Have you dealt with any “celebrity” serial killers–the ones whose misdeeds capture the interest and imaginations of true-crime buffs?
I am charged with protecting the clients from a) attack by other clients b)self destructive behavior and many other things. I have seen staff who have had urine or feces thrown in their faces lose it and been forced to hold them back from the client.
It is really difficult to stop an attack before it happens. Oftentimes our patients can go from happy to homicidal/suicidal in the snap of a finger, so violence is a big factor. I have been seriously injured at work many times. I have three nasty scars on my arms. Two are from bites and the other is from a shank. I have had a concussion, cracked ribs, and a my right elbow is chipped.
It isn’t like the movies yet it is. You have some that do the typical things you see like in Girl Interrupted or One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and then there is a special kind of crazy cinema cannot portray.
There is no way I can identify the craziest person I have ever met. The most disturbing individual is a younger guy who is 5’2 and raped his own two year old daughter to death; this just really bothers me. We have individuals who have chopped up their spouses and ate them, or even killed their parents because they thought it would save the world.
We have people who are convinced they are their undercover and can be Abraham Lincoln one day and Lee Harvey Oswald another (seriously). Many of our patients are highly intelligent yet super delusional. We do have a few “celebrity” patients. One is a woman who smothered three of her children and possibly a fourth. I cannot say who this person is or I would be fired and fined 10,000 dollars because of HIPPA.
P.S. We do not have padded rooms. They are considered an infection control issue because they would be nearly impossible to clean. The seclusion/restraint room is void of anything but the bed frame they are strapped to or nothing at all.
Someone who is severly suicidal is put into a jumpsuit and padded mittens are put on their hands so they cannot grasp anything to harm their self with. I think that covers it. If I missed something let me know.
About fear: I am no longer scared. I’m a big guy and a former boxer, but many of the people I work with are fearful and that is completely understandable. We have had many, many serious injuries to staff that have been almost fatal and we have had clients kill other clients. It is not the right job for many people, thus we have a very high turnover/burnout rate. It can be really stressful; most of the people I work with are on some sort of anti-anxiety medication to deal with the stress. Employees also tend to drank a lot. Personal injury attornies love where we work; we cannot mace, tase, or baton patients and thus we have no protection like a prison guard does.
OK…anymore?
thanks for the interest guys.
About sexually innappropriate comments: they happen everyday all the time, especially towards the females. Many of our patients are sexual predators and offenders and many are homosexual, so yes it happens to all of us. I just had to fire a female employee three days ago for having relations w/ a male client who had aids; scary she was even hired.
I just saw your thread. I’m subscribing so I can steel myself with strong drink before reading it, as I imagine that Dopers can come up with some really strange questions, and that your answers will be even stranger.
That answers may be strange Oslo, but I can assure you they will be true. I look forward to some curveball questions. My friends ask me stuff about the place all the time, but is usually along the lines of “who punched you today?”
What really motivates people to work in an environment like that? Granted, criminology and abnormal psychology are both fascinating subjects, and I would give my left nut to shadow you for a week or two. But for God’s sake—there must be an easier way to make a buck, as the old adage goes. I’ve had a lot of exposure to criminals and mentally disordered people, and they have a way of draining you psychologically that almost destroys your psyche. Given enough exposure, you eventually become permanently hypervigilant, depressed, anxious, pessimistic, and you start to think about killing criminals. What type of person deliberately immerses themselves in that type of environment? Can you think of and/or describe some sort of common characteristic that you all share?
Interesting question. For the most part the people I work with who are security aides and not nurses, doctors, or social workers have no more than a highschool education and the whole are not that intelligent; I doubt they have many job options. It is a little alarming that this lower caliber of people work in such a volatile environment where decisions must be made in a snap. Most of the employees I work with have criminal records and/or issues themselves. I cannot think of a common characteristic that we all share, however, quite a few of us are adrenaline junkies and sick as it may seem, we enjoy the danger.
The job has made me hypervigilant. Wherever I go I always sit with my back to the wall and facing the door. I do get depressed at times, especially for the patients who I do not think belong there. The place I work has a way of institutionalizing those who are there very quickly, including the staff. What bothers me most is the lack of compassion I see from many of the employees, but it is to be expected when you work with oftentimes is the lowest common denominator in society. What makes me work there? I don’t really know. I’ve always been interested in psychology and especially mental illness, since I was seemingly surrounded by it as a child. The place I work almost has a mythical status in my family as well: My mom was a nurse there, my father a high ranking supervisor, my aunts/uncles also employed there – so I grew up on their stories that were very exciting and intriguing. My job is very stressful and some nights I feel like I cannot take it anymore. Someone has to do this job though and I do take some pride I have the ability to do it. I treat the clients with a lot of respect, even the ones who I am revolted by. For this, I get a lot of respect from them and they usually listen to me.
