In all seriousness, rich people don't have it so good sometimes.

I guess they won't be able to blame the deaths and rape on lack of funding if they're bringing in >$800/day per patient?

patients confidentiality?
Say what?
Declining commenting?
I'm sick to death of these warders.
Is overdose, it's common down here too, "patients confidentiality"?
We have not a clue of what's going on inside these mental institutions.
We know that many are left alone with no visits or any kind of family support and if you go to some of these places and listen to them they will tell you some stories you will not like to listen.
There's a great difference when they report something they suffered when they are fine and "delusion".
You can tell when it's true what they say because they are not used to lie like "normal" people lie.
Yes, they lie. But don't we all?
At least...
I can't go anylonger.

Hard for me to understand. I worked for a while as a 'psychtech' at a private psych hospital. We always had at least two people on a unit: a psychaitric nurse and a psych tech at least. While we were there to maintain the "therapeutic milieu" or whatever, basically, we were there to avoid lawsuits due to suicides, rapes, etc.

I did "rounds" hourly: put my eyes on each resident, and make sure they are on the premises (if night shift, then perceiving signs of breathing, in the dark, as patients slept). I put my initials by the pt's name for that hour - meaning I declared that I saw the person, and knew they were basically alive and relatively safe.

This form went to the psych nurse, who surely did not want to countersign my "rounds" unless he or she knew I had actually gone and looked for each person, AND found them.

If there ever was anything funny, you simply communicated it quickly, so the existing procedures for responding to whatever, missing person, angry threatening manic person, etc., could happen ASAP.

If you could not handle this simple task of laying your eyes upon each person at least once per hour, you simply did not work - cuz the hospital just can't afford rapes and suicides and physical attacks.

If you went by the state or JCAHO mandated staffing levels, this is almost impossible to mess up. And you can't run a unit with only one person - if something starts happening: seizure, fight, etc., you need to have one person to be able to communicate outside the unit.

In my mind, I have this crazy belief that every psych hospital has the same system: hourly rounds by a psych tech or psych nurse. At least two staff at each unit. Is it so hard to set this up and maintain it? Maybe I should go into consulting.

Of course, my old place of employment has had their troubles, after my time there. Google "west oaks houston press" and you can find coverage of the story: poorly trained staff, and understaffing led to unreported physical injuries, suicide attempts, assaults, etc. The Houston Press stories show a very different atmosphere from when I worked there years previous at this particular private hospital. The fact that it was the same place just helps me see how it is the training and staffing that are critical.

Bottom line: I believe these things happen because of efforts to reduce payroll dollars: thinner staffing, and weaker training (which requires off-the-unit payroll time and trainers).

I don't know the problem at Dr. Drew's hospital. Dr. Drew's hospital is in big trouble because once the referring docs no longer believe the hosp is decent, they will send their patients elsewhere. So, if the problems are due to being skimpy on training and staffing dollars, it is gonna turn around and bite them since they will soon be out of business.

These things happen at ALL psych hospitals, just because they are high-priced doesn't make them any better, and none guarantee safety of patients, not ONE.

I think it just goes to show that mental hospitals are pretty much unpleasant and potentially dangerous, no matter how wealthy you are or how well-regarded the institution is. No matter how much $$$ you and/or your insurance company (or the gov't) pay out to these places, the name of the game is "control."
Think about it: if patients who were in a hospital for treatment of most other ailments (heart probs, cancer, etc.) were making allegations of rape or being restrained and occasionally dying (not the case here, but apparently a prob at other mental hospitals), there would be enormous public outry--docs would be fired, law suits would be filed, etc.
The only reason mental hospitals get away with this is b/c society doesn't really give a f*ck about mental patients...shrinks are allowed to lock people up for being deviant, and as long as they don't kill or permanently maim too many of their "patients" during "treatment," there probably won't be many problems.

responding to whatever, missing person, angry threatening manic person, etc., could happen ASAP.

