People with schizophrenia can experience some unique symptoms including paranoid through process, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and flat affect (Horgan, 2019).
Although this person is not an older adult, she does provide an interesting narrative for what being in a mental illness institution looks like. Lauren acknowledges that this was her own personal experience, and the experience of others in an institutional setting may vary. Lauren describes her experience of being held back with restraints and administered medication against her will at minute 2:25. This of course in context, was to prevent her from self-harming which she describes trying to strangle herself with her hospital gown. Lauren then goes on to describe how this experience was traumatic and presumably worsened her overall mental health to be confined in a “prison-like” institution.
Elyn Saks, who delivers her own TEDTalk on living with Schizophrenia, describes the restraints on her body as unnecessary as she did not harm any one nor make any direct threats. Rather, she notes that these restraints are actually harmful to the patient – “every week in the United States, it’s been estimated that one to three people die in restraints each week. They are strangled, they aspirate their vomit, they suffocate [or] they have a heart attack (2012).”
What surprised me about Lauren’s and Elyn’s videos are their vivid recollections of their experiences, despite being in psychosis. I had made an assumption that this wouldn’t be the case. Surely there must be a more dignified way to support patients in hospitals. This video raises an interesting policy and ethical debate regarding non-maleficence and autonomy. Based on current policy, it sounds that non-maleficence is more binding than autonomy. How could the Mental Health Act (as per the Main Post of Module 5) be amended to support a more humanizing and supportive environmental for patients who are admitted into an institution for their mental illness?
References:
- Horgan, S. (2019). Module 3.2 (Cognitive impairment & schizophrenia). [PDF Presentation]. Retrieved from https://onq.queensu.ca/d2l/le/content/321165/viewContent/2010762/View
- Living with Schizophrenia. (2019, May 13). What a psychiatric hospital is like. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mww7mFqyVA
- Saks, E. (2012). A tale of mental illness – From the inside. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/elyn_saks_seeing_mental_illness?language=en&utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare#t-468177
Mental Health Policy for Older Adults 