Saturday, November 12, 2011

Update again on Alison - partial victory?

This entry is guest-written by Adinah Caro-Greene

On Friday, Alison had a neurosurgical consult.  She actually has two aneurysms, and they are going to operate.  Of course, this is very scary, but on the other hand, it feels like a partial victory that they are even treating her medical problems at all.  Thank you all for your calls.

The hospital still refuses to communicate with me.  They just don't call me back at all.  I speak with Alison every day, and today, she said the staff took her food away.  She wants people to call her human rights advocate, Mark Seymour, 540-332-2149 and ask why her food is being taken away, and why she isn't treated humanely.  Mark Seymour has never picked up the phone for me, and never returned my messages.  So many dog-and-pony shows in the mental illness industry.

They will not let Alison sign a medical release, because her brother has her psychiatric POA, and her "friend" has her medical one.  Yet, neither the brother, nor the friend, attend any appointments with her, or even call or write with any frequency.  This is a nightmare.  What good is a POA if they just give doctors carte blanche and don't put any time or effort into respecting people's wishes? My next step, once I get Alison's consent, is going to be to try to have the court remove them, for gross negligence.

If we cannot get the brother or the friend to relinquish POA and appoint others who would respect Alison's autonomy, we may need to turn this into a media blitz, like the Shiavo story.  The normal routes are not going to work, and this kind of treatment needs to be stopped.  Not just for Alison, but for all of us who are psychiatrized, and even those of us who are not yet psychiatrized.  We may have won a small victory, but we haven't won the war.

5 comments:

Duane Sherry said...

Susan,

Thanks for the update.

Duane

susan said...

Hi Duane,

Didn't even know it was up... Adinah put it up. I'm very grateful for her for doing so.

Sharon Pernes said...

There is a state or national agency that you can report these problems to. Have you tried that yet?

http://www.dbhds.virginia.gov/OHR-Complaints.htm

I would think that would be your first step. I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but I can see you are very emotional about this and people not involved can usually see things from a different perspective.

From what I have been reading you are very emotional about this, which don't blame you. I suggest that you get someone to represent you and Allison at the facility that is very calm and shows no emotion. In other words someone who will kill them with kindness.

Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Sharon, I have already complained to them and countless other agencies. It doesn't have to do with any emotion I am showing or not showing. They don't care. - Adinah

susan said...

Hi Sharon,

I've been letting Adinah post updates on Alison because she use to be quite known on the blogosphere. Unfortunately most of the bloggers who worked with Alison in the four years I've known her have quit blogging, so there aren't any blogs or places we can put this information up. I've offered my blog to Adinah to post- because she knows Alison. My dealings with Alison have been emails when I first started blogging til last year when my kidneys failed about lithium toxicity and kidneys.

I would do this for anyone- a reader, a friend, they say I have a good heart, i don't know. This whole thing actually does have me upset- a year ago this week my kidneys failed, and I just want Alison to be seen by a Renal specialist. A psychiatrist is not qualified to know about kidneys, just like i wouldn't want a psychiatrist or a GP to do a root canal.

I apologize if my readers aren't interested in this= I understand. I've been so blue the last few days it
s become a "chore" to put a few words on the blog. It's a very very bad depression, this one I'm going through is crippling. So I am grateful as well to Adinah for keeping this blog alive, because when I am well, this is my "baby" and besides my cat and my parents, and the few friends I have in real life, the only thing in my personal life I care about. I don't want to loose readers because of this depression.

I hope that makes sense. Thank you very much for the extra information. That's wonderful.

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