8 ms·

Intake – American's largest psychiatric chain

241 points by andy 10y ago

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
American asylums are a perfect example of the sin and corruption at the root of American society: dehumanizing and illegal detainment of human beings to preserve power and profits. ... In the 1970s, a researcher sent fake (healthy) patients to asylums. They were loaded with powerful antipsychotics and not allowed to leave until they faked the cures the psychologists expected to see. When the fake patients were all out the story blew the lid on the American psychological profession, so the psychologists said "bring more fakes, we can sort them out." The original researcher said "sure." The psychologists proudly stated a few weeks later that they had weeded out several dozens of "fakes." There was no second fake cohort. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- vomitcuddle 10y ago
  don't you mean psychiatrists, not psychologists?
- DanBC 10y ago
  It's tempting for some people to think "That was 40 years ago, and it couldn't happen now". Things are much better (if only because all those big institutions were closed), but we stills see examples. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-in-psychiatric-ward-after-correctly-saying-obama-follows-her-on-twitter-10132662.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-... This woman told her doctor that President Obama followed her on Twitter. That's very easy to check, 5 minutes tops. No one checked, they assumed it was a delusion, and she was detained against her will, deprived of her liberty. The submitted article has some really disturbing parts: > A technician rifled through Trimble’s purse for sharp objects and then a nurse told her to strip down to her underwear. It was then, she said, that she realized the doors to the psychiatric ward had locked behind her. > Trimble, who has recently reached a settlement regarding her hospitalization, recalled shaking with fear and “deep, shameful humiliation” as the nurse examined her body, noting the location of any identifying marks. “All you can do,” Trimble said, “is stand there and let it happen.” There's considerable overlap between "people who've experienced abuse" and "people who have mental illness". You can imagine jut how traumatic this kind of treatment could be to some people. > Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out. This is bizarre. There's no shortage of people who would have an actual need for those beds.
  - throwaway729 10y ago
    But there is a shortage of people with (good enough) insurance who would have an actual need for those beds. The article even indicated this: Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out.
- openasocket 10y ago
  I can't speak about asylums in the 70s, but I think modern mental health centers have problems, some different, some similar. First is that these tend to be either state-run or contracted, and there is a great incentive to provide the bare minimum of care. There is also a serious issue with organization. My father used to work at some of these institutions. He's a psychologist with a PhD and 20+ years of experience treating the mentally ill. His bosses, who are in charge of running the place and determining policy, had high school educations. The nursing staff, who spent most of the time with the patients, also had high school education (maybe some nursing school education, but usually not). I think we should increase funding for mental health clinics, and put the professionals in charge. Also, I understand the aversion many people have to even the concept of asylums, but the problem is in the implementation, not the concept. De-institutionalization is great, asylums should be an absolute last resort and many cases can be more easily dealt with in out-patient care or medication. But, absolute de-institutionalization means the mentally ill wind up homeless or in prison.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    There's also a problem that the money saved by closing the big institutions wasn't put back into better community (outpatient) care. So people have to be acutely unwell to get any treatment. People with chronic problems don't get the treatment.
    - warfangle 10y ago
      A lot of really good therapists don't accept insurance. A lot of really good psychiatrists don't take insurance. Insurance covers on average two sessions of therapy annually. Therapy is only effective over long periods (years) of regular (weekly/biweekly) sessions. It's a fucking travesty. I spend close to $500 per month, after insurance, for my mental healthcare. This is a therapist and a psychiatrist. None of this is covered by my insurance. I pay what I can with an FSA but it's extraordinarily exhausting.
- jlubawy 10y ago
  If you haven't read the book or seen the movie I'd highly recommend "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", both are excellent.
petulanta 10y ago
I should hope this comes as no surprise to anyone. Every single psychiatrist I've ever visited had the same policy, only their lock was medicine rather than a door (outpatient vs inpatient). I feel bad for the lady because she didn't know any better and joked about suicide, but shouldn't it be common sense you don't tell anyone about that--you don't even joke about it--especially to a doctor with the power to commit you? I'm pretty sure you can't have decent therapy if you're not truthful with your therapist, but that's the catch-22 of needing mental help in America. Fucked if you don't seek it out and really fucked if you do.
- DashRattlesnake 10y ago
  > but shouldn't it be common sense you don't tell anyone about that--you don't even joke about it--especially to a doctor with the power to commit you? It shouldn't be, because doctors should have the sense and motivation to differentiate a joke from a true statement. It's just a really sad statement that our society has traps like this (that people really need to be aware of), which can really screw you over.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - jrnichols 10y ago
