Fighting the Monster

In December 2010 Daniel Postema, living in West Wales, UK, was unexpectedly arrested by the police and detained in a mental health hospital where he was kept for almost a year. Living independently for the first time in his life, as a single young man, Daniel had been doing well in the community, making several quality friendships and finding himself work. There were no complaints from the general public, no incident had taken place; there was nothing in Daniel's behavior that would explain the sudden detention. Yet, within weeks of being put into the local lock-up hospital for severe mentally ill, Daniel's legal status was changed to section 3 which meant the doctors could keep him locked up virtually indefinitely. Daniel had (has) no mental illness. When the severity of this situation hit home, Daniel's father decided to move from Florida (where he was living), back to the UK, where he had previously lived for 26 years. The objective was to get Daniel out of this potential life-sentence and take him home to Florida. However, it soon became clear that the psychiatrist in charge had no intention what-so-ever to let Daniel go. After studying the various reports that had been written about Daniel, Billy Postema, Daniel's father, began to see that his son had been framed with false allegations and extreme, non-sensical labels, all put together for the sole purpose of locking Daniel up, and keeping him locked up for many, many years. An intense fight to clear Daniel's name, and to regain his freedom followed, a fight that Billy fought, mostly alone, against the Mental Health system that consistently blocked him like a huge, unscalable wall. Daniel's name was slandered in the reports, while his patience was tested to the max by abusive members of staff. Had Daniel given in to this pressure, the doctors would have had the `evidence' they were so eager to obtain; that Daniel was (according to them) a danger to others, and should remain locked-up indefinitely. It would have justified their (crazy) labels and (illegal/ extreme) actions. It took almost an entire year, before this unbearable situation was finally resolved when Daniel was discharged by a Tribunal panel. The doctors had tried their very best to assassinate Daniel's character, and to send him to some nasty mental prison in the north of the country, hundreds of miles away from Daniel's friends. Had they succeeded, Daniel's life would have been destroyed. Daniel now lives with his parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. During the `crazy-year' Billy kept a diary, and wrote several letters and other documents, speaking up against the system on behalf of his son. In the (almost) 3 years that have passed since this ordeal came to an end, Billy has put the whole story in writing, based on the diary, adding various documents written during the `crazy year', and other, more recent, writings. put together in, After learning that the Welsh Mental Health Board completely white-washed all of Billy's writings, including his letter of complaint, Billy decided to publish his book. ('Fighting the Monster') In a recent e-mail, Billy wrote to his (UK) solicitor (lawyer): Dear Richard, After much heart searching, I have decided to risk possible legal action against me, and take the book to print. It is totally important to me, that I tell the story of what happened, if only it was for our families (Marcia's and mine). To this day, they don't really know what actually happened, and why, and they are finding it hard to understand our stories. This book explains the whole thing from beginning to end, and it provides ample information (and explanation) as to what kind of action those `health' workers in West Wales took against Daniel (and later against me also). I feel, that, by writing this book, I have expelled (from our lives) the evil ghost of the corruption that we have encountered and fought with for so long.

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