I am finding my new job increasingly disturbing...

[mcctatas]

I am fully committed to the goals of my agency, I love the work I do as an advocate for families who have children affected by mental illness. However, unlike most of our Advocates, I am stationed at a state run mental health institution and I see things every day that shake me to my core. The first time I actually saw a child on a back board in restraints, I was numb. But when I got back to my office and was able to process what I had just seen, I started shaking and crying, eventually had to run to the bathroom to throw up. I know there is no money for services and most of the staff are doing the best they can with limited resources, but I find it hard to reassure parents that their kids are in the best environment to meet their needs.

Maybe I'm just adjusting, maybe I will be able to help facilitate one of my agencies goals of decreasing and hopefully eliminating the use of restraints on adolescents, but I just feel kind of hopeless right now.

At least writing this helped, and Monday is another day...

[EFerrari]

1. You don't have to like it or agree with it to cope with it.

:hug:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. keep going back and

maybe you can write an online journal anonymously, or feed tips to the media
under the condition of anonymity.

This is so horrific that it needs to be told.

But of course it must be very difficult to witness.

[boppers]

3. Share. Care.

You chose the life of a warrior.

Fight well. There are people who understand your suffering... and we all need people like you.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. mental health treatment, even with money, often is misguided

people just don't understand mental illness and it still has stigmas.

How many of these inpatients might be rational and fairly stable if given
the right combination of medicines?

How many get shock treatment routinely since the doctor or staff haven't figured
out what medicines to give?

We just aren't there right now.

But we need attention to this issue AGAIN, to push so that we get THERE.

Its horribly tragic that anyone must languish in these conditions.
It isn't just the retraints, its the mental anguish some of these patients
must be suffering, in that to them what they see, hear, smell or feel - no matter how
bizarre or frightening, seems very real to them, because that is what their brains are telling them.

Perception IS reality - to them.

[rwheeler31]

5. Hang in they do this crap to do it fast.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. oh & nothing wrong with saying (if asked) that

if they can afford a private hospital, they might want to try it.

If you are asked, I don't think you can get in trouble for saying that, although I
could be very wrong.

If, that is - there is a good private hospital around. One that actually has success
with mental health conditions.

I am recommending your thread, probably people find it painful to read, but we
need to get more people to see it.

[ZombieHorde]

7. I have worked in mental health for at least 10 years and I have never seen anything like that.

My coworkers and I have been literally bloodied by adults, and we still did not tie them down. I have been punched, kicked, strangled, and I have even had a 19 year old kid pull a knife on me, and still, we were able to handle the situation without resorting to restraints.

[mcctatas]

8. Consider yourself lucky then...

When I worked in residential care, we did not restrain our clients either, apparently things are different in state institutions, or at least the one I am at...

[ZombieHorde]

13. I have heard some bad stories about our state institution's past...

though I hear that it is better now. I am not sure if the stories were true or not or even if it is better now than it was. Health care folk love gossip.

[EFerrari]

10. One time, I was just too tired to cope any more and my husband went

to the hospital. They immediately put him in restraints.

That's some hazardous duty. It's taken me nearly two years to just shake off the exhaustion after we were divorced. That kind of vigilance is tiring.

[ZombieHorde]

14. It is hard to know what to think without knowing your situation.

I can imagine situations where restraints are needed, I have just never seen one.

[EFerrari]

15. Doug was 6'5" and 300 lbs and when triggered,

paranoid toward his care givers and about 5 in his mind. I was just so used to handling it and to helping him to calm down, when I found out they put him in restraints, I was appalled. But, I don't know what that ward was like, how many, their situation, their staffing.

And just after the fact, he was very upset about being in restraints. But I'd bet something that today, it's not even a remote memory. He's lucky in how his brain keeps or deletes a class of distressing memories.

It sounds like your workplace is doing something right. That's good to hear. :)

[ZombieHorde]

16. 6'5" and 300 lbs - That is bigger than I am used to.