    The problem is that one person that tells you they're just joking and actually goes out and commits suicide. Then it's on you, the healthcare professional. Lawyers would ruin you in court. I've been in and out of various psychiatric facilities, including that very same facility in Arlington, and it seems like a lot of the policies & procedures are to cover themselves legally. Oh, I've been there as a Paramedic, not as a patient. Almost forgot that bit. We typically bring people in the front door. Even voluntary admissions. The one thing that struck me as odd is that Millwood always has someone (a LCSW or something) come out and talk to patients there in the lobby some before having them sign any of the admission paperwork. They don't lock you in a room and then have you sign.
- md224 10y ago
  > Every single psychiatrist I've ever visited had the same policy, only their lock was medicine rather than a door (outpatient vs inpatient). I'm confused, are you complaining about psychiatrists forcing medication on people? I thought the entire point of seeing a psychiatrist was to get on medication...
DashRattlesnake 10y ago
> Lauren Singer, who worked for six months at the front desk of Colorado’s Highlands Behavioral, said people who were waiting in the lobby for an assessment would ask her what it would entail. “I would frequently get yelled at for overstepping my bounds and telling them too much about the evaluation process,” Singer said. A button behind the receptionist’s desk controlled the lock to the front door of the facility, and, she said, “If someone came in voluntarily, I wasn’t allowed to let them out of the door.” That's terrifying. Earlier in the article they talked about people coming in for simple depression screening based the hospital's ads, but things like locking the doors behind people who choose to come in are probably keeping a lot of people from getting the help they need. Medical care, especially medical care with an involuntary component, should never be for profit. The profit motive is just too corrupting.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  If these allegations are proven and those responsible for these policies don't spend significant time in prison then we can no longer deny that we live in a corrupt society.
  - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
    I mean, this sounds a lot like criminal kidnapping.
    - cmdrfred 10y ago
      If abducting someone for profit isn't kidnapping then I don't know what is.
    - gumby 10y ago
      And indeed she reached a settlement with the company which presumably means they were worried about losing a lawsuit or worse.
      - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
cs702 10y ago
"Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out." Don't worry, free-market ideologues will coolly tell you. Their logic will seem airtight: over time, if Intake's psychiatric wards were really, truly locking up sane people who don't want to be locked up, the reputation of these facilities would no doubt have already suffered by now, and the company would have already been forced to close them. These incidents can only be isolated cases, regardless of the evidence. The profit motive will keep the company in check. If you believe that, you haven't read the article.
- tdb7893 10y ago
  I never fully understood free market ideologies because no market can ever really be "free" in the theoretical sense. "Free markets" are based off of a set of assumptions that can never quite be true.
- dang 10y ago
  You've introduced an ideological talking point in order to refute it, but that's the sort of tangent we ask people not to introduce into divisive threads, because they usually turn into generic arguments/flamewars that overwhelm the (far more interesting) specifics of a story.
  - cs702 10y ago
    dang: that wasn't my intention, but rereading what I wrote, I must admit you're right. The story upset me and I overreacted. Please feel free to delete/hide my comment. I added a note to prevent upvoting for now.
    - dang 10y ago
      I'd never delete an exchange with so exemplary a recovery :)
- 10y ago
tcj_phx 10y ago
Psychiatry in America is an ongoing "crime against humanity". The third world gets better results for their mental health patients because they can't afford the pharmaceutical industry's FDA-certified psychotropic medications. In October 2016 I found videos of my friend before the first hospital. She quipped about alcohol and drugs, but sounded "normal". We were frying donuts. About two weeks after the videos were filmed, my friend ran out of alcohol. Her mother called the "crisis team", who took her to the hospital. I don't know what happened, exactly, but I assume they treated her with Haldol, an old cheap "tranquilizer" that is sold to patients as an "anti-psychotic". But... It's been known since the late 1970's that anti-psychotics make psychosis worse over time. Robert Whitaker wrote "the case against anti-psychotics" [1] to provide as succinct a case against this class of drugs' use as possible. [1] https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/the-case-against-antipsychotics/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/the-case-against-antips... After being given this psychosis-provoking drug, my friend was diagnosed as "persistently disabled." This diagnosis (professional opinion) is disproved by my videos, but these have never been viewed by any judge. Anti-psychotics are also known to make cocaine users more likely to use cocaine, which is known to cause psychosis. Alcohol withdrawal is also a known cause of psychosis [2]. My friend told the psychiatrists that she'd been drinking 2 bottles of liquor a day (methadone side effect, I think), and using cocaine, but they gave her anti-psychotics anyways. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance-induced_psychosis#ICD-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance-induced_psychosis#IC... My friend escaped briefly from her court-ordered medications in March 2016.... Then she was given an SSRI "anti-depressant" in May 2016, which caused much anxiety, which led to her getting arrested... She's now being forced to take tranquilizers again. I'm still trying to protect my friend from her doctors. When a petition to the court is dismissed "without prejudice" it means that you can correct the errors and re-file. I've re-filed twice, but I don't think the judge even read the second and third petitions. I guess I'm going to the court of appeals next... <sigh> edit 1: clarification... edit 2: added the paragraph about getting ordered by the court to submit to psychiatry. edit 3: added sentence about the third world edit 4: Oh my... This buzzfeed article is about "Universal Health Services". My friend stayed at two of their locations: http://www.uhsinc.com/locations/uhs-facilities-map-usa/ http://www.uhsinc.com/locations/uhs-facilities-map-usa/ edit 5: I actually went to talk to an investigator with the state attorney general's office this morning - his department was "health fraud and abuse". He was not optimistic of being able to find something to investigate. I'm going to print this buzzfeed article and take it over. edit 6: forgot to include link for [1]
