Medicalized psychiatric system
Assignment Instructions: Just in a few paragraphs. Explore some of the links between the lecture, the film and the Leah Harris reading. What are some of the common themes in each (please use specific examples, especially from the film), to make your point.
Describe some of the critiques from the lecture, the film and the Leah Harris reading of a Medicalized psychiatric system for addressing the needs of people who are suicidal.
What are your personal reactions to the film? Describe a few examples from the film that touched you, or that gave you a new perspective on how our society “helps” people who are suffering. use the lecture and the film the lecture is below
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Hey everybody, School Lecture here to get you set up to watch the film for this discussion and to just say a little bit more about how sociologists talk about and study suicide.
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The film you\’re watching is not produced by sociologists, but it does have a very structural approach to understanding the experience of suicide.
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We learned a bit about Durkheim in a previous module and his work to connect social structure to the the suicide rates.
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And so although this isn\’t, you know, specifically sociological, you can make a lot of connections because they really do start with the experiences of the people themselves.
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The story in the film is essentially told by suicide survivors rather than people in the field of psychiatry.
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So I hope you\’re learning that we really need to do a better job of listening if we really want to make a difference in the lives of people who who are hurting.
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So I just want to sort of offer a couple of guidelines for the discussion.
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You\’re not in class with me, so I have to kind of let you be out there and trust, Trust everybody.
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Ask that you be kind to each other, really listen to each other.
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Even though it\’s online, all of your responses need to start with empathy.
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I would like you to think outside of the dominant narrative around mental health, which hopefully you\’re getting good at now in this class.
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We find similarly troubling connections and a huge study in 2016 by the US Department of Veterans.
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We saw that veterans with a mental health and substance abuse diagnosis, those two often go together.
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Those who got mental health treatment were 50% more likely to die by suicide than those who had a diagnosis and did not access mental health treatment.
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So the red line here is it represents those who sought treatment, and the blue is those who didn\’t seek treatment.
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Both were diagnosed.
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So you can see that rates of suicide are significantly higher for those who sought psychiatric treatment.
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Both have a diagnosis.
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We call that a dual diagnosis, mental health and substance abuse together.
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Also, this report showed that among those who did not have a diagnosis but who got mental health treatment also died by suicide at a higher rate than those who did not get any treatment.
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So even people who were not, who were not diagnosed.
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So in other words, those veterans who received some sort of mental health treatment died by suicide at a higher rate even without without a diagnostic category.
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So look, I mean this is a grim statistic, but we need to pay attention to this.
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Lastly, this is a very sticky graph.
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It\’s hard to talk about online.
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I wish we were a person and I don\’t want to present this as black and white.
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15 minutes 18 seconds
Many people are helped by medications, so this is not an anti medication lecture, but we do need to pay more attention to what the data says.
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So this graph shows that as antidepressant usage increased from 2000 to 2014, so have our suicide rates significantly.
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So we can\’t just ignore this or allow this narrative to be shaped by big pharmaceutical companies.
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15 minutes 45 seconds
This is a super complex issue, and we need to be able to access care for sure, but clearly we\’re losing our way when it comes to helping.
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So if the narrative about this kind of suffering is shaped only by big pharmaceutical companies, for example, we\’re going to have a very skewed view of what works.
We have to look honestly at the data.
We have to listen to people who are suffering rather than simply medicate, medicalize them.
And you\’re going to see a lot of those stories in the film.
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Remember to think about Carp chap in Chapter 5 and what you learned about norms of professionalism and what help sinking is like, right?
This is really important.
So with all of this in mind, go ahead and dive into the documentary and think about how you can make connections between all that you\’re learning in this experience of suicide, right?
This is good stuff about sociology.
We can look at how an individual experiences life and then study up to see how those experiences are connected to the rest of the social world.
But you know, I just do want to acknowledge that this is a complicated topic.
We absolutely have to do better, and we cannot do better if we\’re not honest about what the research teaches US1 Last thing, if you know somebody who is feeling suicidal, I encourage you never to leave them.
I would encourage you to just do what it takes.
Try to understand.
Ask them what they need.
Be there for real.
Remind them that they won\’t always feel this way and that it will pass.
And yes, absolutely get help, but stay as their advocate no matter what, right?
Nothing is more important than another person\’s life.
The reading
deardr
LEAHHA.RRIS
Leah Harris is a mother, storyteller, and intersectional activist. She has
spoken and written widely on her experiences as a trauma survivor and
a suicide attempt survivor, as well as on her paths to resilience. Leah is the
founder of Shifa Consulting, a social enterprise promoting holistic and
creative arts approaches to healing trauma. Her 2016 solo storytelling
show,Aliens, Nazis, andAngels, was named among the Best of the Capital
Fringe Festival. She serves on The Icarus Project Advisory Board and the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline\’s Consumer/Survivor Subcommit
tee. She is an advisor to The S Word, a documentary about suicide.
• • • Q • • 0 • • • • • • • • •
dear dr
on that proud, glorious day
you graduatedfrom medical school
you took an oath as old as Hippocrates
remember?
\’\’above all, do no harm”
above all, do no harm
do no harm
no harm
ah but the trouble is
you thought you were doing Good
by warehousing us in that
sterile, oppressive, un-hospitable place
you called the hospital
you practiced the toughestfarm oftough love there is-
12
so tough
i could not see no love
nowhere
you placed the blame
We\’ve Been Too Patient
squarely on our brains
squarely on our serotoninflow
our synapses
labeling us with whatever diagnosis
on whatever page ofyour book
youfound appropriate
at the time-
you thought you could turn us around
make us productivefuture citizens
make usfit into this
authoritarian
sexist
racist
ageist
militaristic
society your generation
the greatest generation
built
you always insisted that we were the problem
and that you were the solution
but your treatments, your cures
your directives issuedfrom on high
did not heal our brains
did not open our hearts-
they merely transformed these organs
into impassive lumps of bitter rage
dear dr
ifanything, dear dr
you taught me how to act
you taught me all the world\’s a stage
you pushed me to award-winning performances
the award being
life awayfrom your indifferent eyes
your pronouncements ofhealth or ill
your indecipherable scribbles
on the prescription pad-
the infernalfifteen minutes
you gave me each week
in a word, dear dr, the award was
freedom
or at least a glimmer
perhaps I give you too much credit, oh dr dear
assuming
that you saw me as something more than
billable hours
business as usual
another bed,filled
until the money ran out
this time
dear dr
you\’ll never know
in your ivory tower on the secondfloor
ofthe locked teen ward
how many years i \’ve spent
sweating and struggling
to undo all the harm you did
the harm you did
with the best ofintentions
paving my road to hell
13
14 We\’ve Been Too Patient
i declare war on all you scribbled
in my chart
building a new chart
charting a course ofhumanity and dignity
with scribbles and shouts ofmy own
and all the while Hippocrates\’s bones
are twitching in their grave
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