I went to your hospital to get well, not to be treated like an animal. One day, because I “seemed agitated,” you threw me in a locked cell for 9 days and 9 nights, with nothing but a filty piss-stained mattress and disturbing graffitti to keep me company. The guards left bruises all over my arms and tore off my clothes (6 male guards got their eyes full), threw me face down on the mattress and kneeled with all their weight on my lower back to hold me down while you injected me with enough Haldol to tranquilize a horse! You didn’t know I was allergic to Haldol until my tongue swelled up so bad it was hanging out of my mouth and drooling! You only let out once a day to use the washroom only. Newsflash: People tend to need the bathroom more than once a day! I was not allowed to bathe. I was forced to urinate and deficate on the floor every day, then you would toss in some trays of food, which I was expected to eat with my dirty hands. The one sheet on the mattress had to be used as toilet paper, so I froze in that hell hole and you would not bring me a blanket. I cried and begged to be let out, yet you would not come to my window. When you finally let me out of the cell, you were oblivious to the intense lower back pain your barbaric guards inflicted upon me, and you gave me a couple tylenol. I was in extreme pain for almost 6 months after, so much so that I couldn’t bend over far enough to put on my socks or to pull the bathtub plug out! When I called the Health Department to report the standards of the hospital’s solitary rooms, I was ignored because hey, I’m mental right? I would rather die a crazy lady on the street who sings to her shoes, then ever admit myself into the nuthouse again! If there are any lawyers who can help me take action against the hospital I would be forever thankful. I have the paper work and medical chart to back up my story. Please help!
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2008.
IF ONLY the government employees were allowed to breach privacy and confidentiality laws and tell THEIR side of things. After all their only reason for existing is so they can work and terrorize people. I mean its not as if they are trained to recognize when people may harm themselves and protect the patient from themselves. NOTE SARCASM.
Um, actually, I’ve heard some pretty awful stories that are similar to the OP’s from people I used to volunteer with. There are good therapists, nurses and doctors out there, however there are also people who are attracted to positions of power because they like to abuse power when they have it in their hands. I’m not sure how preventing someone from using the washroom more than once a day would keep them safe, Elvis. The OP’s bitch seems to be very well written. No note of “unable to care of him or herself there”. In fact, a lot of the complaint appears to be that while in custody the OP was unable to take care of themselves due to not even being given basic necessities or the ability to clean up after themselves.Try to put yourself in the shoes of the OP. Can you even imagine?*shudder*Hey OP can you tell us more of the story?
EQ, I don’t find your sarcasm funny in the least. From what my friends who have been in such institutions have told me, there are some nurses who treat mentally ill patients like crap and there is generally nobody the patient can turn to.I remember a story one of my girlfriends told me about going to the emergency room for help because she was going downhill fast. She had to wait for up to 8 hours before someone would examine her. When she was finally seen, she was so far gone that things were not making sense to her, and what did the nurse tell her? The nurse told her that if she didn’t take her meds the police would be called in and throw her in a jail cell for not doing what she was told. WTF? As for the OP’s story, being forced to urinate and defecate on the floor and live in it is appalling. Surely there must be somebody out there who can help the OP get these wrongs addressed.I too would like to hear more about this. I’ve heard many things from my friends, but issues about the treatment of mentally ill patients seem to remain out of the public eye for some reason.
The thing is, they cannot FORCE you unless a court gives them the authority to do so. Same with an ambulance. If you are injured and an ambulance comes you can actually refuse treatment and they can’t touch you… untill you are deemed unable to make your own decision (like if you slip unconcious)But when you volunteer admittance they shock you to scare you sane. WHich is a dubious method because if you are sane enough to realise you need help then they feel you are sane enough to snap out of it.
Some health care professionals are not fit to care for any living creature. Mental patients and old aged people sometimes get terrible treatment, outright abuse. It is unbelievable and very sad. This type of abuse is also common in the police forces and/or correctional facilities too. They are all kind of like bullies.
They cannot force you but they do. Doctors, Nurses and Orderlies are the Gods in there. Almost nothing you can do about it. Usually, given the condition of your mental state, your credibility is out the door.
Having been through the system, helping someone close to me, my point was that The people that often need the system, are NOT the best judge of how they are being treated at the time. I don’t know the specifics of the OPs case and I am not stupid enough the think our health system and the people who work in it are flawless, but it frustrates me that good people in the system get their reputations dragged thru the mud because of someone elses poor state of mind to recall what actually went down. As I said, the health workers are not allowed to come here, go on the news/ media whatever and defend themselves with case specifics, yet people in that situation can yell and scream, name names whatever they want.MAYBE the OP was poorly treated, MAYBE the care workers kept her isolated for their protection as well as hers. If you have ever been on a “locked” mental health ward; chances are you’ve seen patients get pretty tangly pretty quick. Their methods of control may seem odd or harsh to the average Joe. A 90lb female can take 4 or 5 workers to restrain her if she” freaks out “, and bruises and soreness will be one end result.In my own experience, my friend claimed to have very similar experiences, nothing was their fault, broken teeth; oh she was hit by a worker– truth: she fell and face planted. I saw this with my own eyes.. Put herself in a coma for a week; oh one of the staff chocked her out. no? it was a car crash… truth? suicide attempt. She wasn’t even IN the hospital when that went down ( I found her ) I could go on. and of course I was the asshole because I would not help with legal action. Yet she could look you right in the face and tell you her story, and you’d believe her. I sincerely hope that the OP was not mistreated, and if they were; then by all means, follow through with legal action.For those of you jumping on the ” i know someone who knows someone” bandwagon. There’s 2 sides. Volunteers are not TRAINED healthcare workersPS I do NOT work in any industry remotely close to healthcare.
