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6th World Congress on
Mental Health, Psychiatry and Wellbeing
March 20-21, 2019 | New York, USA
The untold story
of psychiatric
institutionalization
Stephanie Marie
New York University, USA
Stephanie Marie had her
first bipolar episode at the
age of 22. For the first sixteen
years after this, she was able
to successfully manage her
mental health without daily
medications. However, in 2001,
her mental health situation
changed drastically. In the midst
of an episode that year, she
inadvertently hit a police officer
while being taken to the hospital.
Charged with a felony, she was
found Not Guilty by Reason of
Mental Disease or Defect (NGI)
in the state of Wisconsin. Even
though found not guilty. She was
placed in a 5-year supervisory
program, hospitalized in a state
mental health facility for more
than a year and then put in a
group home for six months.
During her stay at the state
hospital, she was raped more
than once by fellow patients.
Later, out of the hospital, she was
even required to wear an ankle
monitor for several months. The
NGI system in WI treated her like
a criminal and she was punished
more severely than if she had
been on probation or parole for
a guilty offender. Despite this
dark 5-year period of her life, she
picked herself up and returned to
her highly creative and productive
life after leaving the supervisory
program in WI. She then went
on to work with horses in WI,
ND, and ID and then pursued
her dream of teaching French,
Spanish and English as a Second
Language to children and adults.
She also started to produce and
direct a WWII documentary about
compassion and the battlefield.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EMERGENCYMENTAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RESILIENCE 2019, VOLUME 21
DOI: 10.4172/1522-4821-C2-030
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