Dr. Dorcas Boahema Pinto, MD

I voluntarily went to Albany Medical Center's ER during a mental health emergency, hoping to get emergency mental health counseling and a referral to a new psychiatrist. All of my previous experiences with the mental health system had been gentle and positive, and I thought this was a smart thing to do. By contrast, in the most vulnerable moment of my life, I was treated like a dog. Dorcas Pinto committed me, she refused to answer any of my questions about what my rights were in an involuntary hold and what was going to happen to me, and she arranged to have me injected with sedatives (Versed, at twice the dose typically used for people getting a colonoscopy). The memory of this brings me to my knees. The next day, I saw a resident for four minutes and a psychiatrist for two minutes, and was discharged without a referral to a new doctor or a therapist. (When I talked to CDPHP, they confirmed it was reflected in the notes: I asked for resources to access mental health care in the… community, and was refused them.) The bill was $6,000. :: I fully understand now why they say the ER has a revolving door: I experienced treatment that was brutal, compassionless, destabilizing, and not-at all thorough. Pinto and the vampires at Albany Medical Center taught me a painful but memorable important lesson: mental health and emergency rooms don't mix. When we say, "It's okay to not be okay," we are congratulating people with anxiety and depression for going to therapy-- this is not an accurate reflection of what it's like to interact with our carceral mental health system. Thankfully, I found the anti-psychiatry movement and the mental health rights space. I'm now involved in the disability rights movement at a national level, and I tell my story regularly to legislators, political interest group leaders, and non-profit donors. I'm confident that within my lifetime, we'll come to assess people like Dorcas Pinto as being short-sighted, violent, and sadistic, and we'll consider her "treatments" to be human rights abuses. Please know, if you have a problem with Dorcas Pinto, or any other doctor, you can contact the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, the Office of Professional Medical Conduct, and the Department of Health (you might have success, as I did, writing directly to the commissioner).

Very kind hearted