SAXTONS RIVER — I was stunned and appalled to read Malaika Puffer's Viewpoint about the proposed facility that would result in psychiatric incarceration.
I have long written about the flaws in psychiatric practice. I also had the unhappy opportunity to witness cruel and inappropriate psychiatric hospital practices when my mother suffered severe episodes of depression and spent long months locked up, dragged into electroconvulsive therapy chambers, and overmedicated against her will in the days of Draconian treatments from which she never recovered.
There is no justification for such inhumane and punishing treatment now. The proposed facility would not only be a mistake in terms of therapeutic intervention, but a serious stain on the mental-health-care system in Vermont.
I am grateful that Mailaika Puffer has drawn attention to this potential disaster and pending human rights violation, pointing out viable alternatives.
I urge readers and all Vermonters to make their opposition know to the governor and to state legislators.