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Home From the Hospital
It was a short trip to the Oregon State Hospital this morning, but it doesn't take long to see the challenges facing the place. The quick and - literally - dirty tour wanders through the wings that were condemned because they are dangerous. Long dark corridors, old furniture in odd places, paint peeling off in great sheets, parts of the ceiling in pieces on the floor.
It reminds me a bit of the pictures from Chernobyl. Like it was abandoned in a hurry.
The only actively used section I saw houses no patients - just the people managing the project to build a new replacement hospital across the street. That looked fairly up to date, clean, with linoleum floors and most ceiling tiles in place. These offices were part of a patient ward until just recently, but Linda Hammond, the administrator of the new building project, told me all the improvements were cosmetic. The crumbling infrastructure still dates from the 19th century.
I wasn't allowed to visit a ward with patients now - in part because there's a quarantine for norovirus, in part because there wasn't time to get all patients to sign a waiver agreeing to me walking in a ward. But here's a clue to one of the hospital's myriad problems: I showed a staff member a front page Oregonian story about a man who's apparently sane and has been trying to get out of the hospital for years. She knew his name right off - and lowered her voice to say, "I think he shouldn't be in here."
A news note: Governor Kulongoski today appointed a special master to oversee efforts to improve care at the hospital after last month's scathing Department of Justice assessment.
One more sidebar on the hospital's facilities - its phone lines, we discovered this morning, are not fully compatible with the equipment we use to connect with the show while we're on the road! We had intended to broadcast from the hospital itself; we raced to our studio in the capitol building about 30 minutes before the show. Apologies for any technical difficulties!
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It is truly a horrofying place. My ex-husband was housed there for a few years and I took my son there once to see him. It was extremely traumatic. Patients/Prisonersare drugged to submissive levels and crowded into wards. Outsiders navigate Kafkaesque visitation guidlines. Staff seems overwhelmed to the point of numbness and what's really sad about the place is that it only reflects the level of importance we, Oregonians place on the issue.
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I have posted elsewhere on OPB forum about this, so I'll just be brief.
I am very concerned that yesterday's show had zero voice from the mental health consumer and psychiatric survivor communities. Can you see this happening on an OPB show on immigrants, labor, people of color, women, gays? Could you see OPB doing a show on any other marginalized group and OMITTING -- for a whole hour -- either from guest or callers, any voice from those communities?
And then we wonder why the mental health client community can get so disempowered!
It's time to move far beyond reform in the mental health field. I encourage folks to check out our web site below, and get active in the Oregon NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION in mental health care!
Thanks,
David
David W. Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA
web: http://www.mindfreedom.org
email: oaks@mindfreedom.org
office phone: (541) 345-9106
fax: (541) 345-3737
member services toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] or 1-877-623-7743
United Independent Activism for Human Rights in Mental Health!
MindFreedom International is a non-profit coalition with a vision of a non-violent revolution in mental health. Accredited by the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with Consultative Roster Status.
Join now! http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate
"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." - Martin Luther King, Jr. -
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