Neil, Quizzer, 106-141

1. After such a terrible experience being locked in Meriwether for 10 days would you be able to voluntarily check yourself into another mental hospital?
After what she described during her experience I don't think I could voluntary check myself back in. After she described how amazing the feeling of freedom and fresh air was it would be very difficult for me to have my freedom taken again. If I had the distaste for Meriwether like Norah does I wouldn't be able to pick up everything and put myself right back into that terrible situation.

2. Do you have an issue with the drug companies having such an influence and say in what the mental hospital does?
I believe the way she portrays it, there is an issue with the amount of influence the drug companies have, but I believe Norah may also be very biased. She makes it sound as though the only treatment these hospitals rely on is prescription drugs. She makes it sound as though the drug companies are the primary financial backing for the hospital and therefore there is increased pressure to prescribe the patients to their drugs. I think Norah may be over exaggerating the drug companies influence but I believe that doctors are too quick to prescribe their patients to these drugs.

3. Do you think they should have the MI (mental illness) and the CD (Chemical dependency) patients in the same clinic?
It was quite odd to me when I read that St. Lukes housed both people suffering from mental illness and people suffering from chemical dependency in the same clinic. I was under the impression that these are two far different diseases and should be dealt with completely differently. I think that when they have them housed in the same clinic it is a much more general treatment as opposed to specialized treatment. It would be a more effective clinic if they moved away from general treatment and more towards specialized treatment for each individual patient.

4. Norah seems to think St. Lukes is a far better institution then Meriwethewr, do you agree?
I agree that St. Lukes seems like a better institution overall but I think there is still much room for improvement. I like that the patients have much more freedom and are allowed little things like a cigarette break and some fresh air. I also like that they are allowed to interact with other patients more freely because I think that is important to recovery. I however think that St. Lukes shouldn't have all of the patients mixed together and should like all hospitals, rely less on prescription drugs and more on actual rehabilitation.