Thanks for all your replies (I am the Original poster of this Bitch). Just to clarify, this story is 100% true, I did not make up any of it, nor elaborate, these events really happened. I was diagnosed with Bipolar and the reason I was admitted to hospital was because I had the flu and couldn’t keep my medication down for 3 days and I was starting to feel funny. I was in NO WAY ever violent! There was no reason for the way I was manhandled. There was no need for them to throw me face down on the mattress and the guards climb on top of me and literally rip my clothes off, basically simulating a rape. I asked them for the torn clothing back (as evidence) but they mysteriously disappeared. I realize they may need to restain people in hospital who are acting out, but I wasn’t doing anything! Just “seemed agitated”. When they injected me with Haldol, they would not tell me what they were giving me with, even when I asked. Which seems to me a violation of my rights. And the amount they gave me was more than you would give a 300 lb man. They kept saying how high my tolerance was for the drug and that I needed way more than the normal dose. I was a vegitable on that stuff. When my mom came in to visit me, she actually cried because I was just sitting there drooling and stunned out of my mind. My mother knows what the conditions were like in that cell, she argued with the doctors and nurses, told them to let me out and when they did, she saw all the feces everywhere! I was on tylenol 650’s until I was released for my back, and went to my GP several times for muscle relaxers and pain killers after I was released. The pain was excrutiating for 6 months after. Again, I was NOT violent or protesting, I knew the ods were stacked against me, and I am just not a violent person. Never been in a fight in my life! I feel so alone, because since I have a mental illness I’m not credible. This is such discrimination but so true. Please is there someone who can help me and take me seriously? I would really like to change the policies in the NS hospital and abby lane hospital, so that people who are ill and need help can be treated like people and not animals. I also fear having to return for treatment in the future and going through this again.
As an advocate for someone who did a stint in the Abbey Lane a few years back, I was there daily from pre-admission through in-stay and post-release… PsychosisI didn’t see everything that happened but I saw and heard a lot… And in my experience, there was never a single instance of anything untoward going on… Every patient in there was treated with compassion, dignity and respect, 100% of the time…OP, I do not wish to negate your experience, but I do have to ask,,, where were YOUR advocates when this was going on…??
Lisa; that definitely sounds like something was out of line in your treatment. Get your mother, get to a lawyer and fine a complaint.I wish you the best should you need further treatment.
Floyd, I don’t see how you can say “Every patient in there was treated with compassion, dignity and respect, 100% of the time…” Where you in there 100% of the time, 24 hours/day? You were not a patient like I was, you only visited. You could not know all that goes on in there. I have some friends who I met while I was in there who went through similar experiences in the Solitary room. I can see needing to put someone in there who was freaking out, maybe for a couple hours or a day, but not 9 days and nights for nothing! When I went in the hospital, I was voluntary, but when I tried to leave, they certified me, meaning I could not leave the ward until my doctor said so. I was there 3 months. I finally got to speak to a patient rights advocate and she told me I could apply to the review board for a second opinion on my status. I had to wait an entire month for my review board meeting, which just happend to be scheduled for the day of my release. Coincidence, I think not. Patient Rights is a joke!
Lisa, you are correct, I could not know what was going on there all the time… Everything I said, was in the context of MY experience and observation… Although I was not a patient, I was there for extended periods at all times of day and night… And although I was not there at all times, I made it my business to know what was going on there to the greatest extent possible… That is my point about your advocate… Many patients are not in a position to speak for themselves, so it is up to family to know what is going on there and to speak on their behalf…For the 30-day period I was around there, I saw some very intensive psychiatric cases and also heard graphic details what happened when I wasn’t right there… There was no evidence or indication of abuse of any form… If it was a routine occurence, I think I would have had a sense of that… And I didn’t…I wish you well, in your endeavor to improve the system… Like others here, I wanted to give an alternate viewpoint, to balance the thread, in a way hopefully representative of the employees who in this case cannot speak for themselves…
I really wish that I could do something to help you, Lisa. I think that you’re brave to speak about this given the stigma attached to mental illness. Perhaps more people may come forward who have had similar experiences with the same staff. This could be a good story for The Coast to look into…
As someone who has been through the mental health outpatients system (never an inpatient), I can say that I’ve been treated like utter crap, with very little compassion and understanding. The state of mental health care in NS is horrendous, and getting worse. I can only imagine what it’s like “behind closed doors” as an inpatient. I believe every word of this story.
the state of mental health/care is declining all over Canada (north america really), but it is especially dismal in the maritimes.ime, if you’re not so far gone that you have the presence of mind to get yourself to a doctor (most people don’t btw)… you’ll likely be ‘diagnosed’ with a ‘mood disorder’ (which is just technobabble for ‘we don’t really know wtf is wrong with you’) and then send you on your way with a prescription for psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, etc)… and hope for the best. then the real fun begins (horrific side effects and/or withdrawel).as for getting to the actual root causes of society’s mental health issues… pfft, who the hell has time for that? besides, there’s no money in cures, but huge profit in disease