you get sentenced
to thirty days
maybe forty
the Act can do that to you
one day
you're walking the streets
minding your business
listening to your voices
running amok a bit in a quiet way maybe
or just sitting alone in your room
for a few weeks
a month
doing no harm
next thing
someone makes a Request
and some Doctor you've never seen before
seconds the motion with a Recommendation
[SNAP] you've been Section 9'd
the Police cart you off to the Inpatient Unit
in the back of a Divvy Van
[SNAP] you've been Section 10'd
some Psychiatrist confirms Involuntary Status and
[SNAP] you've been Section 12'd
to get force-fed pills
injections
not allowed to leave
hardly to breathe or scream
until a Doctor says it's okay
okay
OKAY
IT'S NOT OKAY
NOTHING
is
okay
~
there's a guy here
only twenty-two
he's already done a hundred days
and he'll do a hundred more
god help him
that's your Act for you
your bastard Mental Health Act
of 1986
ah
you're all nothing but a pack
of pricks
~
-
Author:
Frank Prem (
Offline) - Published: April 20th, 2018 02:04
- Comment from author about the poem: Franks Psychiatry Pt 4 - acute observations.
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 18
- Users favorite of this poem: Laura🌻
Offline)
Comments5
Informative write Frank, something that I have learned today.
We have a newer Act now, GF - they change about once in a generation, but the principles remain.
In public mental health as I know it, we have essentially an adversarial situation with out involuntary clients who haven't broken any laws, but whose rights we have trampled on 'for their own good'.
Not hard to see why the client/patient isn't overly happy with the system from day 1.
Wow 😲...that was a painful one, Frank! So unfair and horrific! To revisit all this must be painful! No?!
~Laura~
Not for me, Laura.
For the client/patient, it's tough indeed, but the situation is that the person is believed/judged to be suffering an illness that has to be treated. That's why there is an act of parliament required.
It ain't like this in maternity, that's for sure.
Maternity...Will you be writing about it?
No. No experience of the workings.
What I understand, though, is that Mat and Emergency Dept's are the places in the hospital system that experience the most aggression/violence.
I guess I can understand that!
Giving birth under normal circumstances can be aggressive...so I can only imagine what goes on in there!
I agree with Finch. I had an idea, but not of the actual bill. The world is mucked up in lots of places eh.
Cheers, Nicholas. Bear in mind, I'm in Australia. I think UK is broadly similar in its legal arrangements. America is very different.
I hate being American honestly. Let me be Japanese!
The US seems to have a strange system, Nicholas, that I can't begin to get my head around. I have heard that the Constitution over your way gives protections that prevent involuntary treatment (as I've described) from being inflicted. 'Rotting with their rights on' is how I've heard it described.
I believe he prison system is, in effect, a massive place of incarceration for untreated sufferers of schizophrenia.
Global differences are extraordinary.
Yes they are. I live here, and I can't even begin to comprehend it. It makes the least sense out of any system I've ever seen or heard of. They don't care though.
I do not trust doctors.
but i'll give them a chance
Can't do more than that, onepauly.
Thanks FRANK ~ What worries me is that technically we are all MAD and we would not have lasted a DAY in the Third Reich ~ their list for the Gas Chamber was infinite ! I avoid Men with WHITE COATS like the Plague ! They're coming to take me away away ~ They're coming to take me AWAY ! Please check my POEM ~ Thanks BRIAN
Keep your head down, Brian.
Thanks for reading. Cheers.
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