It seems as though what I wrote in Part 9 of Tackling the Mental Health Minefield has upset a few people. In answer to them, I can only say that this is my blog, and the accounts of my stay in hospital are true. Nothing is made up, in fact some of the things that happened were worse than those that I have written about.
While we probably don't have the institutional ill-treatment of patients that was so common 20 or 40 years ago, there is still a problem that so many of the people, that is to say the nurses, who should be helping those who are in mental hospitals, whether they be there voluntarily or because they have been sectioned, treat being a mental nurse as just a means of earning money and make no effort to interact with the patients or understand how they are feeling during what is probably a very scary period of their life.
One of the reasons that I began writing the series of posts was so that others could read a first hand account of what is happening in one of our mental hospitals and see that not everything is rosy. I have tried to ensure that no prejudice is apparent in what I write. It is not easy, but I believe that I have been successful in doing this. The discrimination that I saw exhibited while I was in hospital was appalling because it was the nurses who were responsible for it. The fact that a West Indian member of staff would make time for a patient who was of West Indian origin and yet tell a white English girl to go back to her room and stop being a nuisance when all she wanted was a clean towel was a classic example of the kind of discrimination that I saw.
So, if anyone was upset by what was said in the post, then I am afraid that is your problem. Me, I have no regrets about what I wrote and will continue to write in the same way that I always have. Truthfully, and with no holds barred.
5 comments:
I don't think you said anything you shouldn't have said. Racism is racism whether it's expressed by a white person against a black person or by a black person against a white person. Both should be equally condemned.
With regards to people speaking a foreign language in front of you to other people, its just plain rude (unless one of the persons can only speak that language). Its absolutely horrible wondering if there slagging you off right in front of you
I think you write honestly and that is what attracts people to your blog, the truth sometimes is often hard to read and people get upset by that they can chose to leave. Keep writing as you do, I respect how you write. Take care x
You've nothing to apologise for and have done much to be proud of in working with your fellow patients to address the effect of J's behaviour on the everyone's environment. Besides, people manipulate each others behaviour all of the time.
And racism is racism even if the victim is white.
Maybe those who criticise find the truth a little painful. And some in the mental health industry will always find intelligent people a threat.
I agree with all of the above comments. I have worked with some brilliant nurses, and some that are horrid. Same goes for HCA's. Makes me really cross.They are paying their mortgages off the back of somebodies distress, so treating people as though they are important (which they are) and respectfully is not hard.
If staff can't do that then they should sod off and work somewhere where they don't need to be empathic.
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