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Originally Posted by jerseyj
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In my experience, NAMI is worthless. They are supposed to be advocates for the mentally ill, but do nothing practical to help them at either a personal or public advocacy level. For example, they've done nothing about fighting involuntary commitment and discrimination. What's worse, they and a lot of local clinics will almost automatically send you to an emergency department at a local hospital, where they'll charge you a fortune and give you no help. It happened to a family member of mine.
Several independent investigations, including a Congressional investigation, found:
"The supposed experts responsible for these "diagnoses" are usually biased in favor of commitment because of their personal economic concerns or their affiliation with the psychiatric "hospital" or ward where the "patient" is or will be confined. Psychiatric "hospitals", like all businesses, need customers. In the case of psychiatric "hospitals" [or wards], they need patients. They not only want patients, they need them to stay in business. ..Keeping all those psychiatric beds filled is critical, and administrators are aggressively ensuring that they will be. Some facilities even resort to paying employees and others bonuses of $500 to $1,000 per referral. An administrator at a psychiatric "hospital" told me competition between psychiatric hospitals is "cut throat". Combine this intense competition with America's poorly written involuntary commitment laws and judges who refuse to impose protection from unwarranted commitment that bona-fide due process requires, and the result is a lot of people being deprived of liberty and suffering psychiatric stigma unjustifiably."
Unjustified Psychiatric Commitment
Ill-Treated - Reason Magazine
Campaign For Liberty — Involuntary Psychiatric Commitment - A Crack In The Door Of Constitutional Freedoms
Involuntary Commitment
Citizens Commission on Human Rights, CCHR: Take Action, Get Involved in The Fight For Human Rights.
It's quite difficult to find a good psychiatrist or support group. A couple of resources are:
NJAMHA
New Jersey Resources
There ARE a number of independently run support groups and resources depending on your area; there's one in Clifton and one that meets in the basement of a church in Montclair, for example. My experience is that your personal physician is one of the best places to start. There are a couple of organizations like SERV, which has branches throughout the state and has both therapists and psychiatrists. And they charge based on your income. It was only $20 a visit for one person I know. The only problem is that they have a waiting list.
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