Mental Health Blogs

There was an op-ed in the Seattle Times over the weekend authored by Jeff Skolnick, a psychiatrist at an area psychiatric hospital called Navos, formerly known as Highline West Seattle Mental Health. Skolnick argues that Washington State’s commitment laws need to be changed to give doctors and other staff much more leeway in involuntarily committing their fellow human beings to psychiatric institutions. His thinking is straight out of the Fuller Torrey/Treatment Advocacy Center playbook and pretty much echoes what conservative forces in psychiatry argue when they talk commitment laws. In fact, TAC highlighted the op-ed on its blog and dubbed it “Positive Movement in Washington State.”

That it appeared in a newspaper with a 300,000 daily circulation and many thousands of more readers on its website is significant. A lot of people have read Skolnick’s op-ed and gotten the usual violence card arguments from the conservative wing of the psych world.

Go to Source

Related posts:

1. Afraid of Commitment?
2. Tough Choices For Seattle’s Suicide Bridge
3. Winter Fundraiser, Cheaper And Better Than The Washington Post
4. Stephany, Linds Lose Their Fight With Washington State’s Mental Health System
5. Lilly May Settle Zyprexa Claims With More States