Ask me about working in a psychiatric hospital

[Exitonly]

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How do "normal" people react when you tell them these stories? Are there crazy chicks that find all this attractive?

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I try to stay away from crazy chicks nowadays. The stories go over really well with most people. The story that gets the best reaction is probably the "Memento Guy" story that I refered to in my first post. I generally say a lot more about him so I can elaborate if anyone is interested.

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Yeah, please elaborate

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[jackflashdrive]

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How do "normal" people react when you tell them these stories? Are there crazy chicks that find all this attractive?

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I try to stay away from crazy chicks nowadays. The stories go over really well with most people. The story that gets the best reaction is probably the "Memento Guy" story that I refered to in my first post. I generally say a lot more about him so I can elaborate if anyone is interested.

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Yeah, please elaborate

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Sorry, missed this the first time.

So as I was saying, the most interesting guy I met was 'Jose' (I'm just making up names, instead of going with my first [lame] impulse to use letters).

It's tough to convey how fast Jose' went from being such an extremely interesting and unusual case (for my kind of facility, which didn't typically get people like him), to being regarded as utterly, hopelessly, obnoxious. The fact that he couldn't remember how staff treated him meant that staff could be completely dismissive/rude/mean and not feel the least bit bad about it. I mean the guy had anterograde amnesia -- it's not like he's going to hold a grudge.

Because this guy was such a handful, the day shift had no problem letting him sleep in all day -- sometimes till 3:00 PM. This meant that on night shift (which I mostly worked at this time, though I still did some day/evening shifts), he was up all night asking the same old questions over and over.

It got to a point that the nurse I was working with just started locking him up in seclusion (but not restraining him in any way). She knew he couldn't possibly file a complaint, or even feel any basis for complaining. So he would bang away on the plexiglass window for a while before giving up and just wander the 10ftX10ft seclusion room in confusion.

On one occasion during evening shift I was given the task of dealing with him for a few hours because the regular evening staff had had enough (and of course I wasn't a regular on evening shift so the job fell to me).

At first, he would be asking questions of everyone and I would interupt him and say "Allright, I'll tell you what. You need to speak to the person in charge if you want your questions answered. Go down to the end of the hall and talk to the woman in the red coat. The woman in the red coat was of course a raving schizophrenic, so when he got to the end of the hall the conversation would go something like:

Jose': Where am I? Where's my mother?
Woman in coat: Exactly! That's exactly what I'm talking about. They don't think you'll eat the doughnuts but that's exactly why you NEED TO EAT THE DOUGHNUTS.
Jose': I don't understand.
WIC: You gotta listen. Your not listening. Do you know what you sound like? Are you telling me you don't KNOW that it's the COFFEE you shouldn't drink? [censored] christ get out of my face.

So then Jose' would walk back to the nurses station and start asking more questions and I would send him back down the hall, ad infinitum.

On one occasion I had a test the next day. So I brought him in one of the conference rooms, with a big white board and markers, and I said "OK, I'm going to answer all your questions for you." I then proceeded to draw a neuron in as much detail as I could, and described for him in painful detail the actions of various neurotransmitters, and how various substances (like drugs) could mimic the action of these neurotransmitters. I talked about serotonin reuptake, dopamine, etc. He kept interupting, but I would cut him off with "Listen, you said you wanted answers and I'm giving you answers. Just wait till I finish and then I'll get to your questions." I never finished, though -- he just left and started his questions anew with someone else.

Where am I?

Where is my mother?

Where is my brother?

Why am I here?

What memory problem?

No, you've made a mistake, I don't have a memory problem!

[Sardine]

I believe a story regarding the below has not been told:

- What happens during adult/kid take down?

I want to say that this thread has been one of the most interesting and emotional evoking thread I've read in while. Yet there are still funny moments. One more story, please!

[stealthmunk]

Please Keep Posting!

[Dudd]

I don't have any questions, but this thread is fantastic. More stories!

[HeroInBlack]

The story of Jose and the woman in the red coat got me to thinking about this: How much were the patients allowed to interact? Were they allowed to interact without a staff member around? I mean, it seems like if it was difficult for the staff members to deal with some of the patients, it would be practically impossible for a semi-insane patient to deal with another semi-insane patient. It seems like a fight would be the only way a lot of these patient-to-patient interactions could end. Or would the less-sick people see the more-sick people in much the same way as the un-sick see the less-sick and just dismiss them as "crazy" and let them be?

[FlyWf]

I once got held in a mental health facility overnight thanks to a crazy ex telling the police I was a suicide risk.

