I realize this is not normal stacker material, and I am asking you (moderators) to not delete this thread (or ban me) but I think much more light is needed to be shed on this topic. And I am one of many people who can say they have been mistreated by the health system as are quite a few of you reading this. Video description: This is a documentary about the mental health institutionalization of youth. It was completed as part of the social justice program at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It explores mental health institutions in the context of Irving Goffman's 'total institution' and looks at parallels between the institutionalization of youth in mental hospitals and the prison system. One part historical, one part sociological, one part personal - former patients share their experiences. Based on personal experience, we asked as our premise - if you are sending someone somewhere to get healthy, why would you send them to a prison? In this film we offer a critical look at the institutionalization of minors. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FJjMBCN3abE [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJjMBCN3abE[/youtube] Edit: Sick is a documentary by Liz Johnson from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota about the mental health institutionalization of youth. The documentary explores the historical, sociological and personal aspects of dehumanizing treatments offered to patients with mental health issues. It's a sobering look into one of the less talked about aspects of our societies which strips the most vulnerable among us of any dignity and turns them into guinea pigs for the sick and greedy. After watching this documentary I only had it confirmed what I've already known that there is something seriously wrong with the world. It certainly seems as though mental institutions exists for all the wrong reasons and target all the wrong people. One possible drive for it is money I imagine it to be similar to plastic surgery. Most men don't give a sh** about the size of woman's breasts but for as long as women are systematically brainwashed to believe that they do, they will continue to undergo plastic surgeries and with it, feed the fat pockets of plastic surgeons. I've never heard of a plastic surgeon who'd be strapped for cash and I imagine owners of mental institutions wallow in just as much dough. They just need to keep parents/teachers/legal guardians in the mindframe of believing that their kid's problems are mental illness related and that they can solve them by submitting the kids to a mental hospital and voila money comes flooding in. Another possible drive is the desire to be in full control of somebody else and have their lives and fate completely and entirely in your hands. Admission to a mental institute makes the patient a property of a person in their charge. They control what you do, where you go, what happens to you next, what you can have and what you can't they own you and there is nothing you can do about it. Abuse and torture mental patients have historically been subjected to would make Unit 731 look like a band camp. It takes people who are some seriously demented, sick fucks to take part in such dehumanization but they clearly exist and have existed for centuries.
What about America? How much of their youth are about to return from being at war overseas for years to a country with no jobs for them apart from staying in a military that cannot afford them?
Wallmart says all returning servicemen are guaranteed a job upon returning, which when you think about it is further herding young Americans into the military machine. Ie I can't get a job and wallmart is mainly hiring vets so I'd better join up and guarantee employment for the forseeable future.
I have my own personal story along these lines (which I'm not going to go into here) so I think I have some insight into this. Mostly, it is the parent's problems, and by extension society at large's problems and not the kids. The kids are born into the world innocent and they show up the lies and hypocrisy, but the adults don't like that and convince themselves that the kids have mental problems because they "aren't fitting in". The psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries have seen the potential to make money from this. In most cases, these kids don't have problems. Society and many of the adults in it do.
I have seen family members struggle with various illness, fortunately most are mild enough to function within a fairly normal life. It is a very fine line from what I can see. However having empathy is difficult due to no real physical ailments, we are visual and can feel sorry for obvious forms of difficulties, injuries or abnormalities. Being of sound mind (well I think so LOL ) the wife and I struggle with why they just cannot get out of it. After all we all have our own problems and we just soldier through. Kind of like "Toughen up Princess get on with it" What I have learned is, if the brain is not wired right they cannot form the functioning to even reason a way out. It is not possible to have that thought pattern or reason. Medication seems to control getting to bad stages. This I can understand and it is how I am careful as to what I say and how if any advice is offered at times. I cannot even imagine the the mental and physical drain on people who have to deal with the most serious of illness with family members. For this I feel truly sad especially when they know there is possibility of being treated badly, and have to make these decisions. How terrible it must be.
Australian mental health institutions are generally public hospitals. Eg in Sydney there is Caritas run by St Vincents Public Hospital, and Concord Hospital. I've been to Concord Hospital. The area around the mental health buildings are just as barren as the rest of the public hospital wards.
