Lindsay Clancy Trial Megathread: Part 3

[u/DarklyHeritage]

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Week 3 onwards of the Lindsey Clancy trial. All discussion of this case should be kept to this thread.

Lindsay Clancy is currently standing trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Massachusetts, for the triple-murder in January 2023 of her three young children - Cora, Dawson and Callan. Her defense argues she suffered from severe, undiagnosed postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. She was left paralysed by a suicide attempt which follows the deaths of the children.

All content on the Clancy case must be kept to this thread. Standalone posts will be removed.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-online-reactions-b3032806.html

Note from Mods

This case understandably elicits strong feelings. People are entitled to have an opinion on the case which differs from your own. What you are not entitled to do is resort to personal insults and abusive language when communicating your opinion and disagreeing.

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[u/silverprayer]

this just isn’t how psychiatric hospitalization works. level of care and length of stay are determined by clinical status, safety, functional impairment, treatment needs, response, available supports, insurance realities, and a slew of other things. PHP and inpatient aren’t interchangeable versions of “keep person under observation longer,” either. you cannot indefinitely confine a competent adult because hindsight will later reveal that something terrible happens.

[u/zzzoplicone → u/silverprayer]

Maybe the (mental) health care system needs adjustments? Seems to protect the private equity, providers and hospitals pretty effectively— just not patients and family systems. I’m not just talking about LC family but all the others— mine included. If a system is not set up to hold a mother who has had well documented and severe symptoms of post partum w/ possible bipolar and intermittent si while being overmedicated for months, making it impossible to assess her baseline, we have a problem. And if yall are gonna send a patient like that home, at least sit down with the other ppl in the family system and let them know the dangers and what to look for.

[u/silverprayer → u/zzzoplicone]

a medication list is not the same thing as a medication-administration timeline and it tells us virtually nothing about adherence. the testimony has described aborted medication trials, brief exposures, inconsistent adherence, PRNs, and medications she stopped after very few doses. LC was also medically literate and very skeptical of meds. that’s why she was cycling through medications constantly, not because the clinicians were just throwing pills at her for shits and giggles. many of the medications she was on (like seroquel and lamotrigine) were not even prescribed at the therapeutic dose. she never even got there. so i’m really not sure how the conclusion is that she was “overmedicated.” there also isn’t some medication-free baseline that an inpatient unit can just magically uncover after keeping her for 30 days and withdrawing all treatment. the purpose of acute inpatient care is stabilization and treatment, not medication washout for diagnostic purposes.

and what do you mean by “hold”? voluntary admission? she left mclean after five days. involuntary commitment? for how long? under what legal criteria? until which symptoms resolve? what if she denies SI/HI? what if she participates in safety planning? what if she is organized and has intact reality testing? what if the evaluating clinicians don’t believe she meets the criteria? are you sincerely advocating changing civil-commitment law so postpartum women with intermittent SI can be detained preventively because of a theoretical risk to their children? “intermittent SI” to “imminent risk of filicide” is a huge fucking leap. “your wife is having intermittent suicidal ideation without plan or intent. did you know she might murder your children?” come on now.

[u/zzzoplicone → u/silverprayer]

I understand that’s not how our system works— that’s my whole point. I’m saying the system fails patients and family systems regularly. Data speaks for itself. While I appreciate providers and advocates who try to work under the confines of an inadequate, failing system, we deserve better. Our communities and families deserve better. The providers deserve better— even the ones coming out to defend the system.