Chemical Crucifixion

by Christine Allen, 13th Jan 2011

The partner of a Cork psychiatric patient “chemically damaged” from medication has welcomed comments this week by Junior Minister for Mental Health John Moloney about the over-sedation of psychiatric patients.

This week, Minister Moloney expressed concerns about a new report finding that psychiatric patients are being sedated because of low staffing levels. He said the staff embargo was partly to blame and he expressed his concern about the long-term consequences of addictive drugs being given to patients.

Minister Moloney has committed to drawing up measures tightening prescription rules regarding drugs such as benzodiazepines.

Grainne Humphrys’ partner John Hunt, from West Cork, is a resident at Carraig Mór Psychiatric Unit in Shanakiel. He is taking a cocktail of two psychotics and psychoactive benzodiazepines, which are used to reduce anxiety.

“He has been on some of the older types of major neuroleptics and some of the newer types of atypical anti-psychotics,” said Grainne.

His partner told the Cork Independent that John is now “chemically damaged”.

“When John entered Carraig Mór treatment centre (five years ago) he was a handsome and fit young man. He was creative, focused and angry. Granted, he was mixed up and had issues, but nothing that couldn’t be worked through with time and love and the right approach,” said Grainne.


Confused

She said he is a different man today.

“He is more confused, weak, drugged, dependent and institutionalised. This is damage, not care.”

Grainne said she has seen John in various states of medication overload.

“I have seen John vomiting countless times, more often than not, and he often feels weak, dizzy and faint,” she explained.

“I have experienced him as if he is in a straitjacket, albeit chemical, so rigid have his composure and facial expressions been. I have seen his hands shaking. I have seen him unable to sit still,” she said.

The campaigner said she has often had to hide her shock at his appearance.

“Most of his teeth have rotted due to the continuous use of Largactil. In the past, he had tardive dyskinesia, an involuntary movement in his jaw. I am terrified it will return if he ever decides to discontinue his medication one day.”


Brain damage

Grainne said the damage might not be visible until the patient’s detox and fears it may have lasting consequences.

“Imagine that, a medication that causes brain damage, because that’s what these powerful drugs do. Just when he stabilizes on a drug, his medications are changed, so he has to withdraw again, which can cause a reactive psychosis or the DTs,” she explained.

John has recently developed incontinence, a problem commonly associated with long-term drug use.

“I worry he will develop diabetes too, also a common health problem associated with long-term use of the psych drugs, as is infertility,” she said.

She expressed her relief following Minister Moloney’s comments and said the issue has troubled her for years.

“I have left Carraig Mór in tears more often than not, unable to comprehend what has happened to John. Unable to comprehend that we allow this to happen to a fellow human being. I can liken what has happened to John as a chemical crucifixion."

Waiting for the Miracle - Leonard Cohen

Song to the Siren - Sinéad O'Connor

The Passion of Christ

This film would have a profound impact on John when he first saw it - he openly cried throughout it, identifying with Christ and His suffering. It touched something very deep in John.

BBC4 - Mental: A History of the Madhouse

Excellent, well-made but devastating documentary, available here in 4 parts on YouTube. This hidden de-humanising legacy continues today. People think this doesn't go on anymore, but it does. Just look at John's story.

Echobelly - Dark Therapy

A Date With Dionysus

The title 'A Date With Dionysus' popped into my head as Dr. Maureen Roberts shed more light on John and his gifts - 'John is a kind of male-female Dionysus figure who attracts those of us who love and celebrate our mad Maenadic wildness - which bioshrinkdom labels as 'crazy'. In the '20s, strong, wild, creative women were witch-hunted as being 'morally insane' - a supposed 'mental illness' that saw many of them locked up.'

I would like to clarify that I am indeed a strong, wild and creative woman and John's energy blew me away.

I am also blown away by Maureen's remarkable insight and knowledge of this terrain. She is an experienced healer and a gifted guide. Definitely a Soul Sister!

I found this guided meditation by NightOwl on the Widdershins website: The Northwest Pagan Choice. This is just an extract.

Dionysus is so beautiful! He appeared as a young man about 25-30, dressed in a loose fitting toga-like white robe. When he looked into my eyes and smiled, it took my breath away and I staggered from the impact of his energy.

"Thank you for coming here and allowing me to see you," was all I could manage to think of to say. I somehow remembered to speak out loud to remind everyone to ask their god if he had a gift or advice for them, and mentally asked the same of Dionysus. He smiled more, and as I approached closer, held out a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread, inviting me to eat and drink with him. I accepted the bread but, with much fear said, "I no longer drink alcohol, will you still accept me?"

He laughed and changed the wine to fruit juice, took a drink and offered it to me. I drank some, and ate some bread, while never taking my eyes away from his. He reached out and began caressing my face, my breasts, and then rubbing and stroking my whole body. Again I was finding it difficult to breath.

