The Case of Joyce Brown

Hi everyone.

I'm claire and today I am presenting um the case

of choice Brown and Chapter 14 which is about involuntary

psychiatric commitment and research on people with schizophrenia.

Um mm hmm.

Let's begin.

So um in the 1980s in New York City there

were a lot of homeless people and a lot of

mentally unstable people in the streets.

And Um in 1987, New York City started a project

named Project health to assist those in need homeless people

and um people just who generally needed many kinds of

help. And of course these people resisted.

And because of this the project tried to kind of

expand um uh huh The sort of um standards for

involuntary commitment because a lot of the time they found

themselves just trying to get these people into psychiatric ward

beds and like into hospitals.

And so The first person that they picked up was

a 40 year old African American woman named Joyce Brown.

Um and kind of just a little bit of her

background. She Slept on the streets through 18 months and

she would panhandle for money and um yeah, she just

kind of appeared to be mentally and staple, but I'll

go more into her appearance next.

And like I said, the project really wanted to kind

of open the guidelines for involuntary commitment by specifically adding

um two new criteria and the legal requirements which are

self neglect and need to be treated for mental illness,

which basically just adds on to the previous legal requirements

for involuntary commitment, which were pretty strict.

And so you know, the project wanted to kind of

expand on them by adding those two um points.

And so as I said, her appearance at first she

looked as though she was mentally unstable.

Um her description was that she um you know, I

kind of ratty hair, her teeth needed some professional help,

She was disoriented a lot of the time she would

talk mutter and seeing herself and she often urinated and

got gutters and refused um to be taken into a

shelter by the police.

So eventually um she by project help was forcibly um

taken into commitment at what was called the Bellevue Hospital

which was a psychiatric hospital.

Um And she against her will was given um held

all which is an anti psychotic drug and anti band

which is a fast acting short term tranquilizer.

And then they pretty much just took her into the

psych unit and throw on a bed and left her

there against her will.

And upon further evaluation it was noted that um yeah

her doctors eventually realized that she wasn't endangered to herself

or others after further evaluation.

Which are which allow you know the doctors and the

police to keep someone in a hospital against their will

if they're obviously a danger to themselves or to others.

Mhm. And so um if she wanted to be um

released, she would have to go like if she was

brought if someone is brought into a psychiatric hospital by

police which she was Uh huh.

They aren't often let out even after the doctors say

she's okay, they have to go through a trial in

court. And so I did kind of an overview of

the trial.

All right.

Um So like I just said a judge has to

hold a hearing after police bring in a patient to

a psychiatric facility.

Um And Joyce called the A.

C. L.

U. Or the american Civil liberties Union to represent her.

And they agreed to um and they kind of went

over her history and she did have a history of

drug, drug use, loss of job and kind of living

in between shelters around the streets.

Um And her sisters were actually very important and very

prominent in her case and you know they loved her

but ultimately they really wanted her to be committed in

a hospital no matter what if it was or wasn't

against her will.

And and in the trial it was said that her

sister's at one point tricked her into voluntarily committing herself

um Where she was involuntarily drugged and given a diagnosis

which was later deemed and corrective psychosis.

And eventually she stuck out And then psychiatrist later in

the same hospital diagnosed her with schizophrenia and declared that

if she was left on the street she would deteriorate

mm mm.

And so in the trial for psychiatrists testified against her

and then three testified for her and the A.

C. L.

U. Saying that she wasn't psychotic or dangerous to herself

and others.

And and in my opinion as I was reading I

found the city's attorney, the person against her was very

focused on the future and that's kind of what he

was leaning on to try and get them to be

able to commit her and voluntarily.

Um And most of the time you just focused on

if we don't do something now like something's going to

happen and we can't wait until something happens to her.

We have to act before it's too late.

And but eventually the judge decide decided uh that Brown

be set free and he stated that she was rational,

logical and coherent throughout her testimony.

And he said that she just wait a sense of

humor, pride, a fierce independence of spirit and quick mental

reflexes. Um And of course the her sisters we're really

upset with the decision and insisted that Joyce still needed

treatment. Yeah.

And um also in the trial, the sisters revealed that

they had gotten her declared as mentally disabled and that

she was receiving social Security benefits um and that they

took these benefits so she didn't have access to whatever

the money was or the other sorts of benefits.

Um And of course from also refuse this money and

later on after she won, she was still in the

hospital, but she publicly announced that she would begin to

pick up her life.

And um she denied that she was declared mentally unstable

and that she chose to live on the streets a

lot of the times.

Um and the mayor of new york city at the

time. Um So that seems Kash, he really also agreed

with the sisters and it was all for project help

and for picking up homeless people and voluntarily committed them

into psychiatric hospitals and just getting them off the streets

no matter what it took.

So you fully disagreed with the judge's decision and he

tries to treat her medically against her will.

Um, to which also the judge in 1988 rules against

forced medication.

And so eventually after the trial, she was released And

it said that she was involuntarily in the hospital for

84 days.

She quotes I was incarcerated against my will.

I was a political prisoner.

The only thing wrong with me was that I was

homeless, not insane.

You can't just go around picking everyone up and automatically

labeling them as schizophrenic.

I'm angry at me or cash.

The city in Bellevue.

They held me down and injected me.

They took my blood against my will.

I need a place to live.

I don't need an institution.

People are treated differently just because of your economic status,

because of what you look like and where you live.

I was mistreated mentally abused and I will never ever

forget this.

So after she was released, she in a lot of

publicity and um I kind of found two and some

other articles that like she said life picked up for

her for a little bit upon like initially being released.

She still lived in a hotel that was four woman

that was run by a nonprofit agency.

And she also worked for the A.

C. L.

U. Office which was really cool.

Um and she even got to lecture law students at

Harvard on the homeless crisis, a street view, so what

she called it um but then things kind of took

a turn and she didn't want to be labelled and

the only known as um you know, like that homeless

woman and the woman that speaks for all homeless people

and things like that.

Just so things kind of took a turn towards the

worst for her.

And um, she worsens over time and begin begging again

on the streets and insisting that she wasn't insane to

people. And eventually she was charged by the police for

the possession of heroin.

And and then In the late 80s, she lived in

a supervised residence for formerly homeless woman.

And there were unconfirmed reports that she had been in

and out of psychiatric hospitals for many reasons that I

found over the next five years while she was living

in that supervised residents.

Yeah. Um and kind of wrapping up um after years

of being looked at by many different professionals and by

doctors and going through different interventions, her doctors realized her

drug addiction was creating her mental mental instabilities, not schizophrenic.

Um And eventually she landed in a community living facility

And attended drug counseling and support groups and she lived

her last years in Brooklyn and died November 29 2005

At the age of 58.

Yeah. Um and so that's kind of her story and

the case study.

And now I have um some exam questions about the

case and then I have kind of some food for

thought questions is what I call them um for the

audience and for you guys to kind of consider when

thinking about the ethics behind this case.

Um So first the examination questions are, what was the

point of project help?

What were the two new criteria that project helped set

to add to the standards for involuntary commitment?

And finally, I was Joyce events eventually arrested.

And the food for thought questions that I had for

you guys to kind of sink over yourselves.

Or what do you think about involuntary commitment?

What do you think about involuntary medicating?

And then I kind of want you to just think

about and consider your own biases and I kind of

listed what are your biases if you have any towards

the homeless, Towards schizophrenics, towards mental health in general?

And where do you think these come from?

And finally, I asked how should we treat the homeless

and those struggling with mental illness?

All right, thank you guys for listening.

And I hope you learned something.

And yeah, I can't wait to hear what you guys

thought. Thank you.

The Case of Joyce Brown

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