Unbeliever69 10y ago
They are like the ITT of the psychiatric care industry.
fizzbang 10y ago
I have a (relatively minor) nit-pick with some of the language in the article. Early in the article the author writes "Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure..." However, a few paragraphs later she writes "But scores of employees from at least a dozen UHS hospitals said those facilities tried to keep beds filled even at the expense..." I don't understand why the employees are from "at least" a certain number of hospitals, unless her sources were unclear about where they worked. And why does this number change?
- DashRattlesnake 10y ago
  I read the "at least" language as more-explicitly leaving open the possibility that the problem exists in more widely in the UHS system.
- projektfu 10y ago
  As you're learning about the story, you might hear a few things "on background, off the record." That means that you can't really act like you were told that, but you now know that you have a story. So, you start reporting, and over time you get employees asking for anonymity from 10 hospitals to say such and such, and from 12 hospitals to say another thing, and you heard some of this on background. So you can say "at least" but you can't say the full number. If there is a libel or defamation lawsuit, your sources can be reviewed under seal, but since you don't note the source of your background information, you can't state that those sources exist.
a3n 10y ago
I immediately went to their web site, and looked for their facilities near me. There are two, and a third in the region. I hope I remember not to go there in a crisis.
- fineIllregister 10y ago
  What you want is a Psychiatric Advance Directive. It's a way to outline your wishes for treatment before you have mental health care crisis. http://www.nrc-pad.org/ http://www.nrc-pad.org/
gumby 10y ago
By the way let's not forget this is excellent investigative reportage by Buzzfeed who is using their clickbait revenues to do real journalism.
- jmcgough 10y ago
  They've had several excellent investigative articles recently - the investigative group is headed by a pulitzer award winner.
- ryanSrich 10y ago
  It's like creating cancer to cure it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
  - gumby 10y ago
    Well, to be fair, clickbait and yellow journalism far far predates Buzzfeed (e.g. Hearst's apocryphal "you supply the article and I'll supply the war"). And the muckrakers were also click baiters. But I see your point.
- cylinder 10y ago
  Is there a business model behind it or just prestige? These types of articles definitely lose money for BuzzFeed.
  - gumby 10y ago
    I believe Peretti has made repeated claims dating back to the founding of the company that this was the plan. Either he's committed or doesn't want to be legitimately called a liar :-) All joking aside: so far they've done good work and I assume it is earnest.
USANEEDSHELP 10y ago
This is a crime against humanity. The problem here is that we have a for profit company/hospital that is in charge of the well being of a human. This doesn't work & we need to stop this. No for profit company should be in charge of health care. It doesn't work, because profits are more important than helping people get better.
Avshalom 10y ago
So, I don't know that this is universally "a thing" but when I had a 3-5 hour break down in June I got in contact with the University of New Mexico's SHAC[1], I was registered but not yet taking a class and I think its open to the general public. They give you a little 10-15 minute "counseling triage" and then give you an appointment or whatever as they feel appropriate. If you feel like you're in a bad place I encourage you to call your local university. Even if you aren't a student: schools are extremely used to dealing with people who don't know how to get started with the mental health (or any health) industry and they won't fucking kidnap you. [1] http://shac.unm.edu/ http://shac.unm.edu/ they accept any one by the way. Please look for help if you feel like everything is awful, even if it's just finding some one to talk to.
MrBingley 10y ago
> “Your job is to get patients,” said a former clinician at Salt Lake Behavioral. “And you get them however you get them.” > Two dozen current and former employees from 14 UHS facilities across the country told BuzzFeed News that the rule was to keep patients until their insurance ran out in order to get the maximum payment. Coincidentally, I was discharged this morning from a psychiatric hospital in Canada. In a non-profit system, there is no financial motive to keep patients longer than necessary. Furthermore, hospitals in Canada almost always operate at capacity to keep costs low. This is a double-edged sword of course, but it means doctors have an incentive to help their patients recover so they can be discharged to make room for new arrivals.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  On the flip side, the state run facilities in the US always try to push people out or, "get them back on their feet." I had a swimming instructor who told me her brother was mentally ill and was in and out of these all the time. He'd feel he'd need to stay there a few more weeks, but they'd push him right out. He'd do okay for a while, then stop taking his meds (because most of those meds do make you feel like shit), then he'd start having delusions again. Eventually he'd be back to begging for 40ozs and eventually be back in the center. America's system doesn't provide enough funding, not just for mental health, but all the other services around health to help people out and be self sustainable in their communities.
