The crisis in mental health is what I’ve been feeling for a little while now. That a bunch of things around this issue are not right. From doctors waving patients off and saying, ‘you’re just suffering depression’ which is a deadly disease for many. Then doctors turning people away at mental hospitals because there is just not enough beds. Not enough staff. If you do end up getting a bed you risk emotional abuse done by both nurses and doctors.
Here in Nova Scotia you have the CEO of the Nova Scotia Health Authority brushing things off like nothings wrong, sweep it all under the rug. The stories this person is ignoring are tragic.
Now when I talk to people getting into the field I say, ‘you realize people will be dying around you over time to the disease?’ Mental illness can be deadly to those who suffer it, and some times those around the individual.
Mental illness is a broad collection of spectrum’s. You have the ADD spectrum, the depression spectrum and more. It’s like one patient has both but one is really severe and the other isn’t out of control.
Nationwide I don’t have the full picture of, but my own personal experience with the Nova Scotia Health Authority has given me the ability to speak on the topic of how this administration is actually operating.
THEY HAVE NO MONEY
There are plenty of options on table for things that can be done by the NSHA but I doubt they have the money for it. However; an individual might try and raise money for a specific program or product to help one of the hospitals and its possible the hospital would reject any assistance. That’s one of the creepy things about it they don’t want the community doing this they want the government doing it.
Never the less, lack of funding is actually costing the country a lot of money because the way in which things are done are screwed up. Putting internet in every single NSHA facility should be done, and I have fought for it but it looks like a donation would be required for that and it’s possible once again, they don’t want that sort of donation.
STAFF IS OVERWORKED
I’ve seen the shifts and jobs some of these nurses, doctors and staff have endured and it’s way too much. The quality of these people I can’t see properly because they are under a lot of pressure. However; that doesn’t mean they aren’t making terrible mistakes in the treatment of the mentally ill.
FOOD IS DISGUSTING
In general yes, I’ve been told the federal pen has better meals than the mentally ill get. If you’re expecting it, it’s not a shock. You know right away, ‘yup, this is low quality food.’ Forensic patients are not criminals, or at least they are not being held for being a criminal their being held because of their mental health turning dangerous. The reason I made that point is because low quality should not be the default for mental health patients, it needs to be something anyone would say, ‘the food isn’t bad, not the best but not bad.’
EXPERIENCE IN HOSPITAL
The policy of privacy is very important and powerful. It means I can’t actually talk about people directly or even indirectly. I have to leave them out. In my experience at multiple hospitals, the best I can do is give you a needed wake up call.
My experience being in a forensic hospital for two and half years has led me to believe that giving nurses the ‘power to police’ is one hell of a horrible thing to do. Freedom of speech they don’t care about, rights like freedom of speech to them is ‘say what you want but if you piss me off you’re confined in your room.’ We are not human beings, we are not Canadians, we’re a group of undisciplined dogs that need to be ganged up on by multiple staff at once.
They come up with theories on what you’re doing(even if you’re doing nothing) and the just roll with them. I mean for example, ‘I think Timmy is high.’
‘Oh yes I saw Bobby yesterday he was high to.’
‘Maybe Bobby gave Timmy weed.’
‘Sounds like how it would go.’ Says another nurse.
They just roll with that. No evidence, no confirmation they are high, just roll with it.
The nurses shut the door when their game planning. Once the doors open the game is in play, and most of them take part in trying to accuse a person of some offense. You have to be careful at times like these.
I remember one time what happened to me was I was laying in my room and corrections showed up. Turned out somebody told somebody that I had a lighter for smokes in the bathroom. What did they do? Searched my room, top to bottom, and found nothing. Very important to keep this story in your mind, because if they are willing to invade people’s privacy based on a vile rumor, then they are willing to do a lot more.
Policy and rules of the hospital are determined by the trouble makers. People bring in drugs, it creates trouble, so they make up a rule and approve it and now everyone has to pay for what a few people did. We’re told it’s our responsibility to come forward if we see drugs coming in or going out. In other words they are risking are safety and are mental health for their own drug hunts.
Their rules and draconian behavior makes any one willing to do anything. You just start turning into a monster and they have procedures they follow to counter whatever it is you do.
All of this freedom your brain thinks it has, it really doesn’t. They take your dignity, they take your honor and sense of self respect and respect of others. It’s just gone. The best way to get through it is just hold on to good behavior, being cooperative even if it’s insane, and just get out of that place.
