Monday, October 26, 2015

Should Locked Facilities Limit Patient Access to the News?

 

A local locked psychiatric facility regularly provides the daily newspaper. The headline and article were alarming and controversial.   This story raises many questions, for families with mentally ill relatives, for consumers of mental health services, and law enforcement procedures, not to mention training.....but for today ~The purpose of this article is not to judge that officer.

My question here is, do you think locked psychiatric care facilities should "censor" reading materials offered and to what degree? 

We want to know your thoughts, please, to help us work together for better care for our hospitalized relatives.  The following is an abbreviated version of the headline story that took three pages of our local paper recently.   

"I held my son while _(city)_ deputy 
shot him to death."
 A young man with schizophrenia was shot in his father's living room by an officer responding to a 911 call.  He arrived 20 minutes (one report says 45 minutes) after the call. By the time an officer arrived, the father said his son was asleep in the living room on a mattress.  When he awoke he became agitated and fearful.  The young man stood with his arms behind his back saying "Arrest me."  The officer instructed him to get on the floor.  He had some OCD issues and could not do as the officer asked. Things escalated, and a struggle ensued.  The father reported that he held his son back and told him to stop or the officer would hurt him.  The officer then did what many family members of mentally ill people fear most.  He shot the young man three times which killed him. 

If your loved one is locked up in a psychiatric care facility, would you want their access to this story and similar ones prevented?  When mental illness is stops a person from having a"normal life", and they are behind locked doors for safety, is it appropriate to have access to this type reading material?

Please help us with your thoughts.  Thank you for visiting and voting at the bottom in the grey box.
 Edited 10/28/15 Moved poll to bottom of page.