  - rounce 10y ago
    Sadly for people who are like the man you mention, "a few more weeks" is in actual fact a lot longer. The problem is more likely to be the lack of a proper support network to help this individual care for themselves in the long-term, as well as helping maintain routines and structure in their life. This is not something that can be done in an environment as tightly constructed as a mental institution. It requires a combination of professionals and friends on the outside, who are able to give this person round the clock support to help deal the the complexity of life in a uncontrollable environment. Unless we (as a society) can find a way to provide this for those who have been pushed to the fringes of reality, there will still be a significant portion of people pushed into the Treat-Release-Repeat loop for years to come.
maxxxxx 10y ago
They only need to merge with a private prison operator and you have the perfect customer pipeline.
spitfire 10y ago
This would make two incredible movies. First a horror movie about false involuntary admittance. Second, a fantastic corporate drama ala michael clayton about the corporate hierarchy that built, runs and protects the machine. If anyone writes the screenplay for these, I want royalties.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  "Changeling" is one movie that portrays involuntary psychiatric admittance, although in that case it wasn't motivated by profit.
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0xcde4c3db 10y ago
Based on my experience as a patient (not at a UHS facility, as far as I can tell) I'm pretty confident that the stuff reported in this article is just the tip of the iceberg. These facilities are structured in a way that makes people doubt their own memories and feel powerless, even before the neuroleptics come out. Treatment "progress" is predicated on -- if not synonymous with -- submission. I was put on suicide watch after having a bad night's sleep and complaining that my experience had been harmful rather than helpful. I found out later that the psychiatrist had written in my file that I'd had psychotic episodes, which never happened (I'm torn on whether to attribute this to error or falsification). I've thought about challenging this, but I wouldn't even know where to begin, and I'm fairly certain it would just end up being my word against his and not actually doing any good. Basically, the playing field is heavily tilted against reporting misconduct. For every person Buzzfeed was able to find, there are probably ten who didn't feel like they could speak out about it, or convinced themselves that they were just being irrational since, after all, they were literally a mental patient.
- warfangle 10y ago
  Heres one who hasn't spoken out. I'm glad that I was able to get appropriate treatment (15 years later) but how I was treated as a teenager in a mental health facility was atrocious. Misdiagnosis, over medication, and only keeping patients as long as their insurance held out was par for the course.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    TIL, contrary to recent political claims, there are some situations in which it's better for one's health insurance not to cover mental health.
    - warfangle 10y ago
      A product of misaligned incentives caused by profit-driven healthcare industry.
- jackfrodo 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
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JumpCrisscross 10y ago
Are there any UHS locations in New York State or California?
Keverw 10y ago
It is so crazy how doctors can just lock people up and drug them. No trial, no right to an attorney, not even a one phone call always... Someone who just murdered someone and went to jail has more rights than these doctors give people. Personally, I think a majority of the mental health industry is a fraud. These are the same people who voted that being LGBTQ is a mental illness in the DSM. :( Plus they don't even have blood testing like the majority of doctors can use as a test. Then they over diagnosed kids and drug them, as a result of the one size fits all and boring education system - which promotes testing and memorization over charter and critical thinking.
matheusmoreira 10y ago
Yeah, after reading all this, I wouldn't blame those patients if they didn't trust healthcare professionals anymore. It's clear these people don't have the patient's best interests in mind. Locking the doors behind people coming into the hospital voluntarily? I wish they were making this up.
gonmf 10y ago
There should be a special place in hell for people who abuse the most vulnerable of people.
- throwanem 10y ago
  There is.
adolph 10y ago
There was an interesting Diane Rehm show about involuntary psychiatric admission recently. It seemed a bit better balanced than the Buzzfeed piece since it wasn't focused on the apparent misdeeds of a particular organization. https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-11-29/the-debate-over-involuntary-psychiatric-treatment https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-11-29/the-debate-ove...
6stringmerc 10y ago
Great to see the Investigative, Serious Business arm of Buzzfeed get linked here (I don't visit their site often but know of their growing legit digging). A sensitive, yet salacious type of subject that can use a spotlight in my opinion. Simply put, I hope for improvement. One of the first films I ever watched with my Dad was "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" partly because it's part of his life history (grew up in Pac Northwest, ran into Ken Kesey a few times) but also because of the amazing life lessons within. The book is even more epic and deep. And, growing up in the US, I know mental health is still not quite up in the priorities as much as, well, look at commercials, there's a glut of dick-pills for sale. I'm a proponent of using fiction to help re-package heavy, important lessons that journalism brings up. I'd written a short treatment years ago about a serious PhD Psychiatry student discovering most everybody in the "profession" at his Public/Private Treatment Center suffered from their own DSM-diagnosable serious mental illness. From macabre understanding we're all flawed might come enlightenment. Or, you know, just comedy.