OP, what could I have done(as an objectively uncrazy guy) to get out earlier? Was there any way I was going home the same day?

It really sucked, in case anyone wondered. The other people in there were crazy as [censored], I spent the entire time trying to sleep.

[jackflashdrive]

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I believe a story regarding the below has not been told:

- What happens during adult/kid take down?

I want to say that this thread has been one of the most interesting and emotional evoking thread I've read in while. Yet there are still funny moments. One more story, please!

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During adult and +16 adolescent takedowns, it depends on the size and aggressiveness of the patient. If it is a patient who will probably not resist that much, then two techs would generally handle him/her. One tech grabs each arm at the wrist, and then each tech presses forward with their other hand on the patient's shoulder blade. You do this to 'walk' them back to the seclusion room and it is hard for them to resist much once they are caught like this. One way it is possible for patient's to resist is by falling to the ground and this was not uncommon. At this point we would have to hold them pinned to the ground while a few more people showed up so that we could all carry the client to the back using a special procedure (that I can describe if anyone wants).

The kids unit tended to have less staff -- often just one tech. So if a kid flipped out you were often alone. If it's a small kid you are supposed to get behind them and make them 'hug' themselves, with you holding the kid's arms behind his/her back. Then you sit down with them in this position and basically wait for someone else to show up.

Kids are interesting because they instinctively go for the balls. They also have no qualms about containing their anger for a short time so they can try to land a sucker punch at your balls when you aren't expecting it.

For adult client's that look like they might seriously hurt someone, we would generally call police, though we weren't supposed to (we were supposed to be totally self-sufficient). When the staff levels were seriously reduced, then takedowns, restraints, and seclusions were also reduced because staff had a bit less muscle behind them but this also meant there were some patients we couldn't handle. For this reason, on balance I think the reduction in staff was ironically an improvement in patient care.

[jackflashdrive]

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The story of Jose and the woman in the red coat got me to thinking about this: How much were the patients allowed to interact? Were they allowed to interact without a staff member around? I mean, it seems like if it was difficult for the staff members to deal with some of the patients, it would be practically impossible for a semi-insane patient to deal with another semi-insane patient. It seems like a fight would be the only way a lot of these patient-to-patient interactions could end. Or would the less-sick people see the more-sick people in much the same way as the un-sick see the less-sick and just dismiss them as "crazy" and let them be?

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It's possible I've made my facility out to be more violent than it really was. The majority of people who are mentally ill are absolutely not violent, though this is a stereotype I've probably reinforced here.

Patient's were allowed to interact freely with one another. This really, really, really sucked for people who came in with depression/suicidal ideation for the first time. I mean you are depressed to begin with, and now all of a sudden you have to deal with schizophrenics yelling at you from 10 feet away because you are all up in their face. It's better than this in many states, and in better facilities in FL. The decent places separate patients a bit depending on their illness, so depressed patients don't have their problems exacerbated by now having to deal with life on another planet.

Most of the really ill patients were semi-institutionalized, which meant they recognized the authority of staff. So while there were definitely a lot of conflicts among patients, they were often not violent at all. I spent a lot of my time when I worked evenings/mornings arbitrating silly disputes and my decisions were generally (if grudingly) accepted.

[jackflashdrive]

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I once got held in a mental health facility overnight thanks to a crazy ex telling the police I was a suicide risk.

OP, what could I have done(as an objectively uncrazy guy) to get out earlier? Was there any way I was going home the same day?

It really sucked, in case anyone wondered. The other people in there were crazy as [censored], I spent the entire time trying to sleep.

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You could have POSSIBLY avoided staying in the facility overnight. When you are first admitted to a psych hospital, you see a screener who goes through paperwork, tries to get you to sign in voluntarily, tries to get you to sign papers saying you will pay for the treatment, etc. If the screener doesn't think you should be there, then he or she can call a clinical psychologist who is on-call for an evaluation. If the clinical psychologist thinks you are fine then you won't be held.

Twice I saw people tell the screener that they were going to sue the facility if they were admitted, and this threat seemed credible. So the screener called the on-call clinical psychologist and they were evaluated and released. So this is one way to go, but it would only work if there was real ambiguity about whether or not you should be admitted.

It is pretty easy to avoid being held for longer than one night. It is your right whenever arrested or civilly detained (as in a psych hospital) to file a writ of habeas corpus. The facility in which you are detained must provide the paperwork for you and process it. This means that within 24 hours of your confinement, you must go before a judge. If you could provide some sort of story for the judge that makes sense about why you shouldn't be there, then you will generally be let out.