OK I see all the books now. Thanks for the information and link about war trauma.

I appreciate this discussion about mental health care and look forward to getting into the book. The very system that has been established to foster healing and recovery often becomes a source of re-traumatization and we must continue to work towards a trauma-informed mental health system.

Ohio, like many other states, claims to be a trauma-informed system, yet practices are tolerated and promoted that are contrary to trauma-informed principles. For example, the use of seclusion and restraint continues to be utilized in mental health programs and is poorly regulated. The use of seclusion and restraint is harmful and not therapeutic. It represents treatment failure and system neglect and is contrary to the principles of trauma-informed care. A task force has been working for eight years (across 3 governors and administrations, replete with promises and commitments) to address this problem and there has been no leadership or response from the state.

In addition, advocacy groups in Ohio are promoting greater and easier use of involuntary legal commitments and forced treatment orders. Legislation is currently being considered that makes it easier to invoke involuntary and forced treatment and promotes greater use of this legal mechanism.  The use of coercion and force in mental health care can be harmful and is contrary to the principles of recovery and trauma-informed care.  The use of force should be minimized and closely monitored.  There are other non-coercive, effective and less expensive  approaches which should always be considered first and foremost. In a trauma-informed system, forced treatment should be harder to do, not easier.

I am looking forward to this Mad Matters discussion.

Thank you, Chris for initiating a discussion about this very important topic.  I have pre-ordered the book from Amazon and it should be released soon. The very system that was established to help people heal from trauma often times re-traumatizes consumers and becomes part of the problem rather than a solution. We have much to talk about here!

Another book that we may want to add to our discussion group is Saving Normal by Allen Frances. Many important conversations about the nature of mental illness, diagnosis and the mental health system are emerging out of the myriad of conversations taking place over the past couple years regarding the new DSM.

Hi Steve, Totally agree with everything you said. If psychiatrists were to make the real changes necessary in the DSM it would have major ramifications on other sectors of society like the legal system and the military; it would ignite lawsuits and force the VA to give out benefits, money it doesn't want to spend. That's why the military gave Martin Seligman a $34 million dollar no-bid contract to implement his pathetic "positive thinking" model. A soldier sees his buddy blown up and he's supposed to change his thinking somehow in a positive way...right!. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec11/ptsd_12-14.html. It's ridiculous. And it's more blame-the-victim mentality. You can see from the link that Bessel van der Kolk, an expert in PTSD, says it's hogwash. The adage is PTSD is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. There's a lot of effort to not acknowledge that truth.

FYI, I did add Saving Normal by Dr. Allen Frances who was on leadership committees for the DSM-3 and DSM-3R.

http://acesconnection.com/group/books/forum/topics/saving-normal-an-insider-s-revolt-against-out-of-control

One can view all the book entries by hitting View All on the main book page.

Yes, there are states/communities that claim to be trauma-informed but are not practicing it. They have documents up on their websites touting how trauma-informed they are and then when it comes down to a consumer’s experience they just retraumatize sufferers over and over again. There are no words for this great disappointment. And then people wonder why people with mental health challenges don’t seek treatment. The challenge with the trauma-informed movement is to change people’s hearts, a difficult thing to do when our culture is driven so much by the intellect.

It’s horrible to hear about the use of S/R. I’ve heard they use it in my community, too, and the practitioners dismiss information about TIC and claim they “need” to use S/R. It only makes a person worse.

I have, also, heard the mayor of San Francisco address his interest in a version of using involuntary legal commitments and forced treatment orders, too. I was stunned. In California, it’s called

Laura’s Law. Psych survivors do not support it.

Those in power can be very averse to acknowledging the realities of trauma. That was my intention in sharing the information about the military’s quiet agenda on dismissing it. I know professionals who have worked at the VA and there is definitely a system in place to deny the real effects of trauma, as I said for monetary reasons. Humans weren’t biologically designed for war (or rape, or to live in constant fear, etc.). But this is the last thing the military-industrial complex wants to acknowledge. As you know much of the research on PTSD has been and is being done by the military. And from what I understand they have a lot of power over how the DSM is written.

If you or others are interested there’s a great interview with Dr. Bryant Welch (first Executive Director for Professional Practice of the American Psychological Association, clinical psychologist, & attorney) that talks about how the system does not want to acknowledge these truths. He was, also, cited in that PBS link I provided.

Sorry for not being clearer in my previous post. I was in a rush when I wrote it. My point was, and is, to illustrate the bigger context, the outside-of-the-box context, of how mental health/illness is, and really is not, addressed from the societal power structure that is in place. With the DSM-5 debut last week, the time is ripe for understanding how our psychiatric system/mentality is flawed. Mad Matters and Saving Normal are two books that, I’m sure, will add richly to the conversation.

Hopefully the trauma-informed movement will be able to change social norms around how people parent, communicate with, and treat one another. And the amount of money our society spends on the fallout from ACEs will hopefully have an effect on policymaking.

Like the Dalai Lama said “if we look at our problems with a focus on the oneness of humanity, it will eliminate many of the man-made problems like war and wealth inequality.”