Can we have a conversation about Duty of Care and the abuse experienced in hospital psych wards?

[ThisCarl]

Hello all,

I just wanted to get others input here. Hopefully, we can come up with some ideas on how we can make this better for people. Recently, I have heard story after story of people who have decided to call health services, or have had a family member or therapist call health services, as they have been unable to cope. Police are usually involved who often treat the individual, who is already in a very dark place, as a criminal. Often they are cuffed and locked in a paddy wagon for 'the officers protection'. There have also been a lot of instances of police verbally abusing and ridiculing these people.

Accompanying this are stories of patients being locked away in psychiatric wards before they are 'processed' usually alone, without support and sometimes with other patients who maybe violent or stressed themselves. Often this only amplifies the bad thoughts the individual feels and they end up not receiving the proper help and attention they need as they simply wish to leave the hospital as soon as possible.

This ultimately makes individuals less likely to ask for help as they feel they may risk being sent back to the psychiatric ward. A good example of this is the first and most highest rated question on this site: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/connect-with-others/your-questions-answered

I think it might be good for us to have a conversation about this problem and maybe even think of a way to approach those in charge with ideas on how to treat people with mental health issues who are in distress.

If you are up to it you could post your stories here too - good or bad.

Looking forward to hearing from you all 🙂 

[white knight]

Hi ThisCarl,

Between 1977 and 1980 I was a prison officer at Pentridge goal mainly working in remand and "G" division (mentally impaired)

In remand we had padded cells where inmates would be placed for their own protection for various reasons and for various lengths of time, to allow time for medication to work etc. In "G" division many inmates walked around slowly until medication wore off and you'd know when as their walk included a spring in their step.

For several years in the 1990's I worked in security in a major hospital. In triage we never had the benefit of foresight with the next patient, who they were, their symptoms, the risk of violence, etc.

My point is- there are jobs out there in the medical and security fields (including police) that, unless you have worked in such fields, one has little idea of the difficulties.Many times I've given a patient/prisoner the benefit of the doubt with their promises only to wear their lunch in my face, kicked in the groin, bashed, or the like. I should include here that a large percentage of these people would follow up with complaints of inappropriate treatment from officers like me.

One fellow had the red carpet treatment.His GF was pregnant and he was teary nightly, I was one of the few carers that gave him food nightly to help sooth his sorrow, a book, and chat even though I had 200 other prisoners to watch for. He got extra visits due to his situation. 15 months later his red carpet ride ended when we all realised- his GF had the longest pregnancy in history.

Another- In emergency at the hospital one fragile (thin) young lady came in having been bashed at 2am. Nurses placed her on a bed and were tending to her wounds. They had no medical history and the lady was selectively mute. This was all fine until the doctor arrived and asked her how she sustained her injuries at which time she spat in the doctors face, punched her and began a struggle. We security arrived and had no option but to strap her to the bed all the time missing the saliva and long nails. The lady was an ex psych patient from NSW. She had HIV, she wasnt taking her medication for schizophrenia and she'd been bashed during an act of prostitution.

The doctor went through hell waiting for tests as to if she had contracted HIV. The patient ended up in a psych ward and sent letters of complaint as to why she was strapped to the bed. We all endured months of questions and false accusations.

On the receiving end of strangers-there is a flip side

Tony WK

[ThisCarl]

Hi Tony,

I am sorry to hear of your experiences, but I do have to say that I, personally, cannot accept being tarred with the same brush as criminals and violent patients - this is exactly the kind of problem I am talking about.

I really hope I don't sound to abrupt or frank and I really don't mean to offend you or anyone else but if we view all people with a mental health issues as possibly violent then why not lock them all up for the safety of society in general? I am sorry you experienced those things whilst working in prison, but you were working in a prison and presumably those people had done something bad to be there in the first place.

Don't get me wrong - if someone is violent or abusive towards a service provider then by all means they should be controlled or contained for the protection of everyone, but it should'nt be a case of assuming everyone is guilty. The system seems to focus on 'pre-emptive strikes' towards ill people.

This is how I see the problem: when you treat people like suspected violent offenders when they are coming to you for help, how does that make them feel?

[Thinker]

I totally agree with ThisCarl in response to Tonys post, we aren't all the same, nor all in the same mental state when needing or asking for help. I feel really strongly about this because we are treated badly at times, normally we are already feeling bad about ourselves so it's just another blow but to them its like it's all our fault, we should just stop feeling sorry for ourselves & get up & get on with it, l mean others can, what's wrong with you? Who's been 100% happy with their care public or private? I bet we can all remember many uncaring nurses & doctors, few of us have been lucky enough to have an all inclusive caring health team.