Originally posted by blackdog3377
Its especially sad listening to some depressed suicidal people talk about it. We've had some patients that have absolutely no logical reason why they want to commit suicide but they just cannot stop feeling like they want to kill themselves. They literally cannot think of a single reason why they should but thats all they can think about.
I've seen that, it is really sad. Then when they bring up that they can't figure out why, it makes it worse because they want a real tangible fixable reason.
You work or have worked in a psychiatric hospital right? There's one here I've volunteered in and good god the way some of the people go about working with mentally ill people is worthy of euthanasia.
In the children's ward (17 and down or up to 19 years old if still in high school) aside from two elderly staff members, they treated the kids like it was giant timeout and like they had done something wrong. Ridiculously strict and disciplined like basic training (analogy courtesy of one of the elder staff members, Vietnam vet), if one kid didn't line up on his exact spot within a few seconds of someone calling mealtime, they would be scolded and made to go 5 minutes later than everyone. Talking out of turn got you 'extra room time' which was a 1 hour room confinement for patients while the different shifts of paid staff swapped out and volunteers sat there making sure there were no suicide attempts or fights.
'Therapy' was terrible, they had all the kids sit in a group and run down a list of questions like "do you feel safe on a scale of 1-10, what are you here for" and anything more than a number and a word or two got the ire of the person asking the questions like it was a joke. The head psychiatrist threw meds at people within 24 hours of them getting there and it was usually a mood stabilizer and a 'sleep aid' (knockout pill) regardless of why they were there.
First of two stories I have is the head psychiatrist gave this kid with very severe schizophrenia (he saw an entire world that didn't exist, but he was very kind, nice, and calm) meds that basically zapped all energy from him. He took an extra 30 minute nap after wakeup (6am) and couldn't be coaxed out of bed by staff members who luckily were nice and didnt try to force him. Head psychiatrist gets wind of this, comes to his room and after not even 1 minute of talking to him starts yelling at him to get out of bed and join the group for morning therapy.
The worst story I have, will omit the name, a 7 year old was sent there for 5 weeks because his dad OD'd, his mom was in the adult wing for schizophrenia and drug issues, and he had schizophrenia. Volunteers had limited access to patient information but I gleaned the court just said 'fuck it, send him to the nuthouse' instead of finding friends/family/foster for him. He would get really violent and though I came in on his second week and something before it could have happened, but every time he went through an episode, it was met with people yelling at him, restraining him, confining him to his room or 'the quiet box' (padded room) and zero compassion or therapy.
I had to stop working there after reporting 2 staff members, it made me want to hurt someone.
tl;dr in my experience with our mental healthcare system, it is broken.
Its especially sad listening to some depressed suicidal people talk about it. We've had some patients that have absolutely no logical reason why they want to commit suicide but they just cannot stop feeling like they want to kill themselves. They literally cannot think of a single reason why they should but thats all they can think about.
I've seen that, it is really sad. Then when they bring up that they can't figure out why, it makes it worse because they want a real tangible fixable reason.
You work or have worked in a psychiatric hospital right? There's one here I've volunteered in and good god the way some of the people go about working with mentally ill people is worthy of euthanasia.
In the children's ward (17 and down or up to 19 years old if still in high school) aside from two elderly staff members, they treated the kids like it was giant timeout and like they had done something wrong. Ridiculously strict and disciplined like basic training (analogy courtesy of one of the elder staff members, Vietnam vet), if one kid didn't line up on his exact spot within a few seconds of someone calling mealtime, they would be scolded and made to go 5 minutes later than everyone. Talking out of turn got you 'extra room time' which was a 1 hour room confinement for patients while the different shifts of paid staff swapped out and volunteers sat there making sure there were no suicide attempts or fights.
'Therapy' was terrible, they had all the kids sit in a group and run down a list of questions like "do you feel safe on a scale of 1-10, what are you here for" and anything more than a number and a word or two got the ire of the person asking the questions like it was a joke. The head psychiatrist threw meds at people within 24 hours of them getting there and it was usually a mood stabilizer and a 'sleep aid' (knockout pill) regardless of why they were there.
First of two stories I have is the head psychiatrist gave this kid with very severe schizophrenia (he saw an entire world that didn't exist, but he was very kind, nice, and calm) meds that basically zapped all energy from him. He took an extra 30 minute nap after wakeup (6am) and couldn't be coaxed out of bed by staff members who luckily were nice and didnt try to force him. Head psychiatrist gets wind of this, comes to his room and after not even 1 minute of talking to him starts yelling at him to get out of bed and join the group for morning therapy.
The worst story I have, will omit the name, a 7 year old was sent there for 5 weeks because his dad OD'd, his mom was in the adult wing for schizophrenia and drug issues, and he had schizophrenia. Volunteers had limited access to patient information but I gleaned the court just said 'fuck it, send him to the nuthouse' instead of finding friends/family/foster for him. He would get really violent and though I came in on his second week and something before it could have happened, but every time he went through an episode, it was met with people yelling at him, restraining him, confining him to his room or 'the quiet box' (padded room) and zero compassion or therapy.
I had to stop working there after reporting 2 staff members, it made me want to hurt someone.
tl;dr in my experience with our mental healthcare system, it is broken.
