Idk if I'm welcome here but I do have a story about why psych hospitals are bad but from the side of the worker rather than the patient. I briefly worked at a mental health facility (I rage quit after like 2 weeks because I saw first hand the cruelty and refused to be a part of it).
During orientation they trained us to use de-escalation techniques but when I went on the ward my coworkers often got in screaming matches with the patients whenever they started getting upset. It was constant power struggles, which they told us not to get into with patients. It was almost like they WANTED to have a restraint done. (Some apparently even hoped for something like that because the job was too "boring"?????????) They actually fired people who didn't want to do a restraint for moral reasons. They fired people who were disabled actually and COULDNT perform a restraint. "Get a knee replacement surgery and MAYBE we'll consider hiring you back. Til then you're suspended."- a real thing I heard happen.
They really desperately wanted us to keep people as long as possible there so they got more money.
They constantly gossiped and made fun of the patients. Sometimes in front of them, sometimes not. If you think you were safe from it, you probably weren't. They often did it in the break rooms or walking off the ward or when a patient went to the bathroom. Sometimes I heard them being mean about me when they thought I wasn't there. They barely even watched any of the patients or checked on them aside from telling them to stop doing things or whatever. A nurse called an elderly patient "crazy eyes" behind her back. And another tech got upset at me cause I didn't want to bully this patient with obsessive hand washing problems (which I also struggle with so I actually understood that pain). They even scoffed at all my suggestions that would help heal her hands.
I noticed a patient was withdrawing suddenly (after she seemed very talkative and restless whenever I first met her which made me worried she was not doing well) and went to talk to the therapist there about it and they said that said patient, "Thought she was smarter than everyone else there so doesn't participate."
And people got privileges taken from them even if all they did was argue. This was a ward for adults too btw. They got treated like they were misbehaving 12 years olds, no matter how polite or kind they were and regardless of the state of recovery they were in.
It was a fucking evil place. I'm so glad I left before I actually did anything in the job. I can't believe I thought for a second that I might help people. I knew it would be difficult emotionally and knew that it was imperfect as a system going in but I did truly think, given how it appeared on the outside and how they portrayed themselves as so professional and trauma-informed, that they might give a fuck? Ugh. Thank God I didn't got there when I was suicidal.
Oh! And every time I express discomfort about things or how mean everyone around me seemed or anything about my fears regarding helping in a medical crisis since I didn't know what to do (and also cause I know I might get too scared to move and freezing might cost them their lives??) every single person just went, "Ah you're new. You'll get the hang of things. (:" Though when I seemed more autistic about my concerns, they suddenly got very angry at me. "Be an adult about it." So uhhhh yeah.
Tldr psych hospitals are full of bullies who love to abuse their power.
I actually do hold respect for people who enter the mental health field with good intentions, but then leave at detriment to their own career because they refuse to abuse psychiatrized people.
origamiaround
areudirty
vaporwave
titsay