241 points by andy 10y ago

American asylums are a perfect example of the sin and corruption at the root of American society: dehumanizing and illegal detainment of human beings to preserve power and profits. ... In the 1970s, a researcher sent fake (healthy) patients to asylums. They were loaded with powerful antipsychotics and not allowed to leave until they faked the cures the psychologists expected to see. When the fake patients were all out the story blew the lid on the American psychological profession, so the psychologists said "bring more fakes, we can sort them out." The original researcher said "sure." The psychologists proudly stated a few weeks later that they had weeded out several dozens of "fakes." There was no second fake cohort. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment

deleted 10y ago
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vomitcuddle 10y ago
don't you mean psychiatrists, not psychologists?
DanBC 10y ago
It's tempting for some people to think "That was 40 years ago, and it couldn't happen now". Things are much better (if only because all those big institutions were closed), but we stills see examples. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-in-psychiatric-ward-after-correctly-saying-obama-follows-her-on-twitter-10132662.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-held-... This woman told her doctor that President Obama followed her on Twitter. That's very easy to check, 5 minutes tops. No one checked, they assumed it was a delusion, and she was detained against her will, deprived of her liberty. The submitted article has some really disturbing parts: > A technician rifled through Trimble’s purse for sharp objects and then a nurse told her to strip down to her underwear. It was then, she said, that she realized the doors to the psychiatric ward had locked behind her. > Trimble, who has recently reached a settlement regarding her hospitalization, recalled shaking with fear and “deep, shameful humiliation” as the nurse examined her body, noting the location of any identifying marks. “All you can do,” Trimble said, “is stand there and let it happen.” There's considerable overlap between "people who've experienced abuse" and "people who have mental illness". You can imagine jut how traumatic this kind of treatment could be to some people. > Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out. This is bizarre. There's no shortage of people who would have an actual need for those beds.
- throwaway729 10y ago
  But there is a shortage of people with (good enough) insurance who would have an actual need for those beds. The article even indicated this: Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out.
openasocket 10y ago
I can't speak about asylums in the 70s, but I think modern mental health centers have problems, some different, some similar. First is that these tend to be either state-run or contracted, and there is a great incentive to provide the bare minimum of care. There is also a serious issue with organization. My father used to work at some of these institutions. He's a psychologist with a PhD and 20+ years of experience treating the mentally ill. His bosses, who are in charge of running the place and determining policy, had high school educations. The nursing staff, who spent most of the time with the patients, also had high school education (maybe some nursing school education, but usually not). I think we should increase funding for mental health clinics, and put the professionals in charge. Also, I understand the aversion many people have to even the concept of asylums, but the problem is in the implementation, not the concept. De-institutionalization is great, asylums should be an absolute last resort and many cases can be more easily dealt with in out-patient care or medication. But, absolute de-institutionalization means the mentally ill wind up homeless or in prison.
- DanBC 10y ago
  There's also a problem that the money saved by closing the big institutions wasn't put back into better community (outpatient) care. So people have to be acutely unwell to get any treatment. People with chronic problems don't get the treatment.
  - warfangle 10y ago
    A lot of really good therapists don't accept insurance. A lot of really good psychiatrists don't take insurance. Insurance covers on average two sessions of therapy annually. Therapy is only effective over long periods (years) of regular (weekly/biweekly) sessions. It's a fucking travesty. I spend close to $500 per month, after insurance, for my mental healthcare. This is a therapist and a psychiatrist. None of this is covered by my insurance. I pay what I can with an FSA but it's extraordinarily exhausting.
jlubawy 10y ago
If you haven't read the book or seen the movie I'd highly recommend "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", both are excellent.

petulanta 10y ago

I should hope this comes as no surprise to anyone. Every single psychiatrist I've ever visited had the same policy, only their lock was medicine rather than a door (outpatient vs inpatient). I feel bad for the lady because she didn't know any better and joked about suicide, but shouldn't it be common sense you don't tell anyone about that--you don't even joke about it--especially to a doctor with the power to commit you? I'm pretty sure you can't have decent therapy if you're not truthful with your therapist, but that's the catch-22 of needing mental help in America. Fucked if you don't seek it out and really fucked if you do.

DashRattlesnake 10y ago
> but shouldn't it be common sense you don't tell anyone about that--you don't even joke about it--especially to a doctor with the power to commit you? It shouldn't be, because doctors should have the sense and motivation to differentiate a joke from a true statement. It's just a really sad statement that our society has traps like this (that people really need to be aware of), which can really screw you over.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- jrnichols 10y ago
  The problem is that one person that tells you they're just joking and actually goes out and commits suicide. Then it's on you, the healthcare professional. Lawyers would ruin you in court. I've been in and out of various psychiatric facilities, including that very same facility in Arlington, and it seems like a lot of the policies & procedures are to cover themselves legally. Oh, I've been there as a Paramedic, not as a patient. Almost forgot that bit. We typically bring people in the front door. Even voluntary admissions. The one thing that struck me as odd is that Millwood always has someone (a LCSW or something) come out and talk to patients there in the lobby some before having them sign any of the admission paperwork. They don't lock you in a room and then have you sign.
md224 10y ago
> Every single psychiatrist I've ever visited had the same policy, only their lock was medicine rather than a door (outpatient vs inpatient). I'm confused, are you complaining about psychiatrists forcing medication on people? I thought the entire point of seeing a psychiatrist was to get on medication...

