Says Whole Scrapping Of The Culture Is Needed.
Pueblo County District Attorney Bill Thiebaut publicly expressed his skepticism of claims by the Colorado Department of Human Services that improvements have occurred at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) in the wake of a patient death there last August.
According to the Pueblo Chieftain, Thiebaut said “I don’t have a lot of confidence that there’s been a change out there.” He went on to say that change would require a whole scrapping of the culture at CMHIP.
“We have a culture that has permeated the institution for years,” Thiebaut said.
That culture was the focus of a report issued by a Pueblo County grand jury that investigated the August 2010 death of patient Troy Geske. The 41-year-old, who was obese and suffering from a respiratory infection, suffocated while being restrained face down and left unattended in a seclusion room at the facility for refusing to take psychiatric drug(s) prescribed to him. See a summary of that report in our article “You Be The Judge: Pueblo Grand Jury Returns Findings In Death of State Hospital Patient.”
“The grand jury said things need to change from the top down,” Thiebaut continued.
Geske had been readmitted to CMHIP in July 2010 because he was experiencing mental symptoms that included auditory hallucination, depression, worsening confusion and aggressive behavior.
All of these behaviors are side effects of psychiatric drugs. Geske’s ultimate death while under the control of CMHIP staff may well have been the direct result of the psychiatric drugs he was prescribed by psychiatrists at CMHIP – drugs that he was struggling to refuse at the time of his death, drugs he may well have known were destroying him.
Adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs, as detailed in research studies, warnings from international regulatory authorities and reports to the FDA, can be accessed through CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effect search engine.
If you have experience with “the culture” at CMHIP, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225. All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.
