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amorphaA woman we know in Chicago, Illinois is being locked up in a psychiatric ward and given drugs against her will. She has been a revolving door mental patient since she was a teenager and has no one in her local area to advocate for her. Her doctors are putting her on heavy doses of neuroleptics which are making it very difficult for her to move or communicate, and want to continue keeping her on these high doses. She already has severe ongoing health problems as a result of being put on toxic levels of these kinds of drugs by one of her past doctors, and, as a result, has a great deal of difficulty with mobility and self-care. She could live independently if she had someone to assist her with this stuff-- especially someone who could drive her around-- but is at a point where she's very suspicious of most offers of "help," due to how she's been treated in the past. (She had transportation at one point, but her caseworkers refused to take her anywhere after she lost bladder control in their van. She needs a consistent supply of Depends, but her caseworkers won't buy them for her.)
Our housemate& have already tried contacting Mindfreedom and the ACLU. Mindfreedom basically said they couldn't do anything because they're an "awareness" group, and the ACLU gave them a list of other groups to call. They've tried leaving messages on those, but any kind of other help she could get, regarding both getting her out of the psych ward and getting a place to live and disability services on a long-term basis, and transportation, would be very appreciated.
(Also, I would hope that this would go without saying, but any replies along the lines of "if she's in the hospital, you shouldn't interfere, it's probably the best place for her and her doctors know best" will be deleted. SHE WAS NOT HAVING ANY EMOTIONAL CRISES, SHE IS NOT VIOLENT, SHE IS NOT "DANGEROUS" TO HERSELF OR ANYONE ELSE. She was evicted from her apartment because she wasn't able to clean it and has nowhere to go. And she is not benefitting in any way from having levels of drugs in her system that make it almost impossible for her to speak or communicate verbally. And given that one of her past doctors almost killed her with toxic doses of drugs, and her life has been endangered many times since then by the ongoing health problems they caused, when no one was helping her with self-care, we don't believe it's the safest place for her to be right now-- far from it.)
Our housemate& have already tried contacting Mindfreedom and the ACLU. Mindfreedom basically said they couldn't do anything because they're an "awareness" group, and the ACLU gave them a list of other groups to call. They've tried leaving messages on those, but any kind of other help she could get, regarding both getting her out of the psych ward and getting a place to live and disability services on a long-term basis, and transportation, would be very appreciated.
(Also, I would hope that this would go without saying, but any replies along the lines of "if she's in the hospital, you shouldn't interfere, it's probably the best place for her and her doctors know best" will be deleted. SHE WAS NOT HAVING ANY EMOTIONAL CRISES, SHE IS NOT VIOLENT, SHE IS NOT "DANGEROUS" TO HERSELF OR ANYONE ELSE. She was evicted from her apartment because she wasn't able to clean it and has nowhere to go. And she is not benefitting in any way from having levels of drugs in her system that make it almost impossible for her to speak or communicate verbally. And given that one of her past doctors almost killed her with toxic doses of drugs, and her life has been endangered many times since then by the ongoing health problems they caused, when no one was helping her with self-care, we don't believe it's the safest place for her to be right now-- far from it.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-22 07:40 pm (UTC)*Hugs* and *Hugs* to her if she wants.
I wish I had ideas for this.....