Posts in “psychiatry”
Take Eight: The Criminal Justice System and the Mentally Ill – Advocacy and Collaboration
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
Last week, a man from New Mexico was awarded twenty-two million dollars after he was found to have spent an extreme amount of time, and most of it in solitary confinement, after a DUI (Drinking Under the Influence). The man had a history of depression and mental illness, so the law enforcement officials at the jail feared he would hurt himself.
The lack of understanding of mental illness and particularly as people with mental illness commit a crime and are forced into the justice system, continues to pose a challenge for us all.
In my previous life as an ER doctor at DC General Hospital, I had the privilege to work with the under-served and several systems including St. Elizabeths’ Hospital, DC Jail, and the Forensic Hospital at John Howard Pavillion. During this time, it was everyday practice to evaluate people for voluntary or involuntary hospitalization, if they were a danger to themselves or others. Doctors would evaluate people after they committed a crime and would decide whether an underlying mental illness was the culprit behind the crime. We would determine whether or not someone who had travelled thousands of miles to visit the president of the United States posed a risk to the president’s safety and well-being. To do this, we would interact with a wide range of professionals, including: police officers, US marshalls, Secret Service agents, and more.
Watch the interview with Judge Steve Leifman, an Associated Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Courts, and see the man behind the judge who has done so much to help those in need of mental health services as well as ensure that those who have committed a crime are judged within the proper channel.
Watch the full show with never-shown clips on Friday at http://www.DrGabyCora.tv
Take Seven: Empathy and Open-mindedness
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
In a recent study with 46 adults with at least one gay parent, 28 out of the 46 spontaneously reported being more empathic and open-minded than other adults with straight parents.
Gay parents talk about teaching their adoptive children tolerance and understanding, and go out of their way to become foster parents or adopt children as they navigate complicated systems and adoption agencies.
Jesse Walters and David Traupman share the story of how Faith came to their lives and their challenges within government agencies when they tried to adopt a foster son years earlier.
Watch our daily clips on YouTube and leave your comments.
The full episode will be available on Friday at DrGabyCora.tv
The Danger of Bias
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
Natalia, my daughter, was only six years old when she came running home from school one day, eager to tell me what she had just learned in art class. I was in my early thirties at the time. I’d had her when I was twenty-two and then graduated from med school as a doctor at twenty-four, with her and my son in tow. So when she told me this story, I was a young mom as well as a young doctor training in psychiatry at the time.
Natalia was so excited, she didn’t have enough breath to tell me everything that had happened to her in the one minute she got to me. It was odd for her to be so thrilled, almost agitated by whatever she had to tell me.
Her excitement suddenly made sense when she told me she had learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his amazing story. She loved his art, but wow, what a story she had to tell about his personal life! Almost immediately after talking about his art, she blurted out: “You know, Mom? He cut off his ear and then he killed himself.”
Continue reading ‘The Danger of Bias’
