I have been advocating for myself as well as others for over ten years concerning mental health awareness and patient rights.  I worked as a CNA for a few years as I studied pre-nursing until I transferred into the biochemistry program to study pre-med.  I have restless nights and severe panic attacks due to stress that is often misinterpreted.  Because of my personal and professional experiences, I feel very empathetic for those fighting a misdiagnosis.  It is a very long and drawn out process that can take years to address, legally.  

Today we also face the issue of unethical practice within healthcare.  Privately owned and state psychiatric facilities should be investigated for insurance fraud and efficiency with inpatient/ outpatient care.  

In some cases I have witnessed providers with borderline antisocial tendencies to hold individuals longer than necessary.  Anti-social behaviors are actions which are considered to violate the rights of others or otherwise harm others by committing nuisance to society.   For instance, lying and manipulation that is considered to be disruptive to society in general.  It is illegal to trick an adult patient as a medical provider.  It’s not just unethical, it is illegal to lie to adult patients to get them to comply.

What if we are looking at all the wrong details of what is causing antisocial behavior in society?  What if we are focusing on the psychiatric patients with reoccurring history too closely and not their providers’ mistakes? 

An individual can be hospitalized then held against their will if they are a harm to self or others.  In some cases, court orders can be set in place to hold an individual for prolonged inpatient care.  However, it is wrong to continue to hold an individual who does not exhibit such behaviors.  It’s illegal to manipulate medical records and court decisions in order to maintain job security.  

I have personally witnessed the misuse of psychiatric diagnostic tools that manipulated legal and personal outcomes.  Most patients I have observed are in moments of intense vulnerability following a traumatic event leading up to inpatient care.  

Government funding has made healthcare more accessible for lower income individuals needing medication management that would otherwise be detrimental if not treated.  Whereas finding a correct diagnosis can take many years following individual therapy.  However, at some point consistency matters.  

If I would have known seeking professional help for my anxiety was going to turn into a psychology experiment, I would have rather suffered in silence.  I know exactly why abused women and children don’t talk.

I truly believe the issue goes beyond upholding ethical consistency from our providers.  Low income individuals seem to be a target demographic for psychological research in our country, mainly within institutions that accept free insurance that is government funded.  In some cases prolonging inpatient care under false pretenses.  

With increasing reports of psychiatric providers using their influence to sway court rulings, we must ensure that ethical practice within healthcare is upheld to the highest standards in order to appropriately protect the patients and their rights.  The problem will only continue unless government funding becomes more difficult to approve prolonged inpatient treatment. 

People in lower income brackets are not test subjects for new medications or therapeutic doses.  We are not practice dummies for students in the field of psychology, we are intelligent human beings.  Often I have witnessed the assumption that low income individuals are not smart enough to recognize when their rights are being manipulated by providers.  Antisocial behavior is a learned behavior.  I’ve witnessed psychiatric providers exhibiting more antisocial tendencies than their patients.  

Investigations concerning lower income individuals receiving government funded assistance should be reviewed for legitimacy of the treatment.  I truly believe we aren’t preventing acts of violence from psychiatric patients by over medicating them, we are creating more of the potential threat.  

One wrongful court decision can completely redirect someone’s life.  Regardless of one’s potential to rebound, inpatient treatments should be limited, especially if the government is funding it.  

National debt is already a major issue, there’s no reason to contribute to it. 

People often rely on professionals to make appropriate decisions reflecting their expertise.  However, that trust is slowly disappearing.

By prolonging inpatient treatments that do not reflect the patients needs, the patient can be severely misdirected from ordinary functioning within society.  It seems to be a pattern, those without much support from family or their communities tend to get “stuck in the system” until later going on disability.

There are mental health advocates who are doing their best to protect patients and their rights.  Those that rebel against the system are individuals who have been overly medicated, misdiagnosed, stuck in the system, lacking support from family, or lacking proper advocation, or also lacking resources for proper legal representation.  This can lead to a person distrusting of all professionals, and then eventually causing them to completely disassociate from their natural self in extreme cases.

Medical providers hold a position of trust and responsibility in our society, we must garauntee they are held to the highest standards.  

It is far more difficult to disprove a misdiagnosis than for a patient to comply without question.  Some patients don’t even know they have the right to question their treatments because of the way they are treated as if they wouldn’t know any better for themselves.  Often physically adverse reactions to psychiatric medications are ignored.  

According to research by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience mental illness in a given year. That's nearly a fifth of our population.  

A mental state can be temporarily altered due to a recent trauma.  With each new traumatic event, a person experiences changes within one’s perspective resulting in the need for psychological treatment that also changes over time with new information.  The key is to acknowledge here, when perspectives change, so does the treatment.  That’s not scientific at all.

Why do we have such a psychiatric crisis in the United States?  Are we avoiding the issue?  Or creating more of the conflict?

It is critical that our healthcare providers are held accountable and operate without biases or hidden agendas.  

Sign the petition today.  So much has been swept under the rug already.  By making government funding more difficult to approve for prolonged inpatient treatments, we might finally begin to utilize psychological studies more effectively.