I have had troubles with a guy close to that size, but one of his legs was weak, so he was slow. I could get away almost all of the time. One time he asked me to tie his shoes, when I bent down he punched me in the nose and my blood poured into my mouth. I scrambled out of his room as fast as I could. (I bet I looked hilarious). Since my adrenaline was pumping, my coworkers, who were calm, handled the situation. That is how we worked.

I don't know if I could have gotten away from your ex. If he was being very violent, restraints, chemical or otherwise, may have been the only safe option.

It sounds like your workplace is doing something right. That's good to hear.

I don't work there anymore, but they are good. When my foster son moved there when he turned 18 I felt like he was going to a good place. I could tell who had been working with him by how cut up their hands were.

[mcctatas]

9. Thank you all for the kind thoughts...

and the opportunity to vent. I will keep at it and hopefully make some small difference to at least a few of these children and their families...

[ClayZ]

11. Blessings to you and the children!

[ben_meyers]

12. You will either get numb to it or leave

My oldest grand daughter works for Ramsey county up in Minnesota. She works with the Somali community and has to deal with their cultural practices all the time. Try dealing with female genital mutilation on a daily basis. You either have to tough it out, or find a different line of work.

[rebel with a cause]

17. I don't know exactly what kind of restraints these are but

in some instances mechanical restraints may be better than physical ones. We were forced to do physical restraints in order to keep the youth from hurting themselves or others. With the regular population, we did not have many problems, but when the state flooded the system with a special type of youth population, the restraints became all too common. Now your restraints might range from a gentle hug type #1 to help the child to get themselves under control to a full out restraint type #3 where several people had to hold the youth down. The trick was to keep staff and youth from being injured and we did a good job of that, with staff injuries sometimes occurring but none to youths. Other agencies did not do as well, and several youths died from having staff put so much pressure on them that they suffocated. That was unnecessary, and would not happen it the child had been carefully monitored to make sure they were okay and not under undue direst.

I would have loved to have a safe room to put the youth into where they could have cooled down without any restraints, but that was not allowed in our state at that time either. So violent youth on a rampage had to be controlled at times for everyones safety, and although I always hated the restraint system it did prove effective at times. Being under staffed was also a problem during those times when the youth population being treated actually needed extra staff, but non-profit agencies still seem obsessed with making a profit.
:shrug:

[lostnfound]

18. The poster who said 'you have chosen the life of a warrior' makes sense.

Seems that like warriors, this is a job that should be on 12 month rotation etc. and be seen as a tour of duty, not necessarily a permanent occupation.
I hope you find ways to cope, ways to improve the situation; and thanks for sharing your experience with us.

[radfringe]

19. many years ago, I was an attendant at a state hospital for

mentally ill adults.

When someone was out of control, there were three options

-Lock them up in a seclusion room
-Drug them up
-Tie them down in wrist/ankle restraints

can't tell you how many times I wished there were better options

the regulations mandated a MINIMUM staffing ratio of staff to patients. Minimum ratio does not mean ideal ratio, it means the absolute minimum, and it was extremely rare that we had even 1 "extra" staff person over that minimum.

the minimum staff for the ward I worked on, required 2 attendants. LPN or RN nursing staff could not be counted as part of the minimum because they were assigned to cover 2 or more wards.

I worked a 3-11 shift, we were expected to take patients to the recreation room or to some other activity going on in the evening. patients had the choice of attending or not. Minimum staffing for off-ward activities was higher. For my ward, this meant at least 3 attendants for off ward activities, assuming all patients chose to attend. the math wasn't there for sufficient staff to escort a few to the activities and still leave enough staff for those remaining on the ward.

[dddem]

20. Health care in this country for the mentally ill is shamefully lacking.

My mother has suffered with bipolar disorder for most of her life. If it hadn't been for my father and her sisters, God only knows how she would have ended up. God bless you for doing what you do. I spend a few hours with my mother when she's manic, and I need therapy myself! People like you are a gift, and when you feel completely overwhelmed, underappreciated, overworked and completely frustrated, please remember that, even though no one may tell you, the world is a far better place because you're in it.
Peace.

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Oh I'm sorry.

That's an awful thing to see, and more awful to live.

I hope you can continue to do your good work - it's needed.