I reached out to caress him in return as he began changing from a young, slim muscular man to one who was older, fatter, and whose smile became a friendly leer as he rubbed his aroused body against mine. In the next moment, he transformed to another male, and then another, continuing to fondle me and bathe me in his extraordinary energy and passion.

By this time I was almost panting with arousal myself, while observing his changing form with amazement. My own arousal gave me the courage to talk, and I said, "I really like this, and I am honored by your attention, but I wonder if I am not just making this all up to justify my behavior in life. You know, it's not that I'm a slut, I'm a follower of Dionysus?"

At this he laughed out loud, gently hugged me, and stared so deeply into my eyes that I almost fainted, saying, "You are acting exactly how I wish my priestesses to behave, don't be afraid," and laughed again.

Stepping back away from me, he smiled again and held out a pinkish heart-shaped stone, saying, "Here, take this and always remember that sexual ecstasy helps people open their hearts to each other and to the deeper mysteries of life. Sex is one of the greatest creations. It enables two to join and create a third which carries their energy into the future. Ecstasy and celebration make life worth living because they open humans up to the joyous energy of the universe, of creation. Never be afraid to love, or to express that love with another." Then his form began to slowly fade and disappear.

I turned and walked back around the rock, down the path I had earlier climbed, my mind trying to contain and sort the vastness of what he had shown me. My body was almost in a state of shock from the intensity of his energy. Fortunately I was only walking in my altered state and my body was physically sitting on the floor. I doubt I would have been able to have had this experience standing without falling down. It took a few minutes to return to a more ordinary state of consciousness, but I was able to remember to instruct the others to do so too.

Each of us in the group took a turn in describing what had happened to them, and everyone else had also had an equally powerful experience.

This encounter with the god made me want to know more about him and, I learned that he was Bacchus to the Romans, Lusios the Releaser, and Zagreus - son of Zeus and Persephone who was killed by the Titans and eaten. Athene saved his heart, which was swallowed by Semele, another lover of Zeus, and conceived anew. Hera convinced Semele to trick Zeus into revealing himself in his full glory, which burned Semele to ashes. Zeus rescued Dionysus from her ashes, stitched the unborn babe into his thigh until he was able to be born again, so he is sometimes called twice-born, and Zeus then gave him to the nymphs to raise.

When grown he became the god of all altered states, including drunkenness, religious ecstasy, and celebrations of music, dancing, theater and lustful excess. His male followers were the satyrs, half man and half goat with a horse's tail, and his female followers were the maenads (mad women). His followers often carry a staff with a pine cone on the end, called a thyrsus, sometimes twined with grape or ivy vines.

The experience I had in this ritual meditation has continued to reverberate through my life and I am deeply honored to express the energy of Dionysus into the world.

David Bowie - 'All The Madmen'

From his album 'The Man Who Sold The World'

Beautiful video montage Brian Hartnett made us with some images I gathered

Music: 'The Madman' by Al O'Donnell

Dark Night of the Summer

I wrote this today as I am only processing my experience I had last Summer. It happened after I had taken John out for his first day out in 2 years and the full horror at what had been done to my man, and countless others, hit...

DARK NIGHT OF THE SUMMER

When the full horror hit
It was vast, terrifying, giant
The full weight crushed down on me
It was almost too much to bear, alone
I breathed it in, I wailed it out
Our holocaust

Our son looked on at the
Devastation of my realisation
Silently witnessing what I now faced
I cried tears of agony and alchemy
I howled in the transformation
Steadfast in the dark night of labour

This loss was vast, this grief was
Unfathomable
I struggled to contain it's victims
I was horrified, I could not believe
What I saw with new eyes
This humanity sacrifice
Now I knew the enormity
Of the corporate beast
And our capacity for lies

All that came was
"How did we let this happen?
How did we let this happen?"
There will be no more placating me
I've gone too far in
I have forged a sword
Of Love and Truth
Now I have to do battle

I have faced my guilt, my rage, my hate, my love
All we are capable of
I have been laid bare before our majestic soul
I lay in the alchemical bed, I have slept with my enemies
Within, I have held them all in my heart

In my mind's eye I saw him, time to kill
So we had walked around to the front of the institution
that had been his home for five years
Where syringes, pills and keys reign
Tatty doorways, cigarette butts and rubbish
A bleak wind blew around the red brick building
A wasteland in my soul

"Why are the windows like mirrors?" he asked
I turned away, choking back guilt and pity
"So you can look out but we can't look in" I replied
This mass chemical crucifixion

