Dinah Miller > Quotes

“You're not going to get patients to take medications unless they trust you. Everyone may have the best of intentions, but if you drag someone to a place, then hand them a bunch of pills, they may get agitated and combative and end up being injected. And then the damage is done.”
― Dinah Miller, Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care

“[P]sychiatric treatment should not be about punishing someone who is too sick to be responsible for her behavior. Seclusion keeps everyone safe until the patient is in control, but it shouldn't be used instead of hiring more staff when increased supervision might substitute.”
― Dinah Miller, Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care

“As a society, however, we have become victim to the demands of insurers, who often require justification for every day (if not every hour) of hospitalization, and hospitals in turn encourage, reward, and publicize their ever-shrinking lengths of stay. By this standard, keeping a patient in a hospital for days or weeks longer than would be necessary if they could simply be forced to take medications is unacceptable.”
― Dinah Miller, Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care