Hoax May Have Led to Shock Treatments

[snopes]

Massachusetts state officials are investigating complaints that at least two teenagers were given electric shock treatments at a residential center for people with special needs because someone telephoned fake orders to the staff.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US

[snopes]

Seven people have been fired over electrical shocks given to two emotionally disturbed teenagers at the direction of what turned out to be a prank caller.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US

[Dr. Dave]

Corrigan said an incident like the faulty shock treatments after a phone call has never happened before.
"It was a perfect storm of things that went wrong that night," he said.

No the system was set up poorly. There are so many problems with this, and they are with the system as well as the implementation.

1. I will not even get into whether electric shocks as punishment are ever appropriate. For the sake of this discussion, I will concede that they are.

2. If they are ever effective, they would only be effective temporally very close to the behavior. Their only rational use would be under an ABC theory (antecedent, behavior, consequence) and such a consequence would need to be right after the behavior. I see in the article that they will no longer have "delayed punishments." Why did a place that specializes in this ever have delayed shock punishments? And 77 shocks

3. The staff did not review the individual care plans. That is not necessarily the systems fault, but the system should initiate a requirement of documenting that the care plan was reviewed before shock can be used.

4. They should not allow such an extreme measure to be ordered by phone. It should require a written and signed order.

[Pseudo_Croat]

I thought electroshock treatments weren't used anymore. What gives?

- Pseudo_Croat

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Pseudo_Croat

I thought electroshock treatments weren't used anymore. What gives?

- Pseudo_Croat

ECT is sometimes used in cases of depression. It apparently works fairly quickly and with a general anasthesia isn't particularly painful. I've read at least a few doctors who think it should be used more often, but that it has such a bad reputation from movies like One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest that doctors tend to shy away from it.

ETA:Of course, whether it should be used as it is in the articles, in which one patient needed to be treated for burns, is another question.

[AnglRdr]

Originally Posted by Pseudo_Croat

I thought electroshock treatments weren't used anymore. What gives?

- Pseudo_Croat

They aren't used generally as a punitive treatment as far as I know, but they are used therapeutically for treatment of some mental illnesses.

[FloridaGirl]

Originally Posted by Steve

ECT is sometimes used in cases of depression. It apparently works fairly quickly and with a general anasthesia isn't particularly painful. I've read at least a few doctors who think it should be used more often, but that it has such a bad reputation from movies like One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest that doctors tend to shy away from it.

ETA:Of course, whether it should be used as it is in the articles, in which one patient needed to be treated for burns, is another question.

I had one therapist recommend me for that......I don't see her anymore.

[Johnny Slick]

I had a therapist tell me to stick my head in the microwave to give myself a tan. Actually that was Weird Al Yankovic.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

I had a therapist tell me to stick my head in the microwave to give myself a tan. Actually that was Weird Al Yankovic.

Weird Al is very therapeutic - but don't do all the stuff he says in his songs.

[Ezri]

I have some pretty severe mental problems....I am severly boarderline personality, I have severe depression, and I am on medication. Now let me tell you, the first person to tell me I need shock therapy is getting a slap upside the head. Medication works just fine for me. It horrifies me that people are still giving electric shock treatment. It's barbaric!

[Fantine]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

Weird Al is very therapeutic - but don't do all the stuff he says in his songs.

Yeah, because if you do, you might end up trapped in a closet with Vanna White.

[Four Kitties]

School destroyed tapes of incident

A residential center for people with special needs destroyed videotape of an incident in which two students were wrongly given electric shock treatments, despite being ordered by the state to preserve the tape, according to an investigator's report.