Abuse inpatient how to start a suit?

Hey guys, new to this forum, but I was abused and treated inhumanely in a psychiatric hospital. I was subjected to restraints when they were unreasonable and I was beating and sexually molested in there as well. I was wondering how I could go around getting a lawsuit going against my treatment at a certain facility. I was drugged via IM numerous times when I told them I did not want the drug. And I was told to wear no clothes even though I was no threat to myself or others. I was put in restraints for 8 hours one time without food or water. I just don't know how to go about this or hire an attorney without it costing me an arm and a leg.

And if I ever get admitted again how would I go about doing AMA which is against medical advice? I mean I can just say it and within 24 hours they can let me go at least that is what I read. But I want to get other peoples opinions and facts about this. I really am against psychiatric abuse. I mean I was so drugged I don't remember a certain era of my life. I don't remember a certain year.

It is sad that you feel you were abused. In my experience I have found that people who were treated as you described were out of control and had to be restrained. Called a code white where I am from.
Some people would much rather complain about how they were treated than work on figuring out what got them in the Psych ward to begin with. I don't know you, of course, I am only looking through a window here. But seriously consider this.
Obviously you have some Psych issues in your life. A law suit will just add to your already emotionally strained life. Examine whats going on aside from how you were treated in the Hospital first.
I am not saying that what you went through wasn't terrible. It sounds terrifying, and I am so sorry that you went through this. But for your own sake, your bigger problem is really WHY you were in there in the first place. Starting a law suit can (only you know for sure) be away of avoiding your deeper issues.
Best Wishes,
One

AMA discharge? I mean, maybe, just maybe if you committed yourself voluntarily, and your zodiac sign is aligned with the seventh hour of the moon, and the third tuesday after the winter equinox the year before yielded a promotion for your neighbor's cousin's husband.

If you're brought there, however, you're in their hands at that point.

Onebrave has a valid point. Plus, no one will listen to a patient. Closed doors they say! Nothing to see here, move it along folks. Unless, of course, you fit a special interest group that can push a politician's personal agenda forward, rally the voters together.

Sorry but it's going to be nearly impossible to get a suit filed. Unless you have some kind of obvious injury from your treatment. I was locked up involuntarily for 2 whole years. They finally released me with no conditions. Pretty much an admission that I never should have been hospitalized. But NO shrink took my side in the court hearings. Without an expert testifying on your side you have NO chance in the medical matters like being force drugged.

The hospital I was at did finally get in trouble with the US Dept of Justice for using too many restraints. They looked at the statistics and saw that place was doing far more restraints than other hospitals. That's a sure sign that something's wrong. But I have not heard of anyone winning any kind of lawsuit.

You can call the local bar association and ask if they have lawyers that do mental health malpractice. Is there a legal aid law project in your state? They represent patients who don't have money - but only in commitment and involuntary medication hearings. They might be able to refer you to a lawyer. But don' get your hopes up. Good luck.

Well, The reason I looked this up in the first place is obviously a suicide attempt with a mental breakdown. They also forced to have me take all these tests before they released me. Which I refused, and they would not let me go until I did. So when I finally got diagnosed it was the wrong diagnosis. In fact I don't have Schizoaffective, I was treated with drugs that were actually not good for me at all. And in various ways I have health problems because of this. Seizures, and Migraines and Arthritis. I in fact have DID from my post trauma with anxiety and depression. I mean I know DID is confused often in the early stages as Schizophrenia or some other psychotic disorder. Not that I'm actually downplaying the disease at all. But the fact that they misdiagnosed me for years and treated me with Antipsychotics is really bad. I mean that is malpractice right. And the fact that I exhibited physical and sexual abuse during that time other than restraints. I reported it at the time, but you know they never wrote it down and I really want to change the system. Luckily a bunch of other hospitals that I have been to have not treated me the same. It was only that one. Well I can say that one, because one of the patients sexually assaulted me in another ward. So other than those two wards I can say that all the other ones were really good.

And I'm glad the governor closed one of the state hospitals down because it was bad, and I think people with mental illnesses can live full healthy lives. I mean sometimes the need the occasional inpatient. But normally in places like Maryland restraints have been banned because they are cruel and unusual. There is always a number of people who can restrain the person and get them to calm down, but when they put them in isolation for hours at a time and neglect them, I think that is worse than prison. I am sorry to sound like a whining. I just felt that this was a good place to vent all the wrong doings of the mental health field. Because of the inpatient and the fact that I was forced to be in one so long, I missed out on a good year or two of my life when I could have been going to college and being successful at a job.

Of course I had to apply for disability. And then people wonder why I'm sucking off the government and when actually I'm trying to get off disability. I have all the credentials, a degree that I finished finally, but when they do a background check they find out I'm disabled. So now I have to go in some transitional work program. It sucks because I may not be to work for months at a time and people may not be hiring. It just sucks.