If you could not handle this simple task of laying your eyes upon each person at least once per hour, ....- cuz the hospital just can't afford rapes and suicides and physical attacks.
....

if something starts happening: seizure, fight, etc., you need to have one person to be able to communicate outside the unit.

You know these constant checks (especially at night), the threatening manic outbreaks, the sexual tension between staff and patients, the seizures (usually med induced) the fights,

the subsequent lockdowns and restraints, the screams which emanated from the *quiet room*

the contra band sweeps and the hysterical over reactions of staff if you managed to get sharps, matches, smokes into your room

all that made for a miserable, traumatic, awful environment to exist in for even one day

and when you have proximity issues with people and ptsd, the last thing you want is to be hassled into groups, have lights shined on you in the night, witnessing assault and battery of staff on patients,

the first psyche hospital I was ever in at age 14 included my first sexual experience with someone there

20 years later that hospital was shutdown due to chronic inappropriate contact between staff and patients

psych hospitals suck

you leave with more problems than you had going in and with much less trust and faith in humanity

I don't think the problems at Aurora Las Encinas Hospital can be blamed on "thinner staffing" or "weaker training." It really doesn't matter what the patient to staff ratio is if the staff they do have are asleep.

Maybe psych hospitals need to invest in the following training classes:

Class number 1: "Hey, Put Down that Magazine and Get Back to Work."

Class number 2: "Lots can Happen on the Unit while Staff are Sleeping."

Class number 3: "How to Speak Compassionately to your Patients Even when No One is Looking."

I agree with Stephany.

Did anyone see Celebrity Rehab? The way he was treating Jeff Conaway?

He should have been shut down for that one too. Disgusting.

And poor Jeff probably won't be around too much longer either.

you leave with more problems than you had going in and with much less trust and faith in humanity.
Jane

We are far from having real mental HOSPITAL - hospitality is the word that comes to mind - and this is a shame!

I dont expect this 2 b psoted-I tried too mail you but it came back-thinking you may be intersted-

HI ya-I love your blog-in Christchurch where I live 3 ppls offed them selfs in
psy hos over 2 week period-also another psy person left in wheel-chair for
life-no nothing for him from neck-down-the lanuage is intersting in review- -
its liek they relie on the drugs so much now -that they really dont nurse--
they play computer games and lock themselfs in nurseing station

kind-reguards Louise-AKA Poodles

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0808/Executive_Summary_ext_review.pdf

I agree with stephanie. these things are commonplace in all psych hospitals: public, private, uptown, downtown. trying to figure on the fatal flaw of what happened in this particular case as if it were an isolated and uncommon incident won't go no were. The outrage will blow away with the wind. . .
I agree with jane.

RE: MedsVsTherapy "hourly checks"
I remember I was woken up every hour at night with the shine of the flashlight in my eyes. Maybe stopped me from having REM sleep . Say what happens when you don't get REM sleep???
REM sleep LINK

I was institutionalized when I was about 12 years old for "attachment disorder." I was exposed to more drugs and violence during my incarceration than many people are in a lifetime.

Anyway, nice blog. I’m curious, how much do you know about attachment therapy?

http://childtorture.wordpress.com/

I am one of the very few survivors to go public about this abuse. I'm trying to learn about it as much as I can, would be interested to hear your thoughts...

Mark PS: good point abt the disturbance when sleeping - I really hated that part of the job - someone would just be drifting off to sleep, but then some staffer comes, opens the door, letting that jab of light in, and checks to make sure 1. that you are there, and 2. you are still alive. Nonetheless, at the places where this even happens, it is a sign of better quality, compared to some place where they don't even check, but just initial the boxes that a pt. was present for an hourly 'round.' Getting your sleep interrupted all the time makes people grouchy, etc. In medical hospitals, they are beginning to look at this, instead of waking the pt at all hours to take a temperature, etc.

There is a letter writing campaign to Senator Charles Grassley to get him to write and fund a bill to open Soltaria (sp) houses all over the country. What little I know of these is that they were for seriously mentally ill people who actually got off drugs and got better while being nurtured there.....but guess who finally got them closed down.

It is a positive step and Senator Grassley is the man.