Clinicians: 

​You Can't Live With 'Em, & Sometimes You Can't Live Without 'Em

                  Well, those who come to the Orchid website often know that it is in some respects not a traditional "Mental Health Legal Advocacy" website.
                  But still a YouTube video about "Admitting to Mental Illness" (See Ms. Beautiful Brown Baby Doll's video below) what the hell is that all about?
                  It's really about a concern that we have that people with mental illness either don't get treatment or don't get adequate treatment and wind up in the Criminal Justice System, and surprise, surprise this affects poor people and people of color disproportionately.
                 The tests for competency in criminal cases bear little relation to the challenges the person is really facing, the person is often found competent but with a mental illness (ya gotta love it) which is very likely to become much worse in the prison system.
                  AND as for Medication, that issue couldn't be more complicated as the short documentary on comedian Maria Bamford's Crazy Meds shows so clearly.
                  We are generally against Forced Medication, relying primarily on the work of Caltech neuro-scientist David Anderson that current psychiatric medication is not targeted and affects the brain globally which is what leads to the large amount of unwanted and often serious side effects,  and realize that the natural corollary of that maybe prolonged institutionalization.
                  Of course, on the other hand there are currently people in our Mental Health Institutes and Nursing Homes on whole cocktails of psychiatric medications who cannot qualify for discharge which probably is the result of a whole host of factors and variables.
                  But it wouldn't be surprising to see that people with the most eccentric nervous systems in the mental institutes and other facilities perhaps subject to the most rare side effects.
                   In any case, when clinicians can be open and honest about the current limitations of  their knowledge, etc. it really does a lot to build trust with patients both within and outside the facility. 

CAVEATS & There Are A Lot

• We're not quite out of the Dark Ages yet when it comes to Mental Health-- certainly when it comes to our "Justice System," but even our clinicianry is often flirting with mass gross incompetence.  There are many reasons for this, one being they don't have the humility that comes with real knowledge ---- Basically, the more you know, the more you don't know -- isn't that how its supposed to go?
• We have enormous respect for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and if the American Psychiatric Association could get on the same page as NIMH it would be a happy day -- unfortunately the DSM 5 is already out of date and we don't know what if anything clinicians are doing to mitigate that problem.