Vagrant Violet
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- Oct 4, 2009
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I recently came across this article in the Buenos Aires Herald, whose headline immediately caught my attention:
In an nutshell, it explains that the current government is filing a new bill with the intention of reforming the current mental health law, which has been in effect since 2010. While I know that laws of this kind should be updated or at least reviewed periodically, reading the article still left me with a number of legitimate concerns, and still with a lot of remaining questions.
On on hand, in theory, this sounds reasonable enough - facilitating and loosening some of the requirements and broadening and having more clarifying terms for involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations so that ideally if there is a reason for concern regarding an individual's danger to themselves and to others. Sure, this all sounds fine and dandy (once again, in theory), but del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho. Upon further sleuthing, I can completely understand the concerns of those who "... would go against the individual’s rights and move back towards a system focused on institutionalization."
In fact, I can empathize with it.
I *voluntarily* had myself committed in 2013 while in my 6th month of pregnancy in Clinca Avril in the Almagro barrio. I was suffering from such relentless antenatal depression that I truly feared that I was on the verge of doing something irreversible to both myself and my unborn son and contacted OSDE. They took me over in an ambulance (though thankfully not strapped to a gurney), where I was told that, upon signing and initialing away my freedom, that I was going to receive help, that I would meet with a psychiatrist every day, and that I would be free to go when I felt that I was ready.
Lies upon lies upon dangerous, vile lies.
I won't go into details (unless you all are so inclined to read them here), but let's just say that the concerns posed in the article are more than founded; Among them are the statements I can indeed attest to, "They were locked up and, far from getting better, they got worse and worse," and "People were not only compulsively medicated but also overmedicated." When I finally left Clinica Avril, I was too broken to even speak. Literally.
Moreover, the article goes on to state, "The current national budget for mental health is at 1.4% of the overall funding. The reform proposal eliminates this funding threshold, meaning that Argentina would no longer have a minimum budget for mental health." ... Soooooo, in other words, they want to make access to credible and potentially lifesaving services better by slashing the funding further. Make it make sense.
I am not out of the woods yet in terms of my ongoing battles with mental illness and personal demons. There is no finish line for me to cross, and I am among the fortunate few who have access to private insurance, a squad of mental health professionals from whom I can avail, and a supportive life partner who has weathered the storms with me and is still standing by me (bless his heart). But I acknowledge that my life could have had and still could have a drastically different fate if I were not as privileged as I currently am.
I am quite wary of the outcome of this new proposal and the long-term implications it can mean for those like me. Sure, the law as it currently stands leaves a lot to be desired. But I don't believe at all, based on the current administration's stances related to human rights, what I have read, my own experiences living here, and also in the failed mental health systems in Argentina and in the United States, that this is going to amount to anything even close to positive.
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buenosairesherald.com
In an nutshell, it explains that the current government is filing a new bill with the intention of reforming the current mental health law, which has been in effect since 2010. While I know that laws of this kind should be updated or at least reviewed periodically, reading the article still left me with a number of legitimate concerns, and still with a lot of remaining questions.
On on hand, in theory, this sounds reasonable enough - facilitating and loosening some of the requirements and broadening and having more clarifying terms for involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations so that ideally if there is a reason for concern regarding an individual's danger to themselves and to others. Sure, this all sounds fine and dandy (once again, in theory), but del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho. Upon further sleuthing, I can completely understand the concerns of those who "... would go against the individual’s rights and move back towards a system focused on institutionalization."
In fact, I can empathize with it.
I *voluntarily* had myself committed in 2013 while in my 6th month of pregnancy in Clinca Avril in the Almagro barrio. I was suffering from such relentless antenatal depression that I truly feared that I was on the verge of doing something irreversible to both myself and my unborn son and contacted OSDE. They took me over in an ambulance (though thankfully not strapped to a gurney), where I was told that, upon signing and initialing away my freedom, that I was going to receive help, that I would meet with a psychiatrist every day, and that I would be free to go when I felt that I was ready.
Lies upon lies upon dangerous, vile lies.
I won't go into details (unless you all are so inclined to read them here), but let's just say that the concerns posed in the article are more than founded; Among them are the statements I can indeed attest to, "They were locked up and, far from getting better, they got worse and worse," and "People were not only compulsively medicated but also overmedicated." When I finally left Clinica Avril, I was too broken to even speak. Literally.
Moreover, the article goes on to state, "The current national budget for mental health is at 1.4% of the overall funding. The reform proposal eliminates this funding threshold, meaning that Argentina would no longer have a minimum budget for mental health." ... Soooooo, in other words, they want to make access to credible and potentially lifesaving services better by slashing the funding further. Make it make sense.
I am not out of the woods yet in terms of my ongoing battles with mental illness and personal demons. There is no finish line for me to cross, and I am among the fortunate few who have access to private insurance, a squad of mental health professionals from whom I can avail, and a supportive life partner who has weathered the storms with me and is still standing by me (bless his heart). But I acknowledge that my life could have had and still could have a drastically different fate if I were not as privileged as I currently am.
I am quite wary of the outcome of this new proposal and the long-term implications it can mean for those like me. Sure, the law as it currently stands leaves a lot to be desired. But I don't believe at all, based on the current administration's stances related to human rights, what I have read, my own experiences living here, and also in the failed mental health systems in Argentina and in the United States, that this is going to amount to anything even close to positive.
