Jails generally have a budget of about $1.50/day to feed inmates. Example is white bread, fried bologna, tang and hot dogs. This causes metabolic dysfunction and damages the mitochondria that psychiatric medications have already damaged. It makes a pretrial detainee (not convicted) or any inmate that has a SMI diagnoses…worse. Sardines, boiled eggs, low carb, high fat options can heal the brain. Reference Dr. Chris Palmer’s BRAIN ENERGY and www.metabolicmind.org for more info about healing the mitochondria. My brother was in over a dozen jails and prisons, and over fifty psychiatric institutions, and we have most of the records. Happy to share his info. He passed away last year of Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome from forced drugging. His life of homelessness and forced psychiatric treatment without proper titration or pharmacogenomics testing to help him recover instead of making him worse and costing taxpayers millions of dollars in the name of “treatment”. Complex topic, but we are experts by experience, and hope to prevent the viscous tragedy that happened to Jeff from happening to SO MANY OTHERS.
I am sorry for your loss. The need is real. More people need to know about the right to refuse medications even in involuntary confinement. I have cluster headaches with pain so bad it can cause suicide attempts and psychosis. Commonly listed on the top five most painful conditions list and roughly one in ten sufferers attempt suicide at least once. Due to the severity of my disorder, I had a bad run in with a sheriff and healthcare team following my first, and hopefully only ever suicide attempt.
They didn’t know what was wrong with me. Instead of sending me to the hospital to treat the pain with high flow oxygen, they put me in an involuntary psychiatric hold.
Funny too because like you said, they never share medical history. If they had, they would have seen the cluster headache disorder and known what to do. The incompetent mental health facility was part of the same healthcare system that included my doctor and hospital and had already been treating me for the disorder.
The doctor shouldn’t have been allowed to hold me past the crisis ending, but he said he wouldn’t release me till “I took my medication.” Luckily, I’m a J.D. and know damn well I have the right to refuse medication. The psycho tried to put me on lithium without checking my medical history to see I have only one kidney. Dang that place was so medically incompetent and was openly breaking the law. I was absolutely shocked.
I’ve never been exposed to that side of our country before. Worst part? I have crippling food allergies. I couldn’t eat a single thing there. I’m anaphylactic to milk, peanuts, and shellfish, severely intolerant to sulfites, and have celiac. I eat a very, very special diet. I lost six pounds in one week under their “care.” They tried to feed me peanuts on three separate occasions, fed other inmates peanuts while in the same room with me, tried to give me vegetables with butter, and on and on.
They never once administered high flow oxygen for my cluster headaches, so I suffered severe, excruciating, untreated pain. And then they tried to dope me with pharmaceuticals without knowing my physical and medical history which I tried to tell the doctor, but he just kicked me out of the room in less than two minutes. They did not treat me. Just held me like I was in a prison till several days after the headache had let up.
They also didn’t have proper medication to treat my asthma. People don’t get better at these places. They survive them. I’ve seen criminals get better treatment in jail than I got in that mental institution. I’ve also seen criminals get worse. Our jails need food reform too. People with allergies die all the time in our jails. People with celiac get worse. And it costs us trillions in healthcare and tax dollars.
This will be reformed. I hope they make this a priority, but I don’t care if it’s our leadership’s priority. It WILL be reformed. Now that I’ve seen what can happen, I can’t unsee it, and I can’t sit idly by while they kill innocents in mental institutions or prisoners who can’t defend themselves and can’t survive the junk food poison they hand out like pig slop.
It’s medieval.
I will start by suing the heck out of the hospital that did this to me. By the time we’re done, this will be a new public policy. I’m done, just done. I can’t believe what I saw and the torture I experienced. For the record, I’m an upstanding citizen who has held the same job for 8 years, with a doctorate, and was a homeowner at the time this happened. I may lose the house due to the disability now too because of healthcare costs despite the fact that I’m fully insured. Unreal. I’m fighting back.
I suggest two new policies:
- facilities, whether prisons or mental institutions or whatever, cannot hold a patient for ANY amount of time if they aren’t capable of providing appropriate medical care. They must find a facility that can.
- mandatory food allergy and nutrition training that goes far beyond the basic ten food allergens, plus training on celiac, sulfite intolerance, and other chemical sensitivities including drug allergies for any facility that involuntarily holds humans. That includes schools.
Solution:
Med beds