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Jun 1, 2023Liked by Martin Greenwald, M.D.

Thank you for the healing work that you provide.

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Thank You for this story. I am a Canadian RN who worked psychiatry for almost ten years. My last job was in forensic psychiatry, the patient was there because they had broken the law but were deemed by the courts to be hospitalized in a psychiatric treatment facility in stead of being sent to jail. A very secure in patient facility, attended to by a team of treatment professionals and monitored by correction workers. That of course is a little different than an involuntary admission to a general psychiatric facility. I deeply enjoyed my job, but we were very well staffed and had the benefit of hourly rounds made by correction staff. I was very pleased to see you tout the benefits of ECT, I believe it is/can be a miracle cure. Mental illness is poorly understood by the public. -thank you

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Psychiatric hospitals are overcrowded and understaffed. It can be hard to find a bed in an emergency. So any effort to make involuntary commitment possible in the law needs to include an increase in funding for staff and treatment facilities.

Also, you talk about what goes on inside the hospital and that is very very enlightening, but you don't mention what happens outside of the hospital before commitment. Right now, at least in our state, you cannot commit someone to a hospital, unless they are a danger to themselves or others. That sets the bar pretty high. It's not impossible that a person might become psychotic and irrational, but refused treatment. He or she is then left in the care of parents, Who may be afraid of their own child, but unable to do anything. I.

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