As he made his way to the half-life of corridors
A wet patch on his jeans where he had pissed himself
From nine years of their chemical lies
"They've got him by the balls", I thought
His dignity intact as he won't back
Down, never submit, it's hopeless
I knew the psychiatric spell was being cast
The power play was set

He opened the door to that dark twilight zone
As I made my painful journey home

Dark Night of the Soul

Soul Friends

I Believe In You

Let The Voices Speak

Abandoned and Drugged

by Gráinne Humphrys

Abandoned to the long-stay ward in the secure unit, John Hunt has spent 5 years on various neuroleptics and benzodiazepines, drugs that are used to control behaviour. These drugs have caused untold damage to John. In the words of Dr. Maureen B. Roberts 'this is social control masquerading as medicine'. John is a victim of the 'yawning gap' in the mental health services. How do we allow this to happen? A society that can no longer be outraged by John's 'treatment' can no longer be civilised.

Are drugs replacing care in our mental health facilities?

By Carl O'Brien
ANALYSIS
Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Evidence is growing that too many patients are being given sedatives instead of the kind therapeutic support they need.

BRIDIE COX knows all about the dangers of inappropriately prescribing sedatives to vulnerable patients. After working in the disability and mental health sector in the UK for 30 years, she returned home to work in the midwest several years ago. She was shocked at what she saw, writes CARL O'BRIEN

Cox says she witnessed on several occasions the over-sedation of patients with challenging behaviour. Rehabilitation of residents was virtually non-existent, she said, as there was no meaningful therapeutic intervention.

Worse still was the attitude of senior management. While there was some good care, the main problem she said was a culture which did not place sufficient value on proper rehabilitation and multi-disciplinary care.

“As I saw it, people didn’t have the education or training to do the therapeutic intervention. There wasn’t enough focus on empowering people, helping them becoming more independent, building up therapeutic relationships,” she told this newspaper last year.

The latest findings of the inspector for Mental Health Services appear to provide grounds for even deeper concern.

For the first time, it has been collecting detailed information on prescriptions for in-patients and residents. Of the 22 hospitals or care facilities it has visited to far, it has expressed concern over the level of sedative use in half of them.

In some hospitals as many as 80 per cent of long-term residents were on sedatives – or benzodiazepines – prompting inspectors to call for an “urgent review” of the drugs use. In addition, many patients were often placed on a combination of sedatives and anti-psychotic medication; night sedation was also particularly common in some hospitals.

Benzodiazepines are prescription drugs which are legitimately used to treat a range of conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and seizures. While they are considered safe for short-term use, the risk of overuse, abuse and dependence is well documented.

In addition, over-reliance on this kind of medication often reflects a lack of access to valuable therapeutic interventions. These alternatives to drugs are highly effective in tackling underlying causes of anxiety or challenging behaviour.

Mental health inspectors have so far published reports for about one-third of psychiatric in-patient facilities, but already a pattern of high sedative use is clear.

St Joseph’s Hospital in Limerick is one of the psychiatric facilities visited recently by inspectors. They found that some 80 per cent of residents at the 55-bed hospital had a prescription for a benzodiazepine, while over half were using them on a regular basis, which prompted inspectors to recommend an “urgent review” of all medication at the hospital.

Over at An Coillin, Co Mayo, a 29-bed unit, inspectors said a review of the prescription of benzodiazepines should take place; it found 78 per cent of people on them; 33 per cent on more than one.

At St Edmundsbury Hospital, Co Dublin, – a private facility – inspectors found high numbers of people on night sedation (82 per cent), as well as on benzodiazepines (73 per cent).

Inspectors said these figures were “very high” and noted that medication sheets were of poor quality.

It is of little surprise that many of these facilities also have gaps in multi-disciplinary teams – the people who could provide the kind of therapeutic intervention that is so badly needed. For example, inspectors found benzodiazepine use at St Camillus’s Hospital in Limerick was high and called for a review. They also found that there was a lack of meaningful disciplinary care to underpin the “recovery ethos”, which is at the cornerstone of public policy on mental health care.

“Residents had very little to occupy themselves with during the day . . . ” the report found. “The service was introducing individual multi-disciplinary care plans to the wards but without them and an occupational therapist, therapeutic services and programmes could not be individually directed to the needs of the residents.”

Most observers agree that the answer to an over-reliance on medication lies in training and investment in mental health services.

A Vision for Change clearly sets out what needs to be done to achieve mental health reform. It envisages a national network of comprehensive, community-based, multi-disciplinary mental health teams. The voice of service users would no longer be ignored and quality alternatives to institutional care would be made available. Yet, almost five years on we are still waiting for meaningful signs of progress.

In three successive reports, an independent monitoring group – established to assess progress on the implementation of A Vision for Change – has expressed serious concern at the slow progress of the plan.