There is a part of you that wants to fight them. Wants to just smash your own body to show them how they are treating you is causing this. That’s not how they see. You’re doing that because you’re mentally ill. As opposed to being oppressed. Any signs of being oppressed, that’s your mental illness, and it has nothing to do with the conduct of staff, nurses and doctors. I have personally felt many different techniques for protest but they counter every single one of them which tells you something. They don’t want you to win that battle. They don’t care for how that would look. Absolute control without tipping off the public to the abuse, that’s how it’s done and they always have a logical scientific reason why they are doing this to you. They also make up characters to represent mental patients saying, ‘well one of my patients has been saying you have been hurting them.’ You say, ‘Do I have a right to face my accuser?’ They say, ‘No.’ You think this is a joke? Welcome to mental care, the last care you ever wanted to receive.
I’ve heard staff at multiple hospitals saying things like, ‘it’s not my job to be liked.’ I always counter with, ‘So it’s your job to abuse mental patients?’ They love that one. Still, that doesn’t solve your problem, it just digs you further down in that ditch. Sure, it feels good to finally catch one of them in the act, and then to say the exact perfect words to ruin them in that instance, it’s nice. However; it’s nothing, it won’t get you out and that’s what you want. To get the hell out of any place like that where you are powerless.
DOES POOR TREATMENT INCREASE RISK OF SUICIDE?
Being in hospital I’ve often wondered if the facility is causing more damage to the psyche. I came back from one hospital and it felt like there was damage done which meant I had to learn new coping strategies to survive the violent waves of depression and anxiety. Placed in a negative environment like prison I would say that changes anybody, but the mind of the mentally ill, how does it change them? I feel the answer to the question is probably yes.
I would say it’s more than likely some facilities pretty much assist in the minds gravitation towards suicide. It’s really sad to think that a person went through years of long term psychiatric care only to be killed by the disease made worse by mental health care.
Canadians I know want to see this work, despite all of the stigma, and all I can say we need your help. Facilities should be properly designed to have multiple areas for patients to live. There is just so much effort that needs to come from everyone and of course, treatment that works. The amount of people who stop taking their meds is very difficult to bare because it’s generally a bad sign somebody is getting sick again.
CAN I DEFFEND MYSELF IN HOSPITAL?
No, you have to run. Fighting them they call it tit for tat. If the person brings you down to the ground, you can not use advanced martial arts training to protect your self. You can get charged doing that very easily. It may get caught on camera but even when they throw the first punch, you’re supposed to run and get protection.
CAN I SPEAK UP AGAINST THE NURSES
No, you have to go to the phone number they give for problems you have.
CAN I PROTEST
Careful, gathering people together who are in common grounds can be seen as trying to start a riot. Hunger strikes don’t work. Letters don’t work. This is just much more complicated than you realize.
CAN I TRAIN MARTIAL ARTS
In your bedroom. You’re not to play fight or spar.
CAN I SECRETLY RECORD WHAT GOES ON
I did that once. They really didn’t like that when they found out. You have to understand the privacy system they have in play protects your privacy AND the staff working there. You are not allowed to name staff. I literally can not name anybody from the different hospitals. So whatever you do, make sure it’s your own privacy not others.
CAN I USE DRUGS
Depends on the hospital. Forensic is a big no. They urine drug screen test you. If you’re caught using you’re punished. The way they do it is take you out of your normal clothes, put you in prison grey’s with orange shoes, and they bring your mattress out from your bedroom. They lock the bedroom, and you are to stay in your range where you can watch TV. The idea behind it is you might have more drugs, and you may be more of a danger accept for the fact that they lay you out on your range, which exposes you to other patients. They force detox you from cigarettes so it’s very common that people undergoing this punishment get other people to bring them in cigarettes and a lighter where they smoke in the bathroom. If you get caught smoking in the bathroom, you cant go outside to smoke for three days. Once again they do not give you a nicotine patch, they do not give you gum, they cold turkey you which makes you more suseptible to rule breaking.
The joke of the entire thing is it’s supposed to be punishment that gets you to stop doing what it is you’re doing. What about if a person breaks the rule over twenty five times? Nothing, they just keep punishing you even though it doesn’t work. That’s the joke of it all their form of punishment doesn’t stop anybody.
Mental Health Watch Dogs 