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Patient abuse is the abuse of patients by their professional and volunteer carers. This would include any action or failure to act which causes unreasonable suffering, misery or harm to the patient. It includes physically striking or sexually assaulting a patient. It also includes neglect, withholding of emotional support necessary food, physical care, and medical attention such as pain relief. It applies to various contexts such as hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and home visits.[1]

Abuse in individual therapy[]

Abuse in dyadic and family therapy[]

Abuse in psychiatric hospitals[]

Main article: Patient abuse in psychiatric hospitals

As Borckardt et al point out, even in 2007 America, institutional measures of control, such as seclusion, restraint, enforced medications, and hand-cuffed transport, within psychiatric hospitals is all too common and is potentially counter-therapeutic. This is mirrored in much of the world while patients are also vulnerable to other abuses because of their relative powerlessness and their mental state.

Murder of patients by clinical staff[]

See also[]

References[]

Books[]


Papers[]

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  • Borckardt, Jeffrey J; Grubaugh, Anouk L; Pelic, Christopher G; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Hardesty, Susan J; Frueh, B. Christopher. Enhancing patient safety in psychiatric settings. [References]. [Journal; Peer Reviewed Journal] Journal of Psychiatric Practice. Vol 13(6) Nov 2007, 355-361.
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  • Lupton, D. (1993). Back to bedlam? Chelmsford and the press: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Vol 27(1) Mar 1993, 140-148.
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  • Parsons, J. P., & Wincze, J. P. (1995). A survey of client-therapist sexual involvement in Rhode Island as reported by subsequent treating therapists: Professional Psychology: Research and Practice Vol 26(2) Apr 1995, 171-175.
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Dissertations[]

  • Albrecht, J. M. (2003). Eros defiled: Sexual exploitation of female clients by their female therapists. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering.
  • West-Sands, L. D. (1991). Embracing the ugly child within: Life history of an incest survivor: Dissertation Abstracts International.