Comments: Pete Earley's Op-Ed Blasts Around The Country
This must be a generalized statement re: parents. When I saw my daughter become a zombie on meds I fought to get them adjusted. I supported her wish to go off of meds, and once back on them, she was a leaning shuffling, drooling zombie, I once again spoke up, asked questions, and demanded the med in question be reduced, and the zombie state diminished. She has been the most aggressive on medications. Off the meds, during the 'wash' she was aggressive, but nothing I couldnt deal with, yet she ripped her hair out and screamed to help her. I did. She is probably one of those 1 in thousands cases that no one wants to talk about, no one wants to figure out. Not all parents fall into the categories placed here. I am not a pity party, and I am not asking for help. I want intellectual discussion based on fact. Who walks in the NAMI walk? the survivors? or the survivors? I refuse to walk and be thought of as a pity party by a line that appears to be drawn further into the sand. Come on. We know injustice when we see it. We know what is right and what is wrong. Extreme cases require extreme care. That is the point. Generalizing parents and survivors fuels the division that I thought no one wants in this arena. There is a lot of bullshit out there in the form of written materials, people can take some and leave some. Smart people disregard the crap. I do. I want to know the real story. By real people. Speak up, and stop holding back.
Posted by Stephany at May 15, 2006 05:21 PM
This study appears to be more reasonable. It notes:
In 2005, a Canadian journal published a review of all relevant past research on risk assessment for violence among people with mental illness. One dominating theme of the review was that violence can be much more accurately predicted by attending to non-mental health variables compared to mental health factors. These variables include age, gender, socioeconomic status, education, and environment. Additionally, a history of violence is a much stronger predictor of future violence than any mental health-related variables.
[...]
As psychiatric hospitals continue to downsize, the growing number of people with mental illness living in the community has raised concerns about public safety. However, when the types of crime committed by people with mental disorders are examined, violence is not at the top. A 2005 study included an inventory of the types of crimes committed by patients with schizophrenia. Of the 23% who had criminal records, two thirds had committed crimes against property, and two thirds had committed traffic law violations. Violent crimes had been committed by less than a quarter of those with criminal records — less than six per cent of the total patient population.
Source: http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/publications/factsheets/violence.shtml
Posted by spiritual_recovery at May 16, 2006 12:32 AM