Put a  STOP ⛔️ to coercion of mental health patients. Highlight repercussions of coercion on adherence to treatment. Prevent suicide, aggressive behavior, and ethical problems while mapping solutions that curb the use of coercive measures on Mental Health Patients. 

Help AJ be transferred from CATAWBA Hospital to Chesterfield County for outpatient treatment, be close to his 2 daughters and loved ones! 

As a Registered Nurse and Patient Advocate, I call an end to institutionalization of individuals with mental health problems. Evidence based research shows how caging up mental health patients is detrimental to their recovery and subsequent healing. AJ a black African American male suffered a breakdown and instead of being treated as a patient, he was treated like a criminal. He was apprehended by the police and dumped at a hospital. Instead of finding him care close to his social support, he was shipped 3 hours away deep in the confederate rural areas where confederate flags still fly and where black people are asked what business they have in town.

According to Anna Saya et al, “Current national laws on mental health are inspired by two concepts: the principle of parens patriae, which gives government the responsibility to intervene for citizens who are unable to protect their interests, and police power, which protects the safety of its citizens. Government enacts statutes for the welfare of its society, and involuntary hospitalization is placed in the broad and detailed context of how much the State can and should intervene, even to the cost of restricting the freedom of some individuals (1).
The debate regarding nonconsensual treatment centers on the issues of freedom and self-determination. In 1979, Gostin affirmed that one cannot presume that the status of a person who has been hospitalized against their will coincides with a complete loss of self-determination (8). The clinical reality suggests that residual autonomy and decisional freedom exist, even for involuntarily hospitalized patients. Along that line, Grisso and Appelbaum proposed a multidimensional approach that foresaw an assessment of the patient’s ability to consent (in other words, on their residual decision-making ability in line with the new Code of Medical Deontology as well as the Basaglia Law). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also highlights the importance of assessing the patient’s ability to take a reasoned decision (9).” Taken 3/11/2021 at 1845hrs from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6501697/#__ffn_sectitle