DashRattlesnake 10y ago

> Lauren Singer, who worked for six months at the front desk of Colorado’s Highlands Behavioral, said people who were waiting in the lobby for an assessment would ask her what it would entail. “I would frequently get yelled at for overstepping my bounds and telling them too much about the evaluation process,” Singer said. A button behind the receptionist’s desk controlled the lock to the front door of the facility, and, she said, “If someone came in voluntarily, I wasn’t allowed to let them out of the door.” That's terrifying. Earlier in the article they talked about people coming in for simple depression screening based the hospital's ads, but things like locking the doors behind people who choose to come in are probably keeping a lot of people from getting the help they need. Medical care, especially medical care with an involuntary component, should never be for profit. The profit motive is just too corrupting.

cmdrfred 10y ago
If these allegations are proven and those responsible for these policies don't spend significant time in prison then we can no longer deny that we live in a corrupt society.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  I mean, this sounds a lot like criminal kidnapping.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    If abducting someone for profit isn't kidnapping then I don't know what is.
  - gumby 10y ago
    And indeed she reached a settlement with the company which presumably means they were worried about losing a lawsuit or worse.
    - eli_gottlieb 10y ago

cs702 10y ago

"Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure to fill beds by almost any method — which sometimes meant exaggerating people’s symptoms or twisting their words to make them seem suicidal — and to hold them until their insurance payments ran out." Don't worry, free-market ideologues will coolly tell you. Their logic will seem airtight: over time, if Intake's psychiatric wards were really, truly locking up sane people who don't want to be locked up, the reputation of these facilities would no doubt have already suffered by now, and the company would have already been forced to close them. These incidents can only be isolated cases, regardless of the evidence. The profit motive will keep the company in check. If you believe that, you haven't read the article.

tdb7893 10y ago
I never fully understood free market ideologies because no market can ever really be "free" in the theoretical sense. "Free markets" are based off of a set of assumptions that can never quite be true.
dang 10y ago
You've introduced an ideological talking point in order to refute it, but that's the sort of tangent we ask people not to introduce into divisive threads, because they usually turn into generic arguments/flamewars that overwhelm the (far more interesting) specifics of a story.
- cs702 10y ago
  dang: that wasn't my intention, but rereading what I wrote, I must admit you're right. The story upset me and I overreacted. Please feel free to delete/hide my comment. I added a note to prevent upvoting for now.
  - dang 10y ago
    I'd never delete an exchange with so exemplary a recovery :)
10y ago

tcj_phx 10y ago

Psychiatry in America is an ongoing "crime against humanity". The third world gets better results for their mental health patients because they can't afford the pharmaceutical industry's FDA-certified psychotropic medications. In October 2016 I found videos of my friend before the first hospital. She quipped about alcohol and drugs, but sounded "normal". We were frying donuts. About two weeks after the videos were filmed, my friend ran out of alcohol. Her mother called the "crisis team", who took her to the hospital. I don't know what happened, exactly, but I assume they treated her with Haldol, an old cheap "tranquilizer" that is sold to patients as an "anti-psychotic". But... It's been known since the late 1970's that anti-psychotics make psychosis worse over time. Robert Whitaker wrote "the case against anti-psychotics" [1] to provide as succinct a case against this class of drugs' use as possible. [1] https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/the-case-against-antipsychotics/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/the-case-against-antips... After being given this psychosis-provoking drug, my friend was diagnosed as "persistently disabled." This diagnosis (professional opinion) is disproved by my videos, but these have never been viewed by any judge. Anti-psychotics are also known to make cocaine users more likely to use cocaine, which is known to cause psychosis. Alcohol withdrawal is also a known cause of psychosis [2]. My friend told the psychiatrists that she'd been drinking 2 bottles of liquor a day (methadone side effect, I think), and using cocaine, but they gave her anti-psychotics anyways. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance-induced_psychosis#ICD-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance-induced_psychosis#IC... My friend escaped briefly from her court-ordered medications in March 2016.... Then she was given an SSRI "anti-depressant" in May 2016, which caused much anxiety, which led to her getting arrested... She's now being forced to take tranquilizers again. I'm still trying to protect my friend from her doctors. When a petition to the court is dismissed "without prejudice" it means that you can correct the errors and re-file. I've re-filed twice, but I don't think the judge even read the second and third petitions. I guess I'm going to the court of appeals next... <sigh> edit 1: clarification... edit 2: added the paragraph about getting ordered by the court to submit to psychiatry. edit 3: added sentence about the third world edit 4: Oh my... This buzzfeed article is about "Universal Health Services". My friend stayed at two of their locations: http://www.uhsinc.com/locations/uhs-facilities-map-usa/ http://www.uhsinc.com/locations/uhs-facilities-map-usa/ edit 5: I actually went to talk to an investigator with the state attorney general's office this morning - his department was "health fraud and abuse". He was not optimistic of being able to find something to investigate. I'm going to print this buzzfeed article and take it over. edit 6: forgot to include link for [1]

