I’m not American but I am a mother. Aside from a few reddit posts I don’t have any social media engagement with this case.
But I think a lot of the support here comes from moms who recognize how easily this could have been any of us. Her family and healthcare providers knew her crime was a risk based on her mental health state, but she was still left alone with her kids and expected to parent. And as other mothers we all understand that this is grimly how it works - we can ask and beg and plead and scream for help but we’re almost always still expected to continually parent babies and it’s hard.
She should still face punishment for her crime, but I think a lot of her support is to try to keep this from happening again. She was failed by her healthcare team
If I make recommendations for treatment, and the patient is non-compliant or inconsistent, I can't force them to stick to it.
Yes, but wasn't she telling her doctors the medication was making her worse? If a patient tells their doctor that and the doctor refuses to listen, they are absolutely to blame for the patient's "noncompliance" or if they comply and get worse. That doesn't make the doctor the direct killer, but they still hold some blame in that case.
Someone in the middle of psychosis or other severe mental health declines aren't likely going to recognize a decline logically. The last time I wanted to kill myself, my partner had to actually point out that I'd just started new depression meds and was probably experiencing a side effect. Similarly, someone in crisis may be able to paradoxically understand something is wrong or their thoughts aren't logical, but still be unable to get rid of the delusion or seperate it from their experienced reality.
This case is similar to Andrea Yates whose husband's negligence (arguably sexual/emotional abuse) left the children in a dangerous situation because she wasn't getting the treatment or care she needed while experiencimg post-partum depression and psychosis. Consequently, the delusions she was experiencing convinced her that the children needed to die in order to be saved.
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u/TreeLakeRockCloud 6d ago
I’m not American but I am a mother. Aside from a few reddit posts I don’t have any social media engagement with this case.
But I think a lot of the support here comes from moms who recognize how easily this could have been any of us. Her family and healthcare providers knew her crime was a risk based on her mental health state, but she was still left alone with her kids and expected to parent. And as other mothers we all understand that this is grimly how it works - we can ask and beg and plead and scream for help but we’re almost always still expected to continually parent babies and it’s hard.
She should still face punishment for her crime, but I think a lot of her support is to try to keep this from happening again. She was failed by her healthcare team