Lynn, I appreciate the fact that you think you are arguing from a standpoint that honors the grey area in these situations.
However, (having worked and been a patient at multiple facilities) I have a problem with a few of your arguments.
Staff working in the mental health are underpaid. Many of them must work overtime. Most of them have lives and families outside of work, and the stress that accompanies these lives. It is also very difficult to keep up with specific treatment plans/special needs etc... when you are in charge of multiple patients.
However, there is a major difference between the plight of mental health workers and the plight of patients; I feel as if sometimes you do not recognize this (in fact, you seem to use the plight of workers as a justification for bad actions/decisions/abuse).
One of the major differences between staff and patients is that staff CHOOSE to work in the psychiatric field; Patients do not always choose to be hospitallized. If a staff member does not like the conditions of the job, they have a choice to leave and seek other employment. Hell, they could work at McDonald and recieve the same rate they were making working on a unit or at a residential program. There is no need for them to subject themselves indefinately to a job that is too stressful.
The patients can not leave. If they don't like conditions on a hospital unit, they have few options.
Staff are supposidly sane, functioning members of society. Patients are not necessarily in control of their behavior. Staff can choose, to the best of their abillities, how to act/react to situations reguarding patient care.
Screw this "save the buildings" crap.
Screw this "psychology has evolved" crap.
Many of you don't know what it is to be locked away. I have been locked away many times. There are STILL bars on the windows, there is still a padded "quiet room."
To be fair , I have met staff that were kind and meant well; but this is outweighed by the number of people who work in these establishments as a way to have power over others. Manipulative people. Abusive people.
You think psychiatry has improved so much since the 1960's? Now that doctors have decided that Mental Illness has a biological basis, they prescribe medicines like candy. Medicines, that they have only the vaguest idea of what it does. I have wasted my life trying these medications, getting sick with side effects, being locked away, treated like a child, with no improvement . I have met many, many others with the same experiences.
Society treats the mentally ill like shit. They hate us because we are on social security and disability. We are not "useful" and economically viable.
Don't romanticize Danvers State. The patients that lived there were human beings. Don't defame their lives by alluding to ghosts and ghoullies.
When looking for an example of how "respected" mentally ill individuals were at Danvers state- look to their earlier burial process. The patients were buried in unmarked graves. Not to be remembered until the 1990s.
ps: In the past I worked as a mental health worker (i was, ironically, a psych. major). I have had practical experiences as well as personal experiences.
However, (having worked and been a patient at multiple facilities) I have a problem with a few of your arguments.
Staff working in the mental health are underpaid. Many of them must work overtime. Most of them have lives and families outside of work, and the stress that accompanies these lives. It is also very difficult to keep up with specific treatment plans/special needs etc... when you are in charge of multiple patients.
However, there is a major difference between the plight of mental health workers and the plight of patients; I feel as if sometimes you do not recognize this (in fact, you seem to use the plight of workers as a justification for bad actions/decisions/abuse).
One of the major differences between staff and patients is that staff CHOOSE to work in the psychiatric field; Patients do not always choose to be hospitallized. If a staff member does not like the conditions of the job, they have a choice to leave and seek other employment. Hell, they could work at McDonald and recieve the same rate they were making working on a unit or at a residential program. There is no need for them to subject themselves indefinately to a job that is too stressful.
The patients can not leave. If they don't like conditions on a hospital unit, they have few options.
Staff are supposidly sane, functioning members of society. Patients are not necessarily in control of their behavior. Staff can choose, to the best of their abillities, how to act/react to situations reguarding patient care.