I have been working in mental health for about 1.5 years,
so I'm fairly new to the field. I guess that means that you can take
what I say with a grain of salt. I'm often left questioning many of the
decisions that are made around me. The first thing I have to say is the
system itself and unfortunately some of the people in the field
stigmatize their own. I often hear words like "behaviors" "redirect"
"decompensation". "does so and so have any "behaviors"? Really, that's
how we discuss a person with a serious illness? I find this degrading
and humiliating. That's something you say about a dog. The same thing is
said about "redirect". Can we redirect this person? no, because they
aren't a puppy or your kid and it's not something you should be saying
to a child either. Not only is it humiliating but it's just not
correct. You will never be able to "redirect" someone with
schizophrenia, sorry, but it won't happen. how do you "redirect" someone
that hears voices from inside their brain?? This kind training for
pavlov's dog is outdated and incorrect. Behavior methods don't work for
seriously ill people.
The mental health system doesn't seem to be able to keep up
with the new information that is coming by the way of science and
breakthroughs. There is plenty of evidence that supports the idea that
people with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and bpd will have their
situation greatly improved by psychotherapy and treatment teams don't
cut it in my opinion. The term mental illness itself has a large stigma
around it. what if you changed the name? What if people saw
schizophrenia as a brain disease/disorder because that is what it is
after all. These "behaviors" are symptoms of a much larger disease. A
disease of the brain like MS, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.MM