Unbeliever69 10y ago

They are like the ITT of the psychiatric care industry.

fizzbang 10y ago

I have a (relatively minor) nit-pick with some of the language in the article. Early in the article the author writes "Current and former employees from at least 10 UHS hospitals in nine states said they were under pressure..." However, a few paragraphs later she writes "But scores of employees from at least a dozen UHS hospitals said those facilities tried to keep beds filled even at the expense..." I don't understand why the employees are from "at least" a certain number of hospitals, unless her sources were unclear about where they worked. And why does this number change?

DashRattlesnake 10y ago
I read the "at least" language as more-explicitly leaving open the possibility that the problem exists in more widely in the UHS system.
projektfu 10y ago
As you're learning about the story, you might hear a few things "on background, off the record." That means that you can't really act like you were told that, but you now know that you have a story. So, you start reporting, and over time you get employees asking for anonymity from 10 hospitals to say such and such, and from 12 hospitals to say another thing, and you heard some of this on background. So you can say "at least" but you can't say the full number. If there is a libel or defamation lawsuit, your sources can be reviewed under seal, but since you don't note the source of your background information, you can't state that those sources exist.

a3n 10y ago

I immediately went to their web site, and looked for their facilities near me. There are two, and a third in the region. I hope I remember not to go there in a crisis.

fineIllregister 10y ago
What you want is a Psychiatric Advance Directive. It's a way to outline your wishes for treatment before you have mental health care crisis. http://www.nrc-pad.org/ http://www.nrc-pad.org/

gumby 10y ago

By the way let's not forget this is excellent investigative reportage by Buzzfeed who is using their clickbait revenues to do real journalism.

jmcgough 10y ago
They've had several excellent investigative articles recently - the investigative group is headed by a pulitzer award winner.
ryanSrich 10y ago
It's like creating cancer to cure it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
- gumby 10y ago
  Well, to be fair, clickbait and yellow journalism far far predates Buzzfeed (e.g. Hearst's apocryphal "you supply the article and I'll supply the war"). And the muckrakers were also click baiters. But I see your point.
cylinder 10y ago
Is there a business model behind it or just prestige? These types of articles definitely lose money for BuzzFeed.
- gumby 10y ago
  I believe Peretti has made repeated claims dating back to the founding of the company that this was the plan. Either he's committed or doesn't want to be legitimately called a liar :-) All joking aside: so far they've done good work and I assume it is earnest.

USANEEDSHELP 10y ago

This is a crime against humanity. The problem here is that we have a for profit company/hospital that is in charge of the well being of a human. This doesn't work & we need to stop this. No for profit company should be in charge of health care. It doesn't work, because profits are more important than helping people get better.

Avshalom 10y ago

So, I don't know that this is universally "a thing" but when I had a 3-5 hour break down in June I got in contact with the University of New Mexico's SHAC[1], I was registered but not yet taking a class and I think its open to the general public. They give you a little 10-15 minute "counseling triage" and then give you an appointment or whatever as they feel appropriate. If you feel like you're in a bad place I encourage you to call your local university. Even if you aren't a student: schools are extremely used to dealing with people who don't know how to get started with the mental health (or any health) industry and they won't fucking kidnap you. [1] http://shac.unm.edu/ http://shac.unm.edu/ they accept any one by the way. Please look for help if you feel like everything is awful, even if it's just finding some one to talk to.

MrBingley 10y ago

> “Your job is to get patients,” said a former clinician at Salt Lake Behavioral. “And you get them however you get them.” > Two dozen current and former employees from 14 UHS facilities across the country told BuzzFeed News that the rule was to keep patients until their insurance ran out in order to get the maximum payment. Coincidentally, I was discharged this morning from a psychiatric hospital in Canada. In a non-profit system, there is no financial motive to keep patients longer than necessary. Furthermore, hospitals in Canada almost always operate at capacity to keep costs low. This is a double-edged sword of course, but it means doctors have an incentive to help their patients recover so they can be discharged to make room for new arrivals.

