3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

Aw, t'anks, Jen! (rubs head and eats 274 aspirin)

http://www.healiohealt...p;specific=jncmrpnne
http://www.consumermed...om/Convalescent.html
http://www.seekwellnes...evention/devices.htm
http://www.bedmonitors..._alarm_equipment.htm
http://www.techforltc....e=11&careissue=1

Web definition: "Torture is the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain as an expression of cruelty, a means of intimidation, deterrent or punishment, or as a tool for the extraction of information or confession."

Torture is generally defined in terms of the intent. If the therapy or treatment was an attempt to help people get better, even if painful, we are less likely to call it torture. Braces on children's teeth hurt, but they generally make the child look better in time. Doesn't make the child feel any better at the time, but the intent is there for long-term improvement. Plastic surgery - cutting someone's face apart and sewing it back together - is an intrusive, painful procedure, but most people in society don't call it torture (unless they actually have to watch it happen <G>).

As time passes and we develop new ways of doing things (or new ethics and societal mores develop) we tend to look backwards and redefine things according to what is relevant and known NOW.

In our society in the 1700 and 1800's, if people exhibited any tendencies toward psychiatric illness they used to be condemned to attics, cellars, outdoor sheds, jails, and prisons where they were caged, chained to the wall, had little food, and had little to no exposure from the heat and cold because it was believed they could not feel pain. Many became de facto indentured servants to others. Many wandered the streets being expelled from town after town, being chased, ridiculed, and physically attacked by children and others, and often starving to death or dying from exposure to the elements. The mental health movement of the 1800s was an attempt to get people out of these terrible conditions and off somewhere they could be safe - a "haven" or "asylum." They received a place to live, medical treatment, food and medicines, and attempts were made at "restoring" their senses.

As time went by, more and more people were sent to these places but the legislature did not keep up with providing enough money to allow these places to provide the minimums necessary for comfort, much less for treatment. The people in society (that's you and me) demanded we get these "weirdoes" off the street and away from us, but we weren't nice enough to vote to give the "weirdoes" enough money to be comfortable, i.e., receive some of the basics of life.

It wasn't the hospitals being "torturous." It was US not caring enough as a society about the people we asked to have hidden away - WE didn't have the conscience to demand that enough money was spent to take care of these very vulnerable folks.

Then someone came in and decided it WAS the fault of all the hospitals and demanded they be shut down. So they were. And now where all all the people they "freed?" Back in the streets with no shelter or food, being set on fire by punks for "fun", back in jails and prisons, back at home with a family that is slowly disintegrating because they have no resources to take care of their loved one.

Kinda makes a body wonder what "torture" really is, don't it? ;-)

[Thump - thump - thump . . . . ]

Not on the table, but perhaps on a person on top of the table.

Bryan, you are cooler than cool! Thanks for adding your input so that people can see this is real life. I have a lot of respect for you for dealing with your dad. Even though you obviously love him, that's a nerve-wracking way to live. You are aces in my book!
Thanks, also, for the great reference for the "SomaSafe Enclosure" bed. I am always looking for new adaptive equipment to try out to make life easier for our folks. :-)

CAS, you young whippersnapper, I ought to wash your mouth out with soap! >:-(

. . . if I thought my old osteoporotic bones wouldn't crack when I went to grab at you.
:-(

I believe it was all the missing vowels.

If I have read the comments from others correctly, this was a forensics unit. That would explain the use of this type of mesh doors. If you had ever had to work in a forensic mental health unit before medications were readily available, you would have been quite thankful for the strong wire mesh doors.

:-)

Em, Marty, those are two of the things I like the most about being a human. ;-)

Ah, yes! Thanks! :-)

Gorgeous shot!

This is a powerful shot.

Ed from Oregon! FM!!!!! :-)