Abuse and Mental Health Care
“Abuse and Mental Health Care”
Abuse hurts! It can cause not only physical but worse psychological damage to someone who already suffers from a psychiatric illness. When it comes from mental health workers at places where patients are required to be inpatient we should be all the more appauled.
My name is Benjamin Brokaw and for eleven years now I’ve suffered terribly from mental illness. Whats worse is I’ve been abused because of it by those in positions that should be helping people with these types of problems. My hope in telling you my story is that it will raise awareness of the abuse, both physical and verbal, that occurs at many psychiatric hospitals
As I’ve been put through a broken mental health system in the United States,but mostly in Illinois, I’ve seen the rights of many mentally ill people, including my own, be ignored and violated. However, because of being deemed mentally ill, when a dispute or conflict between the consumer and mental health staff arises, the consumer is seen in the wrong nearly every time. This only adds to the suffering of the person who not only suffers from a mental illness but suffers abuse aswell. We need massive advocacy on this issue, and the legal rights of the mentally ill upheld.
During my last hospitalization I experienced the worst case of abuse then anywhere else I’ve been to. I was as assulted both verbally and physically many times. I was punched in the ribs by staff, my pinky finger was yanked in positions it should not go, and after being put in restraints by staff, I was punched in the head- hard. My life was verbally threatened at one point, and in viewing an incidence with one other patient who was clearly having cognitive difficulty, he was told by staff, ” I’ll slap that look right off your face boy.”
Because of my mental illness I have been in trouble with the law. I’ve wound up in jail a couple of times as many other mentally ill people have. The treatment I recieved by local law enforcement was horrific. I mean it when I say, for no known reason do I understand why my sheriffs dept. decided to turn off my plumbing and lock me in a cell for one week. Then they put me in restraints for at least four days and nights.
Our mental health care system is better than in previous eras, but it still has a long way to come. By telling just a portion of my story I hope for a better future for myself and all those who struggle with an illness they did not bring upon themselves and who do not wish to be treated like worthless trash.