LOTS of people get misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia and end up having to take antipsychotics. It happens to people with bipolar all the time. Then later they change the diagnosis to bipolar and give them lithium. I have never heard of anyone winning a suit over that. It is very common for shrinks to give antipsychotics - they even give them for anxiety sometimes. So it is unlikely that you could win a suit based on that.

I have not heard of antipsychotics causing arthritis or migraines. It will be hard to prove that the drugs were the cause there. It could cause seizures - that has been documented. But my understanding is that the seizures go away when the drug is discontinued. In any case you will need a psychiatrist to testify in your behalf and that will not be easy. The shrinks all stick together in these things.

You should be happy that at least one bad hospital got shut down. In my state the hospital has not been closed even though it has been decertified for 8 years. The morons who run it have not even been fired.

onebravegirl wrote:It is sad that you feel you were abused. In my experience I have found that people who were treated as you described were out of control and had to be restrained. Called a code white where I am from.
Some people would much rather complain about how they were treated than work on figuring out what got them in the Psych ward to begin with. I don't know you, of course, I am only looking through a window here. But seriously consider this.
Obviously you have some Psych issues in your life. A law suit will just add to your already emotionally strained life. Examine whats going on aside from how you were treated in the Hospital first.
I am not saying that what you went through wasn't terrible. It sounds terrifying, and I am so sorry that you went through this. But for your own sake, your bigger problem is really WHY you were in there in the first place. Starting a law suit can (only you know for sure) be away of avoiding your deeper issues.
Best Wishes,
One

That's a lot of BS! There IS a lot of mistreatment that goes on in hospitals and although your advce is probably well intentioned and in many instances would be a valid observation to a patient complaining of abuse, in this case as in many it is nothing more than a slap in the face to someone who may have been legitimately abused!

Now assuming the Op did experience abuse where would they find a lawyer? Beats the living heck out of me! After i WAS undoubtly abused by 2 hospitals I filed a complaint with my states disabilty rights office. They did an investigation and told me that based on their findings from the hospitals own records that they strongly recomend I look for a lawyer to file a claim of abuse which among other things included being held in restraints for 16 hrs while I was asleep and calm. Wel, armed with the findings of the state investigators I sought to find a lawyer. I had emailed over 50 lawyers with a brief explanation of the circumstances along with a condensed version of the reports. Only 1 lawyer expressed interest and then changed his mind after I said I couldn't put up a retainer of several thousand dollars. I went to a dozen law practices in person too and could get nowhere without willing to fork over big money and was either dismissed at the receptionists desk as another 'kook' or told that cases involving psychiatric abuse were hard to prove thus a bad risk case (ie, not easy money). I eventually gave up. I hope this doen't deter you but that was my sad experience

I hope someone has a better story to tell and perhaps have good advice too. Sorry OP i couldn't be of much help other than relate my sad story.

Besides bringing forth a psychiatric malpractice lawsuit, there are some other actions that may be taken as well against an offending psychiatrist. Filing a complaint with the psychiatrist's employer, filing an ethics complaint with the review board or filing a human rights complaint are other actions that can be taken either in lieu of or in addition to a psychiatric malpractice lawsuit.

You can check with The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

http://psychrights.org/opening.htm

Probably won't do any good.

In my state they are trying to change the laws to make it easier to force drug people. As of now they have to have a committment hearing and then an involuntary medication hearing at a later date after they have evaluated you and after you have had a chance to get an independent evaluation. Now they want to change that so your involuntary medication hearing is at the same time as the commitment hearing. That would be a joke. No one would lose a committment hearing and then win the involuntary medication hearing that is held at the same time.

I'm not a fan of Scientology, but they do hate psychiatrists.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was established by the Church of Scientology to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

If you know anyone, including a child, who has been abused or harmed by a psychiatrist call The Citizens Commission on Human Rights at 1-800-670-2247. Complete confidentiality assured.

This Psychiatric Diagnosis Abuse Report Form is for your protection. here is where I found it >

http://www.cchr.org/take-action/psychia ... -form.html

It looks pretty cool to me, I dont see them force drugging and abusing people. Im going back to check it out some more on there site. http://www.scientology.org

I also like this site , and "mindfreedom international is not scientogy" if that helps anyone.

http://www.mindfreedom.org and http://www.mindfreedom.org/coercion

Members of MindFreedom International use mutual support to help protect one another from unwanted coerced psychiatric procedures. Current MindFreedom members may register for the MindFreedom Shield for free. Then if a member with a Shield is threatened with coerced psychiatry, that member can instantly activate a public alert system. NICE !!!