Sunday, March 27, 2016

The Final Report on the Germanwings Tragedy


Over on Clinical Psychiatry News, I have an article up on the final report about the Germanwings pilot who crashed the plane into the French Alps.  A sad topic, but do read it.

1 comment:

Joel Hassman, MD said...

"Still, without input from the physicians and the family, we will never know whether anyone had any indication that the pilot was so imminently dangerous."

So, it appears from your column that there is a pervasive choice to not want to either pursue care genuinely, provide care responsibly, or support treatment interventions and tolerate short term disruptions in employment or family obligations.

Wow, what an indictment of society as a whole. In your column, only 25% of pilots would do the right thing and not work if treatment could impair function as a pilot.

What does that say about people who are in the business of having a profound impact on peoples' lives? Oh, and what are the statistics regarding physicians who do or don't seek out treatment for mental health care needs?

My bet is almost the same numbers, about a quarter would do the right thing, seek out care, take off time if profoundly impaired by mental health care problems, and stay in treatment as advised.

Oh, and as an aside, I find your quoting the Psychiatrist from a tweet both annoying and outrageous. Who in their right mind as a provider of some sizeable level of influence and or opinion about mental health issues makes such comments in a twit? No, not a typo, tweets are often twits, and that is what colleagues need to step back and realize, you can't dumb down mental health care opinion and guidance in 140 characters!

But, your column was an informantive and indicting read. Seems to sum up what is pervasive in Western culture of late, at least to me: quick fixes, short sighted communication, focus on the legal consequences before the humane considerations, and most of all, the needs of the few screw the needs of the many.

It's not about law suits, but common sense. Where is the latter buried again?...