Dutch Hospitals Seclude Most Patients

According to a short article in a Dutch newspaper, psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands seclude more patients than many other countries in Europe. According to the article, other countries’ hospital staff never leave their patients alone, while this is commonplace in Dutch seclusion practices. Indeed, I’ve often read that seclusion is the supervised placement of [...]

Read Full Post »

Thoughts on “Disability Norm” and the Push Towards Community Living

Last week, Rachel Cohen-Rotenberg of Journeys with Autism wrote a post on visibility and human worth in the disability community, which discussed the overrated emphasis on achievements within a disability context, whereby people with severe disabilities or their carers/parents are ignored or outrightly silenced. Today, guestposter Claire posted about “disability norm” and some other problems [...]

Read Full Post »

Brandon: One Method of Containment Is Better Than Another?

Over the past few days, I’ve been increasingly concerned with the Brandon case. zarathustra over at Mental Nurse has an interesting perspective from a British point of view. As he writes, mental health practitioners in different countries often criticize each other for their use of different methods of containment of aggressive patients. The Dutch restrain [...]

Read Full Post »

18-Year-Old Man Restrained in Room for Three Years

I received an E-mail from my boyfriend alerting me to a news story from a Dutch television program. 18-year-old Brandon lives at ‘s Heeren Loo, a well-known institution for people with intellectual disabilities. There, he has been fixated to the wall of his room using a leash for three years consecutively. His room is empty [...]

Read Full Post »

Reduced Seclusion in a High Secure Hospital

Seclusion and its reduction is still on my mind, three years after my first and only episode of selcusion. In the most recent issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care, seclusion reudction in a high secure hospital was being discussed. It is a very interesting paper, because it is the first study evaluating the [...]

Read Full Post »

Dutch Autistics Receive Poor Care

According to a report by the Dutch Association for Autism (NVA), autistics often get the wrong care. Staff at residential care facilities don’t often know how to handle autism, hence causing autistics to end up on crisis wards or in isolation rooms. The NVA has been collecting stories from mostly family members of autistics about [...]

Read Full Post »

Victory for Alex Oudman

Last week, the psychiatrist responsible for Alex Oudman’s long-term seclusion, was reprimanded by one of the Dutch regional medical disciplinary boards. Reprimanding is the second lightest sentence, after a warning, but it has a huge impact on doctors. Alex Oudman is a severely autistic man who lived in a mental institution in the northern Netherlands [...]

Read Full Post »

Three Years

Today, I have been in the mental institution for three years. This third year – which will be my last full year in this institution since I was accepted to the workhome -, was quite important. I made quite a lot of progress in trusting people. I came out multiple to my psychologist and primary [...]

Read Full Post »

Institutionalized and Not Fighting to Get Out? You’re a Lousy Disability Rights Activist

Often, when institutionalization is discussed amongst disability activists, it is seen as both absolutely undesirable and something no-one would voluntarily choose over life in the community. I am a voluntarily institutionalized person, in the sense that I am an informal patient, and I am often looked upon with suspicion for thinking that an institution is [...]

Read Full Post »

How (Not) to Prevent Suicide

Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day. I struggle with this day. Since, you know, well, I was suicidal. Back in 2007 and early 2008, I had suicidal thoughts. I was not depressed – I was screened for that too many times to count. My diagnosis was adjustment disorder, which has very stigmatizing criteria. [...]

Read Full Post »