Wow its nice to hear some good news about hospitals now. There was a time, in a different state, MN when I had a great Dr, she always put me on a unit for trama and stress diagnosis. Yeah it was mostly women and about, 8 individual rooms and 8 double rooms, all of them had phones for each bed, for me they would get a TTY, the best part was the recliners, if we started stressing out, we had many options. We were in charge of de-stressing, in charge of ourselfs! (it was a learning experence, I think it may have also been a teaching hospital?-thats part of what they taught us) one of our options was to excuse ourselves if we had enough control or we could just get up and go to our room and put music on(I can hear a bit and love jazz, no vocals) W/ headphones. When a staff saw signs of decompensation they would point it out, or after a big melt down they played 200 questions; what was the last thing you remember; when was the last moment that you were still in control; what were you feeling at that moment; what was realy happening vs what you saw in your head, or felt; were you realy in phsical danger, ect,... then you learned your own triggers and how to deal with them.
But then the hospital wanted more money and faster turn over and that unit was gone. This year when I walked into that last hospital I had been put on the wrong medication(for a medical problem) and had the first panic attack in years. I walked in expecting it to be the same as it was(in years gone by--), I looked normal, but both my Pdoc and my insurence said go, so I did. But when I told the paramilatarty gaurds that no I wasn't a visitor , they couldn't grab my tea out of my hand fast enough! Just fast, angery movment, it triggered me, and cought me compltly of gaurd. Man what a trip.
Like (I'm so sorry I forgot you name, a couple posts back) I'm white, well educated but a horrible typer with nerve problems in my hands, but I'm also on a advocacy and protection board for disability rights. When I got out, my first call was to advocacy Inc, they got the call and the hospital was investigated for dissablity access and patient rights violations. There were a ton of violations and their traing (re-traing?) continues.
They didn't believe me, that I had a voice. I'm feeling a lot better knowing I was right,( sometimes I think maybe it was just me, they were right, I don't know what I'm doing), that anyone going there now will be treated better and any Deaf person will have access to the outside and can call anyone they want. Sometimes the ablity to make even a small change helps me feel that whatever I've experenced has some worth--not that I believe I deserved it or that anyone deserves to be treated badly, ever, for any reason, but especialy not because of something chemical and biological that is called a mental illness and negitivly labeled instead of simply another medical diagnosis.
It really hits me now the disparity in how I'm treated when I have to go to the ER for my medical (real) problems and how I get treated when they know I have a "label" With the label anyting I say is subject to doubt & suspection, but for my medical problems, I'm told how intelligently I'm dealing with it, I'm listened to, the differance is greater than matter vs antimatter. It never stops amazing me. I truly beleive the change has to start with Doctors, med schools and pharmCo$$$ and their attitudes and the media, before we can truly change the whole mental health hospitalization experence to be positive for every one.
AND YEAH. Whats up with the razor thin bed covers?
I forgot who started this thread, but really cool props to you. Good stuff on this thread!