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It has come to our attention that some professionals discussing our recent blog in the criminalisation of suicidal service users are doubting it in various ways so we have some comments.
RITB admins have been provided with records written by the professionals themselves in their own words. We have seen these and have no reason to doubt the veracity of the blog. We chose not to publish them with the blog due to difficulties obscuring location/identities.
Professionals making statements like 'we only have one side of the story' shld ask themselves why they disbelieve a SU's account?
Do you think she's lying?
Do you think she's 'misrepresenting'?
Both underlying beliefs play into stereotypically stigmatising views of MH patients.
Do you think she's lying?
Do you think she's 'misrepresenting'?
Both underlying beliefs play into stereotypically stigmatising views of MH patients.
The idea that people with mental health problems are unreliable witnesses, that they are untrustworthy, the idea that people targeted for a PD dx are dishonest or manipulative - all that plays into MH stigma so why are MH professionals perpetuating it?
If it seems like reasonable 'caution' to take, then consider how often we see MH professionals immediate response to stories written by consultants 'Well we only have one half of the story'.
Rarely, because the assumption is made that doctors are reliable and honest.
Rarely, because the assumption is made that doctors are reliable and honest.
We've also seen professionals claiming that such criminalising approaches are only used after everything else has been tried and usually because a service user won't 'engaged'.
Well, we aren't going to convince professionals with such beliefs otherwise but, consider for a moment, when professiinals claim everything has been tried and a patient won't engage, well, we only have one half of the story!
Many servixe users who have faced the allegation of 'not engaging' know perfectly well how services distort what has happened & gone out of their way to portray them as not engaging when that's a very incomplete picture of what has happened.
It is interesting that professionals would happily believe that criminalising suicidal patients is only a 'last resort on the basis the services letting the patient down claim to have 'tried everything' and yet don't believe the patient who gives a rather different portrayal.
If you are a professional who has been involved in criminalising a suicidal patient and genuinely believe it was last resort, might your patient challenge that? Is it at all possible that you or your teams judgement & self-awareness might be questionable?
Our message to professionals is that if you find yourself dismissing the blog think carefully about how power dynamics and stigma are at play here and why you are taking your stance.