djsumdog 10y ago
On the flip side, the state run facilities in the US always try to push people out or, "get them back on their feet." I had a swimming instructor who told me her brother was mentally ill and was in and out of these all the time. He'd feel he'd need to stay there a few more weeks, but they'd push him right out. He'd do okay for a while, then stop taking his meds (because most of those meds do make you feel like shit), then he'd start having delusions again. Eventually he'd be back to begging for 40ozs and eventually be back in the center. America's system doesn't provide enough funding, not just for mental health, but all the other services around health to help people out and be self sustainable in their communities.
- rounce 10y ago
  Sadly for people who are like the man you mention, "a few more weeks" is in actual fact a lot longer. The problem is more likely to be the lack of a proper support network to help this individual care for themselves in the long-term, as well as helping maintain routines and structure in their life. This is not something that can be done in an environment as tightly constructed as a mental institution. It requires a combination of professionals and friends on the outside, who are able to give this person round the clock support to help deal the the complexity of life in a uncontrollable environment. Unless we (as a society) can find a way to provide this for those who have been pushed to the fringes of reality, there will still be a significant portion of people pushed into the Treat-Release-Repeat loop for years to come.

maxxxxx 10y ago

They only need to merge with a private prison operator and you have the perfect customer pipeline.

spitfire 10y ago

This would make two incredible movies. First a horror movie about false involuntary admittance. Second, a fantastic corporate drama ala michael clayton about the corporate hierarchy that built, runs and protects the machine. If anyone writes the screenplay for these, I want royalties.

jessaustin 10y ago
"Changeling" is one movie that portrays involuntary psychiatric admittance, although in that case it wasn't motivated by profit.

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0xcde4c3db 10y ago

Based on my experience as a patient (not at a UHS facility, as far as I can tell) I'm pretty confident that the stuff reported in this article is just the tip of the iceberg. These facilities are structured in a way that makes people doubt their own memories and feel powerless, even before the neuroleptics come out. Treatment "progress" is predicated on -- if not synonymous with -- submission. I was put on suicide watch after having a bad night's sleep and complaining that my experience had been harmful rather than helpful. I found out later that the psychiatrist had written in my file that I'd had psychotic episodes, which never happened (I'm torn on whether to attribute this to error or falsification). I've thought about challenging this, but I wouldn't even know where to begin, and I'm fairly certain it would just end up being my word against his and not actually doing any good. Basically, the playing field is heavily tilted against reporting misconduct. For every person Buzzfeed was able to find, there are probably ten who didn't feel like they could speak out about it, or convinced themselves that they were just being irrational since, after all, they were literally a mental patient.

warfangle 10y ago
Heres one who hasn't spoken out. I'm glad that I was able to get appropriate treatment (15 years later) but how I was treated as a teenager in a mental health facility was atrocious. Misdiagnosis, over medication, and only keeping patients as long as their insurance held out was par for the course.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  TIL, contrary to recent political claims, there are some situations in which it's better for one's health insurance not to cover mental health.
  - warfangle 10y ago
    A product of misaligned incentives caused by profit-driven healthcare industry.
jackfrodo 10y ago

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JumpCrisscross 10y ago

Are there any UHS locations in New York State or California?

Keverw 10y ago

It is so crazy how doctors can just lock people up and drug them. No trial, no right to an attorney, not even a one phone call always... Someone who just murdered someone and went to jail has more rights than these doctors give people. Personally, I think a majority of the mental health industry is a fraud. These are the same people who voted that being LGBTQ is a mental illness in the DSM. :( Plus they don't even have blood testing like the majority of doctors can use as a test. Then they over diagnosed kids and drug them, as a result of the one size fits all and boring education system - which promotes testing and memorization over charter and critical thinking.

matheusmoreira 10y ago

Yeah, after reading all this, I wouldn't blame those patients if they didn't trust healthcare professionals anymore. It's clear these people don't have the patient's best interests in mind. Locking the doors behind people coming into the hospital voluntarily? I wish they were making this up.

gonmf 10y ago

There should be a special place in hell for people who abuse the most vulnerable of people.

throwanem 10y ago
There is.

adolph 10y ago

There was an interesting Diane Rehm show about involuntary psychiatric admission recently. It seemed a bit better balanced than the Buzzfeed piece since it wasn't focused on the apparent misdeeds of a particular organization. https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-11-29/the-debate-over-involuntary-psychiatric-treatment https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-11-29/the-debate-ove...

6stringmerc 10y ago

Great to see the Investigative, Serious Business arm of Buzzfeed get linked here (I don't visit their site often but know of their growing legit digging). A sensitive, yet salacious type of subject that can use a spotlight in my opinion. Simply put, I hope for improvement. One of the first films I ever watched with my Dad was "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" partly because it's part of his life history (grew up in Pac Northwest, ran into Ken Kesey a few times) but also because of the amazing life lessons within. The book is even more epic and deep. And, growing up in the US, I know mental health is still not quite up in the priorities as much as, well, look at commercials, there's a glut of dick-pills for sale. I'm a proponent of using fiction to help re-package heavy, important lessons that journalism brings up. I'd written a short treatment years ago about a serious PhD Psychiatry student discovering most everybody in the "profession" at his Public/Private Treatment Center suffered from their own DSM-diagnosable serious mental illness. From macabre understanding we're all flawed might come enlightenment. Or, you know, just comedy.