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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Brazilian Children - Save them

Yep! I'm in exile here!
As there's nothing in Brazilian Portuguese about the psychiatric scandal I'm here scribbling in English about mental health in general. But I'm Brazilian! I care about my people. I care about children!

The Damião Ximenes case was solved by the OAS and is well reported here:

"The Forensics department in Fortaleza certified that Damião's cause of death was ' unknown,' despite evidence that he suffered violent attacks."; "It is important to underline that Irene (Damião Ximene's sister) was told she would not have access to the clinic audit proceedings, nor even to the report. Irene was also told that the documents would be handed over to the mayor, whose family owned the Casa de Repouso Guararapes."
It's also reported on the same site:

"In the municipality of Rio Grande , in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, on July 5, 2006, a serious example of the violation of human rights in a psychiatric clinic took place, as three young girls were burnt to death in a fire that took place in a room in the female ward of the local psychiatric hospital."

According to criteria for the classification of psychiatric hospitals, which include the quality of care provided, number of beds, physical structure, dynamics, level of involvement in the mental health network and adherence to the technical norms prescribed by the SUS, the National Program for the Evaluation of Psychiatric Hospitals (PNASH)9 recommended the removal of official accreditation for the following institutions:10

In its 2002 annual report: 1) Casa de Saúde Santa Catarina - Montes Claros, Minas Gerais - 124 beds; 2) Instituto de Reabilitação Funcional - Campina Grande, Paraíba - 145 beds; 3) Fundação Hospitalar do Seridó (Hospital Psiquiátrico Dr. Milton Marinho) - Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte - 72 beds; 4) Casa de Saúde Dr. Eiras - Paracambi, Rio de Janeiro - 980 beds; e 5) Hospital Estadual Teixeira Brandão - Rio de Janeiro - 102 beds;

In its 2003 and 2004 reports: 1) Sanatório São Paulo - Salvador, Bahia - 175 beds; 2) Sanatório Nossa Senhora de Fátima - Juazeiro, Bahia - 80 beds; 3) Hospital José Alberto Maia - Camaragibe, Pernambuco - 980 beds; 4) Hospital Santa Cecília - Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro - 200 beds; 5) Hospital Colônia Lopes Rodrigues - Feira de Santana, Bahia - 500 beds.

According to information from the Central Coordination for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, of these 10 hospitals, only three have been closed.11 Seven remain open."

Phamacovigilance in Brazil is a translation of some few FDA, MHRA or other countries administration's recalls just to show something.
There's no pharmacovigilance in Brazil whatsoever! If FDA and MHRA are working the way we know what can the Brazilian "Anvisa"do? Follow their steps not even searching Brazilian data. Only translating three recalls a year works.
You are doing what you want with Brazilians mental health. People are being killed not only in Ceará where Damião Ximenes was killed. But in Rio de Janeiro. You know that in 2002 there was death of a patient in a famous private mental clinic in Rio de Janeiro.
I will not report because of obvious reasons. I have to protect myself to keep on blogging.

You can do whatever you want but I'll not, repeat, I will not stop blogging.
You are already raising the absurd hypothesis that children needs to be medicalized because you have to prepare the way to DSM-5 standards.
SAVE THE CHILDREN!
Stop saying that because children are developing it's profilatic to treat them while they are babies. You know damn well it's bullshit, nonsense and total lack of scientific seriousness, unethical and immoral! Stop prescribing based on hypothesis.
You are already on TV giving interviews and also on mags telling that children and even newborns are supposed to be on psychiatric care.
What kind of medicine are you practicing? Why are you on Meetings when your patients need you? If there were any good and rich information on these MeetingsI would be the first to support you. But you go only to promote drugs.
You are prescribing based on pharmaceutical industry propaganda. You receive them in your offices and start prescribing no matter what drug and without knowing what are the consequences of your prescription.
I have already reported side effect before being on a new drug, I knew it was due to the new drug but the physician wanted to change another drug that had nothing to do with the side effect.
It was ME who had to remind him/her that the side effect appeared when the X drug was introduced.
Please! I'm 49 years old. I don't have a lot of time before me. But you are drugging CHILDREN.
There are already enough data to prove the harm these drugs has promoted.
Death included. A 6 months child being diagnosed and prescribed
? After 2 years and 38 drugs this children died.
You behave as if you knew that's the problem.
Please have the decency to say "-I don't know!" when you don't know.
I know nothing I say can change anything. You have a logic, an ethic, a morality, a science of your own and you don't care about reality.
Yep! What an irony! You deal with people who has problems with reality and you also have a reality of your own.
Unfortunately both realities seems to be far apart from each other.
I like psychiatry. Yes! I like science and I like psychiatry. I would like to be able to help those I see on mental institutions.
But not the way the vast majority of you are doing.
It would be harder. I don't fear the hard way.

STOP KILLING BRAZILIAN CHILDREN!
STOP DESTROYING BRAZILIANS CHILDREN LIVES!
I'm dealing with two problems here: Brazilian Mental Institutions and CHILDREN BEING ON PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS.

STOP KILLING CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD
I
nformation:

Global Justice:

In Brazil: (+55) 21 2544 2320 / 8272 1916 / 8232 1771 - Sandra Carvalho, executive director; Carlos E. Gaio, international relations director

In the USA: (+1) 617 669 8606 - James Cavallaro, Justiça Global's vice-president and clinical director of Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program

In the UK : (+44) 7908 061849 - Andressa Caldas, adjunct director

Damião Ximenes Lopes' family:

In Sobral, Ceará: (+55) 88 3685 1281 / 9924 8142 - Irene Ximenes (Damião's sister)

In Fortaleza: (+85) 8814 8112 - Dra. Lídia Costa, expert in the case

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