I am now rambling, but it is hard to stop once I stared. Thanks for the thought provoking question.
I do not really have a view on the death penalty. I am against it for the most part. I do not think it should be up to the state to put people to death.
Great answer–I appreciate the ramble. 
Do you ever have patients who can’t sit still or lie down for very long? Do these same patients have difficulty walking and talking? Do they ever say they feel like they are going to explode?
I had that happen to me. It was the most pain I’ve been in in my life. I’ve had abdominal surgery five times and wanted to die once, but it still wasn’t as bad as this mental anguish.
I’m glad that you are a compassionate human being. I hope that you have a sense of humor too. That helps!
In my situation, I had been given the wrong meds because of the wrong diagnosis. A good dose of thorazine and 24 hours of sleep made me a different person.
Praise for the men and women in the “white coats”
Most “animal farms” aren’t for the criminally insane and are safe places when you go there voluntarily for help.
Interesting thread. Count me as another who is grateful that it was started.
While in nursing school I decided I wanted to work in a hospital much like you’re describing. My favorite professor splashed cold water on my ambition. He’d worked in several mental facilities and told me that he would never hire me if he were the person in charge of personnel. When I asked him why he said that it was purely on my size. I’m 5’ tall and weigh between 95-100 pounds. He said that, in his opinion, I’d be seen as “prey” to many of the patients and would be more trouble than I was worth to his security.
I’ve always been a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t go for it anyway, but I trusted his judgment so much that I assumed he was right.
From a security perspective, what is your honest opinion regarding that?
I hope you’re the one with the keys.
Great thread.
About the people who you think maybe don’t belong there - how does one end up in a maximum security mental hospital on a basic assault charge? Can that really happen? Or bouncing cheques like was mentioned up thread?
I would think that the use of medications would be used freely with violent patients to put them in a stupor. Why is it not?
Involuntarily medicating someone to control their behavior requires a lot of paperwork, and will eventually need to involve courts, guardianships, etc. etc. etc. The rule of thumb is the presence of clear and present danger to the patient or others which requires emergency chemical intervention.
In my 6.5 year career in a maximum-security institutiion I’ve ordered it only once, when a patient undergoing dialysis began trying to rip out his lines (which would have resulted in massive blood loss and the exposure of a dozen other people to his blood).
Health professionals (doctors, nurses) are licensed to to take care of patients’ legitimate medical needs, not to provide sedation in order to prevent (hypothetical) future criminal behavior.
To the OP: Ain’t it a wonderful world? 30% of my patients are mentally ill, 9% of them seriously mentally ill. And Maximum mental hospital beds are at a premium in my state, so we have a significant number of seriously disturbed patients who while away their time in regular max prisons. Poo flingers, orifice stuffers, compulsive chewers (don’t ask on what), etc.
What does this mean?
You know, I am very glad that somebody else has gotten around to asking about this – because ever since I read that sentence, I’ve been turning it over again and again in my mind, trying to figure out what it could possibly mean besides the first thing I thought it did.
15…frigging…years? For possession of* paraphernalia?* As in drug paraphernalia, right? Like you buy at head shops? People are locked down in a damn mental asylum for fifteen years, over–what, a couple of outfits? A fucking BONG? Rolling papers?
Because if that’s what the OP actually meant, well…ho-lee shit. .That’s fucking outrageous. And since the victims were just low-life crime-doing druggies, after all, with “mental issues” to boot, most of the fine upstanding square-john citizens out there wouldn’t even give a shit about it if they found out.
**Jeredc1983, **please–if I’m wrong, tell me so, and say what you did mean by paraphernalia. Because if I find out I had it right the first time, I am gonna be depressed and pissed off about that for the next few hours.
I hope not, because I’m still kinda pissed from about two weeks ago when I found out that they drug test random customers at bars in England in that country’s rapid and continuing march towards being a total police state.
(Sorry for the hijack, OP)
The patient who is in there had a marijuana pipe on him and was taken to county where he engaged in some psychotic behavior and was caught with a small shank. Once transferred to our minimum securiy unit (an entirely different building) he became violent with staff and patients, thus he ended up with us where he has been for fifteen years. This is pretty common, someone acting up in jail and them not wanting to deal with it so they send it to us.
Quadrop is dead on with his statements. Our facility is already overcrowded and the waiting line is very long.