Spending on mental health has fallen from 11 per cent of overall health spending in 1991 to 5.3 per cent in 2010. The moratorium on recruitment has had a devastating impact, with at least hundreds of staff leaving the sector without being replaced.

The more time passes without convincing evidence of its implementation, the more disillusioned and disenchanted the champions of A Vision for Change become. The challenge for policymakers and campaigners will be to transplant the philosophy at the heart of Government policy into meaningful action in the day-to-day running of services.

We need a plan with real and detailed targets, time-lines, resources and assigned responsibility. People with mental health problems have waited far too long for a service which respects their dignity and rights. The least they deserve is a service which gives them the best possible opportunity to recover and to reach their full potential.

Inspectors seek review of high use of sedatives in mental units

Concern at overuse of drugs by long-term patients

By Carl O'Brien
Chief Reporter
Tuesday, January 4, 2011

MENTAL HEALTH inspectors have expressed concern over the high use of sedatives in psychiatric hospitals and have called for an “urgent review” of drug use in some facilities.

The inspector of Mental Health Services has found in some hospitals that as many as 80 per cent of long-term patients were being prescribed sedatives, also known as benzodiazepines.

Benzodiazepines are prescription drugs used to treat a range of conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and seizures. While they are considered safe for short-term use, the risk of overuse, abuse and dependence has been well documented.

Mental health campaigners also claim the drugs are being used to control the behaviour of vulnerable patients in the absence of access to activities, stimulation or therapeutic intervention.

Inspectors have been collecting detailed information on drug prescription patterns in mental health facilities for the first time. So far they have published reports for one-third of all mental health facilities inspected during 2010.

Of the 22 hospitals or care facilities visited, inspectors expressed concern over sedative use or called for an audit of drug-use in half of them.

Former inspector of mental hospitals Dr Dermot Walsh yesterday said he had long-standing concerns regarding the over-use of these drugs.

“The therapeutic misuse of benzodiazepines in medicine generally is a problem. These drugs are successful for short-term control of anxiety and so on, but should not be used in the medium or long term,” he said.

There are good practice guidelines – issued in 2002 by the Department of Health – but the inspector’s findings raise question marks as to whether they are being adequately implemented.

They state that the need for long-term prescribing should be reviewed regularly. It says “the only clinical justification for continuing use is dependence. Planned withdrawal from patients dependant on benzodiazepines should be considered”.

They also state that “attempts should be made to improve levels of mental stimulation and physical activity on long-stay wards”.

The inspectors’ reports so far show that benzodiazepines and night-time sedation is particularly high across a number of hospitals.

At St Joseph’s Hospital in Limerick, inspectors found 80 per cent of residents had a prescription for a benzodiazepine, many of whom were elderly. Over half were using them on a regular basis, prompting inspectors to recommend an “urgent review” of all drug use.

At An Coillin in Co Mayo, a 29-bed unit, inspectors found 78 per cent of patients on benzodiazepines, while 33 per cent were on more than one.

At St Edmundsbury Hospital, Co Dublin – a private facility – inspectors found high numbers of people on night sedation (82 per cent), as well as on benzodiazepines (73 per cent). Inspectors said these figures were “very high” and noted that medication sheets were of poor quality.

A previous report by the Mental Health Commission in 2009 raised concerns that patients at two psychiatric hospitals in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, were being inappropriately administered sedatives to control their behaviour.

It found a majority of residents at St Michael’s Unit, South Tipperary General Hospital, and St Luke’s Hospital, both in Clonmel, were receiving benzodiazepines on a long-term basis. This, inspectors said, appeared to be the result of a lack of activities and alternative treatment options.

These concerns have since been addressed by the Health Service Executive and no issues have arisen in more recent inspection reports.

John Saunders, director of the Shine support group for people affected by mental ill-health, said the high rate of benzodiazepine use tended to reflect under-staffing.

“Where you don’t have adequate staff, you have this kind of medication, but where there is sufficient staffing, adequate activities, there is far less reliance on medication.”

The Mental Health Commission has declined to comment until it has published all of its inspection reports.

I'll Stand by You

Oh, why you look so sad?
Tears are in your eyes
Come on and come to me now
Don't be ashamed to cry
Let me see you through
'cause I've seen the dark side too
When the night falls on you
You don't know what to do
Nothing you confess
Could make me love you less

I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you

So if you're mad, get mad
Don't hold it all inside
Come on and talk to me now
Hey, what you got to hide?
I get angry too
Well I'm a lot like you
When you're standing at the crossroads
And don't know which path to choose
Let me come along
'cause even if you're wrong

I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
Take me in, into your darkest hour
And I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you

And when...
When the night falls on you, baby
You're feeling all alone
You won't be on your own

I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you

I'll stand by you
Take me in, into your darkest hour
And I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody hurt you
I'll stand by you