It is outrageous that in America patients are imprisoned in mental institutions involuntary and are being treated in the most inhuman way with the help of court-orders.
She has been receiving treatments that are considered crimes against humanity since they only make the patients get worse and with more health problems than after the incarceration.
It was in the state of Virginia in 1914 that the first Eugenetics Sterilization Law passed (you could swear it was in German, couldn't you?)
'Advocacy in favor of sterilization was one of Harry Laughlin’s first major projects at the Eugenics Record Office. In 1914, he published a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law that proposed to authorize sterilization of the "socially inadequate" – people supported in institutions or "maintained wholly or in part by public expense. The law encompassed the "feeble minded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriate, diseased, blind, deaf; deformed; and dependent" – including "orphans, ne'er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers." By the time the Model Law was published in 1914, twelve states had enacted sterilization laws.Is it the way this American state treat their citizens? It seems that not much has changed and the "insane" are still seen as evil that deserves the most hideous torture. What the state of Virginia is doing to Alison Hymes in criminal. Someone decided she had signs of "dementia" and there she is. As mental conditions are very subjective anyone can be treated like Alison Hymes is being treated. Remember the David Rosenhan experiment: "Being sane on Insane Places".
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Once in a mental institution the person is depersonalized and dehumanized. This is a fact all over the world.
Please, help Alison Hymes, a woman and a human being, that is living under life-threatening circumstances doing the follow:
ACTION ALERT to Free Alison Hymes!
Free Alison Hymes From Western State Hospital... We were asked to post the following updated alert for Alison by her friend, Frank. Please address any questions you may have directly to Frank at: nfla@mindfreedom.org.
ACTION ALERT to Free Alison Hymes!
Resident and longtime MindFreedom member Alison Hymes, on Wednesday, 7/3/13, had a re-commitment hearing. This hearing marked the 6 month, 1/2 year point, in her imprisonment at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia.
The result of this hearing is that she was given another 45 days in the hospital after which she will be given another hearing. The result could have been worse as potentially she could have had to wait another 6 months for a hearing.
The bad news, according to Alison, is that the staff at the hospital are not talking about releasing her. She wishes to return to her condominium, her community, and the life she was living before imprisonment at Western State Hospital.
Talking to her over the phone it is not always easy to understand what she is saying. Her words are slurred and garbled. She claims that this is so because the hospital staff won't return her dentures to her. Dentures they took from her.
In a previous alert we claimed she was taking lamictal rather than a neuroleptic. Following a previous hearing with her treatment team this is no longer true. Apparently her doctor thought it necessary to put her back on the drug prolixin. She is receiving shots of prolixin, a long acting injectable, every two weeks. She is also still receiving a daily dose of anti-convulsion drug lamictal.
She had gained much weight since being put on seroquel, the atypical neuroleptic she was receiving during her last hospitalization, and she is very sensitive, as you can well imagine anybody would be, about this issue. She doesn't like the effects of the prolixin, she understands it is a harmful substance, with a potential for doing her a great deal of damage, and she wishes to be taken off it.
Alison was the recipient of a kidney following lithium poisoning after a previous incident of psychiatric malpractice. Her friends and allies worry that keeping her at Western State Hospital
for any length of time will only further endanger her health. She says the medical staff at Western say she needs an operation, on an ulcer, but that the hospital is slow to get around to operating.
Asked what she would tell other members of MindFreedom she said, "I need to get out as soon as possible. I need to get out."
Direct Actions
Please, contact the following state officials, and urge them to free Alison Hymes from her confinement and maltreatment at Western State Hospital.
James M. Martinez
Director, Office of Mental Health
VirginiaDepartment
of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
(804) 371-0091
Jim.Martinez@dbhds.virginia.gov
Senator Tim Kaine
(202) 224-4024
http://www.kaine.senate.gov/contact
Senator Mark R. Warner
(202) 224-2023
http://www.warner.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?p=ContactPage
Delegate David Toscano
(434) 220-1660
DelDToscano@house.virginia.gov
Delegate Rob Bell
(434) 975-0902
DelRBell@house.virginia.gov
Sample message. (In your own words.)
I am writing (or calling) to complain about the forced drugging and false imprisonment of Charlottesville resident Alison Hymes at Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia. She is a danger to no one. She has been detained at the hospital for over 6 months now, and her continued detention serves no purpose. She is also being given periodic injections of prolixin, a powerful neuroleptic drug, that is affecting her health in negative ways. Please, stop the abuse, release her from her confinement to Western State Hospital, and allow her to return home to her community, her life, and her friends.
