuesday night, the 17th of July I believe it was, to the Institute of Living, the psychiatric division of Hartford Hospital in central Connecticut. I do not remember this. The fact that I have amnesia for it and for most of the Wednesday following only occurred to me on Thursday, a day and a half later, when I wondered -- the train of thought must have had to do with the seclusion episode that took place Wednesday evening and which I described in yesterday's blog post -- why they had been so violent with me, why they had so quickly secluded and threatened me with restraints in a situation that didn't come within miles of "requiring" them. Surely, I thought, the staff member who admitted me ..." Continue reading at the WAGblog site using this link http://wagblog.wordpress.com/
It is the duty of the United States Department of Justice to ensure the safety and humane treatment of institutionalized persons in America. For more information about the United States Department of Justice's oversight responsibilities, please visit the website at http://www.justice.gov/ . Put "institutionalized persons" in the search field for specific laws and responsibilities regarding protections for prisoners and sick or elderly institutionalized individuals in America.
Thank you for your commitment to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL and all institutionalized persons.
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We Mad Climb Shaky Ladders, by Pamela Spiro Wagner
(LaurelBooks) [Paperback] Amazon.com
"The poet's ability to examine her behavior is both edifying and harrowing." ~Baron Wormser
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