I knew it was Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI)!
I cannot see the photos now.
The work of Eric Rosenthal who has found MDRI is must be recognized.
I've just saw the first and the second picture and I'm already too shocked.
Crime against humanity seems to mean nothing.

I'm sure all isn't fun and games in Ireland, especially as it becomes increasingly Americanized. But years ago I had a friend who basically threw in the towel and checked into the psych ward for life in Dublin. Whilst I was home on a visit one time we got a phone call from Peter. He and a couple of his psych ward resident mates were at the local pub and did we want to meet them there? Seems it was the norm to let them go off to the pub of an evening. Which made sense in that culture, where the social life revolved around pubs at that time.

It just seemed so much more relaxed than the uptight US approach I was used to.

I don't think I'd want to be in a psych hospital in Albania... It's a beautiful country, but life outside a hospital is hard enough there.

Dear Philip,

Hmmm! I guess you’re too young to have known of similar conditions in this country some 40 to 50 years ago.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

Shocking, especially the idea that locking people up in filthy conditions has no effect on their "mental" health.

Except for the obvious overcrowding, I see no fundamental difference between these photos and what I experienced, most recently in July and August of this year. It's all very well to point fingers and say "If you think we're bad, look at them," but the very existence of forced treatment in mental hospitals is abhorrent, here or anywhere.

And, Herb, you should have visited me 4 or 5 WEEKS ago. Twit.

Francesca,

Last night lying in bed, it occurred to me that those photos could have been taken on the lock down psych ward in Birmingham, Alabama in 2003 when I was there and I assume in any psych hospital in the US. Also, I couldn't look at the entire series. It brings back too many memories of the "hospital" I was in in Alabama, but also the comments upset me. The captions imply that the writer thought the people were locked up because they were crazy, not crazy because they were locked up in spite of the fact that he was witnessing the deprivation these people suffered.

Dear Francesca,

I’m truly sorry to read of your being hospitalized recently. On the other hand I have my own responsibilities as a support person to attend to and while you equate no differences between your experiences and those photos I do not see the same or share your views as it relates to me or my spouse.

Hospitalizations for my spouse are a last resort option when mood states become unmanageable and bodily harm is threatened. The facilities my spouse has utilized have been clean, reasonably well maintained with caring staff and to my knowledge not overcrowded. Then too, treatment regimens are discussed and not forced upon my spouse and most importantly stabilization is achieved quickly.

What the photos reminded me of was conditions at two former facilities in New York State, one known as Willowbrook State School and the other Pilgrim State Hospital.

Then again, the photos do not indicate whether there is or is not treatment but certainly the conditions are deplorable in my opinion.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

I shouldn't be so rude to you, Herb. Your comments tend to rub me the wrong way. Your wife and I obviously have had different experiences with the system. I'm glad she hasn't been four-pointed to a bed, locked in an isolation cell or wrestled to the floor by security and force drugged. These are my experiences. I just can't express how appalled I am at what we do to those we deem "mentally ill."

Sally, I always appreciate your comments. I agree with you. Insanity is the reaction, not the cause. When I was in the hospital, I was angry enough to explode. My rage was deemed indicative of my genetic, biologically based brain disease. I've been out for a month now, working part-time at a barn, making sure I eat well and sleep regularly, minimizing alcohol intake and avoiding crazy-making situations (like my marriage, for instance). My "disease" responds very well to this "treatment." All those drugs that were forced upon me magically don't seem to be required anymore.

The mental health care system is terminally ill and needs to be put out of its misery. I'm at a loss to know how to help. I'd like to volunteer at the hospital, just visiting with the patients and letting them be heard. Perhaps I could help get them before Review Panels or assist with pension applications, etc. Perhaps I could take them out for coffee and listen to them. Maybe I could take my dog in to brighten up their day.

During this last go-round, I knew where things were headed. I asked a very wise friend of mine what to do. He said I had to figure out what I was doing that got that ball rolling and stop doing it. I believe I have done that now. I've been as crazy as it's humanly possible to be. I've had hallucinations so severe that it was dangerous for me to be at home sitting on the couch. Yet it got better. It always will, and it'll happen much faster by shunning psychiatry.