[ASAN] ACTION ALERT: Speak Out Against Chemical Restraint

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ACTION ALERT: Speak Out Against Chemical Restraint

Last Friday, the New York Times ran an expose documenting the systemic overuse of psychotropic medication by New York's residential service-provision system for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. According to the Times, people with developmental disabilities in group homes in New York are more likely to be given Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug that also serves as a tranquilizer, than multivitamins. In many cases, psychotropic medication is prescribed as a chemical restraint to control behavior, even when it lacks any therapeutic purpose. Although there are appropriate uses for medication, lack of oversight has led to clear and systemic abuses. No one should be medicated for the purpose of controlling behavior.

This isn't a new problem. Data from the National Core Indicators project, a national database run by the Human Services Research Institute and the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disability Services, shows that the percentage of people with developmental disabilities receiving psychotropic medications is much higher than the percentage who have the co-occurring mental health conditions which might justify their use. The long term side effects of such inappropriate usage include obesity, diabetes, long term brain damage, injury and even death. As a result, we are asking you to join us in writing to the New York Office of People with Developmental Disabilities and the NY Legislature to tell them to take action against chemical restraint today! Our action alert can be found at: http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-ne ... sabilities

Your voice will help make a difference. Please take the time to send a message to the State of New York that chemical restraint is never appropriate, then pass along the action alert to your friends and family and ask them to do the same. Help us spread the message far and wide.

Thank you for your advocacy,

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network



The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) is a non-profit organization run by and for Autistic people, fighting for disability rights in the world of autism. Working in fields such as public policy, media representation, research and systems change, ASAN hopes to empower Autistic people across the world to take control of their own lives and the future of our common community.

im a bit worried this could make doctors nervous about giving meds to those who realy need it

I would be against giving something like Haldol or Thorazine on a regular basis to control behavior unless the person was violent or harming themselves.

Ativan is a very mild drug, and I took it on a fairly regular basis for a couple of years for anxiety.

Something that knocks you out or interferes with your ability to think properly should only be given as needed for the patient's treatment and not for the convenience of the staff, although I have no problem with giving a mild sedative to calm a patient if otherwise they would be so difficult to manage that their actions prevent the staff from properly caring for all the patients.

Convenience of the staff sounds like a petty reason for sedating a patient, but it's usually not meant that they knock out a few patients who require more intensive care so that the staff can take more smoke breaks or can eat lunch undisturbed. It's more along the lines of allowing the number of staff members working to care properly or all patients. Hiring more staff seems to be the logical answer, but that drives up costs and can mean that fewer people can afford care there, or if it's government funded, that some people who are receiving care there may have to be turned out on the street or to family members who are unable to care for them as they need.

So, I can see both sides. I would hate for a family member of mine to be constantly heavily sedated unless it was needed for their, or others safety, but I would also hate for a family member who needed the care there to be thrown out so that staff could concentrate more on patients who need more intensive care, but could be sedated at times.

It's sort of a no win situation I suppose. The devil you know vs the devil you don't know. However, I have no problem with the milder benzo's being given to help some patients be more cooperative.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

Personal experience with my son being put on meds of various kinds has led me to agree this is a real problem, especially with high functioning Autism.

When my son was around ten years old, he was in an alternative school for kids with "behavioral problems." At the time, we insisted he was on the Autistic spectrum, and should be treated as such. That was actually included in his IEP, but he had no official diagnosis. He was evaluated by the school's psychiatrist, who determined that though he did appear to score on the spectrum, the scoring appeared low enough the doctor would not "rubber stamp" him as Autistic.

As a result, the approaches used to deal with him at school were all focused on behavioral modification, and virtually no one focused on understanding him as an Autistic. This, in turn, skewed the school staff's attitudes toward the affects of various medications he was put on. Anything he took that made him appear more compliant and docile was labeled as "working" by the school. From our perspective, the meds they said "worked," were doing nothing more than drugging him to the point of not being himself at all. Rather than the happy kid we knew, he acted as if he were tranquilized. It should be mentioned that when he was evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome, he was on meds. Well, we took him off everything much to the dismay of his teachers, who insisted it was a bad idea. We did it anyway.

Three and a half years later, back in public school, and with no drugs at all for the entire three years (funny how he managed to do fine back in public school once we took him off everything), we had him evaluated again for Asperger's. The same doctor did the second evaluation. Guess what his findings were this time? After three years OFF all the meds, he scored very high on the spectrum. So high in fact, the scores raised flags for possible false results. We and his para, who worked with him every day all day long, scored him above the 90th percentile. So the doctor had his case manager fill out another set of forms, thinking her "objectivity" would show much lower scores like he saw the first time he evaluated him. Her forms scored him above the 85th percentile. He had no choice but to find him firmly on the spectrum this time.

Administering medications to high functioning Autistics isn't always a bad thing. There are many good applications for meds, but the potential for misuse is HUGE. Unfortunately, there are great many people working with Autistics who see the problems in them as strictly behavioral/disciplinary problems. Certain drugs at just the right dosages can cause an Autistic child to become compliant and docile, and make the jobs of those working with them far easier, but do NOTHING to treat the real problem.

Autism is NOT a behavioral disorder. It's a neurological disorder that affects how we think. We behave as we do because of the way we think. Drugs that do nothing but mask the Autism by making us doped up don't solve the real problems at all. In fact, being doped up will most certainly interfere with our ability to develop coping mechanisms and adaptation skills. Coping and adapting are essential skills for Autistics to develop. When we're doped up on drugs, all that does is stunt our emotional and intellectual development.

When drugs are used for the wrong reasons, that's dangerous. The practice should be stopped. If people speaking out against this causes doctors to be more careful about prescribing drugs, so be it. They should be. Right now, too many of them are not being careful enough.

Pretty sad when you consider meds are being messed up and such.