47 Comments Posted by P.

The poster I worked there is a troll. He seems like he is trying to upset people. Ignore him and he will go away.

eldokid@aol.com, I'm sorry that happened to you and your father. I work in nursing facilities and it is a shame. They are so costly, but the care is crappy.

This is one of my favorite photos

Layla,
The number of people who are mentally ill and mass murderers, or even who murder one person is tiny. We don't need institutions to confine people in hospitals because we have problems with a tiny number of people with mental illness and violence. We need a non stigmatizing community willing to fund services like case management and job coaches, and if needed and wanted residential services or a day program. If a hospitalization is needed a community hospital works equally well. The vast majority of people with mental illness can live nicely in the community given the right supports. Just like most people without mental illness most people with mental illness do not even have the inclination to shoot people.

Susan Taylor,
You are incredibly empathetic. In my experience the worst thing about mental illness is all the losses you endure. She never lost you though, and she was lucky. Your sister is also a testimony to the fact that people with severe mental illness can live outside of an institutional setting, have a job, and be happy. She must have felt grateful to have you.

I get treatment from a center for people with eating disorders that is part of a large psychiatric hospital. There are about 20 inpatients. In the morning everyone is "processed." You have to get up at 5:30 am, change into a hospital gown, go to the bathroom, be weighed and have vitals taken, and then have a timed 8 minute shower. If you take longer than 8 minutes they will come and get you, but its private. Anyway, a lot of waiting in line each step of the way and I always hated hearing that we were being processed! It is a little dehumanizing for someone who is sensitive. By 7:00 am you were out on the day hall in time for the morning shift.

I think Motts does a great service by providing this website with his photos and allowing us to comment. I like the Gaebler photos because the most former patients comment on them. I don't like having a mental health professional say what the experience of being in seclusion is like. I would rather hear it from people who experienced it...I would like to hear them say how it feels to drag someone into seclusion. They might know about that lol.

Actually, I made a mistake. The regulations are stricter in nursing facilities regarding restraints than psychiatric hospitals. While geri chairs aren't used anymore in NF to restrain people they may still be used on older people in psychiatric hospitals. I don't know, because I haven't been hospitalized on the same unit with older people in years. I know they aren't used like they used to be in psychiatric hospitals when old people would be tied to the chair all day in the day room. That is illegal.

Sounds like you had a swell job. When I was in psych hospitals they always used the geri chairs to restrain geriatric patients. I believe that is illegal now. I work in nursing facilities and very, very rarely do I see someone restrained.

Maybe hooks to hang up Christmas tree ornaments?

Thanks, Pookie.

You are still young.

Sorry. I meant to say in my fifth paragraph that It is so odd how the staff who haven't themselves had mental illness and don't know how it is experienced or how we experience their "treatment" usually have such a radically different interpretation of the treatment. often it is seen as benign and helpful for the person even when they and their behavior says otherwise. It is true that for everyone who is terrified or just creeped out by seclusion rooms there are people who like to go in there and throw balls around or shred paper and get emotion out. People who experience forced treatment in seclusion rooms become afraid of it.
I think a empathetic and non-defensive discussion of how there behavior impacts the people they are treating would cause them pain and challenge their Identity. If you listened you could learn.

The first time i was in a hospital I was confused as to the rules of the hospital especially because I was psychotic. I went in my bedroom and refused to leave my bed. I wanted peace and quiet.

there was an all male call and six or eight guys came. they put my arms and legs behind my back and that was very painful and I screamed and kicked to escape, and they carried me to the seclusion room. they dumped me on the mat and ran out. I was so confused about what had happened and so terrified. No one told me why I was there. I banged on the door screaming to be let out. what dme said about having a place where a patient can scream and bang to safely let out those emotions sounds like she misunderstands how it is experienced by others. the walls were closing in and i was terrified and confused as to where i was and why it was happening. I did not know who the crowd of men were who painfully dragged me kicking and screaming into the room. I was not experiencing this emotions when i went to my bedroom to be alone.

Later I started doing back springs on the gym mat and I think they thought i might get hurt. They rushed back in and tore my clothes off while I was fighting and screaming and trying to escape. They put me in four point restraints with my privates facing the window in the door where everyone could see me.

It is so odd how the staff who haven't themselves had mental illness and know how it is experienced and how we experience there "treatment" usually have such a radically different interpretation of the treatment that it is benign and helpful for the person even when they and their behavior says otherwise. It is true that for everyone who is terrified or just creeped out by seclusion rooms there are people who like to go in there and throw balls around or shred paper and get emotion out. People who experience forced treatment in seclusion rooms become afraid of it.

I think the treatment of those who were abused in the rooms should be realized and acknowledged. we are still living today. Our experiences should be honored and not swept under the rug and dismissed b/c they didn't know any better. It felt like kidnapping and it felt like rape. I want an apology. I wish Dme was still around because thou sometimes I think she is off base usually she sees beyond just her experience and just might understand what I wrote. I got ptsd from many similar experiences like that. the only time i ever laid a finger on a mental health worker was when they laid a forceful hurtful hand on me. the many treatments that came from staff who were usually kind (although i never ran into any of the saints mentioned on this website) made me worse. I did experience other kinds of abuse like threats and touching, but by far the worse was the state sanctioned abuse I experienced in my twenties. That is less than nineteen years ago and it still happens.

I like reading comments by former patients best. I was hospitalized at a private hospital for a year when i was nineteen and way to many other hospitals over the years for a few months or weeks at a time. Even though the first hospital was private I was locked in seclusion for a month. I lost track of time but my family remembered. I also remember staff swinging heavy keys around. when i would say seclusion was traumatic it was denied by the staff and said to be treatment. A lack of stimulation was supposed to promote health. Thank God today it is acknowledged by my therapist and doctor to be abuse and i am getting treatment for ptsd. I can not stand to be touched by psychiatric staff today. I have had not a few but many abusive experiences. I like reading the posts from the people who spent time at this hospital not because others are hurting but because others understand. I have some good memories too and a lot of the staff were good unlike Gaebler. There was one that was sexually abusive but he got fired. cold wet sheet packs were used multiple times a week on my unit and all male calls and people getting dragged off to seclusion happened pretty frequently too. There were college age staff who were really kind and a volunteer so I was very lucky it wasn't worse. They had a greenhouse that they used for therapy. The hardest thing was it was so invalidating because the staff was so defensive. they couldn't realize/admit how their well intentioned treatments were abusive. They would joke about taking down people and it would make me shiver. There are plenty of staff today who just won't admit that so much of treatment hurts and it bothers me even though I should be over it. It is really good to read my emotions in other people's posts and makes me feel I am not crazy and alone.